More precise information on the degree of polymerization (DP) of polysialic acid (polySia) chains expressed on neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and its developmental stage-dependent variation are considered important in understanding the mechanism of regulated polysialylation and fine-tuning of NCAM-mediated cell adhesion by polySia. In this paper, first we performed a kinetic study of acid...

Considerable advances have been made in our knowledge of the molecular structure of cell adhesion molecules, their binding sites, and adhesion complexes. For the cadherins, protein zero, and CD2, additional experimental data support the insights obtained from structural analysis of their domains and molecular models of their adhesion complexes. For neural cell adhesion molecules, L1, fibronecti...

Intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) is involved in the accumulation and activation of leukocytes in inflammatory diseases such as periodontitis. As reported previously, ICAM-1 is up-regulated on cultured human gingival fibroblasts (HGF) by exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), suggesting a specific LPS recognition mechanism. We therefore investigated the role of CD14, an LPS receptor, in...

In this issue of Neuron, Redmond et al. (2016) identify junction adhesion molecule 2 (JAM2) as an inhibitor of somatodendritic myelination in spinal cord neurons, thereby elucidating how myelin forms on axons but avoids dendrites and cell bodies.

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trans-fatty acids (tfa) are known as a risk factor for coronary artery diseases. trans-11 vaccenic acid [va; 18:1(n-9)], known as the major trans fatty acid in milk fat, is a positional and geometric isomer of oleic acid and a precursor of conjugated linoleic acid (cla) in human . this study was carried out in order to investigate the effect of cis and trans vaccenic acids on expression of intr...

The notion that long-term synaptic plasticity is generated by activity-induced molecular modifications is widely accepted. It is well established that neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) is one of the prominent modulators of synaptic plasticity. NCAM can be polysialylated (PSA-NCAM), a reaction that provides it with anti-adhesion properties. In this study we have focused on NCAM and on its pol...

We have designed a glycodendritic structure, BH30sucMan, that blocks the interaction between dendritic cell-specific intercellular adhesion molecule 3-grabbing nonintegrin (DC-SIGN) and Ebola virus (EBOV) envelope. BH30sucMan inhibits DC-SIGN-mediated EBOV infection at nanomolar concentrations. BH30sucMan may counteract important steps of the infective process of EBOV and, potentially, of micro...