Growth suppression of human lung cancer cells and implanted tumors by adenovirus-mediated transfer of the PTEN gene.

This study examined the effects of a recombinant adenovirus Ad-PTEN-EGFP on the proliferation of A549 cells, a human lung carcinoma cell line, in vitro and on the growth of the implanted tumors in the nude mice in vivo, explored the underlying mechanisms and evaluated the in vitro transfection efficiency of Ad-PTEN-EGFP into A549 cells. The expression of Ad-PTEN-EGFP in the A549 cells was determined. The proliferation and the apoptosis rates of the A549 cells with Ad-PTEN-EGFP transfection or not was detected by MTT and flow cytometry.

Promoting effects of IL-13 on Ca2+ release and store-operated Ca2+ entry in airway smooth muscle cells.

Th2 cytokine interleukin (IL)-13 plays a central role in the pathogenesis of allergic asthma. IL-13 exhibits a direct effect on airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) to cause airway hyperresponsiveness. IL-13 has been demonstrated to regulate Ca(2+) signaling in ASMCs, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood.

Diastereoselective synthesis of syn-1,3-diols by titanium-mediated reductive coupling of propargylic alcohols.

A titanium-mediated, hydroxy-directed reductive coupling reaction of propargylic alcohols and aldehydes/ketones is described. Excellent diastereoselectivity and synthetically useful yields have been obtained for a range of substrates. This transformation has enabled a highly convergent three-component approach to syn-1,3-diols using (trimethylsilyl)acetylene as a C1 linchpin.

IL-23 signaling enhances Th2 polarization and regulates allergic airway inflammation.

IL-23/IL-17 axis is an important regulator in various inflammatory diseases. However, the role of IL-23 in allergic airway inflammation is not well understood. In this study, we show that in an allergen-induced asthma model, mice with transgenic overexpression of IL-23R exhibited increased airway infiltration of eosinophils and Th2 cytokine production, whereas those deficient in IL-23 displayed reduced airway inflammation.

Th17 immunity in patients with allergic asthma.

Background: Allergic asthma is an inflammatory disease regulated by the T helper (Th) cells. The Th1/Th2 imbalance has been well documented in the pathogenesis of allergic asthma. Recently, Th17 cells have been found to participate in the development of allergic asthma in animals.

Correlation and expression of COX-2 and P53 protein in basal cell carcinoma of eyelid.

The correlation between the expression of COX-2 and p53 protein in basal cell carcinoma (BCC) of eyelid and apoptosis was investigated. Specimens of BCC were collected from 40 cases (aged 28-68 y) at the Department of Pathology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, and Department of Pathology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University during from 1999 to 2006. Five specimens of paracancerous tissues served as control group.

Expression of mutant p53 proteins implicates a lineage relationship between neural stem cells and malignant astrocytic glioma in a murine model.

Recent studies have identified genes and core pathways that are altered in human glioblastoma. However, the mechanisms by which alterations of these glioblastoma genes singly and cooperatively transform brain cells remain poorly understood. Further, the cell of origin of glioblastoma is largely elusive.

Characterization of oligodeoxynucleotide fragmentation pathways in infrared multiphoton dissociation and electron detachment dissociation by Fourier transform ion cyclotron double resonance.

Infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) is a vibrational excitation tandem mass spectrometric fragmentation method valuable for sequencing of oligonucleotides. For oligodeoxynucleotides, typical product ions correspond to sequence-specific 5' (a-base) and their complementary 3' w-type ions from carbon-oxygen bond cleavage at the 3' position of the deoxyribose from which a nucleobase is lost. Such fragmentation patterns are also observed in collision activated dissociation (CAD).

Anomalous dual-element filling in partially filled skutterudites.

The existence of a filling fraction limit (FFL) for single-element filling in caged compounds such as CoSb(3) has been established as a general phenomenon by both experiment and theory. For dual-element-filled skutterudites, our ab initio results reveal that the filling fraction (FF) of one filler usually decreases linearly as the other increases, and the total FF (the sum of the FFs of the two fillers) lies between the two single-element FFLs. However, the Na-Eu combination manifests an anomalous behavior: the total FF can exceed both the Na-only and Eu-only FFLs and is even likely to reach full filling.

ARCS-Motif: discovering correlated motifs from unaligned biological sequences.

Motivation: The goal of motif discovery is to detect novel, unknown, and important signals from biology sequences. In most models, the importance of a motif is equal to the sum of the similarity of every single position. In 2006, Song et al.

Experimental evidence of wave chaos from a double slit experiment with water surface waves.

In this paper, we report experimental evidence of wave chaos using the double slit water surface wave experiment. We demonstrate that classical dynamics of a domain manifests itself in the interference patterns after the diffraction behind the double slit. For a domain whose classical dynamics is integrable clear interference fringes can be observed behind the double slits; for a domain whose classical dynamics is chaotic, however, interference fringes can totally disappear.

Insufficient increment of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells after stimulation in vitro with allergen in allergic asthma.

Background: Allergen exposure can lead to the development of allergic asthma, sensitized asymptomatic or nonallergic responses in different conditions. Regulatory T (T(reg)) cells are involved in controlling the immune response direction. The aim of this study was to determine whether allergic asthmatics had defects in CD4+CD25+ T(reg) cells and CD4+IL (interleukin)-10+ T(reg) cells after specific allergen exposure.

Synthesis of the C1-C12 fragment of iriomoteolide 1a by sequential catalytic asymmetric vinylogous aldol reactions.

An efficient synthesis of the C1-C12 fragment of iriomoteolide 1a has been accomplished via sequential application of two catalytic, asymmetric, vinylogous aldol reactions: a catalytic vinylogous aldol reaction was used to enantioselectively introduce the C5-C8 segment, and a second catalytic vinylogous aldol reaction was used to install the remaining two stereocenters and a stereodefined alkene in the form of an alpha,beta-unsaturated delta-lactone in one step.

The carbohydrate-sesquiterpene interface. directed synthetic routes to both (+)- and (-)-fomannosin from D-glucose.

An enantiodivergent strategy for the total chemical synthesis of both naturally occurring (+)-fomannosin (1) and its (-)-antipode (ent-1) from alpha-D-glucose has been developed and successfully implemented. The key steps in the overall pathway include the following: (i) application of the zirconocene-mediated ring contraction of vinyl furanosides for the construction of highly substituted cyclobutanols; (ii) the use of ring-closing metathesis to form the pendant five-membered ring; (iii) making recourse to a monothio malonic ester to allow for chemoselective reduction to sensitive lactone intermediate 45; (iv) hydroxyl-directed dihydroxylation with OsO(4) to generate 48; and (v) sequential elimination via a cyclic sulfite and a cyclobutyl triflate. The bridge between the enantiomeric series consisted of a six-step linkup involving the structural modification of 22 so as to generate ent-30b.

A gene pattern mining algorithm using interchangeable gene sets for prokaryotes.

Background: Mining gene patterns that are common to multiple genomes is an important biological problem, which can lead us to novel biological insights. When family classification of genes is available, this problem is similar to the pattern mining problem in the data mining community. However, when family classification information is not available, mining gene patterns is a challenging problem.

[Effects of chronic ethanol ingestion on intercellular junction proteins and barrier function of airway epithelium in the endotoxemic rat].

Objective: To investigate the effects of chronic ethanol ingestion and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on airway epithelium barrier function and the expression of tight junction protein occludin and adherens junction protein E-cadherin.

Methods: Forty Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were assigned to control, ethanol, LPS and ethanol+LPS groups. The bronchoalveolar epithelial permeability was assessed by the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF): serum fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-dextran (FD(4)) fluorescence ratio.

Microarray data mining using landmark gene-guided clustering.

Background: Clustering is a popular data exploration technique widely used in microarray data analysis. Most conventional clustering algorithms, however, generate only one set of clusters independent of the biological context of the analysis. This is often inadequate to explore data from different biological perspectives and gain new insights.

Induction of abnormal proliferation by nonmyelinating schwann cells triggers neurofibroma formation.

Recent evidence suggests that alterations in the self-renewal program of stem/progenitor cells can cause tumorigenesis. By utilizing genetically engineered mouse models of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), we demonstrated that plexiform neurofibroma, the only benign peripheral nerve sheath tumor with potential for malignant transformation, results from Nf1 deficiency in fetal stem/progenitor cells of peripheral nerves. Surprisingly, this did not cause hyperproliferation or tumorigenesis in early postnatal period.

PathFinder: mining signal transduction pathway segments from protein-protein interaction networks.

Background: A Signal transduction pathway is the chain of processes by which a cell converts an extracellular signal into a response. In most unicellular organisms, the number of signal transduction pathways influences the number of ways the cell can react and respond to the environment. Discovering signal transduction pathways is an arduous problem, even with the use of systematic genomic, proteomic and metabolomic technologies.

Effects of chronic ethanol ingestion on tight junction proteins and barrier function of alveolar epithelium in the rat.

Previous studies show that chronic alcohol abuse is an independent risk factor for acute lung injury (ALI) and impairs alveolar epithelial barrier function through glutathione depletion. However, the precise molecular structures that are damaged by chronic ethanol ingestion have not been identified. To test whether chronic ethanol ingestion impairs the alveolar epithelium barrier by tight junction protein deterioration and predisposes to ALI, this study determined the alterations in tight junction proteins occludin, zonula occludens (ZO)-1, and adherens junction protein E-cadherin in alveolar epithelium and observed the protective effect of glutamine (Gln) supplementation.

Identification of a small-molecule inhibitor of class Ia PI3Ks with cell-based screening.

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling network is central to the regulation of cell growth in response to both growth factors and nutrients. We developed a high-throughput, cell-based assay to identify small-molecule modulators of the mTOR signaling network. One such compound, which we name quinostatin, potently inhibits this network by directly targeting the lipid-kinase activity of the catalytic subunits of class Ia PI3Ks.