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Introduction: Alveolar macrophages (AM) form the first line of defense in the lung alveoli (1). Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is a common hospital acquired infectious agent that can cause life-threatening infections [...]

Introduction: Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is a common nosocomial pathogen primarily affecting immunodeficient individuals and in genetically susceptible diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis and Chronic Granulomatous Disease. PA causes clinical problem [...]

We have investigated the toxicity of nanomaterials to living cells at the cellular and molecular levels. Recently, nanomaterials have being rapidly developed and shown great potential for use in various [...]

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) can cause severe infection in immunodeficient individuals, such as Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients. The initial contact and subsequent invasion of alveolar epithelium by the bacterium involves a [...]

Ag activation of the BCR may play a role in the pathogenesis of human follicular lymphoma (FL) and other B cell malignancies. However, the nature of the Ag(s) recognized by tumor BCRs has not been well studied. In this study, we used unbiased approaches to demonstrate that 42 (19.35%) of 217 tested FL Igs recognized vimentin as a shared autoantigen. The epitope was localized to the N-terminal region of vimentin for all vimentin-reactive tumor Igs. We confirmed specific binding to vimentin by using recombinant vimentin and by performing competitive inhibition studies. Furthermore, using indirect immunofluorescence staining, we showed that the vimentin-reactive tumor Igs colocalized with an anti-vimentin mAb in HEp-2 cells. The reactivity to N-terminal vimentin of IgG FL Igs was significantly higher than that of IgM FL Igs (30.4 versus 10%; p = 0.0022). However, vimentin-reactive FL Igs did not share CDR3 motifs and were not homologous. Vimentin was expressed in the T cell–rich regions of FL, suggesting that vimentin is available for binding with tumor BCRs within the tumor microenvironment. Vimentin was also frequently recognized by mantle cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma Igs. Our results demonstrate that vimentin is a shared autoantigen recognized by nonstereotyped FL BCRs and by the Igs of mantle cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma and suggest that vimentin may play a role in the pathogenesis of multiple B cell malignancies. These findings may lead to a better understanding of the biology and natural history of FL and other B cell malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses nanomaterial toxicity to living cells. Nanomaterials have been developed and proven to have great potential for use in various bioapplications due to unique optical properties and high surface-to-volume ratio. One of the most attractive applications involving the use of nanomaterials is on cancer therapy. In the study on the toxicity of nanomaterials to living cell, results showed that nanomaterials have no apparent effects on survival in several types of living cells.