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Cryopreservation using liquid nitrogen frozen polyvinyl bags allows for storing cellular materials for extended periods while maintaining their activity and viability. Such bags are commonly used in the clinic to store blood products including blood cells, plasma, hematopoietic stem cells, umbilical cord blood for future uses including transplantation. These materials, typically obtained in limited quantities, may be of great therapeutic value, as is the case of stem cells or cord blood derived cells which can be used to potentially treat a number of diseases.

Investigators at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute have developed modified defensins that are resistant to degradation, have improved characteristics compared to unmodified defensins, and are promising candidates for pulmonary disease therapeutics.

Parvovirus B19 (B19V) is the only known pathogenic human parvovirus. Infection by this viral pathogen can cause transient aplastic crisis in individuals with high red cell turnover, pure red cell aplasia in immunosuppressed patients, and hydrops fetalis during pregnancy. In children, B19V most commonly causes erythema infectiosum, or fifth's disease. Infection can also cause arthropathy and arthralgia. The virus is very erythrotropic, targeting human erythroid (red blood) progenitors found in the blood, bone marrow, and fetal liver.

This technology relates to specific (N)-methanocarba adenine nucleosides that have been developed and dendrimers that connect these compounds to create molecules with multiple targets. Dendrimers are essentially repeated molecular branches presenting the core receptor-binding molecules. The compounds synthesized function as agonists and antagonists of a receptor of the G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily.

The inventors have isolated and characterized an alkaloid, phantasmidine, from the skin of the Ecuadoran poison frog E. anthonyi. Phantasmidine is selective for beta4-containing receptor subtypes, unlike many nicotinic receptor agonists currently in development, which target beta2-containing receptor subtypes.

This technology describes monoclonal antibodies against mouse chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 9 (CXCL9), also known as Monokine induced by gamma interferon (Mig). CXCL9 is a secreted protein that functions to attract white cells and increased expression of CXCL9 has been linked to several diseases. The inventors at the NIH generated over 100 anti-mouse CXCL9 antibodies from a CLXL9/Mig knockout mouse and further characterized several antibodies to show neutralization of CXCL9.

This invention discloses small molecule inhibitors of human 12-lipoxygenase (12-hLO). 12-lipoxygenase expression, activation, and lipid metabolites have been implicated in type 1 and type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease. The development of 12-hLO inhibitors may be a potent intracellular approach to decreasing the ability of platelets to form large clots in response to vessel injury or activation of the coagulation pathway.

NIH Inventors have recently discovered a novel Leucine-rich repeat and calponin homology domain-containing protein 4 (Lrch4) in a proteomic screen of the plasma membrane of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-exposed macrophages. Expression data by RT-PCR revealed that all Lrch family members (1-4) are expressed in macrophages, but only Lrch4 was recruited into lipid rafts (signaling microdomains of the plasma membrane) by LPS. Lrch4 is the most highly expressed Lrch family member in mouse tissues. It is a predicted single-spanning transmembrane protein that is encoded by the Lrch4 gene in humans.

Cerebral Cavernous Malformation (CCM) is a brain disease affecting up to 0.5% of the worldwide population. CCM is characterized by grossly dilated vessels prone to leaking and hemorrhage which result in severe headaches, seizures, and strokes. Inherited forms of the disease are due to mutations in one of three loci, CCM1, CCM2, and CCM3. Prior efforts to develop mice with targeted null mutations in Ccm1, Ccm2, or Ccm3 have been unsuccessful, as such mutations result in embryonic death.

This technology is a collection of small molecules screened for their ability to prevent or reduce the cytotoxic effects of the protein, Huntingtin. Huntington's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder due to a dominantly acting expansion of a CAG trinucleotide repeat in exon 1 of the Huntington (HTT) gene resulting in production of the altered (mutant) protein Huntingtin, which has a long chain of polyglutamine (poly Q) attached to the exon 1 encoded protein sequence.