Natural cytotoxicity receptors (NCR) mediate lysis of a variety of tumor and virus-infected cells by natural killer (NK) cells. Upon engagement, NCR trigger the cytolytic activity and cytokine release of NK cells through association with ITAM-containing signaling molecules. To further understand the function of these receptors in activation of natural cytotoxicity, we determined the crystal str...

As a member of the POU-domain family, the POU1F1 is a positive regulator for growth hormone, prolactin and thyroid-stimulating hormone b, by binding to target DNA promoters as a dimer in mammals. This study described the polymorphisms at the goat POU1F1-DdeI locus and analyzed the distribution of alleles in 15 indigenous Chinese goat breeds. The PCR-RFLP analysis showed a predominance of the D1...

The serpin plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) is a specific inhibitor of plasminogen activators and a potential therapeutic target in cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Accordingly, formation of a basis for development of specific PAI-1-inactivating agents is of great interest. One possible inactivation mode for PAI-1 is conversion to the inactive, so-called latent state. We have now sc...

background: protein-protein interactions do not provide any direct information re­garding the domains within the proteins that mediate the interactions. the majority of proteins are multi domain proteins and the interaction between them is often defined by the pairs of their domains. most of the former studies focus only on interacting do­main pairs. however they do not consider the interaction...

In this paper we study the distribution of pairs (d1, d2) of positive integers such that the product d1d2 divides a given integer n from a probabilistic point of view. The number of these pairs, denoted by τ3(n), is equal to the number of ways to write n as a product of three positive integers. To these pairs we associate a random vector taking the values ( (log d1)/(log n), (log d2)/(log n) ) ...

POU1F1 is a positive regulator for GH, PRL and TSHβ and its mutations associate with production traits in ruminant animals. We described a DdeI PCR-RFLP method for detecting a silent allele in the goat POU1F1 gene: TCT (241Ser)>TCG (241Ser). Frequencies of D1 allele varied from 0.600 to 1.000 in Chinese 801 goats. Significant associations of DdeI polymorphism with production traits were found i...

Interleukin (IL)-33 is an important member of the IL-1 family that has pleiotropic activities in innate and adaptive immune responses in host defense and disease. It signals through its ligand-binding primary receptor ST2 and IL-1 receptor accessory protein (IL-1RAcP), both of which are members of the IL-1 receptor family. To clarify the interaction of IL-33 with its receptors, we determined th...

PRO 542 (CD4-IgG2) is a recombinant antibody-like fusion protein wherein the Fv portions of both the heavy and light chains of human IgG2 have been replaced with the D1D2 domains of human CD4. Unlike monovalent and divalent CD4-based proteins, tetravalent PRO 542 potently neutralizes diverse primary human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 isolates. In this phase 1 study, the first evaluation ...