background: prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths among men. new gene expressed in prostate (ngep), is a prostate-specific gene expressed only in normal prostate and prostate cancer tissue. because of its selective expression in prostate cancer cell surface, ngep is a potential immunotherapeutic target. to target the ngep in prostate cancer, it is essential to investigat...

Brain expressed X-linked (Bex) genes are newer group of pro-apoptotic genes. Role of any Bex gene in neuroblastoma and Bex4 and Bex6 in any cancer is completely unknown. Re-expression of all endogenous Bex genes by any nutraceutical is also unknown. Therefore, we investigated the induction of all endogenous Bex genes and associated mechanisms by curcumin using N2a, an aggressive neuroblastoma c...

shiga toxins (stxs) are bacterial virulence factors produced by shigella dysenteriae serotype 1 and escherichia coli strains. stxs are critical factors for the development of diseases such as severe bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome. additionally, stxs trigger the secretion of pro- inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, particularly in monocytes or macrophages. the inflammatory cyto...

The prion agent has been detected in skeletal muscle of humans and animals with prion diseases. Here we report scrapie infection of murine C2C12 myoblasts and myotubes in vitro following coculture with a scrapie-infected murine neuroblastoma (N2A) cell line but not following incubation with a scrapie-infected nonneuronal cell line or a scrapie brain homogenate. Terminal differentiation of scrap...

Using electrophysiology, the attentional functions of target selection and distractor filtering were investigated during visual search. Observers searched for multiple tilted line segments amidst vertical distractors. In different conditions, observers were either looking for a specific line orientation ("feature-based" selection), or for any tilted line ("salience-based"). The search array cou...

A racemic mixture of a new bicyclononane aldehyde, (1 RS,5 SR,6 RS)-5-hydroxybicyclo[4.3.0]non-2-ene-2-carbaldehyde (1) was isolated from the fruits of Amomum tsao-ko, together with 12 known compounds (2-13). The structure of 1 was determined on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis, including 1D and 2D NMR data. The antiproliferative activity of compounds 1-13 was assessed in the murin...

Previously, we reported that purinergic ionotropic P2X7 receptors negatively regulate neurite formation in Neuro-2a (N2a) mouse neuroblastoma cells through a Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent kinase II-related mechanism. In the present study we used this cell line to investigate a parallel though faster P2X7 receptor-mediated signaling pathway, namely Ca(2+)-regulated exocytosis. Selective activation...

The purpose of this study was to determine the neurotoxicity of two commonly used herbicides: picloram and triclopyr and the neuroprotective effects of the mitochondria-targeted antioxidant, SS31. Using mouse neuroblastoma (N2a) cells and primary neurons from C57BL/6 mice, we investigated the toxicity of these herbicides, and protective effects of SS1 peptide against picloram and triclopyr toxi...

The expression of a single glycosyltransferase, GD3 synthase, caused cholinergic differentiation with neurite sprouting. The cells that expressed GD3 were established from Neuro2a cells by transfection of a mammalian expression vector into which were carried a cDNA encoding GD3 synthase and the blasticidin-S-deaminase gene with a SV40 promoter, followed by selection with blasticidin-S-hydrochlo...