Activities of Z-ajoene against tumour and viral spreading in vitro.

Z-ajoene is a garlic-derived compound with known anti-tumour properties. This report argues in favour of pro-apoptotic and cell cycle blockage activities of Z-ajoene on various cell lines involving activation of the p53-family gene products, p53, p63 and p73, at indicated doses. According to its known anti-proteasome activity, Z-ajoene induced a downregulation of MHC-class I expression at the surface of treated cells but did not impair their recognition by CD8+ T cells.

p73-dependent apoptosis through death receptor: impairment by human cytomegalovirus infection.

The discovery of p73, a p53-related protein with various isotypes resulting from different promoter usage or splicing events, provided new insights into regulation of neurogenesis and tumorigenesis. Among p73 isoforms described thus far, TA-truncated molecules (DeltaN) appeared as key proteins according to their antagonistic activity against transcription factor activity of p53 family members. We previously showed that infection by human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) induced drug resistance and altered p53- and p73-dependent apoptosis of infected cells through accumulation of DeltaN-p73alpha.

Human cytomegalovirus induces drug resistance and alteration of programmed cell death by accumulation of deltaN-p73alpha.

Intrauterine transmission of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) to the fetus following primary infection in early and late pregnancy usually results in severe neurological handicaps and sensorineural hearing loss with typical migrational anomalies, optic atrophy, disturbed myelination, cerebella hypoplasia, microcephaly, hydrocephaly, and lissencephaly. Recently, evidences raised from the phenotype of p73-deficient mice show that an association may exist between the expression of the TP53 homologous gene and HCMV tropism in the brain, suggesting an implication of p73 in viral persistence. In this study, we demonstrated that HCMV-mediated inhibition of apoptosis only occurs in p73-expressing cells.