BACKGROUND Neurotrophin receptors were initially identified in neural cells. They were recently detected in some cancers in association with invasiveness, but the function of these tyrosine kinase receptors was not previously investigated in colorectal cancer (CRC) cells. METHODS AND FINDINGS We report herein that human CRC cell lines synthesize the neural growth factor Brain-derived neurotro...

A pathological examination was performed on normotensive rats (NTR) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) following bilateral common carotid artery ligation. After ligation, diffuse and extensive cerebral infarcts in the carotid artery territory occurred frequently in SHR, while NTR occasionally had well-circumscribed small infarcts. The posterior communicating arteries, which are the major...

Death domains (DDs) mediate assembly of oligomeric complexes for activation of downstream signaling pathways through incompletely understood mechanisms. Here we report structures of complexes formed by the DD of p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75(NTR)) with RhoGDI, for activation of the RhoA pathway, with caspase recruitment domain (CARD) of RIP2 kinase, for activation of the NF-kB pathway, and wit...

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-2 (PARP-2) is one of three human PARP enzymes that are potently activated during the cellular DNA damage response (DDR). DDR-PARPs detect DNA strand breaks, leading to a dramatic increase in their catalytic production of the posttranslational modification poly(ADP-ribose) (PAR) to facilitate repair. There are limited biochemical and structural insights into the funct...

Nerve growth factor (NGF) can induce apoptosis by signaling through the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75(NTR)) in several nerve cell populations. Cultured embryonic motor neurons expressing p75(NTR) are not vulnerable to NGF unless they are exposed to an exogenous flux of nitric oxide (*NO). In the present study, we show that p75(NTR)-mediated apoptosis in motor neurons involved neutral sphingomy...

Our previous findings confirmed that the nerve growth factor-containing fibrin glue membrane provides a good microenvironment for peripheral nerve regeneration; however, the precise mechanism remains unclear. p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75(NTR)) plays an important role in the regulation of peripheral nerve regeneration. We hypothesized that a nerve growth factor-containing fibrin glue membrane ...

We have analysed the cDNA coding for the envelope glycoprotein (E1) gene and the terminal non-translated regions (NTRs) of the avirulent Semliki Forest virus (SFV) A774 (A7) variant. The E1 gene exhibited 98.5% identify to the SFV prototype strain L10 (WT) sequence at the nucleotide level. Of the 34 single base substitutions, six led to a change in the deduced amino acid sequence. The 3' NTR of...

Injured neurons become dependent on trophic factors for survival. However, application of trophic factors to the site of injury is technically extremely challenging. Novel approaches are needed to circumvent this problem. Here, we unravel the mechanism of the emergence of dependency of injured neurons on brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) for survival. Based on this mechanism, we propose ...

A two-photon fluorescent probe FNTR for nitroreductase was synthesized by using 9,9-dimethyl-2-acetyl-fluoren-7-methylamino (1) as a two-photon fluorophore and a p-nitrobenzyl carbamate group as a recognition domain for nitroreductase (NTR). The probe and the fluorophore were tested under one- and two-photon modes respectively. After reacting with nitroreductase, FNTR had a 130-fold fluorescenc...

The effects of graded systemic hypotension induced by the combination of bleeding and trimethaphan camsylate infusion on brain metabolism were studied in normotensive rats (NTR) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Metabolites such as lactate, pyruvate and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) of the brain frozen in situ were measured at the end of 1 hour of hypotension. In SHR, either cerebral la...