Carbonic anhydrase (CA) in the carotid body (CB) plays an important role in the maintenance of blood PO2 and PCO2/pH homeostasis by regulating ventilation. It has been observed that the activity of CA in the rabbit CB is stronger under hypoxic conditions than under normoxic and hyperoxic conditions. In conditions of chronic hypoxia, the volume of the CB increases significantly because the numbe...

Red mite (Dermanyssus gallinae; De Geer, 1778) is currently one of the most detrimental ectoparasites in laying birds across several countries. Symptoms of D. gallinae infestation include reduction in production, poor egg quality, increased mortality and also a compromise to welfare. Feeding on its host for only short periods of time, the red mite spends the vast proportion of its short life-cy...

BACKGROUND Abrus precatorius seeds traditionally used for the treatment of sciatica and alopecia contains the toxic protein, abrin, a Type II Ribosome Inactivating Protein. Ayurveda recommends the use of Abrus seeds after the Shodhana process (detoxification). OBJECTIVE The current study was aimed at performing the Shodhana process, swedana (boiling) of Abrus precatorius seeds using water as ...

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus is a novel human coronavirus and is responsible for SARS infection. SARS coronavirus 3C-like proteinase (SARS 3CL) plays key roles in viral replication and transcription and is an attractive target for anti-SARS drug discovery. In this report, we quantitatively characterized the dimerization features of the full-length and N-terminal residues...

We present data on a patient of South Asian origin with recessive hereditary spherocytosis (HS) due to absence of protein 4.2 [4.2 ( ) HS]. Protein 4.2 cDNA sequence analysis showed the presence of a novel 41-bp frameshift deletion that predicts a truncated peptide designated protein 4.2 Hammersmith. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction indicated that the mutant mRNA was...

An endophytic bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis GS1, was isolated from bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) and found to have maximal production of chitinase (4.3 units/ml) at 5 days after culture. This study investigated the ability of B. thuringiensis GS1 to induce resistance to Rhizoctonia solani KACC 40111 (RS) in cucumber plants. Chitinase activity was greatest in RS-treated plants at 4 days. bet...

Human T lymphocytes that express the T4 (CD4) cell-surface antigen play a central role in the regulation of immune responses . T4+ lymphocytes are, however, a functionally heterogeneous population of cells that can be subdivided by the mAb anti-2H4, into the T4', 2H4+ subset that induces suppressor activity of the T8+ suppressor T cells, and the T4+, 2H4T cell subset with helper function (1). B...

Selenium is an essential element known to take part in human antioxidative defense and to protect against cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Consequently, supplementation of the diet with this element is necessary in order to achieve the protective effect. Several allium plants, radish etc have demonstrated the ability to preconcentrate and biotransform inorganic selenium into selenoaminoacids...

Ionizing radiation is a known physical agent that had been widely used to attenuate the invasive blood stage of malaria parasite, merozoite, in vaccine materials development. In this study, we determined the protein profiles of blood stage Plasmodium berghei of ANKA strain post gamma irradiation. Parasitized bloods obtained from various percentage of parasite density, days post infection, doses...

The RpoS subunit of RNA polymerase controls the expression of numerous genes involved in stationary phase and in response to different stress conditions. The regulatory protein Crl increases the activity of RpoS by direct interaction with the RpoS holoenzyme. To define the extent of the Crl regulon, we used two-dimensional SDSPAGE to measure the role of Crl in regulating the expression of the E...