None of the authors has any conflicts of interest associated with this study. “
“Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are multifunctional growth factors regulating differentiation and proliferation in numerous systems including the immune system. Previously, we described that the BMP signaling pathway is functional in human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MoDCs), which were found to express both the specific receptors and the Smad proteins required for signal transduction. In this study, see more we provide evidence that human MoDCs

produce BMP-4 and that this production is increased over the maturation process as is BMP signal transduction. When DCs are matured in the presence of an inhibitor of the BMP pathway, the expression of the maturation BAY 73-4506 concentration markers PD-L1 and PD-L2 is reduced, while cytokine production is not affected. As a result, these mature DCs present an augmented ability to stimulate both T cells and NK cells. Eventually, the inhibition of BMP signaling during maturation causes a reduced expression

of IRF-1, a transcription factor that positively regulates the expression of PD-L1 and PD-L2. The present study indicates that the BMP signaling pathway regulates PD-L1 and PD-L2 expression in human MoDCs during the maturation process, probably through the IRF-1 transcription factor, and also points out that the manipulation of BMP signaling might considerably improve the immunogenicity of MoDCs used in immunotherapy. “
“Recent years have witnessed an explosion in the amount of genomic information available for Toxoplasma gondii and other closely related pathogens. These data, many of which have been made publicly available prior to publication, have facilitated a wide variety of functional genomics studies. In this review, we provide a brief overview of existing

database tools for querying the Toxoplasma genome and associated genome-wide data and review recent publications that have been facilitated by these data. Topics covered include strain 4��8C comparisons and quantitative trait loci mapping, gene expression analyses during the cell cycle as well as during parasite differentiation, and proteomics. The primary repository for functional genomics data for Toxoplasma can be found at EupathDB.org (1,2). This site provides access to data from 22 species of apicomplexans and kinetoplastids and provides a variety of search tools to mine data, as well as genome browsers for each species. The site has complex query building software built in to allow users to customize searches and filter the results based on a number of relevant criteria. These include polymorphism and orthology profiles, gene expression across strains and developmental stages, and genomic location. From a comparative genomics perspective, the current version of EupathDB allows for searches to be conducted both within and between species. This is an incredibly powerful tool for comparative genomics.