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“Gap junctional communication plays an important role in various models of brain pathology, but the changes of gap junctions in Parkinsonism are still not understood. In this study, we show that a major gap junctional protein, connexin43 (Cx43), in astrocytes is enhanced both in Apoptosis inhibitor a rat Parkinson’s disease (PD) model induced with rotenone, a widely used pesticide that inhibits mitochondrial complex 1, and in vitro in cultured astrocytes stimulated with rotenone. Enhancement of Cx43 protein levels in rotenone-treated

cultured astrocytes occurred in parallel with an increase in gap junctional intercellular communication, but was not accompanied with an increase in Cx43 mRNA levels. Furthermore, the rotenone-induced increase of Cx43 protein levels both in vitro and in vivo was associated with increased levels of phosphorylated Cx43, which is required for gap junctional intercellular communication. In our rat PD model, phosphorylated C)43 was selectively enhanced in the basal ganglia regions, which contain DA neurons or their terminal areas. The increase of Cx43 levels was lower in the substantia nigra pars compacta and the striatum than

in the substantia nigra pars reticulata and the globus pallidus. Our findings indicate that modulation of Cx43 protein, and consequently gap junctional cellular communication, A-1210477 mouse in astrocytes may play an important role in PD pathology. (C) 2009 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Deciphering antibody specificities that constrain human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope (Env) diversity, limit virus replication, and contribute to neutralization breadth and potency is an important goal of current HIV/AIDS vaccine research. Transplantation of discrete HIV-1 neutralizing

epitopes into HIV-2 scaffolds may provide a sensitive, biologically functional context by which to quantify specific antibody reactivities even in complex sera. Here, we describe a novel HIV-2 proviral scaffold (pHIV-2(KR.X7)) into which we substituted next the complete variable region 3 (V3) of the env gene of HIV-1(YU2) or HIV-1(Ccon) to yield the chimeric proviruses pHIV-2(KR.X7) YU2 V3 and pHIV-2(KR.X7) Ccon V3. These HIV-2/HIV-1 chimeras were replication competent and sensitive to selective pharmacological inhibitors of virus entry. V3 chimeric viruses were resistant to neutralization by HIV-1 monoclonal antibodies directed against the CD4 binding site, coreceptor binding site, and gp41 membrane proximal external region but exhibited striking sensitivity to HIV-1 V3-specific monoclonal antibodies, 447-52D and F425 B4e8 (50% inhibitory concentration of [IC(50)] <0.005 mu g/ml for each).