Atg8 is a ubiquitin-like protein involved in autophagy in yeast that is targeted to membranes through conjugation to the lipid phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). In this issue of Cell, Nakatogawa et al. (2007) show that Atg8 conjugated to PE mediates tethering between adjacent membranes and stimulates membrane hemifusion, an event that may mimic expansion of the autophagosomal membrane during autop...

background: enterotoxigenic escherichia coli (etec) strains are the major causes of diarrheal disease in humans and animals. colonization factors and enterotoxins are the major virulence factors in etec pathogenesis. for the broad-spectrum protection against etec, one could focus on colonization factors and non-toxic heat labile as a vaccine candidate. methods: a fusion protein is composed of a...

background the 30 kda major secretory protein of mycobacterium tuberculosis (antigen 85b) is a primary vaccine candidate. this secreted antigen induces a protective immune response and stimulates the production of ifn-γ in animal models. objectives the aim of this study was cloning and expression of ag 85b of m. tuberculosis in escherichia coli. materials and methods to produce recombinant ag85...

background: bacterial superantigen staphylococcal enterotoxins (ses), has stimulated polyclonal t cells irrespective of their antigen specificity, resulted a massive release of cytokines, and suggested that they could be assigned as a candidate of new antitumor agents. recent attempts have done to specifically target superantigens towards tumors, subsequently monoclonal antibodies and tumor-rel...

Abstract Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children, due part to their distinct immune system, characterized by impaired induction T-helper 1 (Th1)□immunity. Here we describe cationic adjuvant formulation (CAF)-08, liposomal vaccine tailored induce Th1 immunity early life via synergistic engagement Toll-like Receptor 7/8 the C-type lectin recepto...

cholera toxin b subunit (ctxb) is a homopantameric, nontoxic subunit of cholera toxin that is responsible for its binding to the cell and has been known as a mucosal adjuvant for vaccines that could increase homoral and mocusal immunity response. in this work, the ctxb gene was fused to the stxb gene from shigella dysenteriae type i a vaccine antigen candidate against this pathogen, by a nonfur...

Objective(s): Tuberculosis (TB) has still remained a global health issue. One third of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis and the current BCG vaccine has low efficiency; hence, it is necessary to develop a new vaccine against TB. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the efficiency of a novel DNA vaccine encoding Mtb32C-HBHA antigen in inducing specific immune responses...

PURPOSE Early detection of prostate cancer can increase the curative success rate for prostate cancer. We studied the diagnostic usefulness of TMPRSS2-ERG fusion transcripts as well as the combination of prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) RNA and TMPRSS2-ERG fusion transcripts in urinary sediments after digital rectal examination (DRE). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN A total of 78 men with prostate cancer...

Human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were derived from lymph node lymphocytes and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from patients with melanoma. Four methods for generating human mAbs were compared: fusion with human [LICR-LON-HMy-2 (LICR-2)] or mouse (NS-1) cells; transformation by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV); and EBV transformation followed by NS-1 fusion. NS-1 fusion with lymph node lymphocytes ...

The human hepatoblastoma cell line HepG2 produces and secretes hepatitis B virus (HBV) after transfection of cloned HBV DNA. Intact virions do not infect these cells, although they attach to the surface of the HepG2 cell through binding sites in the pre-S1 domain. Entry of enveloped virions into the cell often requires proteolytic cleavage of a viral surface protein that is involved in fusion b...