Subject(s)
Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases/genetics , Cloning, Molecular , Drug Industry , Alzheimer Disease/drug therapy , Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases , Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases/economics , Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases/therapeutic use , Cell Line , Drug Design , Drug Industry/economics , Endopeptidases , Humans , Mutation/genetics , Patents as Topic , United StatesSubject(s)
Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing , Carrier Proteins/genetics , Deafness/genetics , Extracellular Matrix Proteins/genetics , Hair Cells, Auditory/physiology , Membrane Glycoproteins/genetics , Myosins/genetics , Dyneins , Formins , GPI-Linked Proteins , Hair Cells, Auditory/ultrastructure , Humans , Microscopy, Electron , Mutation , Myosin VIIaABSTRACT
Neuroblastoma is one of the childhood malignancies that frustrates both the clinical and scientist. Clearly, some forms of the disease are relatively benign and the patient can expect to be cured. However, even today, Stage 4 neuroblastoma is one of the childhood malignancies where the overall prognosis remains very poor. Despite extensive investigations into the biology of the disease, little has been gleaned about the underlying causes of the tumour and what truly separates good and poor risk disease. Fortunately, patients under the age of one with neuroblastoma often fall into the good risk group. Many people now believe that neuroblastoma is not just one disease, but several. Some forms of the tumours may, in fact, not be truly malignant. The data that has led to this conclusion and the biological characteristics that are associated with the different forms of the neuroblastoma will be reviewed. In addition, a brief outline of new studies which may identify some of the factors associated with the neuroblasts ability to metastasise will be discussed.
Subject(s)
Neuroblastoma/diagnosis , Biomarkers, Tumor/analysis , Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal/analysis , Chromosome Aberrations , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Neoplasm Staging , Neuroblastoma/genetics , Neuroblastoma/pathology , Neuroblastoma/therapy , PrognosisABSTRACT
Woodchuck hepatitis core antigen (WHcAg) particles purified from the liver of chronically infected animals were used for monoclonal antibody production. Most of the putative clones demonstrated anti-WHc specificity. However, the supernatants from several putative clones bound X antigen sequences from woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV). One monoclonal antibody, designated WC9-85 (an IgM), specifically bound hepatitis B X antigen (HBxAg) residues spanning positions 115-131 (peptide 100). WC9-85 also specifically detected liver-derived WHcAg and duck hepatitis B core antigen (DHBcAg) particles in the same CsCl density gradient fractions as did specific anticore and cross-reactive polyclonal anti-x. WC9-85 did not bind to HBcAg particles made by recombinant DNA techniques, in which only the C-gene sequences are expressed, but did bind to liver-derived HBcAg in identical assays. A second monoclonal anti-x, WC8-62, had similar characteristics. Identification of the immunoreactive species in liver-derived core particles by Western blotting showed that WC9-85 bound the major DHBcAg polypeptide having an apparent molecular weight of 35,000 Da. WC9-85 also bound WHcAg-associated bands at approximately 37,000 and 27,000 Da, but little or no binding at the apparent molecular weight of the major WHcAg polypeptide (about 21,000 Da) was observed. These results are consistent with the conclusions that X determinants are associated with core particles purified from naturally infected livers, that such determinants are associated with the major DHBcAg polypeptide and at least two minor WHcAg-associated polypeptides, and that X reactivity is distinct from core and/or e reactivity in hepadnavirus core particles.
