The 3A protein of the coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), an enterovirus that belongs to the family of the picornaviruses, inhibits endoplasmic reticulum-to-Golgi transport. Recently, we elucidated the underlying mechanism by showing that CVB3 3A interferes with ADP-ribosylation factor 1 (Arf1)-dependent COP-I recruitment to membranes by binding and inhibiting the function of GBF1, a guanine nucleotide e...

Bone metastasis is the most common complication in patients with solid tumors. Osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption contribute to the pathophysiology of osteoblastic bone metastasis, likewise with osteolytic bone metastasis types. Semaphorin 3A (Sema 3A) has been shown to inhibit RANKL-induced immunoreceptor tyrosinebased activation motif signaling and osteoclastic differentiation, as well as...

p53 Activity is controlled in large part by MDM2, an E3 ubiquitin ligase that binds p53 and promotes its degradation. The MDM2 antagonist Nutlin-3a stabilizes p53 by blocking its interaction with MDM2. Several studies have supported the potential use of Nutlin-3a in cancer therapy. Two different p53 wild-type cancer cell lines (U2OS and HCT116) treated with Nutlin-3a for 24 hours accumulated 2N...

The clinical course of chronic renal diseases and their progression to ESRF is highly variable. Different candidate gene polymorphisms have been advocated as possible modulators of ESRF progression. Moreover, ET-1 has been suggested as a major promoting factor in renal disease. However, limited data are available regarding an association of three ET-1 SNP K198N, T- 1370G and 3A/4A with the prog...

Within the family of serotonin receptors, the 5-hydroxytryptamine-3 (5-HT(3)) receptor is the only ligand-gated ion channel. It is composed of five subunits, of which the 5-HT(3A) and 5-HT(3B) subunits are best characterized. Several studies, however, have reported on the functional diversity of native 5-HT(3) receptors, which cannot solely be explained on the basis of the 5-HT(3A) and 5-HT(3B)...

An important aspect of tumor progression is the ability of cancer cells to escape detection and clearance by the immune system. Recent studies suggest that several tumors express soluble factors interfering with the immune response. Here, we show that semaphorin-3A (Sema3A), a secreted member of the semaphorin family involved in axonal guidance, organogenesis, and angiogenesis, is highly expres...

The 3A protein of coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), a small membrane protein that forms homodimers, inhibits endoplasmic reticulum-to-Golgi complex transport. Recently, we described the underlying mechanism by showing that the CVB3 3A protein binds to and inhibits the function of GBF1, a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for ADP-ribosylation factor 1 (Arf1), thereby interfering with Arf1-mediated COP-...

Research into antiviral agents directed at hepatitis C virus (HCV) proteins is commonly based and tested on a single genotype, namely, genotype 1. This is despite the high level of variability of the RNA virus and the frequency of infection with genotypes other than genotype 1. The systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) is a novel in vitro approach used in this study ...

BACKGROUND Endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) is the gold standard method for the diagnosis of cellular rejection (CR) after heart transplantation (HT). OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) could detect CR > 3A and add diagnostic information compared to conventional Doppler. METHODS Fifty-four HT patients underwent 129 EMB and a TDI echocardiographic study within 24 h...