[Demethylation of estrogen receptor gene and its re-expression in estrogen receptor-negative breast].

Objective: To investigate the correlation between the lack of estrogen receptor (ER) gene expression and hypermethylation of ER gene, and detect whether re-expressed ER protein is activated.

Methods: The methylation status of ER gene promoter in the ER-negative breast cancer cells was evaluated by methylation specific PCR (MSP) and genomic sequencing. The expression of ER and progesterone receptor (PR) mRNA as well as the production of ER protein were detected by RT-PCR and Western blot method, respectively.

Immunization of mice with a DNA vaccine based on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus spike protein fragment 1.

According to data in GenBank, a gene encoding SARS spike protein fragment 1 (S1) was synthesized. After recombination with an immunostimulatory sequence (ISS), the gene was cloned into the plasmid pIRES to produce pIRES-ISS-S1. On confirmation of the expression of S1 protein by indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA), after the transfection of pIRES-ISS-S1 into BHK-21 cells, the DNA vaccine was repeatedly administrated to BALB/c mice.

Construction and immunogenicity of a recombinant fowlpox virus containing the capsid and 3C protease coding regions of foot-and-mouth disease virus.

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is an important pathogen with worldwide economic consequences. Consequently, an important goal is the development of a vaccine that can provide rapid protection while overcoming the potential risk associated with the production of conventional inactivated vaccines. An important secondary feature of the vaccine would be the ability to distinguish vaccinated from infected animals.

Construction and immunogenicity of recombinant fowlpox vaccines coexpressing HA of AIV H5N1 and chicken IL18.

cDNAs of the HA genes of subtype H5N1 AIV were fused to form a single open reading frame, designated H5HA-H7HA. The H5HA-H7HA cDNA and chicken Interleukin-18 (IL18) were inserted into the fowlpox virus (FPV) expression vector pUTA-16-LacZ to produce pUTAL-H5-H7-IL18. cDNA of H5N1 AIV HA was inserted into the FPV expression vector pUTA2 to create the recombinant expression plasmid pUTA2-H5.

HLA-A gene polymorphism defined by high-resolution sequence-based typing in 161 Northern Chinese Han people.

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system is the most polymorphic region known in the human genome. In the present study, we analyzed for the first time the HLA-A gene polymorphisms defined by the high-resolution typing methods-sequence-based typing (SBT) in 161 Northern Chinese Han people. A total of 74 different HLA-A gene types and 36 alleles were detected.

Polymorphism profile of nine short tandem repeat Loci in the Han chinese.

Nine short tandem repeat (STR) markers (D3S1358, VWA, FGA, THO1, TPOX, CSFIPO, D5S818, D13S317, and D7S820) and a sex-identification marker (Amelogenin locus) were amplified with multiplex PCR and were genotyped with a four-color fluorescence method in samples from 174 unrelated Han individuals in North China. The allele frequencies, genotype frequencies, heterozygosity, probability of discrimination powers, probability of paternity exclusion and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium expectations were determined. The results demonstrated that the genotypes at all these STR loci in Han population conform to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium expectations.

The Properties of Serum GPI-PLD.

The purified glycosylphosphatidylinositol phospholipase D (GPI-PLD) is a single-polypeptide with a molecular weight of about 1OO kD. However, the enzyme is eluted in the fraction of 500 kD when human serum undergoes gel filtration chromatography. To study the natural state of GPI-PLD might help to visualize its physiological function.