Objective(s): Neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/PCs) hold a great potential for delivery of therapeutic agents into the injured regions of the brain. Efficient gene delivery using NS/PCs may correct a genetic defect, produce therapeutic proteins or neurotransmitters, and modulate enzyme activation. Here, we investigated the efficiency of a recombinant lentivirus vector ...

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to construct a lentivirus vector with survivin promoter (pSur)-driven apoptin and test its efficiency in suppressing the growth of tumor cells. MATERIAL AND METHODS Expression cassettes with different fragments of survivin gene promoter (pSur, 161 bp, 272 bp, 990 bp) driving 6XHis-tagged apoptin were constructed to generate recombinant lentivirus, of whi...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Cathelicidin (LL-37 in human and mCRAMP in mice) represents a family of endogenous antimicrobial peptides with anti-inflammatory effects. LL-37 also suppresses collagen synthesis, an important fibrotic response, in dermal fibroblasts. Here we determined whether exogenous cathelicidin administration modulates intestinal fibrosis in two animal models of intestinal inflammation...

Previously we described safe and efficient three-component human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-based gene transfer systems for delivery of genes into nondividing cells (H. Mochizuki, J. P. Schwartz, K. Tanaka, R. O. Brady, and J. Reiser, J. Virol. 72:8873-8883, 1998). To apply such vectors in anti-HIV gene therapy strategies and to express multiple proteins in single target cells, we ha...

Glycogen storage disease type 1a (GSD1a) is a rare disease due to the deficiency in the glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) catalytic subunit (encoded by G6pc), which is essential for endogenous glucose production. Despite strict diet control to maintain blood glucose, patients with GSD1a develop hepatomegaly, steatosis and then hepatocellular adenomas (HCA), which can undergo malignant transformati...

Pharmacologic glucocorticoids (GCs) inhibit osteoblast function and induce osteoporosis. 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1) may play a role in osteoporosis as it regulates GC action at a pre-receptor level by converting inactive GC to its active form. Further, 11β-HSD1 was found increasingly expressed in bone with age. In spite of these observations, its function in senile osteo...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study is to observe the inhibitive effects of p66Shc gene interfering lentivirus vectors on the expression of p66Shc, and to explore its effects on alveolar epithelial cells apoptosis induced by hyperoxia. METHODS The gene sequences were cloned into the pLenR-GPH-shRNA lentiviral vector, which was selected by Genebank searches. The pLenR-GPH-shRNA and lentiviral vec...