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Full-Text Articles in Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology

Jennifer Maurer Phd Thesis.Pdf, Jennifer Maurer Nov 2017

Jennifer Maurer Phd Thesis.Pdf, Jennifer Maurer

Jennifer Maurer


Signaling cascades, such as the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway, play vital roles in early vertebrate development. Signals through these pathways are initiated by a growth factor or hormone, are transduced through a kinase cascade, and result in the expression of specific downstream genes that promote cellular proliferation, growth, or differentiation.Tight regulation of these signals is provided by positive or negative modulators at varying levels in the pathway, and is required for proper development and function. Two members of the dual-specificity phosphatase (Dusp) family, dusp6 and dusp2, are believed to be negative regulators of the ERK pathway and are …


Crispr-Cas9 Nuclear Dynamics And Target Recognition In Living Cells, Hanhui Ma, Li-Chun Tu, Ardalan Naseri, Maximiliaan Huisman, Shaojie Zhang, David Grünwald, Thoru Pederson May 2017

Crispr-Cas9 Nuclear Dynamics And Target Recognition In Living Cells, Hanhui Ma, Li-Chun Tu, Ardalan Naseri, Maximiliaan Huisman, Shaojie Zhang, David Grünwald, Thoru Pederson

David Grünwald

The bacterial CRISPR-Cas9 system has been repurposed for genome engineering, transcription modulation, and chromosome imaging in eukaryotic cells. However, the nuclear dynamics of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated protein 9 (Cas9) guide RNAs and target interrogation are not well defined in living cells. Here, we deployed a dual-color CRISPR system to directly measure the stability of both Cas9 and guide RNA. We found that Cas9 is essential for guide RNA stability and that the nuclear Cas9-guide RNA complex levels limit the targeting efficiency. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching measurements revealed that single mismatches in the guide RNA seed sequence …


Central Role Of Il-23 And Il-17 Producing Eosinophils As Immunomodulatory Effector Cells In Acute Pulmonary Aspergillosis And Allergic Asthma, Evelyn V. Santos Guerra, Chrono K. Lee, Charles A. Specht, Bhawna Yadav, Haibin Huang, Ali Akalin, Jun R. Huh, Christian Mueller, Stuart M. Levitz May 2017

Central Role Of Il-23 And Il-17 Producing Eosinophils As Immunomodulatory Effector Cells In Acute Pulmonary Aspergillosis And Allergic Asthma, Evelyn V. Santos Guerra, Chrono K. Lee, Charles A. Specht, Bhawna Yadav, Haibin Huang, Ali Akalin, Jun R. Huh, Christian Mueller, Stuart M. Levitz

Christian Mueller

Aspergillus fumigatus causes invasive pulmonary disease in immunocompromised hosts and allergic asthma in atopic individuals. We studied the contribution of lung eosinophils to these fungal diseases. By in vivo intracellular cytokine staining and confocal microscopy, we observed that eosinophils act as local sources of IL-23 and IL-17. Remarkably, mice lacking eosinophils had a >95% reduction in the percentage of lung IL-23p19+ cells as well as markedly reduced IL-23 heterodimer in lung lavage fluid. Eosinophils killed A. fumigatus conidia in vivo. Eosinopenic mice had higher mortality rates, decreased recruitment of inflammatory monocytes, and decreased expansion of lung macrophages after challenge with …


Hepatitis C Virus-Induced Monocyte Differentiation Into Polarized M2 Macrophages Promotes Stellate Cell Activation Via Tgf-Beta, Banishree Saha, Karen Kodys, Gyongyi Szabo May 2017

Hepatitis C Virus-Induced Monocyte Differentiation Into Polarized M2 Macrophages Promotes Stellate Cell Activation Via Tgf-Beta, Banishree Saha, Karen Kodys, Gyongyi Szabo

Gyongyi Szabo

BACKGROUND and AIMS: Monocyte and macrophage (MPhi) activation contributes to the pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Disease pathogenesis is regulated by both liver-resident MPhis and monocytes recruited as precursors of MPhis into the damaged liver. Monocytes differentiate into M1 (classic/proinflammatory) or M2 (alternative/anti-inflammatory) polarized MPhis in response to tissue microenvironment. We hypothesized that HCV-infected hepatoma cells (infected with Japanese fulminant hepatitis-1 [Huh7.5/JFH-1]) induce monocyte differentiation into polarized MPhis. METHODS: Healthy human monocytes were co-cultured with Huh7.5/JFH-1 cells or cell-free virus for 7 days and analyzed for MPhi markers and cytokine levels. A similar analysis was performed on …