Orally administered retinoic acid isomers are used to treat many disorders; however, they cause serious side effects including weight loss, inanition, eye encrustation, bone loss, mucocutaneous toxici...
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The emergence of bacteria that are resistant to common therapeutic agents has resulted in a dire need for new antimicrobial compounds. One potential source of new antimicrobials is amphiphilic pe...
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Collagen, the most abundant protein in vertebrates, serves as the fundamental structural protein for vertebrate tissues. Collagen is a fibrous protein consisting of three polypeptide chains that fold ...
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Quorum sensing is a process used by some bacteria to coordinate behavior based on local population density. To communicate, bacteria release signaling molecules into the environment. When a certain nu...
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Pathogenic bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract can induce inflammatory responses that negatively affect the ability of animals to efficiently digest food and absorb nutrients. Endotoxin, a characte...
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Avian influenza causes significant economic losses for poultry producers worldwide and can be transmitted to humans and other mammals. The surface glycoproteins hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (N...
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Influenza is caused by the eight-segmented influenza virus. Vaccines can be used to prevent influenza, but traditional methods for producing influenza vaccine are slow and cumbersome. To generate re...
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Influenza is a major disease in humans that can be prevented by vaccination. Because new epidemic strains arise every year or two, the conventional influenza vaccine must be adapted almost every year,...
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Influenza causes hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide every year. Two of the genes critical for influenza virus infection are haemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). HA and NA are on the surf...
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The H1N1 influenza virus, known as the “swine flu,” has been declared a pandemic.  While this virus is less virulent than many circulating strains of flu virus, it has become the subj...
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Influenza is a major disease in humans that can be prevented by vaccination. Because new epidemic strains arise every year or two, influenza vaccines must be adapted almost every year.  Live atte...
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Quorum sensing is a process used by some bacteria to coordinate behavior based on local population density. To communicate, bacteria release signaling molecules, including low molecular weight ligands...
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Vitamin D is a highly potent regulator of calcium homeostasis and plays an established role in cellular differentiation. A recently discovered class of vitamin D analogs, the 19-nor-vitamin D compound...
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Vitamin D is a highly potent regulator of calcium homeostasis and plays an established role in cellular differentiation. A recently discovered class of vitamin D analogs, the 19-nor-vitamin D compound...
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Joint disease results in huge economic costs and can significantly reduce the quality-of-life of people who suffer from it. Pain, inflammation, and instability of the joint are common. Treatment is ge...
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Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a genetic disorder in which an individual lacks the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) that converts the amino acid phenylalanine into tyrosine.  If left untreated, t...
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Development of most tissue types involves a complex interplay of multiple growth factors in well defined locations, leading to controlled differentiation of precursor cells into mature, tissue-specifi...
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Ribonucleases are enzymes that catalyze the degradation of RNA. Levels of RNase activity are controlled in vivo by a ribonuclease inhibitor (RI), which binds strongly to an RNase to completely inhibit...
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Ribonucleases are enzymes that catalyze the degradation of RNA. Levels of RNase activity are controlled in vivo by a ribonuclease inhibitor (RI), which binds strongly to an RNase to completely inhibit...
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The extensive use of neuraminidase (NA) inhibitors to treat influenza virus infections by reducing viral sialidase activity requires close monitoring for resistant variants. However, cultured cells do...
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Under physiological conditions, bone tissue regeneration involves a complex interplay of multiple biologically active molecules and stem cells. The molecules are often presented sequentially in cascad...
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The normal growth and development of tissue requires a complex interplay of multiple signals from multiple genes in well-defined locations, leading to the controlled differentiation of precursor cells...
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Ebola virus, a negative strand RNA virus in the family Filoviridae, is among the most lethal human pathogens. Efforts to develop treatments for Ebola infections have been hampered by a lack of effecti...
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Dendritic cells play an important role in the process of initiating immune response. They are present in small quantities in tissues, such as skin and lung, that are in contact with the external envir...
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More than 11,000 American women were diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2008. Treatment of this disease, which consists of surgical, chemotherapeutic and radiation therapies, costs an estimated $1.7 bi...
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