Protein
Chapters
A Short History of Small s: A Prion of the Fungus Podospora Anserina
Sven J. Saupe
Prions are infectious proteins. In fungi, prions correspond to non-Mendelian genetic elements whose mode of inheritance has long eluded explanation. The [Het-s] cytoplasmic genetic element of the filamentous fungus Podospora anserina, was originally identified in 1952 and recognized as a prion...
CD137 Pathway in Innate and Adaptive Immunity
Ryan A. Wilcox and Lieping Chen
CD137 is a member of the TNF receptor superfamily which may be induced on a variety of cells, including activated T lymphocytes, natural killer cells and dendritic cells. Studies performed both in vitro and in vivo have suggested that CD137 activation pathway is capable of regulating cellula...
CD40 and CD154
Iqbal S. Grewal
CD40 is a cell surface receptor that belongs to the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor superfamily and was initially shown to be critical for mediating contact-dependent signals between B and T cells. Thus, early studies have established that interactions of CD40 with its ligand, CD154 (CD...
Chaperone Effects on Prion and Nonprion Aggregates
Eugene G. Rikhvanov, Nina V. Romanova and Yury O. Chernoff
Exposure to high temperature or other stresses induces a synthesis of heat shock proteins. Many of these proteins are molecular chaperones, and some of them help cells to cope with heat-induced denaturation and aggregation of other proteins. In the last decade, chaperones have received increas...
Prion and Nonprion Amyloids: A Comparison Inspired by the Yeast Sup35 Protein
Vitaly V. Kushnirov, Aleksandra B. Vishnevskaya, Ilya M. Alexandrov and Michael D. Ter-Avanesyan
Yeast prion determinants are related to polymerization of some proteins into amyloid-like fibers. The [PSI+] determinant reflects polymerization of the Sup35 protein. Fragmen- tation of prion polymers by the Hsp104 chaperone represents a key step of the prion replication cycle. The frequency of...
Prion Stability
Brian S. Cox, Lee Byrne and Mick F. Tuite
The rate of spontaneous change from y- to the y+ condition determined in yeast by states of the Sup35p protein is briefly discussed, together with the conditions necessary for such change to occur. Conditions that promote and which affect the rate of induction of y+ in Sup35p and of other prio...
Prion-Prion Interactions
Irina L. Derkatch and Susan W. Liebman
The term prion has been used to describe self-replicating protein conformations that can convert other protein molecules of the same primary structure into its prion conformation. Several different proteins have now been found to exist as prions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Surprisingly, these...
Regulation of T Cell Immunity by OX40 and OX40L
Michael Croft, Shahram Salek-Ardakani, Jianxun Song, Takanori So and Pratima Bansal-Pakala
OX40 (CD134) and its binding partner OX40-ligand (OX40L) represent members of the TNFR and TNF superfamilies that appear to be crucial to many types of immune reaction mediated by T cells. Emerging data have now put these molecules at the forefront of the field of what has been termed T cell...
The Genetic Control of the Formation and Propagation of the [PSI+] Prion of Yeast
Mick F. Tuite and Brian S. Cox
It is over 40 years since it was first reported that the yeast Saccahromyces cerevisiae contains two unusual cytoplasmic ‘genetic’ elements: [PSI+] and [URE3]. Remarkably the underlying determinants are protein-based rather than nucleic acid-based, i.e., that they are prions, and we have alrea...
The Role of LIGHT in Autoimmunity
Jing Wang and Yang-Xin Fu
This chapter focuses on the role of LIGHT in the induction of auto- immunity. LIGHT and LTab share the same receptor, LTbR, and coop- erate in lymphoid organogenesis and development of lymphoid structure. Previous findings establish a crucial biological role for LIGHT, a T cell-derived costimu...
Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) and Neurodegeneration
Rammohan V. Rao, H. Michael Ellerby and Dale E. Bredesen
Cytokines are a family of growth factors that are secreted by the cells of the immune system. The family includes interleukins (IL), interferons (IFN), tumor necrosis factors (TNF), chemokines and other growth factors. Cytokines stimulate both the humoral and cellular immune responses as wel...
