b-Blockers are widely used for hypertension treatment but must be taken daily. We have developed a novel b-blocker by targeting b1-adrenergic receptor (b1-AR) mRNA with antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (b1-ASODN). A single intravenous injection of b1-AS-ODN significantly reduced cardiac contractility and blood pressure (3865 mm Hg, P,0.05) in spontaneously hypertensive rats for 3 weeks. In the p...

Let(b1, . . .,bn) be a lattice basis with Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization(b1, . . . ,b∗n), the quantities‖b1‖/‖bi ‖for i = 1, . . . , n play important roles in analyzing lattice reduction algorithms and lattice enumeration algorithms.In this paper, we study the problem of minimizing the quantity‖b1‖/‖bn‖ over all bases(b1, . . .,bn) of a givenn...

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is among the most common infectious agents of cats. Five well-characterized FIV subtypes, A, B, C, D, and E, are recognized worldwide. As in HIV diagnosis, serum antibodies against FIV classically serve as an indicator of infection status. After the introduction of an inactivated FIV vaccine, this approach has become problematic, since antibodies generated by...

Fasciolosis is considered the most widespread trematode disease affecting grazing animals around the world; it is currently recognised by the World Health Organisation as an emergent human pathogen. Triclabendazole is still the most effective drug against this disease; however, resistant strains have appeared and developing an effective vaccine against this disease has increasingly become a pri...

Semaphorins are axon guidance molecules that signal through the plexin family of receptors. Semaphorins also play a role in other processes such as immune regulation and tumorigenesis. However, the molecular signaling mechanisms downstream of plexin receptors have not been elucidated. Semaphorin 4D is the ligand for the plexin-B1 receptor and stimulation of the plexin-B1 receptor activates the ...

Mutations in the ephrin-B1 gene result in craniofrontonasal syndrome (CFNS) in humans, a congenital disorder that includes a wide range of craniofacial, skeletal, and neurological malformations. In addition to the ability of ephrin-B1 to forward signal through its cognate EphB tyrosine kinase receptors, ephrin-B1 can also act as a receptor and transduce a reverse signal by either PDZ-dependent ...

In the course of screening for novel anticancer compounds, B1 [N-(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl)-2-aminothiazonaphthalimide], a novel amonafide analogue, was generated as a new anticancer candidate. In the present study, B1 displayed stronger antitumor effects than amonafide in HL60 cells. We further examined whether B1 overcomes the resistance conferred by Bcl-2, as overcoming the resistance conferre...

Signaling through the semaphorin 4D (Sema4D) receptor plexin-B1 is modulated by its interaction with tyrosine kinases ErbB-2 and Met. In cells expressing the plexin-B1-ErbB-2 receptor complex, ligand stimulation results in the activation of small GTPase RhoA and stimulation of cellular migration. By contrast, in cells expressing plexin-B1 and Met, ligand stimulation results in an association wi...

I a comparative study on normal and B1-receptor deficient (B1-KO) mice, Pesquero et al. (1) provide evidence in this issue of PNAS in favor of crucial roles played by the kinin B1 receptor in toxic shock, inflammation, and nociception. B1 receptors are generally silent or absent in healthy states and are induced or activated by pathological challenges. When they are absent, as in B1-KO mice, ti...