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One of the key components of the innate immune system are natural killer (NK) cells. The task of these cells is to induce apoptosis in target cells (e.g., cancer or virally infected cells). The target cells are identified by their interaction with surface receptors of the NK cells. On the surface of the NK cells, there are activating and inhibiting receptors. One of the activating receptors is the natural cytotoxicity receptor NKp46. Several ligands of this receptor have been identified, one of them being the epithelial adhesin Epa1 of yeast Candida glabrata. The invasive candidiasis caused by this yeast is a feared complication for patients with haematological diseases. The use of the NK cells in immunotherapy includes bispecific fusion proteins which can bind to the NK receptor with one part and to tumour antigen with the other part. This work focuses on recombinant preparation of the NKp46 protein. To facilitate a study of the effects of O-glycosylation on the binding of the ligands, a mutation of the glycosylation site NKp46 T225A was prepared. A stably transfected HEK293S GnTI- and HEK293T cells had been prepared and these proteins were then extracellularly secreted. The Epa1 protein had been produced in E. coli bacterial expression system and purified. The binding ability of the Epa1 protein...

Liver flukes of the family Fasciolidae are parasites of mammals including human. Fascioloides magna and Fasciola hepatica are considered as a veterinary and medically important species occurring also in the Czech Republic. Fascioloides magna and F. hepatica infect wide spectrum of wild and domestic ruminants and in case of F. hepatica human can be also infected. Both flukes are responsible for damage of liver tissue and/or bile-ducts of their definitive hosts causing weight lose, anemia, reduced productivity and in specific cases the death of the host. Effective diagnosis plays the key role in control of F. hepatica and F. magna infections. Current diagnostics is predominantly based on serodiagnostic methods using specific antigens e.g. from excretory-secretory products (ESPs). Due to heterogenity of ESPs, such diagnostic markers can lack the specificity and also the reproducibility of the method is poor. Particular proteins of ESPs are often used in diagnostics of fasciolid flukes. Such approach requires biological material and laboratory procedures associated with identification, purification and antigenicity testing of selected proteins. Recent development of parallel sequencing technologies results in huge amount of genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic data, which are publicly available. Such...