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This invention is directed to use of certain peptide analogs comprising multiple amphipathic helical domains that are able to promote cellular lipid efflux and stimulate lipoprotein lipase activity. As a result, administration of invention peptides lead to reduced incidences of hypertriglyceridemia without inducing toxicity. Existing peptides that stimulate efflux of lipids from cells exhibit unacceptably high toxicity. Invention peptides are superior to existing peptides and can also be used to treat or prevent a vast range of vascular diseases, and their dyslipidemic precursors.

The retinoid-related orphan receptor gamma (RORgamma) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily. NIH investigators used homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells to generate mice in which the RORgamma gene was disrupted. RORgamma deficient mice lack peripheral and mesenteric lymph nodes and Peyer's patches indicating that ROR expression is indispensable for lymph node organogenesis. In addition, RORgamma is required for the generation of Th17 cells which play a critical role in autoimmune disease.

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.

This is a mouse model available to study T-cell differentiation. Growth factor independent 1 (GFi-1) is a transcriptional repressor that is transiently induced during T-cell activation. This knockout mouse line is a GFi-1[flox/flox] introduced into a mouse Cre controlled by a CD4 promoter, which allows selective removal of GFi-1 exclusively in T-cells. It has thus-far been used to demonstrate that GFi-1 plays a critical role in enhancing Th2 cell expansion and repressing induction of Th17 and CD103+ iTreg cells.

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.

SMAD7 conditional knockout mice are available for licensing. SMAD7 can be knocked out by breeding with CRE-recombinase transgenic mice with a variety of promoters to yield tissue or cell type-specific deletions of SMAD7. SMAD7 has been shown to play a role in bone morphogenesis, cardiovascular tissue generation, immune regulation and fibrosis. Therefore, these mice provide a unique model to examine the role of the SMAD7 gene in disease processes that involve immunological, fibrotic, or cardiovascular components.

Plasmodium vivax (malaria) is a significant health concern in many parts of Asia, Latin America, North Africa, and the Middle East. There is a lack of continuous culture systems for this pathogen. The subject technology is an erythroid progenitor continuous cell line (termed CD36E) identified by erythroid markers CD36, CD33, CD44, CD71, CD235, and globoside. These CD36E cells are heterozygous for Fya and Fyb (Duffy antigen). Due to recent evidence that Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) can infect erythroid progenitor cells (reference: YX Ru et al.

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.