Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a progressive autoimmune disease. Due to local infiltration and damage to the joints, activated CD4 T cells play a crucial role in the progression of RA. However, the exact regulatory mechanisms are perplexing, which makes the effective management of RA frustrating.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTENTs generate miRNA isoforms by 3' tailing. However, little is known about how tailing regulates miRNA function. Here, we generate isogenic HEK293T cell lines in which TENT2, TUT4 and TUT7 are knocked out individually or in combination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroRNAs (miRNAs) associated with Argonaute proteins (AGOs) regulate gene expression in mammals. miRNA 3' ends are subject to frequent sequence modifications, which have been proposed to affect miRNA stability. However, the underlying mechanism is not well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany microRNAs (miRNAs) exist alongside abundant miRNA isoforms (isomiRs), most of which arise from post-maturation sequence modifications such as 3' uridylation. However, the ways in which these sequence modifications affect miRNA function remain poorly understood. Here, using human miR-27a in cell lines as a model, we discovered that a nonfunctional target site unable to base-pair extensively with the miRNA seed sequence can regain function when an upstream adenosine is able to base-pair with a post-transcriptionally added uridine in the miR-27a tail.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroRNA (miRNA) processing begins with Drosha cleavage, the fidelity of which is critical for downstream processing and mature miRNA target specificity. To understand how pri-miRNA sequence and structure influence Drosha cleavage, we studied the maturation of three pri-miR-9 paralogs, which encode the same mature miRNA but differ in the surrounding scaffold. We show that pri-miR-9-1 has a unique Drosha cleavage profile due to its distorted and flexible stem structure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To investigate the effect of Lang-chuang-ding Decoction (, LCD) on the expression of DNA methylation of CD70 gene promoter in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of females with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Methods: PBMCs isolated from female patients with SLE or healthy donors were cultured and treated with LCD medicated serum or normal serum for 24 or 48 h. The mRNA expressions of CD70 gene in PBMCs were detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR); the DNA methylation of the CD70 gene promoter region was detected by methylation-specific PCR.
Vaccine efficacy (VE) can be affected by progressive antigenic drift or any new reassortment of influenza viruses. To effectively track the evolution of human influenza A(H3N2) virus circulating in Hangzhou, China, a total of 65 clinical specimens were selected randomly from outpatients infected by A(H3N2) viruses during the study period from November 2009 to December 2013. The results of reduced VE and antigenic drift of the correspondent epitopes (C-D-E to A-B) suggest that the current vaccine provides suboptimal protection against the A(H3N2) strains circulating recently.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Even under immune pressure, the highly active influenza A H1N1 pdm09 variants emerged again in December 2010. Did the variability lead to poor vaccine effectiveness?
Objectives: To study the genetic distance and antigenic drift of the influenza A H1N1 pdm09 strains based on the sequence analysis of HA virus gene segments during consecutive seasons 2009-2011 in Hangzhou, China.
Study Design: 39 Clinical samples from influenza-like-illness patients with culture-confirmed influenza A H1N1 pdm09 infections were collected over seasons in routine influenza surveillance.
Lipase-overproducing marine yeast Bohaisea-9145 isolated from the Bohai sea region was identified as psychrotrophlic Yarrowia lipolytica. The optimum composition of culture medium was ground soybean 4%, rice bran 4%, peanut power 4%, crude peanut oil 0.5%, MgSO4 0.
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