The fungus, Candida albicans, and the bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, are opportunistic human pathogens that have been coisolated from diverse body sites. Pseudomonas aeruginosa suppresses C. albicans proliferation in vitro and potentially in vivo but it is the C. albicans hyphae that are killed while yeast cells are not. We show that hyphal killing involves both contact-mediated and soluble...

The effect of various sulfhydryl compounds on the survival of exponentially growing monolayer cultures of Chinese hamster cells (HA1) heated to temperatures of 37-43 degrees was examined. Concentrations of cysteamine which were nontoxic or minimally toxic at room temperature or 37 degrees became increasingly toxic at elevated temperatures, greatly potentiating the killing produced by heat alone...

The adenovirus E4orf4 protein regulates the progression of viral infection, and when expressed alone in mammalian tissue culture cells it induces protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A)-B55- and Src-dependent cell death, which is more efficient in oncogene-transformed cells than in normal cells. This form of cell death is caspase-independent, although it interacts with classic caspase-dependent apoptosis...

Clustering of apoptotic cells is a characteristic of many developing or renewing systems, suggesting that apoptotic cells kill bystanders. Bystander killing can be triggered experimentally by inducing apoptosis in single cells and may be based on the exchange of as yet unidentified chemical cell death signals between nearby cells without the need for cell-to-cell communication via gap junctions...

PARP inhibitors show promise as combination and single agents in cancer chemotherapy. Here, we evaluate results obtained with mouse fibroblasts and the common laboratory PARP inhibitor 4-amino-1,8-naphthalimide (4-AN) and analyze the potential for enhanced cytotoxicity following the combination of a DNA-damaging agent and a PARP inhibitor. Methylated DNA bases are repaired by the monofunctional...

B cells play an important role in the pathogenesis of both systemic and organ-specific autoimmune diseases. Autoreactive B cells not only produce autoantibodies, but also are capable to efficiently present specific autoantigens to T cells. Furthermore, B cells can secrete proinflammatory cytokines and amplify the vicious process of self-destruction. B cell-directed therapy is a potentially impo...

The human immunodeficiency virus protease (HIV-1 PR) was expressed both in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and in mammalian cells. Inducible expression of HIV-1 PR arrested yeast growth, which was followed by cell lysis. The lytic phenotype included loss of plasma membrane integrity and cell wall breakage leading to the release of cell content to the medium. Given that neither poliovirus 2A ...

Hydroxyurea is a well-established inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase that has a long history of scientific interest and clinical use for the treatment of neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases. It is currently the staple drug for the management of sickle cell anemia and chronic myeloproliferative disorders. Due to its reversible inhibitory effect on DNA replication in various organisms, hydr...

NK cell transplants have emerged as a potentially powerful approach to treating acute myeloid leukemia. Approaches that could be applied to enhance the NKmediated killing of leukemic cells would therefore have direct clinical importance. Oncolytic viral therapies have also shown promise in the treatment of a variety of solid cancers, leading to the recent approval of the oncolytic HSV talimogen...

The interaction of radiation with cells and tissues has a random nature. Therefore, understanding the random nature of cell killing that is determined by Poisson distribution statistics is an essential point in education of radiation biology. RadBioStat is a newly developed educational MATLAB-based software designed for computer-assisted learning of the target theory in radiation biology. Altho...