BACKGROUND Enteroviruses are small non-enveloped viruses with a (+) ssRNA genome with one open reading frame. Enterovirus protein 3C (or 3CD for some species) binds the replicative element oriL to initiate replication. The replication of enteroviruses features a low-fidelity process, which allows the virus to adapt to the changing environment on the one hand, and requires additional mechanisms ...

PURPOSE The goal of this research was to evaluate a potential therapeutic agent for breast cancer based on galectin-3 that has been implicated in tumorigenicity and metastasis of breast cancer. The hypothesis was that therapy with NH(2)-terminally truncated form of galectin-3 (galectin-3C) will be efficacious for reduction in tumor growth and for inhibition of metastases. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN ...

Members of the Enterovirus genus of the Picornaviridae family are abundant, with common human pathogens that belong to the rhinovirus (HRV) and enterovirus (EV) species, including diverse echo-, coxsackie- and polioviruses. They cause a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations ranging from asymptomatic to severe diseases with neurological and/or cardiac manifestations. Pandemic outbreaks of EVs...

A cell-based system that detects human enterovirus 71 (HEV71) 3C protease (3C) activity, using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), was established by creating a stable cell line that constitutively expresses a FRET protein construct consisting of a 3C cleavage motif flanked by a FRET pair of enhanced cyan fluorescent protein (ECFP) and enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (EYFP). HEV7...

We present images showing the first detections of polarization on parsec scales in the nuclei of four Fanaroff-Riley type I (low-luminosity) radio galaxies. Observations with Very Long Baseline Interferometry at λ 3.6cm reveal the presence of ordered magnetic fields within ∼1650 Schwarzchild radii of the putative central supermassive black hole. The relatively high fractional polarization in th...

Some viruses use phosphatidylinositol phosphate (PIP) to mark membranes used for genome replication or virion assembly. PIP-binding motifs of cellular proteins do not exist in viral proteins. Molecular-docking simulations revealed a putative site of PIP binding to poliovirus (PV) 3C protein that was validated using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The PIP-binding site was located on a h...

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) 3C protease (3C(pro)) plays a vital role in virus replication by performing most of the cleavages required to divide the viral polyprotein precursor into its functional component proteins. To date, no structural information has been available for FMDV 3C(pro), which is an attractive target for antiviral drugs. Targeted mutagenesis of surface amino acids ident...

The regulation of cell–cell adhesion is important for the processes of tissue formation and morphogenesis. Here, we report that loss of 14-3-3c leads to a decrease in cell–cell adhesion and a defect in the transport of plakoglobin and other desmosomal proteins to the cell border in HCT116 cells and cells of the mouse testis. 14-3-3c binds to plakoglobin in a PKCm-dependent fashion, resulting in...

The 3C protein is a master regulator of the picornaviral infection cycle, responsible for both cleaving viral and host proteins, and interacting with genomic RNA replication elements. Here we use nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations to show that 3C is conformationally dynamic across multiple timescales. Binding of peptide and RNA lead to structural dynamics...