BACKGROUND Nucleolin is one of the major proteins of the nucleolus, but it is also expressed on the cell surface where is serves as a binding protein for variety of ligands implicated in tumorigenesis and angiogenesis. Emerging evidence suggests that the cell-surface expressed nucleolin is a strategic target for an effective and nontoxic cancer therapy. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS By monit...

Protein specific aptamers are highly applicable affinity ligands in different fields of research and clinical applications. They have been developed against various targets, in particular, bio-macromolecules such as proteins. Among human proteins, the coagulation factors are the most attractive targets for aptamer selection and their specific aptamers had valuable characteristics in therapeutic...

Trichloroethylene (TCE) is an occupational and environmental chemical that can cause severe hepatotoxicity. While our previous studies showed that the phosphatase inhibitor SET is a key mediator of TCE-induced liver cell apoptosis, the molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Using quantitative phosphoproteomic analysis, we report here that nucleolin is a SET-regulated phosphoprotein in human liver...

Nucleolin is an abundant nucleolar protein involved in several steps of ribosome biogenesis. The protein is highly conserved through evolution and possesses four RNA-binding domains (RBD), which are likely to determine its RNA binding specificity. Previous studies have shown that nucleolin interacts with two different RNA targets. The first is a small stem-loop structure, the nucleolin recognit...

Eukaryotic genomes are packaged with histones and accessory proteins in the form of chromatin. RNA polymerases and their accessory proteins are sufficient for transcription of naked DNA, but not of chromatin, templates in vitro. In this study, we purified and identified nucleolin as a protein that allows RNA polymerase II to transcribe nucleosomal templates in vitro. As immunofluorescence confi...

Glioma-targeted drug delivery is a hugely challenging task because of the multibarrier in brain. In this study, we report magnetic T7 peptide&AS1411 aptamer-modified microemulsion for triple glioma-targeted shikonin and docetaxel (Fe3O4@T7/AS1411/DTX&SKN-M). Such system comprises two tumor-targeted ligands (T7 peptide AS1411 aptamer), ultra-small superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle (Fe3O4...

This study describes the fabrication techniques for two forms of magnetic DNA nanotubes (MDNTs) and their applications as platforms for developing colorimetric assays. The first form of MDNTs was DNTs filled-up with magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and the second one was DNTs arayed with MNPs on their extrior surfaces. Then the both forms of MDNTs were employed as platforms for attaching a specifi...

BACKGROUND Members of the signal transducer and activator of transcription (Stat) family of transcription factors traverse the nuclear membrane through a specialized structure, called the nuclear pore complex (NPC), which represents a selective filter for the import of proteins. Karyophilic molecules can bind directly to a subset of proteins of the NPC, collectively called nucleoporins. Alterna...