The interaction of fibrinogen with integrin αΙΙbβ3 (GPIIb/IIIa), in part mediated by an RGD tripeptide motif, is an essential step in platelet aggregation. Based on their inhibition of platelet aggregation, three integrin αΙΙbβ3 inhibitors are clinically approved. The clinically most widely used integrin αΙΙbβ3 inhibitor abciximab is a chimeric mouse/human antibody that induces thrombocytopenia...

BACKGROUND Integrins are transmembrane alphabeta heterodimer receptors that function as structural and functional bridges between the cytoskeleton and ECM (extracellular matrix) molecules. The RGD (arginine-glycine-aspartate tripeptide motif)-dependent integrin alpha8beta1 has been shown to be involved in various cell functions in neuronal and mesenchymal-derived cell types. Its role in epithel...

PURPOSE The authors investigated the effects of probes that disrupt integrin-extracellular matrix interactions on early eye development. METHODS Antibodies and peptides that have been shown in other studies to block the interaction of cell surface integrins with various ligands were microinjected into the preoptic regions of chick embryos. Eye morphogenesis and biochemical differentiation of ...

Background: Eptifibatide (Integrilin®) is a hepta-peptide drug which specifically prevents the aggregation of activated platelets. The peptide drugs are encapsulated into nanolipisomes in order to decreasing their side effects and improving their half-life and bioavailability. Objectives: In this study, the in vitro cytotoxicity and hemocompatibi...

The thrombolytic therapy with clinically approved drugs often ensues with recurrent thrombosis caused by thrombin-induced platelet aggregation from the clot debris. In order to minimize these problems, a staphylokinase (SAK)-based bacterial friendly multifunctional recombinant protein SRH (staphylokinase (SAK) linked with tripeptide RGD and dodecapeptide Hirulog (SRH)) was constructed to have H...

Cell migration is central to physiological responses to injury and infection and in the design of biomaterial implants. The ability to tune the properties of adhesive materials and relate those properties in a quantitative way to the dynamics of intracellular processes remains a definite challenge in the manipulation of cell migration. Here, we propose the use of poly(vinylmethylsiloxane) (PVMS...

Long and short range molecular interactions govern molecular recognition and self-assembly of biological macromolecules. Microscopic parameters in the theories of these molecular interactions are either phenomenological or need to be calculated within a microscopic theory. We report a unified methodology for the ab initio quantum mechanical (QM) calculation that yields all the microscopic param...

In this report, we demonstrate that the T cell activation antigen, recognized by monoclonal antibody H9.2B8, is the murine homologue of the vitronectin receptor (VNR) and, thereby, we provide initial evidence that VNR is expressed on lymphoid cells. VNR is expressed on a variety of T cell lines, tumors, and Con A-activated splenocytes, but not resting T cells, and is capable of binding to the e...

PURPOSE Advanced glycation endproduct (AGE) formation on the basement membrane of retinal capillaries has been previously described but the impact of these adducts on capillary endothelial cell function vascular repair remains uncertain. This investigation has evaluated retinal microvascular endothelial cells (RMECs) growing on AGE-modified fibronectin (FN) and determined how this has an impact...