Antifungal Activity, Structural Stability, and Immunomodulatory Effects on Human Immune Cells of Defensin from the Lentil .

An increase in the frequency of mycoses and spreading of multidrug-resistant fungal pathogens necessitates the search for new antifungal agents. Earlier, we isolated the novel defensin from lentil seeds, designated as Lc-def, which inhibited the growth of phytopathogenic fungi. Here, we studied an antifungal activity of Lc-def against human pathogenic species, structural stability of the defensin, and its immunomodulatory effects that may help to prevent fungal infection.

Expression profiles of PIWIL2 short isoforms differ in testicular germ cell tumors of various differentiation subtypes.

PIWI family proteins have recently emerged as essential contributors in numerous biological processes including germ cell development, stem cell maintenance and epigenetic reprogramming. Expression of some of the family members has been shown to be elevated in tumors. In particular, PIWIL2 has been probed as a potential neoplasia biomarker in many cancers in humans.

Activity of the upstream component of tandem TERT/survivin promoters depends on features of the downstream component.

We spliced the promoters of the human telomerase and human survivin genes (PhTERT and PhSurv, respectively) widely used for gene therapy and known to have the broadest cancer type spectrum of activity. Two head-to-tail constructs were obtained: the PhTERT-PhSurv and PhSurv-PhTERT tandems. The splicing caused quantitative and qualitative changes in the promoter features.