Hemagglutinin (HA) of influenza viruses is a cylindrically shaped homotrimer, where each monomer comprises two disulfide-linked subdomains HA1 and HA2. Influenza infection is initiated by binding of HA1 to its host cell receptors and followed by the fusion between viral and host endosomal membranes mediated by HA2. Human influenza viruses preferentially bind to sialic acid that is linked to gal...

Polypeptide variants of the HA1 antigenic domain of the H5N1 avian influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) molecule were produced in plants using transient and stable expression systems and fused with His/c-myc tags or with mouse or human Fc antibody fragments. The resulting peptides were purified and used for intramuscular immunization of mice. While the recombinant HA1 variants induced a significa...

It has been proposed that antigenic evolution of hemagglutinin 1 (HA1) for H3N2 human influenza A virus was punctuated. In the population genetic analysis, however, it was controversial whether positive selection operated on HA1 in a punctuated manner for the branches of the phylogenetic tree where transitions to new antigenic clusters occurred (C branches), or continuously. In the molecular ev...

View MELATONIN PRETREATMENT PROTECTS AGAINST FOCAL CEREBRAL ISCHEMIA IN THE RAT. H.T.S. Ho; Z. Pei; S.F. Pang; R.T.F. Cheung 1. Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong 2. Physiology, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong Melatonin (MT) possesses many properties of an ideal neuroprotectant. In this study, the neuroprotective effects of exogenous MT were tested in a ...

The role of metallothionein (MT) in cisplatin (cis-DDP) resistance and renal toxicity was investigated in C3H mice inoculated with mouse bladder tumor (MBT-2). C3H mice were inoculated s.c. with 1 x 10(6) MBT-2 cells/mouse on day 0. Mice were given injections of proparglyglycine (PPG) (500 mumol/kg s.c.) once a day for 3 days from day 7 to day 9 and with ZnSO4 (200 mumol/kg s.c.) once a day for...

Successful immunization against avian influenza virus (AIV) requires eliciting an adequate polyclonal response to AIV hemagglutinin (HA) subunit 1 (HA1) epitopes. Outbreaks of highly-pathogenic (HP) AIV subtype H5N1 can occur in vaccinated flocks in many endemic areas. Protection against emerging AIV is partly hindered by the limitations of vaccine production and transport, the use of leaky vac...

We have constructed two chimeric influenza hemagglutinin (HA) genes in which the HA1 and HA2 subunits of the HA molecule have been interchanged between influenza A/PR/8/34 (H1 subtype) and A/NT/60/68 (H3 subtype). These genes were used to construct recombinant vaccinia viruses that expressed intact chimeric HA. These recombinant viruses were used to test whether murine CTL recognize antigenic d...

PURPOSE To assess the effectiveness of viscosupplementation or platelet-rich plasma (PRP), compared to standard care, for pain relief after knee arthroscopic debridement in patients with meniscal pathology and osteoarthritis (OA), under normal clinical practice conditions. PATIENTS AND METHODS We conducted a prospective, randomized, evaluator-blind, pilot study. After arthroscopy, patients we...

Calsequestrin (CS) is the Ca2+ binding protein of the junctional sarcoplasmic reticulum (jSR) lumen. Recently, a chimeric CS-HA1, obtained by adding the nine-amino-acid viral epitope hemagglutinin (HA1) to the COOH terminus of CS, was shown to be correctly segregated to the sarcoplasmic reticulum [A. Nori, K. A. Nadalini, A. Martini, R. Rizzuto, A. Villa, and P. Volpe. Am. J. Physiol. 272 ( Cel...

The study investigated the effects of re-alimenting dietary protein or energy on growth, carcass characteristics and meat eating quality parameters of sheep. Twenty-seven intact rams (~9 months; 11.3 ± 0.5 kg) were randomly divided into three groups. Each group was fed a maintenance diet (MT) containing, on dry matter (DM) basis, 105 g/kg crude protein (CP) and 8.4 MJ/kg DM metabolizable energy...