Aminobisphosphonates Synergize with Human Cytomegalovirus To Activate the Antiviral Activity of Vγ9Vδ2 Cells.

Human Vγ9Vδ2 T cells are activated through their TCR by neighboring cells producing phosphoantigens. Zoledronate (ZOL) treatment induces intracellular accumulation of the phosphoantigens isopentenyl pyrophosphate and ApppI. Few attempts have been made to use immunomanipulation of Vγ9Vδ2 lymphocytes in chronic viral infections.

The Ca2+-induced methyltransferase xPRMT1b controls neural fate in amphibian embryo.

We have previously shown that an increase in intracellular Ca2+ is both necessary and sufficient to commit ectoderm to a neural fate in Xenopus embryos. However, the relationship between this Ca2+ increase and the expression of early neural genes has yet to be defined. Using a subtractive cDNA library between untreated and caffeine-treated animal caps, i.

[Neural determination in Xenopus laevis embryos: control of early neural gene expression by calcium].

In amphibian embryos the central nervous system derives from the dorsal region of the ectoderm. Molecular studies led to the formulation of the "neural default model" in which neural development is under the inhibitory control of members of the BMP family. These growth factors also act as epidermis inducers.

Imaging patterns of calcium transients during neural induction in Xenopus laevis embryos.

Through the injection of f-aequorin (a calcium-sensitive bioluminescent reporter) into the dorsal micromeres of 8-cell stage Xenopus laevis embryos, and the use of a Photon Imaging Microscope, distinct patterns of calcium signalling were visualised during the gastrulation period. We present results to show that localised domains of elevated calcium were observed exclusively in the anterior dorsal part of the ectoderm, and that these transients increased in number and amplitude between stages 9 to 11, just prior to the onset of neural induction. During this time, however, no increase in cytosolic free calcium was observed in the ventral ectoderm, mesoderm or endoderm.

L-type calcium channel activation controls the in vivo transduction of the neuralizing signal in the amphibian embryos.

We have analyzed the transduction pathways involved in the triggering of neural induction, in amphibian embryos, in vivo. Using a plasmid construction, we have targetted the bioluminescent calcium probe aequorin to the plasma membrane of ectoderm cells of the amphibian Pleurodeles waltl before gastrulation. We have demonstrated that the in vivo triggering of neural induction depends on the activation of calcium-dependent pathways and involves L-type calcium channels.