Alpha interferon (IFN-alpha) restricts multiple steps of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) life cycle. A well-described effect of IFN-alpha is in the modulation of viral nucleic acid synthesis. We demonstrate that IFN-alpha influences HIV-1 DNA synthesis principally by reducing the production of late products of reverse transcription. The magnitude of IFN-alpha-induced downregulat...

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) (genus Phlebovirus, family Bunyaviridae) is an arbovirus that causes severe disease in humans and livestock in sub-Saharan African countries. Although the MP-12 strain of RVFV is a live attenuated vaccine candidate, neuroinvasiveness and neurovirulence of MP-12 in mice may be a concern when vaccinating certain individuals, especially those that are immunocompromis...

A herpesvirus virion is composed of a viral genomic DNA-containing capsid surrounded by a viral envelope with glycoprotein spikes on its surface. Located between the capsid and the outer viral envelope is the virion tegument layer. Though the majority of the virion proteins are located in the tegument, this layer is less studied and was thought to be an amorphous structure. Over the last decade...

C4b-binding protein (C4BP) regulates the complement system and the anticoagulant activity of protein S. Protein S can bind to C4BP, resulting in a decreased cofactor activity of protein S for anticoagulant activated protein C. C4BP contains several identical a-chains and a single 3-chain. Each chain contains Short Consensus Repeats (SCRs). By making chimeras of 13-chain SCRs fused to tissue-typ...

Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs both after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and after hypertonic saline administration; furosemide may be useful in preventing AKI indirectly. Serum neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (sNGAL) is superior to serum creatinine (sCr) in diagnosing early AKI. We compared the administration of hypertonic saline plus furosemide (HTS+F) versus hypertonic saline (HTS...

Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is an emissions control technique that primarily reduces harmful emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx). To maintain SCR performance, catalyst layers maybe added, removed, or replaced to improve NOx reduction efficiency. To make these changes, power plants must be temporarily shut down, and SCR maintenance during scheduled power plant outages can be very expen...

A variety of cardiac arrhythmias are initiated by a focal excitation that disrupts the regular beating of the heart. In some cases it is known that these excitations are due to calcium (Ca) release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) via propagating subcellular Ca waves. However, it is not understood what are the physiological factors that determine the timing of these excitations at both the ...

Viruses package their genetic material in diverse ways. Most known strategies include encapsulation of nucleic acids into spherical or filamentous virions with icosahedral or helical symmetry, respectively. Filamentous viruses with dsDNA genomes are currently associated exclusively with Archaea. Here, we describe a filamentous hyperthermophilic archaeal virus, Pyrobaculum filamentous virus 1 (P...

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Vpr is a virion-associated protein which facilitates HIV-1 infection of nondividing cells by contributing to the nuclear transport of the preintegration complex (PIC). Vpr was also shown to induce a cell cycle G2 arrest in infected proliferating cells that optimizes HIV-1 long terminal repeat (LTR)-directed gene expression and viral production. Howeve...

normal 0 false false false en-us x-none ar-sa microsoftinternetexplorer4 background: definitions of chronic kidney disease (ckd) in many catheterization laboratories have relied on the serum creatinine (scr) rather than glomerular filtration rate (gfr). regarding that ckd is the primary predisposing factor for contrast induced nephropathy (cin), we compared the sensitivity of calculated gfr by ...