An important element of the host response to cryptococcosis is humoral immunity. Specific antibody responses in patients with cryptococcosis however, have not been extensively studied. We analyzed the antibody responses of 22 Indian patients with cryptococcosis, including both HIV+ and HIV- individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: We previously demonstrated that chronic pulmonary infection with Cryptococcus neoformans results in enhanced allergic inflammation and airway hyperreactivity in a rat model. Because the cell wall of C. neoformans consists of chitin, and since acidic mammalian chitinase (AMCase) has recently been implicated as a novel mediator of asthma, we sought to determine whether such infection induces chitinase activity and expression of AMCase in the rat.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe role of innate immunity in the host response to Bacillus anthracis is poorly understood. We found that normal human serum contains an antitoxin mechanism that is capable of protecting macrophages in vitro from B. anthracis lethal toxin-mediated killing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSheng Wu Hua Xue Yu Sheng Wu Wu Li Xue Bao (Shanghai)
February 2003
To study the effect of three positively charged arginine residues near the active site Cys(124) of the human dual-specific phosphatase on the catalytic function, six VHR mutants R(125)L, R(130)L, R(130)K, R(130)L/S(131)A, R(158)K and R(158)L were obtained using QuikChange site-directed mutagenesis method. The recombinant plasmids containing mutant genes were transformed into the Escherichia coli strain BL21(DE3), and the expressed proteins were found to be water soluble after the induction of IPTG. The proteins with purity greater than 90% were obtained using Ni(2+) chelating affinity chromatography.
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