Interferon (IFN) regulates immune responses and antitumor activity. Arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) peptides can specifically bind to integrin αvβ3, a transmembrane receptor that is highly expressed on the surface of various cancer cells. In this study, we expressed recombinant RGD-IFN-α2a-core fusion proteins and assessed their antitumor activity in vitro. Two RGD-IFN-α2a-core fusion prot...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) capsid proteins, termed core proteins, with two- to four-amino-acid insertions were assessed for capsid formation, RNA encapsidation, and the ability to support reverse transcription of the pregenome by the polymerase molecule. Velocity sedimentation analysis of insect cell-expressed recombinant core proteins revealed that only two of the nine insertion mutant proteins f...

BACKGROUND During heterologous protein production using recombinant microbes, the protein tends to accumulate in the cell and may not be secreted. Here, we studied the production of secretory cutinase (heterologous protein) by recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae protoplasts. FINDINGS Recombinant S. cerevisiae cells (i.e., cells into which the cutinase gene was transferred) secreted trace amo...

From a cohort of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) exposed transfusion recipients (N = 71) enrolled in the Jamaican Transfusion Study, 11 were selected for detailed laboratory evaluation. All recipients were followed at monthly intervals for 6 months and then bimonthly up to 1 year for evidence of HTLV-I seroconversion. Without regard to results on screening assays, pretransfusion...

Glycoengineering is increasingly being recognized as a powerful tool to generate recombinant glycoproteins with a customized N-glycosylation pattern. Here, we demonstrate the modulation of the plant glycosylation pathway toward the formation of human-type bisected and branched complex N-glycans. Glycoengineered Nicotiana benthamiana lacking plant-specific N-glycosylation (i.e. β1,2-xylose and c...

The regulatory immediate-early (IE) protein pp89 of murine cytomegalovirus induces CD8+ T lymphocytes that protect against lethal murine cytomegalovirus infection. The IE1 epitope is the only epitope of pp89 that is recognized by BALB/c cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL). Using synthetic peptides, the optimal and minimal antigenic sequences of the IE1 epitope have been defined. To evaluate the predi...

The major N-linked carbohydrate structures were determined for recombinant human plasma lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT). The analysis of the structure of oligosaccharides by fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FAB-MS) and linkage analysis was preceded by reduction and carboxymethylation of the intact glycoproteins and digestion with trypsin and proline specific endopeptidase. T...

The production of therapeutic antibodies to combat pathogens and treat diseases, such as cancer is of great interest for the biotechnology industry. The recent development of plant-based expression systems has demonstrated that plants are well-suited for the production of recombinant monoclonal antibodies with defined glycosylation. Compared to immunoglobulin G (IgG), less effort has been under...

U-insertion/deletion RNA editing of mitochondrial mRNAs in trypanosome mitochondria is mediated by a core complex (RECC) containing around 16-20 proteins which is linked to several other multiprotein complexes by RNA. There are two known subcomplexes in the RECC: the REL1 subcomplex which contains the REL1 RNA ligase, the MP63 zinc finger-containing protein and the REX2 U-specific 3'-5' exonucl...