HIV是如何攻击人体免疫系统的?

在过去15年里,各国政府与研究机构在艾滋病研究方面均投入了大量的财力,科研人员与医生在疾病治疗方面也取得了显著进展,而且对引发艾滋病的HIV病毒是如何感染细胞的也获得了新认识。但是,科学家们对于HIV究竟是怎样导致免疫系统崩溃的,即感染的基本过程还不是十分清楚。多数研究人员坚持认为,HIV能直接杀死被称为协助者的T细胞,或CDe细胞,结果免疫系统因细胞被疯狂置换和取代而出现崩溃。据最新研究显示,C］X细胞分裂的不同途径可能起着更重要的作用。最近,一些研究人员怀疑,病毒有阻断新免疫细胞供给的作用。有些科学家…     

Nonsense-mediated decay microarray analysis identifies mutations of EPHB2 in human prostate cancer

The identification of tumor-suppressor genes in solid tumors by classical cancer genetics methods is difficult and slow. We combined nonsense-mediated RNA decay microarrays and array-based comparative genomic hybridization for the genome-wide identification of genes with biallelic inactivation involving nonsense mutations and loss of the wild-type allele. This approach enabled us to identify previously unknown mutations in the receptor tyrosine kinase gene EPHB2. The DU 145 prostate cancer cell line, originating from a brain metastasis, carries a truncating mutation of EPHB2 and a deletion of the remaining allele. Additional frameshift, splice site, missense and nonsense mutations are present in clinical prostate cancer samples. Transfection of DU 145 cells, which lack functional EphB2, with wild-type EPHB2 suppresses clonogenic growth. Taken together with studies indicating that EphB2 may have an essential role in cell migration and maintenance of normal tissue architecture, our findings suggest that mutational inactivation of EPHB2 may be important in the progression and metastasis of prostate cancer.