Development of contact allergy requires cooperation of adaptive and innate immunity. Ni(2+) stimulates innate immunity via TLR4/MD2, the bacterial LPS receptor. This likely involves receptor dimerization, but direct proof is pending and it is unclear if related haptens share this mechanism. We reveal Co(2+) as second metal stimulating TLR4 and confirm necessity of H456/H458 therein. Experiments...

Non-Hermitian effects could create rich dynamical and topological phase structures. In this work, we show that the collaboration between lattice dimerization non-Hermiticity generally bring about mobility edges multiple localization transitions in one-dimensional quasicrystals. extensions of Aubry-Andr\'e-Harper model with staggered on-site potential dimerized hopping amplitudes are introduced ...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive loss of cognitive functions, leading to dementia. Two types of lesions are found in AD brains: neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques. The latter are composed mainly of the β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) generated by amyloidogenic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). Several studies have suggested that dim...

The Fanconi anemia protein SLX4 assembles a genome and telomere maintenance toolkit, consisting of the nucleases SLX1, MUS81 and XPF. Although it is known that SLX4 acts as a scaffold for building this complex, the molecular basis underlying this function of SLX4 remains unclear. Here, we report that functioning of SLX4 is dependent on its dimerization via an oligomerization motif called the BT...

Filamins are essential in cell motility and many developmental processes. They are large actin cross linking proteins that contain actin binding domains in their N termini and a long rod region constructed from 24 tandem Ig domains. Dimerization is crucial for the actin crosslinking function of filamins and requires the most C-terminal Ig domain. We describe here the crystal structure of this 2...

Tipranavir (TPV), a protease inhibitor (PI) inhibiting the enzymatic activity and dimerization of HIV-1 protease, exerts potent activity against multi-PI-resistant HIV-1 isolates. When a mixture of 11 multi-PI-resistant (but TPV-sensitive) clinical isolates (HIV(11MIX)), which included HIV(B) and HIV(C), was selected against TPV, HIV(11MIX) rapidly (by 10 passages [HIV(11MIX)(P10)]) acquired hi...

Several determinants that appear to promote the dimerization of murine retroviral genomic RNA have been identified. The interaction between these determinants has not been extensively examined. Previously, we proposed that dimerization of the Moloney murine sarcoma virus genomic RNAs relies upon the concentration-dependent interactions of a conserved palindrome that is initiated by separate G-r...

Selectin counterreceptors are glycoprotein scaffolds bearing multiple carbohydrate ligands with exceptional ability to tether flowing cells under disruptive shear forces. Bond clusters may facilitate formation and stabilization of selectin tethers. L-selectin ligation has been shown to enhance L-selectin rolling on endothelial surfaces. We now report that monoclonal antibodies-induced L-selecti...

In multicellular organisms, cells are interconnected by cell adhesion molecules. Nectins are immunoglobulin (Ig)-like cell adhesion molecules that mediate homotypic and heterotypic cell-cell adhesion, playing key roles in tissue organization. To mediate cell-cell adhesion, nectin molecules dimerize in cis on the surface of the same cell, followed by trans-dimerization of the cis-dimers between ...

AIM The purpose of this study was to investigate whether radiation induces ligand-independent dimerization of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and explore the possible role of radiation-induced receptor dimerization in the radiosensitizing effect of cetuximab. MATERIALS AND METHODS The human vulvar squamous cell carcinoma cell line A431 was used. The dimerization and activation of EGFR...