ErbB2 is a prognostic factor and target of therapy for many carcinomas. In contrast with the other ErbB receptors, ErbB2 lacks a soluble direct ligand, but it is the preferred co-receptor for the ErbB family members, forming heterodimers with more potent and prolonged signalling activity than that of homodimers. We recently produced a new anti-ErbB2 antibody, Erb-hcAb, by fusion of Erbicin, a h...

We have generated transgenic mice containing hybrid llama/human antibody loci that contain two llama variable regions and the human D, J, and Cmu and/or Cgamma constant regions. Such loci rearrange productively and rescue B cell development efficiently without LC rearrangement. Heavy-chain-only antibodies (HCAb) are expressed at high levels, provided that the CH1 domain is deleted from the cons...

Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) is a pore-forming toxin associated with current outbreaks of community-associated methicillin-resistant strains and implicated directly in the pathophysiology of Staphylococcus aureus-related diseases. Humanized heavy chain-only antibodies (HCAb) were generated against S. aureus PVL from immunized transgenic mice to neutralize toxin activity. The active form of...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the epidemiology of nosocomial bloodstream infections in public hospitals in developing countries. We evaluated trends in incidence of hospital-acquired bacteremia (HAB) and healthcare-associated bacteremia (HCAB) and associated mortality in a developing country using routinely available databases. METHODS Information from the microbiology and hospital databas...

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy in men in developed countries. ErbB2, a tyrosine kinase receptor overexpressed in many human cancer types, contributes to prostate cancer progression by activating the androgen receptor in a steroid poor environment, thus promoting androgen-independent cell growth. The consequent development of hormone refractory tumors is a major obstac...

BACKGROUND Minority vulnerable communities, such as the European Roma, often face numerous barriers to accessing healthcare services, resulting in negative health outcomes. Both these barriers and outcomes have been reported extensively in the literature. However, reports on barriers faced by European non-Roma native communities are limited. The "Health Care Access Barriers" (HCAB) model identi...

The COZ hydration and HC03dehydration activities of human red cell carbonic anhydrase isozymes B and C (HCAB and HCAC) have been studied as a function of temperature from 0” to 37°C. The Arrhenius plots of In kcat versus 1/T are linear for both isozymes in both hydration and dehydration reactions, indicating that the rate-determining steps remain unchanged over this temperature range. The 37°C ...

Hydroxycinnamates are plant products catabolized through the diphenol protocatechuate in the naturally transformable bacterium Acinetobacter sp. strain ADP1. Genes for protocatechuate catabolism are central to the dca-pca-qui-pob-hca chromosomal island, for which gene designations corresponding to catabolic function are dca (dicarboxylic acid), pca (protocatechuate), qui (quinate), pob (p-hydro...

'13Cd NMR of the "3Cd(II)-substituted zinc metalloenzymes, human and bovine erythrocyte carbonic anhydrases, is reported. The high activity isozymes, human erythrocyte carbonic anhydrase, isozyme C (HCAC) and bovine erythrocyte carbonic anhydrase, isozyme B (BCAB), are characterized by relatively narrow '13Cd resonances around 220 ppm to lowfield of Cd(C104)Z. These resonances are relatively in...

The VHHs are antigen-binding region/domain of camelid heavy chain antibodies (HCAb). They have many interesting biotechnological and biomedical properties due to their small size, high solubility and stability, and high affinity and specificity for their antigens. HCAb and classical IgGs are evolutionary related and share a common fold. VHHs are composed of regions considered as constant, calle...