The Ku protein is a complex of two subunits, Ku70 and Ku80, and was originally identified as an autoantigen recognized by the sera of patients with autoimmune diseases. The Ku protein plays a key role in multiple nuclear processes, e.g., DNA repair, chromosome maintenance, transcription regulation, and V(D)J recombination. The mechanism underlying the regulation of all the diverse functions of ...

Results The mean age was 8.73 years (min: 4, Max: 19), and 9 were females. The symptoms started before 1 year old in 93% of the sample and in 50% before 6 months. Urticaria was the most frequent manifestation in the 1st contact (60%), some progressing to anaphylaxis: the initial event in 40% of cases. Half of the patients responded to minimal amounts of LV, mainly (60%) in raw state. Symptoms a...

Non-homologous end joining is a ligation process repairing DNA double strand breaks in eukaryotes and many prokaryotes. The ring structured eukaryotic Ku binds DNA ends and recruits other factors which can access DNA ends through the threading of Ku inward the DNA, making this protein a key ingredient for the scaffolding of the NHEJ machinery. However, this threading ability seems unevenly cons...

The DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) complex plays a crucial role in radiation-induced DNA damage recognition. The complex includes the ku heterodimer, which comprises ku 70 and ku 80 subunits, that binds DNA termini of breaks without sequence specificity, and the catalytic subunit DNA-PKCS: The activation of the DNA-PK complex was studied in X-irradiated peripheral blood mononuclear cells...

Most nucleic acid-binding proteins selectively bind either DNA or RNA, but not both nucleic acids. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ku heterodimer is unusual in that it has two very different biologically relevant binding modes: (1) Ku is a sequence-nonspecific double-stranded DNA end-binding protein with prominent roles in nonhomologous end-joining and telomeric capping, and (2) Ku associates with...

Metallothioneins (MT) are involved in the scavenging of the toxic heavy metals and protection of cells from reactive oxygen intermediates. To investigate the potential role of the protein Ku in the expression of MT, we measured the level of MT-I mRNA in the parental rat fibroblast cell line (Rat 1) and the cell lines that stably and constitutively overexpress the small subunit, the large subuni...

OBJECTIVE To analyse the autoimmune response to DNA damage response factors in systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease (SARD) patients and to determine their association with autoantibodies to Ku antigen. METHODS We have screened the serum of 239 patients suffering from SARD, including systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis to detect the occurrence of autoanti...

Recent evidence shows that the DNA repair protein Ku is expressed on the surface of a subset of cells, where it contributes to adhesion and invasion processes, and also to viral or bacterial entry into target cells. Here, we show that Ku was expressed on the cell surface during activation of human monocytes and that its expression was independent of the conventional endoplasmic reticulum (ER)/G...

The antigenic heterogeneity of a long term cultured cell line has not been clearly demonstrated. In the present study, monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) to an established cell line KU-2 derived from a human renal cell carcinoma were used to analyze antigenic variation of KU-2 and its subclones. Characterization of thus produced MoAbs was attempted by determining the binding ability to other establi...

1Department of Liberal Arts, The Open University of Japan, 2-11 Wakaba, Mihama-ku, Chiba 261-8586, Japan 2Japan Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, 1-21-12-103, Hyakunincho, Shinjyuku-ku, Tokyo 169-0073, Japan 3Division of Health Administration, TIS Inc., 2-11-1, Nagatacho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-6150, Japan 4School of Nursing, Nagoya City University, 1 Kawasumi, Mizuhocho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya...