Aptamer-guided gene targeting in yeast and human cells.

Gene targeting is a genetic technique to modify an endogenous DNA sequence in its genomic location via homologous recombination (HR) and is useful both for functional analysis and gene therapy applications. HR is inefficient in most organisms and cell types, including mammalian cells, often limiting the effectiveness of gene targeting. Therefore, increasing HR efficiency remains a major challenge to DNA editing.

Real-Time PCR-Coupled CE-SELEX for DNA Aptamer Selection.

Aptamers are short nucleic acid or peptide sequences capable of binding to a target molecule with high specificity and affinity. Also known as "artificial antibodies," aptamers provide many advantages over antibodies. One of the major hurdles to aptamer isolation is the initial time and effort needed for selection.

Abundance of a distinct cluster of telomere t-stumps in advanced breast cancer cell line.

Breast tumors are the second major cause of cancer-related death in women worldwide. These tumors are aggressive, leading to metastatic cancers that are heterogeneous in nature, with numerous subtypes. The basal-like tumor subtype invariably shows unfavorable prognosis and is often characterized by the lack of estrogen, progesterone and HER2 receptors.

Characterization of hepatitis B virus inhibition by novel 2'-fluoro-2',3'-unsaturated beta-D- and L-nucleosides.

The clinical emergence of lamivudine and adefovir resistance mutations on prolonged therapy further necessitates the development of additional drugs for the treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections. We have evaluated a number of novel 2'-fluoro-2',3'-unsaturated D- and L-nucleosides for their anti-HBV activity in the HepG2-2.2.

Emergence of a novel mutation in the FLLA region of hepatitis B virus during lamivudine therapy.

The emergence of resistance to lamivudine has been one of the major stumbling blocks to successful treatment and control of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections. The major mechanism of resistance has been attributed to the alteration in the YMDD motif of the HBV polymerase due to an amino acid change of rtM204 to V/I and an accompanying rtL180M conversion. A novel mutation pattern in a patient having clinical breakthrough under lamivudine therapy was discovered.