SYBR Green I-based product-enhanced reverse transcriptase assay for quantification of retroviral PFV and detection of the divalent cation preference of PFV RT

Dear Editor,Prototype foamy virus(PFV)belongs to the genus Spumavirus in the Spumaretrovirinae subfamily of Retroviridae.Although PFV and HIV have much in common,research into PFV has lagged far behind that into HIV,as PFV appeared to be non-pathogenic both in accidentally infected humans and in experimentally infected animals.In recent decades,however,more attention has been focused on PFV because it seems to

Maillard reaction affecting immunobinding activity and digestibility of tropomyosin in Alectryonella plicatula food matrix

In recent years,the allergy rate of oysters has surged,and daily food processing methods make it hard to reduce heat resistance and digestive allergy such as tropomyosin(TM).In this study,the Maillard reaction with xylose significantly reduced the IgE binding capacity of Alectryonella plicatula food matrix(AFM),that reduced by(77.81±2.68)%.The study found the Maillard reaction changes the structure of the AFM,in which the content ofα-helix decreased by(24.64±1.46)%.Structural transformation further explains why the Maillard reaction alters the immunobinding activity of AFM.In addition,the Maillard reaction reduces the digestive stability of the AFM and makes TM in the A.plicatula food matrix Maillard reaction products(AFM-MRPs)more easily digested.Based on the above research,10 amino acids on the 7 IgE epitopes of TM were modified.This result indicates that the Maillard reaction reduces the immunobinding activity of the AFM by changing the structure and modifying the amino acids on the epitope.

nvolvement of collagen-binding heat shock protein 47 in scleroderma-associated fibrosis

Uncontrolled fibrosis of skin and internal organs is the main characteristic of scleroderma, and collagen is a major extracellular matrix protein that deposits in the fibrotic organs. As the chaperone of collagen, heat shock protein 47 （HSP47） is closely related with the development of fbrosis. To explore the potential func- tion of HSP47 in the pathogenesis of scleroderma, the clinical, in vivo and in vitro studies were performed. In clinical, the increased mRNA level of HSP47 was observed in the skin fibroblasts and PBMC from scle- roderma patients, and the enhanced protein level of HSP47 was also detected in the skin biopsy and plasma of the above patients. Unexpectedly, the enhanced levels of HSP47 were positively correlated with the presence of anti-centromere antibody in scleroderma patients. Moreover, a high expression of HSP47 was found in the skin lesion of BLM-induced scleroderma mouse model. Further in vitro studies demonstrated that HSP47 knockdown could block the intracellular and extracellular collagen over-productions induced by exogenous TGF-13. Therefore, the results in this study provide direct evidence that HSP47 is involved in the pathogenesis of scleroderma. The high expression of HSP47 can be detected in the circulatory system of scleroderma patients, indicating that HSP47 maybecome a pathological marker to assess the progres- sion of scleroderma, and also explain the systemic fibrosis of scleroderma. Meanwhile, collagen over-ex- pression is blocked by HSP47 knockdown, suggesting the possibility that HSP47 can be a potential therapeutic target for scleroderma.