Several plasmids have been described in Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, a gram-negative coccobacillus. Recently, the nucleotide sequence of pVT736-1, a cryptic plasmid of A. actinomycetemcomitans VT736, was determined. This plasmid possesses all the features necessary for rolling circle replication. The present study involved a transcriptional analysis of pVT736-1. Results of Northern (RN...

The insulin-like growth factor I receptor (IGF-IR) plays an essential role in the establishment and maintenance of transformed phenotype, and interference with the IGF-IR pathway by antisense or dominant-negative mutants causes reversal of the transformed phenotype in many rodent and human tumor cell lines. We stably transfected an IGF-IR antisense mRNA expression plasmid into human papillomavi...

background & objectives: antisense peptide nucleic acids (pna) that target growth essential genes show potent bactericidal properties without cell lysis. we considered the possibility that whether pna treatment influence the bacteria total nucleic acids content and apply approach to develop a new delivery system to dendritic cells (dcs). dcs are the most potent antigen presenting cells in t...

Restriction-modification systems consist of a modification enzyme that methylates a specific DNA sequence and a restriction endonuclease that cleaves DNA lacking this epigenetic signature. Their gene expression should be finely regulated because their potential to attack the host bacterial genome needs to be controlled. In the EcoRI system, where the restriction gene is located upstream of the ...

Starburst polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers are a new type of synthetic polymer characterized by a branched spherical shape and a high density surface charge. We have investigated the ability of these dendrimers to function as an effective delivery system for antisense oligonucleotides and 'antisense expression plasmids' for the targeted modulation of gene expression. Dendrimers bind to various...

The insulin-like growth factor I receptor (IGF-IR) plays an essential role in the establishment and maintenance of transformed phenotype, and interference with the IGF-IR pathway by antisense or dominant-negative mutants causes reversal of the transformed phenotype in many rodent and human tumor cell lines. We stably transfected an IGF-IR antisense mRNA expression plasmid into human papillomavi...

Several polymers were used to delivery genes to diabetic animals. Polyaminobutyl glycolic acid was utilized to deliver IL-10 plasmid DNA to prevent autoimmune insulitis of non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse. Polyethylene glycol grafted polylysine was combined with antisense glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) MRNA to represent GAD autoantigene expression. GLP1 and TSTA (SP-EX4) were delivered by bior...