Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), although effective in improving the survival of HIV-1-infected individuals, has not been able to reconstitute the adaptive immune response. We have described the use of novel chemical agents to restore T-cell survival/proliferation by inducing cytokine production. Due to its cationic amphiphilic structure, these molecules appear to enhance immune restoration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cell mediated immunity, including efficient CTL response, is required to prevent HIV-1 from cell-to-cell transmission. In previous investigations, we have shown that B1 peptide derived by Fourier transformation of HIV-1 primary structures and sharing no sequence homology with the parent proteins was able to generate antiserum which recognizes envelope and Tat proteins. Here we have investigated cellular immune response towards a novel non-homologous peptide, referred to as cA1 peptide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe immunological cross-reactivity of several peptides with specific pattern-property characteristics related to the epitopes of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp160/ 120 envelope proteins has been investigated. Proteins with similar primary structures can be expected to show functional or topographic similarities, such as specific epitopes which may cross-react with antibodies derived from the immunisation of animals with other members of the same protein family. These structure-function characteristics may be revealed as periodicities derived from presentations based on the discrete Fourier transformation of the distributions of various physico-chemical amino acid descriptors, constituting the polypeptide backbone and amino acid side-chains of the protein molecule.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have isolated a novel inhibitor of erythropoietic differentiation from the plasma of a patient suffering from idiopathic pure red cell aplasia. This differentiation-inhibiting protein (DIP) specifically blocked the differentiation of human burst-forming unit-erythroid (BFU-E), but not colony-forming unit-erythroid (CFU-E) cells. DIP also blocked the maturation of murine BFU-E cells, but not CFU-E or CFU-granulocyte-macrophage cells, and it inhibited the dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)-induced differentiation of Friend murine erythroleukemia cells (FLC) at levels between 10(-10) and 10(-12) mol/L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have isolated an erythropoiesis-inhibiting protein, DIP (differentiation-inhibiting protein), from the blood of a 60-year-old woman suffering from pure red cell aplasia. This protein inhibits the growth and differentiation of normal human and murine BFU-E, but not CFU-E, cells as well as dimethyl sulfoxide-induced hemoglobin synthesis by Friend murine erythroleukemia cells. It appears that DIP primarily affects differentiation rather than proliferation, because it does not inhibit the proliferation of untreated Friend erythroleukemia cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochem Biophys Res Commun
September 1989
Burkitt lymphoma cells and their counterpart of normal origin contain proteins with associated tyrosine protein, kinase activity. These proteins were isolated by affinity chromatography and Fast Pressure Liquid Chromatography. Proteins with enzyme activity had an app.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFtsAEV-LSCC HD3 chicken erythroid cells transformed by the avian erythroblastosis virus (AEV) secrete an autocrine differentiation-inhibiting factor, ADIF, which blocks differentiation without affecting proliferation of the chicken erythroid cells that synthesize and secrete it into the culture medium. The chicken erythroleukemia cell ADIF activity is not restricted to avians. It prevents dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) from stimulating murine Friend erythroleukemia cells to synthesize hemoglobin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHexamethylenbisacetamide (HMBA) can induce the Burkitt lymphoma Raji cells to enter the differentiation process as evidenced by the decrease of HLA-DR antigens. This event is preceded by a decrease of c-myc expression and of the phosphorylation of cellular proteins, due to either a decrease of tyrosine protein kinase activity or an increase of tyrosine phosphatase activity. These three events form a sequence and are part of the genetic program for differentiation and growth though they may not be causally related.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn cells infected with Vesicular Stomatitis virus (VSV) ts 1026 and superinfected with Rous Sarcoma virus (RSV) synthesis of vsrc mRNA and RSV env mRNA decreases. In these cells post-translational processing of RSV precursor proteins is impaired and small amounts of VSV antigens are detected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA simultaneous decay of the expression of Im 140 kDa, Im 150 kDa and Im 160 kDa high MW membrane antigens, concomitant with the cell proliferation arrest, was observed during erythropoietin induced differentiation of ts 34 AEV-transformed erythroid cells cultivated at the restrictive temperature. Expression of embryo-immature antigens was maintained during induced differentiation of erythroleukemia cells, but their MW shifted from 50 to 48 kDa, which corresponds to the MW of embryo-immature antigens detected on normal erythroid cells. In the absence of erythropoietin at the restrictive temperature, conditions under which the ts 34 AEV-transformed erythroid cells fail to differentiate and maintain their capacity to proliferate, the expression of high MW antigens as well as the expression of embryo-immature antigens remained unaffected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActivated CH-Sepharose 4B and protein A Sepharose CL-4B can bind, selectively and non-specifically, polypeptides from chick embryo cells. The major polypeptides bound have apparent molecular masses of 57-60 kDa and 47-49 kDa and cannot be eluted by extensive washing with buffers containing detergents. One of the 57-60 kDa polypeptides was identified by immunoblotting as the transforming protein of Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV), pp60src.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochem Biophys Res Commun
June 1984
A protein kinase activity (PK) was associated with immunoprecipitates between polypeptides of human lymphoblastoid cells of malignant origin (Raji cell line) or of their normal counterparts ( Priess cell line) and antibodies directed against avian pp60 src or against the carboxyterminal hexapeptide of pp60 src. Therefore, these human cells and Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV) transformed avian cells share antigenic determinants of pp60 src and, in particular, its carboxyterminal sequence, as well as one of its functions, a protein kinase activity. The protein kinase from Raji cells phosphorylated predominantly tyrosine residues, that from Priess cells threonine residues.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have immunoprecipitated a phosphoprotein of 35K daltons (35K) common to RSV-transformed chick embryo fibroblasts (CEF) and rodent cells. The phosphorylation of this antigen depends on the expression of the v-src gene and contains phosphotyrosine. The pre-existing 35K protein, of CEF infected de novo, was further shown to become phosphorylated shortly after the appearance of active pp60v-src, and about 1 day before morphological transformation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe surface of normal or retrovirus-infected chick embryo cells was labelled with 125I using lactoperoxidase. The solubilized membrane material was allowed to react with antisera raised in rabbits to cultured chick embryo cells or to the membranes of embryonic or adult chicken erythrocytes. Analysis of the immunoprecipitates shows that chicken embryo cells not of erythropoietic origin express on their surface membrane an antigenic polypeptide of mol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTreatment of Chick embryo fibroblasts (CEF) with 5-bromodeoxyuridine considerably increases the expression on the cell membrane of a cellular antigen related to an antigen specific to Chick embryo erythrocytes, present on the envelope of avian sarcoma oncoviruses produced by CEF.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFC R Seances Soc Biol Fil
February 1981
Neoplastic transformation by avian oncogenic retroviruses, notably by sarcoma viruses, the best known of all, results from the expression of a specific viral gene (oncogene), presumably of cellular origin. The protein coded for by this gene appears to act on different targets controlling the various modified cellular characters. A proteic factor coded for by the cell, and derepressed or activated by the expression of the oncogene, is involved in the maintenance of morphological transformation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn BHK21 hamster cells a significant increase in density of intramembranous particles occurs in freeze-fractured plasma membranes after transformation by hamster sarcoma and polyoma viruses. A similar change has been observed in chick embryo cells infected and transformed by a mutant of Rous sarcoma virus thermosensitive for transformation, at both permissive and nonpermissive temperatures. There is also an increase in particle density in chick cells infected with the Rous-associated avian leukosis virus type 1.
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