Two proteins share immunological epitopes on the tumor-associated antigen 17-1A

The mouse monoclonal antibody (mAb) 17-1A which recognizes the tumor-associated antigen 17-1A (also called EGP-40 or EpCAM) was successfully used in adjuvant therapy for colorectal carcinoma. In the 17-1A antigen analysis, we isolated not only a protein of 33 kDa (P33) which was reported as the tumor associated antigen 17-1A, but also a protein of 65 kDa (P65) using affinity chromatography from cell lysates of HCT, and another protein of 50 kDa (P50) from lysates of human colorectal tumor tissues. The mAbs 17-1A and M79 (mAb M79 recognizes a different epitope on the 17-1A antigen) both could bind P33 and P50, but only M79 bound to P65 in an enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA). These results indicate that P33 and P50 share at least two epitopes, and a common immunological epitope exists among P33, P50 and P65, suggesting that the two new proteins (P50 and P65) are related to the tumor-associated antigen 17-1A

Different modes of the effect of 1,2-propanediol and azone on stratum corneum lipids

The stratum corneum (SC) controls the diffusion and penetration of drugs into and through the skin. In this investigation, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to study the effect of two enhancers, 1,2-propanediol and azone, on lipids extracted from SC (SC lipids). The two enhancers affected the SC lipids. However, their function modes were different. The penetration enhancing mechanisms of the two enhancers are discussed based on their effects on SC lipids and on their efficiencies in arbutin permeation enhancemen

Performance Modification of Chitosan Membranes Induced by Gamma Irradiation

Trauma of the nervous system often results in permanent functional loss because the spontaneous regeneration of nerves is very difficult. Thus, various methods have been developed to facilitate the restoration of damaged nerve. The biodegradable nerve conduit is one of the most promising methods for nerve regeneration. Chitosan, a natural polysaccharide that has excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, can be used as conduit material. But, nerves regenerated by nerve conduits made from chitosan have some problems, for example, with their mechanical properties. This article shows that the mechanical properties of chitosan film were markedly improved by selected doses of gamma radiation and cell culturing experiments on the surface of the irradiated chitosan film indicated that the film still has excellent biocompatibility

Metabolites of cerebellar neurons and hippocampal neurons play opposite roles in pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.

Metabolites of neural cells, is known to have a significant effect on the normal physiology and function of neurons in brain. However, whether they play a role in pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases is unknown. Here, we show that metabolites of neurons play essential role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Firstly, in vivo and in vitro metabolites of cerebellar neurons both significantly induced the expression of Abeta-degrading enzymes in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex and promoted Abeta clearance. Moreover, metabolites of cerebellar neurons significantly reduced brain Abeta levels and reversed cognitive impairments and other AD-like phenotypes of APP/PS1 transgenic mice, in both early and late stages of AD pathology. On the other hand, metabolites of hippocampal neurons reduced the expression of Abeta-degrading enzymes in the cerebellum and caused cerebellar neurodegeneration in APP/PS1 transgenic mice. Thus, we report, for the first time, that metabolites of neurons not only are required for maintaining the normal physiology of neurons but also play essential role in the pathogenesis of AD and may be responsible for the regional-specificity of Abeta deposition and AD pathology

BOD: a customizable bioinformatics on demand system accommodating multiple steps and parallel tasks

The integration of bioinformatics resources worldwide is one of the major concerns of the biological community. We herein established the BOD (Bioinformatics on demand) system to use Grid computing technology to set up a virtual workbench via a web-based platform, to assist researchers performing customized comprehensive bioinformatics work. Users will be able to submit entire search queries and computation requests, e.g. from DNA assembly to gene prediction and finally protein folding, from their own office using the BOD end-user web interface. The BOD web portal parses the user's job requests into steps, each of which may contain multiple tasks in parallel. The BOD task scheduler takes an entire task, or splits it into multiple subtasks, and dispatches the task or subtasks proportionally to computation node(s) associated with the BOD portal server. A node may further split and distribute an assigned task to its sub-nodes using a similar strategy. In the end, the BOD portal server receives and collates all results and returns them to the user. BOD uses a pipeline model to describe the user's submitted data and stores the job requests/status/results in a relational database. In addition, an XML criterion is established to capture task computation program details