A safe and effective HIV vaccine is required to significantly reduce the number of people becoming infected with HIV each year. In this study wild type Mycobacterium bovis BCG Pasteur and an attenuated pantothenate auxotroph strain (BCGΔpanCD) that is safe in SCID mice, have been compared as vaccine vectors for HIV-1 subtype C Gag. Genetically stable vaccines BCG[pHS400] (BCG-Gag) and BCGΔpanCD...

Cells infected with vaccinia viruses expressing the equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV) gag gene (VGag) or gag plus the 5' pol encoding protease (VGag/PR) were evaluated with monoclonal antibody to a p26 capsid protein linear epitope (QEISKFLTD). Both recombinant viruses expressed Gag precursor protein (55K) whereas only VGag/PR expressed a detectable Gag-Pol fusion protein (82K) with a func...

Retroviral proteins are synthesized as polyprotein precursors that undergo proteolytic cleavages to yield the mature viral proteins. The role of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease in the viral replication cycle was examined by use of a site-directed mutation in the protease gene. The HIV protease gene product was expressed in Escherichia coli and observed to cleave HIV gag p55 to g...

We previously described an endogenous murine retrovirus, rv-DBA/2aged, isolated from an aged DBA/2 mouse. The previous report showed that a recombination which resulted in the replacement of Emv-3 gag sequences with gag sequences homologous to those found in the AKT-8 virus had taken place. This recombination allowed production of a competent virus from the defective Emv-3 locus. However, the e...

The rat carbamyl phosphate synthetase I gene is expressed in two cell types: hepatocytes and epithelial cells of the intestinal mucosa. The proximal promoter contains a single activating element, GAG, two repressor elements (sites I and III) and an anti-repressor element (site II). Although these elements together exhibit the potential for complex regulation, they are unable to confer tissue-sp...

The open reading frame of the human T-cell leukemia virus type II pro gene is arranged at a -1 position relative to the gag gene. Synthesis of the Gag-Pro fusion polyprotein is facilitated by ribosomal frameshift into the reading frame of the pro gene. Cloning of a synthetic 41-bp oligonucleotide corresponding to the gag-pro junction within a heterologous gene (nef of human immunodeficiency vir...

Background: Numerous evidences indicate that in some HIV-1 positive patients, the humoral and cellular immune responses are induced against HIV-1 proteins and this is inversely related to the progress of infection. Objective: The aim of this study was the evaluation of the Adenovectors containing HIV genes in induction of immune responses in mice. Methods: The HIV-1 genes including gag p24, rev...

BACKGROUND Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic joints disease characterized by progressive degeneration of articular cartilage due to the loss of cartilage matrix. Previously, we found, for the first time, that an acidic glycan from Angelica Sinensis Polysaccharides (APSs), namely the APS-3c, could protect rat cartilage from OA due to promoting glycosaminoglycan (GAG) synthesis in chondrocytes. In...

BACKGROUND High mutation rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) allows escape from T cell recognition preventing development of effective T cell vaccines. Vaccines that induce diverse T cell immune responses would help overcome this problem. Using SIV gag as a model vaccine, we investigated two approaches to increase the breadth of the CD8 T cell response. Namely, fusion of vaccine genes t...

BACKGROUND Yeast is recognized as a generally safe microorganism and is utilized for the production of pharmaceutical products, including vaccines. We previously showed that expression of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Gag protein in Saccharomyces cerevisiae spheroplasts released Gag virus-like particles (VLPs) extracellularly, suggesting that the production system could be used in...