Mature erythrocytes contain a specific isozyme of pyruvate kinase (R-PK) while immature erythroblasts coexpress R-PK and another isozyme, M2-PK. To determine what roles degradation and decreasing of synthesis played in the disappearance of M2-PK during erythroid maturation, M2-PK and R-PK synthesis and degradation were studied in erythroblasts from fetal liver and blood BFU-E-derived erythrobla...

Assembly and budding of influenza virus proceeds in the viral budozone, a domain in the plasma membrane with characteristics of cholesterol/sphingolipid-rich membrane rafts. The viral transmembrane glycoproteins hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) are intrinsically targeted to these domains, while M2 is seemingly targeted to the edge of the budozone. Virus assembly is orchestrated by the ...

The influenza A/fowl plague virus/Rostock/34 hemagglutinin (HA), which is cleaved intracellularly and has a high pH threshold (pH 5.9) for undergoing its conformational change to the low-pH form, was expressed from cDNA in CV-1 and HeLa T4 cells in the absence of other influenza virus proteins. It was found, by biochemical assays, that the majority of the HA molecules were in a form indistingui...

The M2 protein of the influenza A virus acts both as a drug-sensitive proton channel and mediates virus budding through membrane scission. The segment responsible for causing membrane curvature is an amphipathic helix in the cytoplasmic domain of the protein. Here, we use (31)P and (13)C solid-state NMR to examine M2-induced membrane curvature. M2(22-46), which includes only the transmembrane (...

The M2 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor mutant (M2 mutant), with a lack of glycosylation sites, a deletion in the central part of the third inner loop, and the addition of a six histidine tag at the C-terminus, was fused to maltose binding protein (MBP) at its N-terminus and expressed in Escherichia coli. The expression level was 0.2 nmol receptor per 100 ml culture, as assessed as [3H]L-quinu...

The pharmacokinetics of a 72-hour infusion of 240 mg/m2 etoposide administered concurrently with 90 mg/m2 cisplatin was studied in 12 lung cancer patients. The area under the curve (AUC), elimination half-life, steady state concentration, systemic clearance, renal clearance of etoposide and distribution volume at steady state were 225.4 +/- 39.2 micrograms x h/ml, 8.1 +/- 3.4 h, 3.1 +/- 0.6 mic...

Metabolites from intestinal microbes modulate the mucosal immune system by regulating the polarization and expansion of T cells. Whether the microbial metabolites influence macrophage polarization, however, is poorly understood. Here, we show that the large bowel microbial fermentation product, butyrate, facilitates M2 macrophage polarization, in vitro and in vivo. The supernatant from butyrate...