抗体应用

As I lift up my pen to undertake this reply to the outstanding essay by David R. Blake, this being requested by himself and my co-editor Professor Paul Winyard, I feel myself becoming overcome by trepidation and fear. Frankly, I cannot write in the elegant style of David! Furthermore, I have always been convi ...

The invasion of leukocytes into the synovial tissue (ST) eventually resulting in tissue damage is a crucial process in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (1–4). Augmented adhesion of inflammatory cells to the ST endothelia and to other ST components is mediated by a number of cell adh ...

Although histological techniques are frequently used to study inflammation, precise quantification allowing an analysis of the dynamics of the inflammatory response is often hard to achieve. This chapter describes the application of intravenously injected radiolabeled an ...

An acute inflammatory response is mounted in response to a stimulus such as tissue damage or the presence of an invading pathogen (1). If this stimulus cannot be removed, then chronic inflammation will develop as classically shown in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Along with the array of cytokines a ...

Nitric oxide (NO), superoxide, and the product of their reaction peroxynitrite play fundamental roles in inflammation (see Fig. 1). An understanding of the relative contribution of these species to the overall inflammatory response has been achieved by the ability to detect their presen ...

The discovery of two isoforms of the cyclooxygenase (COX) enzyme, COX-1 and COX-2, has provided the rationale for development of selective COX-2 inhibitors as a class of safer drugs for the treatment of pain, symptoms of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis (see reviews 1,2). Broadly speak ...

Within the past few years, microRNAs (miRNAs) and other noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) have emerged as elements with critically high importance in posttranscriptional control of cellular and, more recently, viral processes. Endogenously produced by a component of the miRNA-guided RNA sil ...

The use of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in human therapy may be hindered by the recruitment of nonspecific effects such as the activation of innate immune responses. Recently, several innate immune receptors have been implicated in the detection of siRNAs. This chapter provides a brief ov ...

RNA interference (RNAi) is a natural process that occurs in many organisms ranging from plants to mammals. In this process, double-stranded RNA or hairpin RNA is cleaved by a RNaseIII-type enzyme called Dicer into small interfering RNA duplex. This then directs sequence-specific, homolog ...

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal neoplasm of the female genital tract. Despite progress with chemotherapy, surgery and supportive care, the death rate remains extremely high. Gene silencing therapy represents a possible opportunity to advance the management of ovarian cancer patie ...

RNA interference (RNAi) involves sequence-specific downregulation of target genes, leading to gene silencing in vitro and in vivo. Synthetic small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), formulated with appropriate delivery agents, can serve as effective tools for RNAi-based therapeutic ...

Pain is the new burden of the twenty-first century, raising enormous socio-economic costs to developed and underdeveloped countries. Chronic pain is a central nervous system (CNS) pathology, affecting a large proportion of the population. Morphine and its derivatives are still the gol ...

RNA interference is a promising method for silencing specific genes and has great potential for therapeutic applications. However, the major hurdle for therapeutic application is the limited stability of double-strand RNA (dsRNA) and the absence of a reliable delivery method to target ...

Dendritic cells (DCs) comprise a family of professional antigen-presenting cells responsible for the induction of primary immune responses. DCs are also important for the induction of immunological tolerance. Recent research has revealed that DC maturation is associated with ac ...

Antibody-based therapeutics currently enjoy unprecedented success, growth in research and revenues, and recognition of their potential. It appears that the promise of the “magic bullet” has largely been realized. There are currently 22 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) approved by the ...

Since NK cells specialize in contact-dependent functions including cytotoxicity, interest has focused on the direct study of the interface between the NK cell and the cell with which it is interacting. This interface is also known as the immunological synapse and is characterized by an extr ...

Although NK cells were originally identified as “naturally” active cells believed to follow a cell-autonomous activation program, it is now widely accepted that NK cells need to interact with dendritic cells for their full functional activation and for their homeostasis. In this chapte ...

This flow cytometry-based method is a quick way to detect adhesion of NK cells to target cells. The two cell types are labeled with distinct fluorescent dyes and following co-incubation, the number of NK cells firmly adhered to target cells is quantified using two-color flow cytometry.

Determining the contribution of individual receptors to natural killer (NK) cell function is complicated by the multiplicity of activating and inhibitory NK cell receptors. Mammalian target cells typically express a variety of ligands for NK cell receptors. Engagement of NK cell rec ...

Although the use of mutant mice has been extremely useful in identifying those proteins and molecules specifically required for the development of NK cells, the establishment of a well-defined protocol to replicate in vitro the major steps corresponding to the process of NK cell different ...