The immune system

Two major areas of the scorecard development process were identified as having much capacity for improving credit scoring models. These are the application of 1) better classifiers and 2) variable selection techniques. However, the application of an artificial immune system for developing scorecards as well as the use of other variable selection techniques, other than stepwise regression, in credit scoring are quite limited as indicated by the scarcity of published materials in these two areas in the current literature.

210p runthenight04 02-02-2023 6 2   Download

The aims of the study "Characterising microbial and neuroimmune interactions in a mouse model of autism" are threefold: i) To characterize the influence of the R451C mutation on caecal enteric neuron organization; ii) To characterize the influence of the R451C mutation on caecal patch macrophage density and morphology; iii) To assess for alterations in gut microbes in different regions of the GI tract in the NL3R451C mouse model of autism.

83p runthenight04 02-02-2023 8 1   Download

This study with the following objectives: Study some characteristics of immune disorders, analysis of association with target organ damage and activity level (SLEDAI score) in patients with severe systemic lupus erythematosus. Evaluation of treatment outcome of pulsed methylprednisolone therapy combined with baseline treatment after 12 weeks in patients with severe systemic lupus erythematosus.

34p petsematary 02-06-2021 26 4   Download

Regulator of G-protein signaling (RGS) proteins were originally identified as negative regulators of G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling via their GTPase-accelerating protein (GAP) activity. All RGS proteins contain evolutionarily conserved RGS domain; however, they differ in their size and regulatory domains. RGS1 and RGS10 are smaller than other RGS proteins, and their functions involve various inflammatory responses including autoimmune responses in both the periphery and the central nervous system (CNS). Neuroinflammation is the chronic inflammatory response in the CNS.

5p caothientrangnguyen 09-05-2020 28 2   Download

Ferritin from the spleen of the Antarctic teleost Trematomus bernacchii is composed of a single subunit that contains both the ferroxidase center residues, typical of mammalian H chains, and the carboxylate residues forming the micelle nucleation site, typical of mammalian L chains. Comparison of the amino-acid sequence with those available from lower vertebrates indicates that T. bernacchii ferritin can be classified as an M-type homopolymer. Interestingly, the T. bernacchii ferritin chain shows 85.7% identity with a coldinducible ferritin chain of the rainbow trout Salmo gairdneri....

7p system191 01-06-2013 32 4   Download

Cannabinoid receptors and their endogenous ligands, the endocannabinoids, have been detected in several blood immune cells, including monocytes/macrophages, basophils and lymphocytes. However, their presence in dendritic cells, which play a key role in the initiation and development of the immune response, has never been investigated.

8p system191 01-06-2013 28 4   Download

To examine the role of the distal His42 residue in the catalytic mechanism of pea cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase, two site-directed variants were prepared in which His42 was replaced with alanine (H42A) or glutamic acid (H42E). Electronic spectra of the ferric derivatives of H42A and H42E (pH 7.0, l ¼ 0.10 M, 25.0 °C) revealed wavelength maxima [kmax (nm): 397, 509, % 540sh, 644 (H42A); 404, 516, % 538sh, 639 (H42E)] consistent with a predominantly fiveco-ordinate high-spin iron. The specific activity of H42E for oxidation of L-ascorbate (8.2 ± 0.

11p system191 01-06-2013 39 4   Download

The long uORF-burdened 5¢UTRs of many genes encoding regulatory proteins involved in cell growth and differentiation contain internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) elements. In a previous study we showed that utilization of the weak IRES of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF2) is activated during megakaryocytic differentiation.

10p system191 01-06-2013 34 4   Download

Single-crystal X-ray structure determinations of the complex between the minor-groove binder distamycin and d(GGCCAATTGG) reveal two 1 : 1 binding modes which differ in the orientation of the drug molecule in the minor groove. The two crystals were grown from different crystallization conditions and found to diffract to 2.38 and ˚ 1.85 A, respectively. The structures were refined to completion using SHELXL-93, resulting in a residual R factor of ˚ 20.30% for the 2.38-A resolution structure (including 46 ˚ water molecules) and 19.74% for the 1.

10p system191 01-06-2013 30 5   Download

Departamento de Bioquı´mica y Biologı´a Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain; Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Reduction potential determinations of K75E, E139K and E301A ferredoxin-NADP+ reductases provide valuable information concerning the factors that contribute to tune the flavin reduction potential. Thus, while E139 is not involved in such modulation, the K75 side-chain tunes the flavin potential by creating a defined environment that modulates the FAD conformation. ...

6p system191 01-06-2013 36 4   Download

Mice expressing a C-terminal fragment of the prion protein instead of wild-type prion protein die from massive neuronal degeneration within weeks of birth. The C-terminal region of PrPc (PrP121–231) expressed in these mice has an intrinsic neurotoxicity to cultured neurones. Unlike PrPSc, which is not neurotoxic to neurones lacking PrPc expression, PrP121–231 was more neurotoxic to PrPc-deficient cells. Human mutations E200K and F198S were found to enhance toxicity of PrP121–231 to PrP-knockout neurones and E200K enhanced toxicity to wild-type neurones.

10p system191 01-06-2013 31 4   Download

The decoy approach against nuclear factor kB (NF-kB) is a useful tool to alter NF-kB dependent gene expression using synthetic oligonucleotides (ODNs) carrying NF-kB specific cis-elements. Unfortunately, ODNs are not stable and need to be extensively modified to be used in vivo or ex vivo. We have previously evaluated the possible use of peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) as decoy molecules. The backbone of PNAs is composed of N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine units, rendering these molecules resistant to both nucleases and proteases.

10p system191 01-06-2013 42 4   Download

The siglecs (sialic acid-binding Ig-like lectins) are a distinct subset of the Ig superfamily with adhesion-molecule-like structure. We describe here a novel member of the siglec protein family that shares a similar structure including five Ig-like domains, a transmembrane domain, and a cytoplasmic tail containing two ITIM-signaling motifs. Siglec10 was identified through database mining of an asthmatic eosinophil EST library. Using the Stanford G3 radiation hybrid panel we were able to localize the genomic sequence of siglec-10 within the cluster of genes on chromosome 19q13.

14p system191 01-06-2013 43 6   Download

The calcineurin (CaN) a and b catalytic subunit isoforms are coexpressed within almost all cell types. The enzymatic properties of CaN heterodimers comprised of the regulatory B subunit (CnB) with either the a or b catalytic subunit were compared using in vitro phosphatase assays. CaN containing the a isoform (CnAa) has lower Km and higher Vmax values than CaN containing the b isoform (CnAb) toward the PO4RII, PO4-DARPP-32(20–38) peptides, and p-nitrophenylphosphate (pNPP).

9p research12 01-06-2013 26 3   Download

Nuclear cloning is a procedure to create new animals by injecting somatic nuclei into unfertilized oocytes. Recent successes in mammalian cloning with differentiated adult nuclei strongly indicate that oocyte cytoplasm contains unidentified remarkable reprogramming activities with the capacity to erase the previous memory of cell differentiation. At the heart of this nuclear reprogramming lies chromatin remodeling as chromatin structure and function define cell differentiation through regulation of the transcriptional activities of the cells....

4p research12 01-06-2013 42 4   Download

From the antennae of the moth Mamestra brassicae, we have identified a lepidopteran G protein a subunit belonging to the Gq family, through immunological detection in crude antennal extract and antennal primary cell cultures, followed by molecular cloning. The complete cDNA sequence (1540 bp) contains an open reading frame encoding a protein of 353 amino acids.

10p research12 01-06-2013 26 4   Download

Previous biochemical studies have indicated that the membrane-bound thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH)-degrading enzyme (TRH-DE) from brain and liver and the serum TRH-DE are derived from the same gene. These studies also suggested that the serum enzyme is of liver origin. The present study was undertaken to verify these hypotheses. In different species, a close relationship between the activities of the serum enzyme and the particulate liver enzyme was noticed.

9p research12 01-06-2013 51 3   Download

The CD spectra of SMAP-29, an antimicrobial peptide from sheep, showed disordered structure in aqueous buffers, and significant helicity in membrane-like environments, including SDS micelles, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) dispersions, and trifluoroethanol buffer systems. A structure determined by NMR in 40% perdeuterated trifluoroethanol indicated that residues 8–17 were helical, residues 18–19 formed a hinge, and residues 20–28 formed an ordered, hydrophobic segment.

9p research12 01-06-2013 36 4   Download

Casein kinases I (CKI) are serine/threonine protein kinases widely expressed in a range of eukaryotes including yeast, mammals and plants. They have been shown to play a role in diverse physiological events including membrane trafficking. CKIa is associated with synaptic vesicles and phosphorylates some synaptic vesicle associated proteins including SV2. In this report, we show that syntaxin-1A is phosphorylated in vitro by CKI on Thr21.

6p research12 01-06-2013 40 3   Download

Structural analysis of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of nontypeableHaemophilus in¯uenzaestrain 1003 has been achieved by the application of high-®eld NMR techniques, ESI-MS, capillary electrophoresis coupled to ESI-MS, composition and linkage analyses on O-deacylated LPS and core oligosaccharide material. It was found that the LPS contains the common structural element of H.

11p research12 01-06-2013 47 7   Download