Almost 90% of grass pollen-allergic patients are sensitized against group 5 grass pollen allergens. We isolated a monoclonal human IgE Fab out of a combinatorial library prepared from lymphocytes of a grass pollen-allergic patient and studied its interaction with group 5 allergens. The IgE Fab cross-reacted with group 5A isoallergens from several grass and corn species. By allergen gene fragmen...

Expression of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) structural proteins requires the presence of the viral trans-activator protein Rev. Rev is localized in the nucleus and binds specifically to the Rev response element (RRE) sequence in viral RNA. Furthermore, the interaction of the Rev activation domain with a cellular cofactor is essential for Rev function in vivo. Using cross-linking e...

During protein synthesis, ribosomes become stalled on polyproline-containing sequences, unless they are rescued in archaea and eukaryotes by the initiation factor 5A (a/eIF-5A) and in bacteria by the homologous protein EF-P. While a structure of EF-P bound to the 70S ribosome exists, structural insight into eIF-5A on the 80S ribosome has been lacking. Here we present a cryo-electron microscopy ...

A defining feature of asthma is airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), which underlies the exaggerated bronchoconstriction response of asthmatics. The role of the airway smooth muscle (ASM) in AHR has garnered increasing interest over the years, but how asthmatic ASM differs from healthy ASM is still an active topic of debate. WNT-5A is increasingly expressed in asthmatic ASM and has been linked wit...

The vertebrate retina has an area where visual cells are closely packed for proper vision that is known as a fovea, an area centralis or a visual streak. The molecular mechanism that regulates the formation of these structures and visual cell gradients is unknown. The transcription factor Pax6 is a master regulator of eye development. A Pax6 isoform that contains an exon 5a-encoded 14 amino aci...

Recently, we have shown that macrophage (MΦ)-induced invasion of breast cancer cells requires upregulation of Wnt 5a in MΦ leading to activation of β-Catenin-independent Wnt signaling in the tumor cells. However, it remained unclear, how malignant cells induce Wnt 5a in MΦ and how it is transferred back to the cancer cells. Here we identify two types of extracellular particles as essential for ...

Eukaryotic initiation factor 5A (eIF-5A) is the only cellular protein known to contain a hypusine residue that is formed by transferring the aminobutyl moiety from spermidine to a specific lysine residue, followed by hydroxylation at the aminobutyl group. A simple PCR-based strategy was developed to obtain a full-length cDNA of Neurospora crassa eIF-5A. The strategy consists of (i) the design o...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Atherothrombotic diseases including stroke share a common etiology of atherosclerosis, and susceptibility to atherosclerosis has a genetic component. Stromelysin-1 (matrix metalloproteinase-3 [MMP3]) regulates arterial matrix composition and is a candidate gene for atherothrombosis. A common polymorphism of MMP3 alters expression levels and affects atherosclerotic progres...

It has been suggested that the interferon (IFN)-induced 2',5'-oligoadenylate (2-5A) synthetase, which polymerizes ATP into a series of 2',5'-linked oligomers with the general formula pppA(2'p5'A)n, plays a general role in cell growth and terminal differentiation. For instance, an increase in 2-5A synthetase activity has been described during dimethyl sulfoxide (Me2SO)-induced erythroid differen...