Phosphopeptide analyses of the simian virus 40 (SV40) large tumor antigen (LT) in SV40-transformed rat cells, as well as in SV40 lytically infected monkey cells, showed that gel-purified LT that was not complexed to p53 (free LT) and p53-complexed LT differed substantially in their phosphorylation patterns. Most significantly, p53-complexed LT contained phosphopeptides not found in free LT. We ...

We examined the ability of blood group A-active glycoconjugates to act as receptors for Escherichia coli heat-labile type I enterotoxin (LT-I) in HT-29 cells. These cells contained ~4 times more specific binding sites for LT-I than for cholera toxin (CT). Binding of LT-I could not be blocked by the B subunit of CT (CT-B), indicating the existence of LT-I receptors in addition to the glycosphing...

NOD-like receptors (NLRs) and caspase-1 are critical components of innate immunity, yet their over-activation has been linked to a long list of microbial and inflammatory diseases, including anthrax. The Bacillus anthracis lethal toxin (LT) has been shown to activate the NLR Nalp1b and caspase-1 and to induce many symptoms of the anthrax disease in susceptible murine strains. In this study we t...

We report the complete DNA sequence of the Escherichia coli elt A gene, which codes for the A subunit of the heat-labile enterotoxin, LT. The amino acid sequence of the LT A subunit has been deduced from the DNA sequence of elt A. The LT A subunit starts with methionine, ends with leucine, and comprises 264 amino acids. The computed molecular weight of LT A is 29,673. The A subunit of cho...

We demonstrated previously that expression of simian virus 40 (SV40) large T antigen (LT), without a viral origin, is sufficient to induce the hallmarks of a cellular DNA damage response (DDR), such as focal accumulation of gamma-H2AX and 53BP1, via Bub1 binding. Here we expand our characterization of LT effects on the DDR. Using comet assays, we demonstrate that LT induces overt DNA damage. Th...

Recent studies revealed that the lymphotoxin/lymphotoxin beta receptor (LT)/ LT R system activates the noncanonical nuclear factor– B (NFB) signaling pathway involving I kappa B kinase 1/I kappa B kinase (IKK1/IKK ) and NFB–inducing kinase (NIK) to direct processing of the nf b2 protein p100 to yield RelB:p52 complexes. Despite the biochemical evidence, LT-, RelB-, p52-deficient mice show discr...

End stage liver disease due to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the most common indication for liver transplantation (LT) worldwide. Regretfully, infection of the graft by HCV occurs almost universally after LT, causing chronic hepatitis and early progression to cirrhosis in a significant proportion of recipients. Moreover, graft and patient survival are significantly worse in patients unde...

Bacillus anthracis lethal toxin (LT) causes vascular collapse and high lethality in BALB/cJ mice, intermediate lethality in C57BL/6J mice, and no lethality in DBA/2J mice. We found that adrenalectomized (ADX) mice of all three strains had increased susceptibility to LT. The increased susceptibility of ADX-DBA/2J mice was not accompanied by changes in their macrophage sensitivity or cytokine res...

Currently, there is a shortage of adjuvants that can be employed with protein subunit vaccines to enhance protection against biological threats. LT-IIb(T13I) is an engineered nontoxic derivative of LT-IIb, a member of the type II subfamily of heat labile enterotoxins expressed by Escherichia coli, that possesses potent mucosal adjuvant properties. In this study we evaluated the capacity of LT-I...

Among the non-fluencies seen in speech, some are more typical (MT) of stuttering speakers, whereas others are less typical (LT) and are common to both stuttering and fluent speakers. No neuroimaging work has evaluated the neural basis for grouping these symptom types. Another long-debated issue is which type (LT, MT) whole-word repetitions (WWR) should be placed in. In this study, a sentence co...