Impaired Fas-Fas Ligand Interactions Result in Greater Recurrent Herpetic Stromal Keratitis in Mice.

Herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) infection of the cornea leads to a potentially blinding condition termed herpetic stromal keratitis (HSK). Clinical studies have indicated that disease is primarily associated with recurrent HSK following reactivation of a latent viral infection of the trigeminal ganglia. One of the key factors that limit inflammation of the cornea is the expression of Fas ligand (FasL).

Improved model to predict the free energy contribution of trinucleotide bulges to RNA duplex stability.

Trinucleotide bulges in RNA commonly occur in nature. Yet, little data exists concerning the thermodynamic parameters of this motif. Algorithms that predict RNA secondary structure from sequence currently attribute a constant free energy value of 3.