Here, we report that Itch interacts with and targets pluripotency-associated selleck chemicals transcription factor Oct4 for ubiquitination.

Moreover, Itch enhances Oct4 transcriptional activities and controls Oct4 protein stability dependent on its catalytic activity. Importantly, silencing Itch expression compromises ESC self-renewal capacity and somatic cell reprogramming efficiency. Taken together, our study identifies Itch as a regulator of Oct4 stability and transcriptional activity, establishing a functional link between an E3 ligase and the regulation of pluripotency. J. Cell. Physiol. 228: 14431451, 2013. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.”
“Plasma from a small subset of subjects chronically infected with HIV-1 shows remarkable magnitude and breadth of neutralizing activity. From one of these

individuals LDK378 cost (CH0219), we isolated two broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs), CH01 and VRC-CH31, from two clonal lineages of memory B cells with distinct specificities (variable loop 1 and 2 [V1V2] conformational specificity and CD4-binding site specificity, respectively) that recapitulate 95% of CH0219 serum neutralization breadth. These data provide proof of concept for an HIV-1 vaccine that aims to elicit bnAbs of multiple specificities.”
“Background: Thermal ablation procedures, including radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or laser-induced interstitial thermotherapy (LITT), are now well established in the treatment of malignant unresectable hepatic tumors. But the impact of partial ablation (PA) on long-term survival following computed tomography (CT)-guided radiofrequency ablation find more and laser- induced interstitial thermotherapy of unresectable malignant liver lesions and the associated

risk factors of PA remain partially unknown.\n\nMaterials/Methods: This study included 254 liver tumors in 91 consecutive patients (66 men and 25 women; age 60.9 +/- 10.4 years; mean tumor size 25 14 mm [range 5-70 min]) who underwent thermal ablation (RFA or LITT) between January 2000 and December 2007. Mean follow-up period was 21.1 month (range 1-69 months). Survival rate and local progression-free survival (PFS) were calculated for patients with complete ablation (CA) vs. patients with partial ablation (PA) to assess the impact on long-term survival.\n\nResults: Median survival after CA was 47 months compared to 25 months after PA (P=0.04). The corresponding 5-year survival rates were 44% vs. 20%. Median PFS for CA was 11 months compared to 7 months for PA (P=0.118). The sole statistically significant risk factor for PA was tumor size (>30 mm; P=0.0003). Sustained complete ablation was achieved in 71% of lesions <30 mm vs. 47% of lesions >30 mm.\n\nConclusions: We conclude that achievement of complete ablation is a highly important predictor of long-term survival and that tumor size is by far the most important predictor of the likelihood of achieving complete ablation.