BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) 6a accounts for 23.6% of all HCV infections of the general population and 58.5% of intravenous drug users in Hong Kong. However, the geographical origin of this highly predominant HCV subgenotype is largely unknown. This study explores a hypothesis for one possible transmission route of HCV 6a to Hong Kong. METHODS NS5A sequences derived from 26 HCV 6a sampl...

The carboxyl ester lipase (CEL) gene is highly expressed in exocrine pancreas and expression of the human CEL gene is mediated by a strong tissue-specific enhancer, which is absolutely necessary for high-level expression. The mouse promoter, on the other hand, does not contain a corresponding enhancer element, but instead is totally dependent on another pancreas-specific element. This element i...

A sensitive and reliable LC-(ESI)MS/MS method was developed and validated for the simultaneous analysis of five common advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) after enzymatic digestion in raw and roasted almonds. AGEs included carboxymethyl-lysine (CML), carboxyethyl-lysine (CEL), pyralline (Pyr), argpyrimidine (Arg-p), and pentosidine (Pento-s). This method allows accurate quantitation of free a...

Human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) is a T lymphotropic herpesvirus belonging to the Betaherpesvirinae subfamily. HHV-6 was long classified into variants A and B (HHV-6A and HHV-6B); however, recently, HHV-6A and HHV-6B were reclassified as different species. The process of herpesvirus entry into target cells is complicated, and in the case of HHV-6A and HHV-6B, the detailed mechanism remains to be elu...

The Reverse Talmud rule for bankruptcy problems applies the Constrained Equal Awards rule (CEA rule) for ‘large’ amounts of the estate, while it applies the Constrained Equal Losses rule (CEL rule) for ‘small’ amounts of the estate. The CEA rule, respectively CEL rule, can be axiomatized using the Exemption and Exclusion properties respectively. There is no rule that satisfies both these two pr...

CEL-III is a hemolytic lectin isolated from Cucumaria echinata. Although recombinant CEL-III (rCEL-III) expressed in Escherichia coli showed very weak hemolytic activity compared with native protein, it was considerably enhanced by refolding in the presence of Ca(2+). This suggests that Ca(2+) supported correct folding of the carbohydrate-binding domains of rCEL-III, leading to effective bindin...

Wild-type Escherichia coli are not able to utilize beta-glucoside sugars because the genes for utilization of these sugars are cryptic. Spontaneous mutations in the cel operon allow its expression and enable the organism to ferment cellobiose, arbutin and salicin. In this report we describe the structure and nucleotide sequence of the cel operon. The cel operon consists of five genes: celA, who...

BACKGROUND The FIP1L1/PDGFRA (F/P) fusion gene is the most common clonal genetic abnormality of chronic eosinophilic leukemia (CEL). Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), such as imatinib, have been demonstrated to be effective therapies for F/P mutated disease. The aim of this study was to analyze the treatment response and long term prognosis in patients with F/P mutated CEL. METHODS The clinic...