During poliovirus infection, anterograde traffic between the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi is inhibited due to the action of 3A, an 87 amino acid viral protein. The ability of poliovirus protein 3A to inhibit ER-to-Golgi traffic is not required for virus growth. Instead, we have suggested that the inhibition of host protein secretion, shown to reduce the secretion of interferon-beta, IL-6...

Background. Hyperglycaemia is a causative factor in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy, known to induce chemokines in the kidney. Macrophage inflammatory protein-3a (MIP-3a) is a CC chemokine that has been reported to attract memory T lymphocytes. Our previous microarray study showed significant increased level of MIP-3a in high glucose-induced transcriptional profile in renal proximal tu...

The present study showed the association of a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SCoV) accessory protein, 3a, with plasma membrane and intracellular SCoV particles in infected cells. 3a protein appeared to undergo posttranslational modifications in infected cells and was incorporated into SCoV particles, establishing that 3a protein was a SCoV structural protein.

Prokaryotic members of the Cys-loop receptor ligand-gated ion channel superfamily were recently identified. Previously, Cys-loop receptors were only known from multicellular organisms (metazoans). Contrary to the metazoan Cys-loop receptors, the prokaryotic ones consist of an extracellular (ECD) and a transmembrane domain (TMD), lacking the large intracellular domain (ICD) present in metazoa (b...

OBJECTIVES The British Thy system is a widely used classification system for reporting thyroid fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology. The Royal College of Pathologists in 2009 recommended the subdivision of the Thy-3 (indeterminate) category into Thy-3a (atypia) and Thy-3f (follicular neoplasm). Our objective was to examine the malignancy rates of Thy-3a and Thy-3f cases at our institution and ...

TP53 mutations occur in half of all human tumours. Mutagen-induced or spontaneous TP53 mutagenesis can be studied in vitro using the human TP53 knock-in (Hupki) mouse embryo fibroblast (HUF) immortalisation assay (HIMA). TP53 mutations arise in up to 30% of mutagen-treated, immortalised HUFs; however, mutants are not identified until TP53 sequence analysis following immortalisation (2-5 months)...

1246-3A is an insulin-independent tumorigenic cell line isolated from the C3H mouse teratoma-derived adipogenic cell line 1246. In the present paper, we have demonstrated that testosterone inhibits the in vivo tumorigenic properties of the 1246-3A cells. Castrated male mice receiving injections of 1246-3A cells developed larger tumors at a higher frequency than sham-operated animals. Administra...

Background. Hyperglycaemia is a causative factor in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy, known to induce chemokines in the kidney. Macrophage inflammatory protein-3a (MIP-3a) is a CC chemokine that has been reported to attract memory T lymphocytes. Our previous microarray study showed significant increased level of MIP-3a in high glucose-induced transcriptional profile in renal proximal tu...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype-3a infection is now the dominant strain in South Asia and the UK. Characteristic features include a favourable response to therapy; the reasons for this are unknown but may include distinct genotype-3a-specific T cell immunity. In contrast to genotype-1 infection, T cell immunity to this subtype is poorly defined. OBJECTIVES The aims of the study we...