gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
T-cell-independent macrophage activation in mice induced with rRNA from Listeria monocytogenes and dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide (1986)

Purified rRNA from Listeria monocytogenes or Pseudomonas aeruginosa injected in combination with dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide (DDA), protects mice nonspecifically against a lethal challenge of various extra- and intracellular bacteria. In the present study vaccination of BALB/c as well as C57BL/Ka mice with listerial RNA-DDA resulted in activation of fixed-tissue macrophages, as measured by an enhanced in vivo L. monocytogenes killing in spleen and liver. Evidence was found that macrophage activation by vaccination with rRNA-DDA occurred by a T-cell-independent mechanism. Treatment of mice with cyclosporin A had no effect on the enhanced L. monocytogenes killing induced with RNA-DDA; in vitro exposure of RNA-DDA to spleen cell cultures did not give rise to any lymphocyte proliferation. No evidence could be found for a possible adjuvant activity for RNA-DDA in cellular responses; in fact, RNA-DDA had an inhibitory effect on lymphocyte proliferative responses to Listeria antigen and to concanavalin A.
The Synthetic Triterpenoid CDDO-Imidazolide Suppresses STAT Phosphorylation and Induces Apoptosis in Myeloma and Lung Cancer Cells (2006)

Our new data thus show that CDDO-Imidazolide is a potent suppressor of STAT signaling and provide a further mechanistic basis for future clinical use of this agent to control inflammation or cell proliferation.
Statistical mechanics: a possible model for market-based electric power control (2004)

Statistical mechanics provides a useful analog for understanding the behavior of complex adaptive systems, including electric power markets and the power systems they intend to govern. Market-based control is founded on the conjecture that the regulation of complex systems based on price-mediated strategies (e.g., auctions, markets) results in an optimal allocation of resources and emergent optimal system control. This paper discusses the derivation and some illustrative applications of a first-principles model of market-based system dynamics based on strict analogies to statistical mechanics.
Nerve growth factor receptors on human melanoma cells in culture. (1977)

Purified mouse nerve growth factor (NGF)radiolabeled with 125I was tested for its ability to bind to a variety of different cultured cells. NGF binds readily to human and hamster melanoma cells but does not bind to many other cell lines. The three cell lines with the highest number of NGF receptors were derived from metastatic melanomas. One of these lines, A875, was studied in detail and was shown to have approximately 7x10(5) NGF receptors per cell with an association constant of 1.0x10(9) liters/mole. The use of these cells in competition binding assays permits the detection of 0.25 ng of NGF in various biologic fluids. NGF can be shown to increase the survival, but not the division, of melanoma cells maintained in medium depleted of serum growth factors. This effect of NGF as a specific "survival factor" appears analogous to its effect on cultured sympathetic ganglion cells and on other cells derived from the neural crest.
Solution polymerization of polybenzimidazole (2016)

ABSTRACT Polybenzimidazoles (PBI) are an important class of heterocyclic polymers that exhibit high thermal and oxidative stabilities. The two dominant polymerization methods used for the synthesis of PBI are the melt/solid polymerization route and solution polymerization using polyphosphoric acid as the solvent. Both methods have been widely used to produce high‐molecular weight PBI, but also highlight the obvious absence of a practical organic solution‐based method of polymerization. This current work explores the synthesis of high‐molecular weight meta‐PBI in N , N ‐dimethyl acetamide (DMAc). Initially, model compound studies examined the reactivity of small molecules with various chemical functionalities that could be used to produce 2‐phenyl‐benzimidazole in high yield with minimal side reactions. 1 H NMR and FTIR studies indicated that benzimidazoles could be efficiently synthesized in DMAc by reaction of an o ‐diamine and the bisulfite adduct of an aromatic aldehyde. Polymerizations were conducted at various polymer concentrations (2‐26 wt % polymer) using difunctional monomers to optimize reaction conditions in DMAc which resulted in the preparation of high‐molecular weight m‐PBI (inherent viscosities up to 1.3 dL g −1 ). TGA and DSC confirmed that m‐PBI produced via this route has comparable properties to that of commercial m‐PBI. This method is advantageous in that it not only allows for high‐polymer concentrations of m‐PBI to be synthesized directly and efficiently, but can be applied to the synthesis of many PBI derivatives. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54 , 1795–1802
Presence of the iron exporter ferroportin at the plasma membrane of macrophages is enhanced by iron loading and down-regulated by hepcidin (2005)

Ferroportin, the only mammalian iron exporter identified to date, is highly expressed in duodenal enterocytes and in macrophages. Several lines of evidence indicate that in enterocytes the iron export mediated by ferroportin occurs and is regulated at the basolateral cell surface, where the transporter is strongly expressed. By contrast, in macrophages, ferroportin has been shown in intracellular vesicles. We used a high-affinity antibody to specify the localization of endogenous ferroportin expressed in primary culture of bone marrow-derived macrophages, in both basal and induced conditions. Our observations indicate that ferroportin is expressed in vesicular compartments that can reach the plasma membrane of macrophages. Of importance, when ferroportin expression was up-regulated through iron treatment or erythrophagocytosis, ferroportin expression was strongly enhanced at the plasma membrane of macrophages. Moreover, hepcidin dramatically reduced macrophage ferroportin protein levels. At the subcellular level, hepcidin was shown to induce rapid internalization and degradation of the macrophage iron exporter. These data are consistent with a direct iron export by ferroportin through the plasma membrane of macrophages and strongly support an efficient posttranscriptional down-regulation of ferroportin by hepcidin in these cells.
Oxygen Is a Master Regulator of the Immunogenicity of Primary Human Glioma Cells (2011)

With recent approval of the first dendritic cell (DC) vaccine for patient use, many other DC vaccine approaches are now being tested in clinical trials. Many of these DC vaccines employ tumor cell lysates (TL) generated from cells cultured in atmospheric oxygen (∼20% O₂) that greatly exceeds levels found in tumors in situ. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that TLs generated from tumor cells cultured under physiologic oxygen (∼5% O₂) would be more effective as a source for DC antigens. Gene expression patterns in primary glioma cultures established at 5% O₂ more closely paralleled patient tumors in situ and known immunogenic antigens were more highly expressed. DCs treated with TLs generated from primary tumor cells maintained in 5% O₂ took up and presented antigens to CD8 T cells more efficiently. Moreover, CD8 T cells primed in this manner exhibited superior tumoricidal activity against target cells cultured in either atmospheric 20% O₂ or physiologic 5% O₂. Together, these results establish a simple method to greatly improve the effectiveness of DC vaccines in stimulating the production of tumoricidal T cells, with broad implications for many of the DC-based cancer vaccines being developed for clinical application.
Biosensors (1989)

Biosensors are analytical devices that respond selectively to analytes in an appropriate sample and convert their concentration into an electrical signal via a combination of a biological recognition system and an electrochemical, optical or other transducer. Such devices will find application in medicine, agriculture, environmental monitoring and the bioprocessing industries. The last few years have seen great advances in the design of sensor architectures, the marriage of biological systems with monolithic silicon and optical technologies, the development of effective electron-transfer systems and the configuration of direct immunosensors. Recent progress in these areas has already led to the introduction of new-generation biosensors into the competitive diagnostics market place.
Nanofabrication with holographic optical tweezers (2002)

We describe optical trapping techniques based on holographic optical tweezer arrays useful for assembling colloidal particles into arbitrary arrangements for photonics, optoelectronic, and sensor applications.
A model of the rabies virus glycoprotein active site (1993)

The glycoprotein from the neurotropic rabies virus shows a significant homology with the alpha neurotoxin that binds to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. The crystal structure of the alpha neurotoxins suggests that the Arg 37 guanidinium group and the Asp 31 side-chain carboxylate of the erabutoxin have stereochemical features resembling those of acetylcholine. Conformational studies on the Asn194-Ser195-Arg196-Gly197 tetrapeptide, an essential part of the binding site of the rabies virus glycoprotein, indicate that the side chains of Asn and Arg could also mimic the acetylcholine structure. This observation is consistent with the recently proposed mechanism of the viral infection.
Key distribution for secure multimedia multicasts via data embedding (2001)

The problem of controlling access to multimedia multicasts requires the distribution and maintenance of keying information. The conventional approach to distributing keys is to use a channel independent of the multimedia content. We propose a second approach that involves the use of a data-dependent channel, and can be achieved for multimedia by using data embedding techniques. Using data embedding to convey rekeying messages can provide an additional layer of security when compared with the traditional approach. We then introduce multicast key distribution, and employ a recent tree-based key distribution scheme to exhibit the factors involved in transmitting keys using data embedding.
Characterization of antibody-reactive epitopes on the 65-kilodalton protein of Mycobacterium leprae (1987)

Twenty-three monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) prepared in seven different laboratories were studied, all of which recognized the 65-kilodalton (kDa) protein of Mycobacterium leprae as determined by Western blotting or gel radioimmunoassay or both. Fourteen of the MAbs recognized different epitopes, as evaluated by cross-competition studies using radiolabeled MAb and unlabeled inhibitors; the species specificity of these epitopes was defined by nitrocellulose dot blot immunoassays with bacterial sonic extract antigen preparations from 23 species of mycobacteria. Each of the 14 distinct MAbs recognized a 65-kDa protein produced by a lysogenized Escherichia coli Y1089 host containing cloned rDNA which included the gene for the M. leprae 65-kDa protein. Of the 14 distinct MAbs, 1 recognized an epitope found only on M. leprae, and the others recognized epitopes present on as few as 8 or as many as all 23 of the mycobacterial species studied. Identification of these distinct 65-kDa protein epitopes and use of the MAbs which recognize them should assist future structural studies of this protein and characterization of the T-cell reactive and serodiagnostically useful portions of the molecule.
Examples of the complex architecture of the human transcriptome revealed by RACE and high-density tiling arrays (2005)

Recently, we mapped the sites of transcription across approximately 30% of the human genome and elucidated the structures of several hundred novel transcripts. In this report, we describe a novel combination of techniques including the rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) and tiling array technologies that was used to further characterize transcripts in the human transcriptome. This technical approach allows for several important pieces of information to be gathered about each array-detected transcribed region, including strand of origin, start and termination positions, and the exonic structures of spliced and unspliced coding and noncoding RNAs. In this report, the structures of transcripts from 14 transcribed loci, representing both known genes and unannotated transcripts taken from the several hundred randomly selected unannotated transcripts described in our previous work are represented as examples of the complex organization of the human transcriptome. As a consequence of this complexity, it is not unusual that a single base pair can be part of an intricate network of multiple isoforms of overlapping sense and antisense transcripts, the majority of which are unannotated. Some of these transcripts follow the canonical splicing rules, whereas others combine the exons of different genes or represent other types of noncanonical transcripts. These results have important implications concerning the correlation of genotypes to phenotypes, the regulation of complex interlaced transcriptional patterns, and the definition of a gene.
Proliferative status of tumor stem cells may be correlated with malignancy grade of human astrocytomas (2006)

Tumor stem cells are implicated in tumor initiation and maintenance. Recent studies have shown that a subpopulation of cells isolated from brain tumors can form neurospheres in vitro, and have multiple characteristic properties observed in neural stem cells. In vivo implantation of these cells can induce tumors that phenocopy original tumors, suggesting that tumor stem cells are involved in brain carcinogenesis. We found that a population of cells in human glioblastoma multiforme expressed multiple protein markers of neural stem cells including nestin, TUC-4, doublecortin and beta III-tubulin. In contrast, these markers were not expressed in human capillary hemangioblastoma or meningioma. Double immunolabeling showed that a portion of doublecortin-, beta III-tubulin-, TUC-4- and nestin-positive cells express Ki67 antigen, a cell proliferation marker. To investigate further whether these properties of tumor stem cells are correlated with their biological behavior, immunohistochemistry was performed on brain sections from astrocytomas of different grades using antibodies against neural stem cell markers. The number of cells expressing Ki67 antigen and neural stem cell markers was increased in relation to worsening histological grade of astrocytomas, indicating that the capacity for tumor stem cell proliferation may be clinically relevant. Thus, tumor stem cells in astrocytomas may be involved in carcinogenesis.
The resource impact of wounds on health-care providers in Europe (2009)

Most of the literature focuses on the resources required to manage particular wound types, rather than the cost of wounds to health-care organisations. Until this information is available, wound care is unlikely to be a management priority.
Synthesis and Biological Activity of Metabolites of the Antidiabetic, Antihyperglycemic Agent Pioglitazone (1996)

Pioglitazone (5-(4-(2-(5-ethyl-2-pyridyl)ethoxy)benzyl)-2,4-thiazolidinedione, 2) is a prototypical antidiabetic thiazolidinedione that had been evaluated for possible clinical development. Metabolites 6-9 have been identified after dosing of rats and dogs. Ketone 10 has not yet been identified as a metabolite but has been added to the list as a putative metabolite by analogy to alcohol 6 and ketone 7. We have developed improved syntheses of pioglitazone (2) metabolites 6-9 and the putative metabolite ketone 10. These entities have been compared in the KKAy mouse model of human type-II diabetes to pioglitazone (2). Ketone 10 has proven to be the most potent of these thiazolidinedinediones in this in vivo assay. When 6-10 were compared in vitro in the 3T3-L1 cell line to 2, for their ability to augment insulin-stimulated lipogenesis, 10 was again the most potent compound with 6, 7 and 9 roughly equivalent to 2. These data suggest that metabolites 6, 7 and 9 are likely to contribute to the pharmacological activity of pioglitazone (2), as had been previously reported for ciglitazone (1).
Synthesis and Molecular Modeling of New 1-Aryl-3-[4-arylpiperazin-1-yl]-1-propane Derivatives with High Affinity at the Serotonin Transporter and at 5-HT1A Receptors (2002)

It has been proposed that 5-HT(1A) receptor antagonists augment the antidepressant efficacy of selective serotonin (5-HT) reuptake inhibitors. In a search toward new and efficient antidepressants, 1-(aryl)-3-[4-arylpiperazin-1-yl]-1-propane molecular hybrids were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for 5-HT reuptake inhibition and 5-HT(1A) receptor affinity. The design was based in coupling structural moieties related to inhibition of serotonin reuptake, such as benzo[b]thiophene derivatives to arylpiperazines, typical 5-HT(1A) receptor ligands. In binding studies, several compounds showed affinity at the 5-HT transporter and at 5-HT(1A) receptors. Molecular modeling studies predicted the pharmacophore elements required for high affinity binding and the features that enable to discriminate between agonist, partial agonist, or antagonist action at 5-HT(1A) receptors and 5-HT transporter inhibition. Solvent interactions in desolvation prior to the binding step along with enthalpy and enthropy compensations might be responsible to explain agonist, partial agonist, and antagonist character. Hydrogen-bonding capability seems to be important to break hydrogen interhelical hydrogen bonds or alternatively to form other bonds upon ligand binding. Partial agonists and antagonists are unable to do this as the full agonist, which interacts closely by long-range forces or directly. The compounds showing the higher affinity at both the 5-HT transporter (K(i) < 50 nM) and the 5-HT(1A) receptors (K(i) < 20 nM) were further explored for their ability to stimulate [(35)S]GTPgammaS binding or to antagonize 8-hydroxy-2-di-n-propylamino-tetralin (8-OH-DPAT)-stimulated [(35)]GTPgammaS binding to rat hippocampal membranes, an index of agonist/antagonist action at 5-HT(1A) receptors, respectively. Compound 8g exhibited agonist activity (EC(50) = 30 nM) in this assay, whereas compounds 7g and 8h,i behaved as weak partial agonists and 7h-j and 8j,l antagonized the R(+)-8-OH-DPAT-stimulated GTPgammaS binding. Functional characterization was performed by measuring the antagonism to 8-OH-DPAT-induced hypothermia in mice.
Development of a Chimeric Plasmodium berghei Strain Expressing the Repeat Region of the P. vivax Circumsporozoite Protein forIn VivoEvaluation of Vaccine Efficacy (2013)

The development of vaccine candidates against Plasmodium vivax-the most geographically widespread human malaria species-is challenged by technical difficulties, such as the lack of in vitro culture systems and availability of animal models. Chimeric rodent Plasmodium parasites are safe and useful tools for the preclinical evaluation of new vaccine formulations. We report the successful development and characterization of chimeric Plasmodium berghei parasites bearing the type I repeat region of P. vivax circumsporozoite protein (CSP). The P. berghei-P. vivax chimeric strain develops normally in mosquitoes and produces highly infectious sporozoites that produce patent infection in mice that are exposed to the bites of as few as 3 P. berghei-P. vivax-infected mosquitoes. Using this transgenic parasite, we demonstrate that monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies against P. vivax CSP strongly inhibit parasite infection and thus support the notion that these antibodies play an important role in protective immunity. The chimeric parasites we developed represent a robust model for evaluating protective immune responses against P. vivax vaccines based on CSP.
STAT Signaling in the Pathogenesis and Treatment of Cancer (1999)

Exceptional advances have been made recently in our understanding of the signaling pathways that control cellular growth, differentiation, and survival. These processes are regulated by extracellular stimuli such as cytokines, cell-cell interactions, and cell-matrix interactions, which trigger a series of intracellular events culminating in the modulation of specific genes. STATs are a highly homologous group of transcription factors that are activated by various pathways and regulate many of the genes controlling cellular function. STATs are activated by tyrosine phosphorylation and modulated by serine phosphorylation, placing them at a convergence point for numerous intracellular signaling pathways. Given the importance of STATs in the control of normal physiologic processes, it is not surprising that inappropriate activation of these proteins has been found in human malignancies. A number of distinct mechanisms have been elucidated by which STATs are activated inappropriately, including autocrine or paracrine stimulation of normal receptors and increased activity of tyrosine kinases through enhanced expression, mutations, or the presence of activating proteins. Furthermore, inappropriate STAT serine phosphorylation has been found in several tumors as well. The increased understanding of signaling pathways in tumors can be translated into therapeutic strategies that have the potential to be more selective and less toxic than current anti-cancer treatments. Approaches which may be effective include the development of antagonists of receptors that can trigger STAT activation, inhibitors of the tyrosine and serine kinases that phosphorylate and activate STATs, agents that decrease STAT levels or inhibit their recruitment to kinases, and molecules that can prevent the binding of STATs to target DNA sequences. Thus, elucidation of cellular and biochemical processes in tumors has enhanced our understanding of the pathogenesis of malignancies and may provide the basis for significant advances in therapy.
Targeted Toxin-Based Selectable Drug-Free Enrichment of Mammalian Cells with High Transgene Expression (2013)

Almost all transfection protocols for mammalian cells use a drug resistance gene for the selection of transfected cells. However, it always requires the characterization of each isolated clone regarding transgene expression, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. In the current study, we developed a novel method to selectively isolate clones with high transgene expression without drug selection. Porcine embryonic fibroblasts were transfected with pCEIEnd, an expression vector that simultaneously expresses enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and endo-b-galactosidase C(EndoGalC; an enzyme capable of digesting cell surface a-Gal epitope) upon transfection. After transfection, the surviving cells were briefly treated with IB4SAP (a-Gal epitope-specific BS-I-B4 lectin conjugated with a toxin saporin). The treated cells were then allowed to grow in normal medium, during which only cells strongly expressing EndoGalC and EGFP would survive because of the absence of a-Gal epitopes on their cell surface. Almost all the surviving colonies after IB4SAP treatment were in fact negative for BS-I-B4 staining, and also strongly expressed EGFP. This system would be particularly valuable for researchers who wish to perform large-scale production of therapeutically important recombinant proteins.