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The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression of breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) in peripheral T cell subsets of human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV‑1)‑infected patients, and to analyze the association between the levels of BCRP expression and disease progression in HIV‑1 infection. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were obtained from HIV‑1‑infected patients (n=118), including 92 patients with antiretroviral therapy (ART) and 26 patients without a history of ART. Control samples from 30 healthy donors were also analyzed. The expression levels of BCRP in T cells were evaluated by flow cytometry. A high inter‑individual variability was observed in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in the HIV‑1‑infected patients and healthy donors; however, the analyzed expression levels of BCRP were significantly higher in the HIV‑1‑infected group with ART than those in the group with no history of ART (P

In this study, we aimed to measure P-glycoprotein (P-gp) expression in CD8(+) T lymphocytes of HIV-1-infected patients, to investigate how P-gp levels are affected by antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV-1 infection, and to assess the value of using P-gp expression to predict virologic response to ART. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were obtained from a cohort of HIV-1‑infected patients in China: 140 patients on ART, and 49 ART-naive patients. We also enrolled 24 healthy blood donors as the controls. The expression levels of P-gp in CD8(+) T cells of HIV-1-infected patients were evaluated by quantitative reverse transcription PCR, ELISA and flow cytometry. A high inter-individual variability was observed in the CD8(+) T cells of both HIV-1-infected patients and healthy donors; however, the expression levels of P-gp were significantly higher in the HIV-1-infected group on ART compared to the ART-naive group. The relative proportion of P-gp(+)CD8(+) T cells inversely correlated with the blood CD4(+) T cell count in the HIV-1‑infected patients on ART (r=-0.3343, P=0.0375). Groups of both good and poor responders showed significantly elevated levels of P-gp(+)CD8(+) T cells. The percentage of P-gp(+)CD8(+) T cells appeared to provide a sensitive estimate of the virologic response to ART compared to the CD4(+) T cell count. Our results suggest that P-gp expression varies among HIV-1‑infected patients, but is significantly higher in HIV-1‑infected patients on ART. The overexpression of P-gp is involved in ART initiation during HIV-1 infection, and P-gp(+)CD8(+) T cells may be an additional criterion for the evaluation of the antiretroviral response to ART.

Background Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the main human health problem and causes a large-scale of patients chronic infection worldwide.. As the replication of HBV depends on its host cell system, codon usage pattern for the viral gene might be susceptible to two main selections, namely mutation pressure and translation selection. In this case, a deeper investigation between HBV evolution and host adaptive response might assist control this disease. Result Relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) values for the whole HBV coding sequence were studied by Principal component analysis (PCA). The characteristics of the synonymous codon usage patterns, nucleotide contents and the comparison between ENC values of the whole HBV coding sequence indicated that the interaction between virus mutation pressure and host translation selection exists in the processes of HBV evolution. The synonymous codon usage pattern of HBV is a mixture of coincidence and antagonism to that of host cell. But the difference of genetic characteristic of HBV failed to be observed to its different epidemic areas or subtypes, suggesting that geographic factor is limited to influence the evolution of this virus, while genetic characteristic based on HBV genotypes could be divided into three groups, namely (i) genotyps A and E, (ii) genotype B, (iii) genotypes C, D and G. Conclusion Codon usage patterns from PCA for identification of evolutionary trends in HBV provide an alternative approach to understand the evolution of HBV. Further more, a combined selection of mutation pressure with translation selection on codon usage might shed a light on understanding the evolutionary trends of HBV genotypes.

Cyclin B2 (CCNB2), a member of the cyclin protein family, has been found to be up-regulated in human cancers. To evaluate the potential use of circulating CCNB2 in serum in cancer surveillance, we examined relative expression levels of serum circulating CCNB2 mRNA in 103 cancer patients, 19 normal controls, and 40 benign disease patients using real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. We found that the relative expression level of circulating CCNB2 mRNA in cancer patients was significantly higher (p

The valence shell excitations of argon were investigated by an angle-resolved fast-electron energy-loss spectrometer at an incident electron energy of $2500\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$, and the transition multipolarities for the excitations of $3p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}3d$, $4d$, $5s$, and $5p$ were elucidated with the help of the calculated intermediate coupling coefficients using the COWAN code. The generalized oscillator strengths for the excitations to $3{p}^{5}(3d,3{d}^{\ensuremath{'}})$, $3{p}^{5}(5p,5{p}^{\ensuremath{'}})$, and $3{p}^{5}(5s,4d)$ were measured, and the profiles of these generalized oscillator strength were analyzed. Furthermore, although the present experimental positions of the maxima for the electric-monopole and electric-quadrupole excitations in $3p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}5p$ are in agreement with the theoretical calculations [Amusia et al., Phys. Rev. A 67, 022703 (2003)], the generalized oscillator strength profiles show obvious differences. In addition, the experimental generalized oscillator strength ratios for the electric-octupole transitions in $3p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}3d$ are different from the theoretical prediction calculated by the COWAN code.

To explore the possible linkage between telomerase and acute leukemia, we detected telomerase activity expressed in 3 leukemia cell lines, 22 acute leukemia bone marrow and 6 normal bone marrow with PCR ELISA assay. Results showed that telomerase activities of three leukemia cell lines were positive with the average (1.57 +/- 0.056) U, normal bone marrow samples average was (0.085 +/- 0.081) U, telomerase value from 22 acute leukemia patients was (0.512 +/- 0.294) U. Telomerase activity is higher expressed in acute leukemia than normal samples and decreased significantly after chemotherapy (P0.01). The results suggested that telomerase activity was related to some malignant diseases and might be used as a marker for tumor diagnosis and therapy.

Human tissue homeostasis is precisely regulated by cellular division, differentiation and death. Normal human somatic cells progressively lose telomere restriction fragment (TRF) length with each successive cell division, eventually leading to cellular quiescence, chromosomal end-degradation and apoptosis[1]. On the contrary, stabilization of telomere lengths by expressing telomerase, a n RNA-dependent DNA polymerase, may be involved in cellular immortality and carcinogenesis[2-4]. Changes of telomerase activity and telomere lengths have been found in almost all human cancers[4-10], but the evidence of their relationship with immortalization of cancers cell remain to be directly demonstrated. Since shortened telomere was first discovered in Hela cells with antisense RNA techniques in 1995[11], anticancer agents based on inhibition of telomerase RNA have been reported[12,13]. However, the relationship between telomerase inhibition and cell apoptosis has not been fully understood. In this study, we investigated the effect of blocking telomerase activity on apoptosis of human gastric cancer cells in vitro using an antisense vector for human telomerase RNA component (hTR) into human gastric cancer cells.