The ubiquitin-dependent proteasome-mediated (Ub-Pr) degradation pathway has been shown to regulate a large variety of substrates, including nuclear, cytosolic, and membrane proteins. In mammalian systems, polyubiquitin modification has been identified in a number of cell surface receptors for more than a decade; however, its biological significance has remained unclear until recently. For growt...

The proteasomal degradation of cytosolic, phosphorylation-independent tau in human brains is potentially linked to the pathogenesis of neurofibrillary pathology in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Previous studies showed that the active 20S proteasome core degrades recombinant tau effectively, which prompted this study to determine if there was evidence of proteasomal degradation of tau in human brain...

β2-microglobulin (β2M) functions as a chaperon to maintain structural stability of MHC class I complex that is associated with antigen presentation to cytotoxic (CD8+) T lymphocytes. Cancerous cells in β2M loss-of-function are thought to avoid immune surveillance. As increased level of β2M present in tissue/serum is significantly associated with tumor status in various cancers, β2M may become a...

BACKGROUND To assess the attitude to and perception of transvaginal sonography (TVS) among Nigerian women of mixed educational status in order to ascertain factors that may prevent them from submitting to TVS when recommended. METHODS A Cross-sectional survey was adopted for the study. In all, one missionary, one government and eight private hospitals were enlisted. The instruments for data c...

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is characterized by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and pulmonary fibrosis, and monocytes/macrophages are the key players in the pathogenesis of SARS. In this study, we compared the transcriptional profiles of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-infected monocytic cells against that infected by coronavirus 229E (CoV-229E). Total RNA was extracted from...

BACKGROUND Analysis of many proteins produced during the transition into the stationary phase and under stress conditions (including starvation stress) demonstrated that a number of novel proteins were induced in common to each stress and could be the reason for cross-protection in bacterial cells. It is necessary to investigate the synthesis of these proteins during different stress conditions...

AIM The aim of this study is to investigate the Protein-Protein Interaction Network of Celiac Disease. BACKGROUND Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disease with susceptibility of individuals to gluten of wheat, rye and barley. Understanding the molecular mechanisms and involved pathway may lead to the development of drug target discovery. The protein interaction network is one of the suppo...

The natural cofactor of phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH), tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), regulates the enzyme activity as well as being essential in catalysis. BH4-responsive PAH deficiency is a variant of hyperphenylalaninemia or phenylketonuria (PKU) caused by mutations in the human PAH gene that respond to oral BH4 loading by stimulating enzyme activity and therefore lowering serum phenylalanine....

In a previous study using state-of-the-art proteomic techniques, we identified colligin 2 (HSP47) as a glioma blood vessel-specific protein. In the present study we precisely localized the expression of colligin 2 in the blood vessels of diffusely infiltrating gliomas and relate the expression to the distinct cellular components of the vessels by using multiple immunolabeling and confocal micro...

LAT1 (SLC7A5) is a transporter for both the uptake of large neutral amino acids and a number of pharmaceutical drugs. It is expressed in numerous cell types including T-cells, cancer cells and brain endothelial cells. However, mechanistic knowledge of how it functions and its interactions with lipids are unknown or limited due to inability of obtaining stable purified protein in sufficient quan...