Polystyrene-polyethylene glycol (PS-PEG) tentacle polymers with loadings of up to 60/<mol/g were used for standard oligonucleotide synthesis. As these resins are easy to handle and stable under reaction and cleavage conditions they may be used alternatively to con­ trolled pore glass (CPG) as the most commonly used solid support for oligonucleotide syn­ thesis. However, structural and chemical ...

Guiducci et al. report on page 1999 that plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDCs) mount either innate or adaptive immune responses depending on the subcellular localization of foreign DNA. PDCs are very rare in the body (making up less than 1% of the cells in the blood) but are important for antiviral immune responses. Activation of the endosomal receptor TLR9 by viral DNA can induce PDCs either to ...

DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification of the mammalian genome that occurs predominantly at cytosine residues of the CpG dinucleotide. Following formaldehyde activation, pixantrone alkylates DNA and particularly favours the CpG motif. Aberrations in CpG methylation patterns are a feature of most cancer types, a characteristic that may determine their susceptibility to specific drug treat...

It seems well established that CpG oligonucleotide Th1-biased adjuvant activity can be improved when closely associated with a variety of antigens in, for example, microparticles. In this context, we prepared 1-micron near non-charged poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) 502 and PLGA 756 microparticles that loaded with high-efficiency antigen (50% ovalbumin (OVA), approximately) into their matr...

Aberrant DNA methylation at CpG dinucleotides can result in epigenetic silencing of tumour suppressor genes and represents one of the earliest events in tumourigenesis. To date, however, high-throughput tools that are capable of surveying the methylation status of multiple gene promoters have been restricted to a limited number of cytosines. Here, we present an oligonucleotide microarray that p...

Aberrant DNA methylation at CpG dinucleotides can result in epigenetic silencing of tumour suppressor genes and represents one of the earliest events in tumourigenesis. To date, however, high-throughput tools that are capable of surveying the methylation status of multiple gene promoters have been restricted to a limited number of cytosines. Here, we present an oligonucleotide microarray that p...

Aberrant methylation of promoter CpG islands is causally linked with a number of inherited syndromes and most sporadic cancers, and may provide valuable diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. In this report, we describe an approach to simultaneous analysis of multiple CpG islands, where methylation-specific oligonucleotide probes are joined by ligation and subsequently amplified by polymerase ch...

We suggest here that Porphyromonas gingivalis DNA may function as a virulence factor in periodontal disease through expression of inflammatory cytokine. The bacterial DNA markedly stimulated in a dose-dependent manner interleukin-6 (IL-6) production by human gingival fibroblasts. The stimulatory action was eliminated by treatment with DNase but not RNase. The stimulatory effect was not observed...