The human APOBEC3 (A3) family (A, B, C, DE, F, G, and H) comprises host defense factors that potently inhibit the replication of diverse retroviruses, retrotransposons, and the other viral pathogens. HIV-1 has a counterstrategy that includes expressing the Vif protein to abrogate A3 antiviral function. Without Vif, A3 proteins, particularly APOBEC3G (A3G) and APOBEC3F (A3F), inhibit HIV-1 repli...

Hypertension and stroke in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were investigated genetically using stroke-prone SHR (A3), stroke-resistant SHR (C) and their hybrids, hybrid of A3 and C (F1), offspring of F1 X F1 (F2), and those of backcrossing of F1 to the respective parental strains, BC(F1 X A3) and BC(F1 X C). The average blood pressure measured without anesthesia increased in the following...

The lentiviral protein Viral Infectivity Factor (Vif) counteracts the antiviral effects of host APOBEC3 (A3) proteins and contributes to persistent HIV infection. Vif targets A3 restriction factors for ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation by recruiting them to a multi-protein ubiquitin E3 ligase complex. Here, we describe a degradation-independent mechanism of Vif-mediated antagonism that...

Breast cancers are the most common cancer-affecting women; critically the identification of novel biomarkers for improving early detection, stratification and differentiation from benign tumours is important for the reduction of morbidity and mortality.To identify and functionally characterise potential biomarkers, we used mass spectrometry (MS) to analyse serum samples representing control, be...

The human carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and HER-2/neu are potential target antigens for CTL specific immunotherapy for common malignancies such as breast, lung, colon, and gastric carcinomas. Several CTL epitopes restricted by HLA-A2, the most common human histocompatibility molecule, have been previously reported. However, to develop CTL-based immunotherapies for the general population, it is...

Facilitative urea transporters in the mammalian kidney play a vital role in the urinary concentrating mechanism. The urea transporters located in the renal inner medullary collecting duct, namely UT-A1 and UT-A3, are acutely regulated by the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin. In this study, we investigated the vasopressin regulation of the basolateral urea transporter UT-A3 using an MDCK-mUT-A3 ...

AIM To assess cancer-testis antigens (CTAs) expression in gastric cancer patients and examined their associations with clinicopathological factors. METHODS Eighty-three gastric cancer patients were evaluated in this study. Gastric cancer specimens were evaluated for the gene expression of CTAs, Kitakyushu lung cancer antigen-1 (KK-LC-1), melanoma antigen (MAGE)-A1, MAGE-A3 and New York esopha...

Adenosine accumulates to high levels in inflamed or ischemic tissues and activates A3 adenosine receptors (ARs) on mast cells to trigger degranulation. Here we show that stimulation of rat basophilic leukemia (RBL)-2H3 mast-like cells with the A3 AR agonists N6-(3-iodo)benzyl-5'-N-methylcarboxamidodoadenosine (IB-MECA; 10 nM) or inosine (10 microM) stimulates phosphorylation of protein kinase B...

BACKGROUND CHRNA5-A3-B4, the gene cluster encoding nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits, is associated with lung cancer risk and smoking behaviors in people of European descent. Because cigarette smoking is also a major risk factor for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), we investigated the associations between variants in CHRNA5-A3-B4 and ESCC risk, as well as smoking behaviors, in...

Factor VIII (fVIII) circulates as a heavy chain/light chain (A1-A2-B/ap-A3-C1-C2) heterodimer. The 41-residue light chain activation peptide, ap, is cleaved from fVIII during proteolytic activation by thrombin or factor Xa. We constructed 7 active recombinant hybrid B-domainless human/porcine fVIII molecules that contained combinations of porcine sequence replacements within the A2, ap-A3, and ...