Publications by authors named "J Contreras-Levicoy"

Background. Pharmacologically modulated dendritic cells (DCs) have been shown to restore tolerance in type II collagen-(CII-) induced arthritis (CIA). We examined the effect of dexamethasone (DXM) administration as a preconditioning agent, followed by an injection of lipopolysaccharide-(LPS-) stimulated and CII-loaded DCs on the CIA course.

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Article Synopsis
  • The TATA box is a well-studied core promoter element, but many metazoan promoters use other elements like the HomolD box, first identified in yeast.
  • Research has shown that transcription from the HomolD box relies on RNAPII and the binding protein Rrn7, but the specific mechanisms involved remain unclear.
  • This study identified two proteins, DDB1 and RECQL, that bind to the HomolD box and are essential for in vitro transcription, indicating that HomolD-containing promoters also require RNAPII for effective transcription.
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The region in promoters that specifies the transcription machinery is called the core promoter, displaying core promoter elements (CPE) necessary for establishment of a preinitiation complex and the initiation of transcription. A classical CPE is the TATA box. In fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, a new CPE, called HomolD box, was discovered.

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The positive cofactor 4 (PC4) protein has an important role in transcriptional activation, which has been proposed to be mediated by transcription factor IIA (TFIIA) and TATA-binding protein-associated factors. To test this hypothesis, we cloned the Schizosaccharomyces pombe PC4 gene and analysed the role of the PC4 protein in the stimulation of basal transcription driven by TATA-containing and TATA-less promoters. Sc.

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Background: The use of regulatory or immature dendritic cells (DCs) as tools for modulating experimental rheumatoid arthritis is very recent. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-stimulated DCs have been shown to restore tolerance in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and collagen-induced arthritis (CIA).

Objective: We investigated the capacity of short-term lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated DCs pulsed with type II collagen (CII) to induce tolerance against established CIA.

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