PASylation technology improves recombinant interferon-β1b solubility, stability, and biological activity.

Recombinant interferon-β1b (IFN-β1b) is an effective remedy against multiple sclerosis and other diseases. However, use of small polypeptide (molecular weight is around 18.5 kDa) is limited due to poor solubility, stability, and short half-life in systemic circulation.

Polymorphism of apolipoprotein E (APOE) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) genes and ischaemic stroke in individuals of Yakut ethnicity.

There is evidence that most forms of ischaemic stroke (IS) result from synergistic effects of the modifiable predisposing factors and multiple genes. In the present work, we report results of case-control study of IS association with apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) (promoter and coding polymorphisms) and lipoprotein lipase gene (LPL) (presence/absence of a HindIII cutting site). We studied 107 unrelated patients of Yakut ethnicity (69 men and 38 women, mean age 58.

Three allele combinations associated with multiple sclerosis.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated disease of polygenic etiology. Dissection of its genetic background is a complex problem, because of the combinatorial possibilities of gene-gene interactions. As genotyping methods improve throughput, approaches that can explore multigene interactions appropriately should lead to improved understanding of MS.

A Markov chain Monte Carlo technique for identification of combinations of allelic variants underlying complex diseases in humans.

In recent years, the number of studies focusing on the genetic basis of common disorders with a complex mode of inheritance, in which multiple genes of small effect are involved, has been steadily increasing. An improved methodology to identify the cumulative contribution of several polymorphous genes would accelerate our understanding of their importance in disease susceptibility and our ability to develop new treatments. A critical bottleneck is the inability of standard statistical approaches, developed for relatively modest predictor sets, to achieve power in the face of the enormous growth in our knowledge of genomics.

A gene expression system offering multiple levels of regulation: the Dual Drug Control (DDC) system.

Background: Whether for cell culture studies of protein function, construction of mouse models to enable in vivo analysis of disease epidemiology, or ultimately gene therapy of human diseases, a critical enabling step is the ability to achieve finely controlled regulation of gene expression. Previous efforts to achieve this goal have explored inducible drug regulation of gene expression, and construction of synthetic promoters based on two-hybrid paradigms, among others.

Results: In this report, we describe the combination of dimerizer-regulated two-hybrid and tetracycline regulatory elements in an ordered cascade, placing expression of endpoint reporters under the control of two distinct drugs.