Suppressors of cytokine signaling-3 (SOCS3) is associated with limitations of nerve growth capacity after injury to the central nervous system. Although genetic manipulations of SOCS3 can enhance axonal regeneration after optic injury, the role of SOCS3 in dendritic outgrowth after spinal cord injury (SCI) is still unclear. The present study investigated the endogenous expression of SOCS3 and i...

UNLABELLED The purpose of this study was to investigate the enhanced therapeutic effect of the combined use of shRNA (small hairpin RNA) therapy for the hexokinase II (HKII) gene and (131)I human sodium iodide symporter (hNIS) as a gene therapy for in vitro and in vivo treatment of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma cells (ARO) in an animal model. METHODS A recombinant lentivirus containing a plasm...

p63 is critical for squamous epithelial development, and elevated levels of the ΔNp63α isoform are seen in squamous cell cancers of various organ sites. However, significant controversy exists regarding the role of p63 isoforms as oncoproteins or tumor suppressors. Here, lentiviruses were developed to drive long-term overexpression of ΔNp63α in primary keratinocytes. Elevated levels of ΔNp63α i...

BACKGROUND Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A and VEGF-C are two important molecules involving in tumor development and metastasis via angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis. However, the combined effect of VEGF-A and VEGF-C on the growth of gastric cancer (GC) is not clear. METHODS The correlations of VEGF-A and VEGF-C expressions with clinicopathologic parameters and prognosis were eva...

HIV-1 derived lentiviral vectors (LVs) have emerged as a powerful tool for gene delivery. hTERT is an ideal tumor-associated antigen with which to develop a potential dendritic cell (DC) vaccine. The purpose of this study was to construct a recombinant lentivirus vector of the hTERT peptide and to determine the hTERT-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte response elicited by DCs transfected with hTER...

The rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) plays a key role in cardiovascular regulation. It has been reported that tonically active glutamatergic input to the RVLM is increased in hypertensive rats, whereas angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in the brain has been suggested to be beneficial to hypertension. This study was designed to determine the effect of ACE2 gene transfer into the RVLM on...

The rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) is a relay point that provides supraspinal excitatory input to sympathetic preganglionic neurons in the regulation of blood pressure. The importance of the RVLM is further highlighted by observations that an increase of RVLM sensitivity to angiotensin II and enhanced sympathetic activity are associated with hypertension. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (...

The degenerative process of Alzheimer's disease is linked to a shift in the balance between amyloid-beta (Abeta) production, clearance, and degradation. Neprilysin has recently been implicated as a major extracellular Abeta degrading enzyme in the brain. However, there has been no direct demonstration that neprilysin antagonizes the deposition of amyloid-beta in vivo. To address this issue, a l...

Although successful attempts to inhibit HIV-1 replication in T cells using RNAi have been reported, the effect of HIV-specific RNAi on macrophages is not well known. Macrophages are key targets for anti-HIV-1 therapy because they are able to survive long after the initial infection with HIV and can spread the virus to T cells. In this study, we identified a putative RNAi target of HIV, consisti...

OBJECTIVES Although there is evidence that visfatin is associated with atherogenesis, the effect of visfatin on plaque stability has not yet been explored. METHODS In vivo, vulnerable plaques were established by carotid collar placement in apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE-/-) mice, and lentivirus expressing visfatin (lenti-visfatin) was locally infused in the carotid artery. The lipid, macrop...