Highly Specific Detection of Oxytocin in Saliva.

Oxytocin is a peptide neurophysin hormone made up of nine amino acids and is used in induction of one in four births worldwide (more than 13 percent in the United States). Herein, we have developed an antibody alternative aptamer-based electrochemical assay for real-time and point-of-care detection of oxytocin in non-invasive saliva samples. This assay approach is rapid, highly sensitive, specific, and cost-effective.

Identification of mechanosensitive genes in osteoblasts by comparative microarray studies using the rotating wall vessel and the random positioning machine.

Weightlessness or microgravity of spaceflight induces bone loss due in part to decreased bone formation by unknown mechanisms. Due to difficulty in performing experiments in space, several ground-based simulators such as the Rotating Wall Vessel (RWV) and Random Positioning Machine (RPM) have become critical venues to continue studying space biology. However, these simulators have not been systematically compared to each other or to mechanical stimulating models.

Gene expression alterations in activated human T-cells induced by modeled microgravity.

Studies conducted in real Space and in ground-based microgravity analog systems (MAS) have demonstrated changes in numerous lymphocyte functions. In this investigation we explored whether the observed functional changes in lymphocytes in MAS are associated with changes in gene expression. NASA-developed Rotating Wall Vessel (RWV) bioreactor was utilized as a MAS.

PKC isozyme S-cysteinylation by cystine stimulates the pro-apoptotic isozyme PKC delta and inactivates the oncogenic isozyme PKC epsilon.

Protein kinase C (PKC) is a family of ten isozymes that play distinct and in some cases opposing roles in cell growth and survival. We recently reported that diamide, a diazene carbonyl derivative which oxidizes thiols to disulfides through addition/displacement reactions at the diazene bond, induces potent GSH-dependent inactivation of several PKC isozymes, including the oncogenic isozyme PKC epsilon, via S-glutathiolation. PKC delta, a pro-apoptotic isozyme, was distinguished by its resistance to inactivation.

Induction of tumor-reactive CTL by C-side chain variants of the CTL epitope HER-2/neu protooncogene (369-377) selected by molecular modeling of the peptide: HLA-A2 complex.

To design side chain variants for modulation of immunogenicity, we modeled the complex of the HLA-A2 molecule with an immunodominant peptide, E75, from the HER-2/neu protooncogene protein recognized by CTL. We identified the side chain orientation of E75. We modified E75 at the central Ser(5) (E75 wild-type), which points upward, by removing successively the HO (variant S5A) and the CH2-OH (variant S5G).

Treatment with HER-2 phosphorylation agonists enhance tumor ability to stimulate epitope specific CTL in vitro.

The transmembrane (TM) receptor encoded by the HER-2 proto-oncogene (HER-2) is amplified in several types of human carcinomas and premalignant states and provides an important target for cancer therapy. While overexpression of HER-2 should lead to increased CTL epitope formation due to the attendant increase in higher protein turnover, breast tumors are poor stimulators of CTL. In this report, we show that treatment of SKBR3.