The replication and transcription activator (RTA), mainly encoded by open reading frame 50, is an immediate-early gene product that is conserved among all characterized gammaherpesviruses. Previous studies have demonstrated that RTA proteins of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) can activate the promoter of many viral early lytic genes through direct or ...

Transfer of "anti-HIV-1 genes" into hematopoietic stem cells of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1)-infected individuals may be a potent therapeutic approach to render mature cells arising from transduced stem cells resistant to the destructive events associated with HIV-1 infection. To determine the feasibility of gene therapy for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in individuals already in...

We have used molecular modeling techniques to model the RNA tertiary structure of the viral RNA element (referred to as domain II of Rev responsive element, RRE) bound by the Rev protein of HIV. In this study, the initial three-dimensional model was built from its established RNA secondary structure, including three non-Watson-Crick G:G, G:A and G:U base pairs. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulatio...

We report branched peptide boronic acids (BPBAs) that bind to RRE IIB from an on-bead high-throughput screening of a 3.3.4-library (46 656 compounds). We demonstrate that boronic acids are tunable moieties that afford a novel binding mode towards RNA.

Recently, we proposed a new algorithm of accelerated barrier optimization compressed sensing (ABOCS) for iterative CT reconstruction. The previous implementation of ABOCS uses gradient projection (GP) with a Barzilai-Borwein (BB) step-size selection scheme (GP-BB) to search for the optimal solution. The algorithm does not converge stably due to its non-monotonic behavior. In this paper, we furt...

We devised a single-step selection method to identify short sequences within the folded Rev response element (RRE) of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) RNA genome that are proximal and able to bind short oligonucleotides. The method employed a library of partially randomized tethered oligonucleotide probes (TOPs) complementary to all regions of the RRE and an RNase H cleavage assay which i...

High throughput screening of a 4096 compound library of boronic acid and acridine containing branched peptides revealed compounds that have dissociation constants in the low nanomolar regime for HIV-1 RRE IIB RNA. We demonstrate that branched peptide boronic acids A5, A6, and A7 inhibit the production of p24, an HIV-1 capsid protein, in a dose-dependent manner.

Based on a large panel dataset of small commercial banks in the United States, this paper employs dynamic Tobit model to analyse role uncertainty forecasting charge-off rates loans for credit card (CC) and residential real estate (RRE). When compared other standard predictors, such as house prices unemployment rates, we find that effect changes is more pronounced. Furthermore, it evident includ...