Aldehyde dehydrogenase 3A1 (ALDH3A1) is a recently characterized corneal crystallin with its exact functions still being unclear. Expressing recombinant human ALDH3A1 has been difficult in Escherichia coli (E. coli) because of low solubility, yield and insufficient purity issues. In this report, we compared different E. coli expression strategies (namely the maltose binding protein; MBP- and th...

BACKGROUND Apoptotic cell-based therapies have been proposed to treat chronic inflammatory diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of intravenous (i.v.) apoptotic cell infusion in ongoing collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) and the interaction of this therapy with other treatments used in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), including methotrexate (MTX) or anti-TNF therapy. METHODS T...

The trefoil gene family of mucus cell-secreted proteins is a critical mediator of gastrointestinal mucosal restitution. Transcription of trefoil genes is induced during mucosal repair, but the regulatory mechanisms involved are unknown. Mice deficient in the intestine-specific peptide intestinal trefoil factor (ITF), in which colonic restitution is lethally impaired, showed reduced expression o...

Abstract Lenalidomide, an antineoplastic and immunomodulatory drug, has therapeutic activity in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but definitive studies about its utility have been lacking. In a phase 3 study, we compared 2 induction regimens newly diagnosed patients age 18 to 65 years with AML: idarubicine-cytarabine (cycle 1) daunorubicin intermediate-dose cytarabine 2) without or lenalidomide (1...

OpenTuner can help users achieve better or more portable performance in their speci c domain through program autotuning. A key challenge for users seeking good autotuning performance in OpenTuner is selecting a search approach appropriate for problem. However, not only are current in-situ learning search approaches not robust enough to handle all search spaces, but there are also too many possi...

BACKGROUND Chronic hepatitis C infection is frequently associated with a mixed cryoglobulinaemia and circulating auto-antibodies, especially anti-smooth muscle cells (SMA) and anti-liver/kidney/microsome type 1 (LKM-1) anti-tissue antibodies. Treatments with TNF antagonists favour the emergence of auto-antibodies, and particularly anti-dsDNA antibodies. OBJECTIVE To determine the impact of TN...

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV)/human herpesvirus-8-encoded viral interferon regulatory factor (vIRF) transforms NIH3T3 cells, represses interferon signal transduction and regulates the expression of other KSHV genes. Here, we have shown that vIRF is a transcriptional activator and auto-activates its own expression. Ectopic expression of vIRF activated the vIRF promoter in KSHV-n...

OpenTuner can help users achieve better or more portable performance in their speci c domain through program autotuning. A key challenge for users seeking good autotuning performance in OpenTuner is selecting a search approach appropriate for problem. However, not only are current in-situ learning search approaches not robust enough to handle all search spaces, but there are also too many possi...