Genetic changes between codons 2209 and 2248 of NS5A of genotype 1b hepatitis C virus (HCV-1b) have been reported to be associated with the sensitivity to interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha). The present study was performed to analyze such relationship in Korean patients with chronic hepatitis C and HCV-1b (n=19), including 12 chronic hepatitis C patients treated with IFN-alpha, 3 chronic hepatitis C ...

Organic anion-transporting polypeptides (OATP) mediate the hepatic uptake of many drugs, thus codetermining their clearance. Impaired hepatic clearance due to low-activity polymorphisms in human OATP1B1 may increase systemic exposure to SN-38, the active and toxic metabolite of the anticancer prodrug irinotecan. We investigated the pharmacokinetics and toxicity of irinotecan and SN-38 in Oatp1a...

A central limit theorem for bilinear forms of the type aĈN (ρ) −1b, where a, b ∈ C are unit norm deterministic vectors and ĈN (ρ) a robust-shrinkage estimator of scatter parametrized by ρ and built upon n independent elliptical vector observations, is presented. The fluctuations of aĈN (ρ) −1b are found to be of order N− 1 2 and to be the same as those of aŜN (ρ) −1b for ŜN (ρ) a matrix of a th...

rna extraction is a prerequisite technique for gene expression studies, analyzing the etiology and disease progression, treatment effects, as well as designing the diagnostic methods. although many rna extraction kits have been commercialized, but these kits are expensive and are not accessible in some countries. many studies have shown that trizol is an applicable material for the rna extracti...

B-1b cells play a key role in producing Abs against T cell-independent type 2 Ags. However, the factors regulating Ab production by this unique B cell subset are not well understood. In this study, a detailed analysis of the B cell response to 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP)-Ficoll was performed using normal mice. TNP-Ficoll delivered i.p. or i.v. induced rapid Ag-specific B-1b cell activation, expa...

We previously found two cell lines (MT-2 and PH5CH) that were susceptible to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Analysis of the infectivity of sera from HCV-positive blood donors for MT-2 and PH5CH cells suggested the cell tropism of HCV. To investigate further the cell tropism of HCV, the dynamics of HCV populations during culture were examined using three MT-2 clones and three PH5CH clones, i...

The role of breast cancer resistance protein (Bcrp) and the combined activities of Bcrp and P-glycoprotein (P-gp, Mdr1a/1b) in limiting the brain penetration of drugs at the blood-brain barrier (BBB) were investigated using wild-type FVB, Mdr1a/1b(-/-), (-/-), Bcrp(-/-), and Mdr1a/1b(-/-), (-/-)Bcrp(-/-) mice. Four drugs, flavopiridol, imatinib mesylate (Gleevec), PF-407288, and prazosin, with ...

Sundgren-Andersson, Anna K., Pernilla Östlund, and Tamas Bartfai. IL-6 is essential in TNF-a-induced fever. Am. J. Physiol. 275 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 44): R2028–R2034, 1998.—Tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) is a pleiotropic cytokine that orchestrates an array of local and systemic effects. For instance, acute exposure to a high dose of TNF-a results in septic shock and fever. We...

To examine the functional significance of drug-transporting P-glycoprotein (P-gp), studies were conducted in the isolated and perfused proximal tubule S2 segment from mice disrupting both mdr1a and mdr1b genes [mdr1a/1b(-)(-)] and their wild-type mice. Efflux of the intracellular fluorescence of rhodamine 123, a fluorescence substrate of P-gp, into the lumen was measured, and the decay half-tim...