National Institutes of Health

About: National Institutes of Health is a government organization based out in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Gene. The organization has 149298 authors who have published 297896 publications receiving 21337431 citations. The organization is also known as: NIH & U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The ENCODE (ENCyclopedia of DNA elements) Project

Abstract: The ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project aims to identify all functional elements in the human genome sequence. The pilot phase of the Project is focused on a specified 30 megabases (∼1%) of the human genome sequence and is organized as an international consortium of computational and laboratory-based scientists working to develop and apply high-throughput approaches for detecting all sequence elements that confer biological function. The results of this pilot phase will guide future efforts to analyze the entire human genome.

CD4+CD25+ suppressor T cells: more questions than answers

Abstract: Several mechanisms control discrimination between self and non-self, including the thymic deletion of autoreactive T cells and the induction of anergy in the periphery. In addition to these passive mechanisms, evidence has accumulated for the active suppression of autoreactivity by a population of regulatory or suppressor T cells that co-express CD4 and CD25 (the interleukin-2 receptor alpha-chain). CD4+ CD25+ T cells are powerful inhibitors of T-cell activation both in vivo and in vitro. The enhancement of suppressor-cell function might prove useful for the treatment of immune-mediated diseases, whereas the downregulation of these cells might be beneficial for the enhancement of the immunogenicity of vaccines that are specific for tumour antigens.

CHEMOKINE RECEPTORS AS HIV-1 CORECEPTORS: Roles in Viral Entry, Tropism, and Disease

Abstract: In addition to CD4, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) requires a coreceptor for entry into target cells. The chemokine receptors CXCR4 and CCR5, members of the G protein-coupled receptor superfamily, have been identified as the principal coreceptors for T cell line-tropic and macrophage-tropic HIV-1 isolates, respectively. The updated coreceptor repertoire includes numerous members, mostly chemokine receptors and related orphans. These discoveries provide a new framework for understanding critical features of the basic biology of HIV-1, including the selective tropism of individual viral variants for different CD4 C target cells and the membrane fusion mechanism governing virus entry. The coreceptors also provide molecular perspectives on central puzzles of HIV-1 disease, including the selective transmission of macrophage-tropic variants, the appearance of T cell line-tropic variants in many infected persons during progression to AIDS, and differing susceptibilities of individuals to infection and disease progression. Genetic findings have yielded major insights into the in vivo roles of individual coreceptors and their ligands; of particular importance is the discovery of an inactivating mutation in the CCR5 gene which, in homozygous form, confers strong resistance to HIV-1 infection. Beyond providing new perspectives on fundamental aspects of HIV-1 transmission and pathogenesis, the coreceptors suggest new avenues for developing novel therapeutic and preventative strategies to combat the AIDS epidemic.

BLAST 2 Sequences, a new tool for comparing protein and nucleotide sequences.

Abstract: 'BLAST 2 Sequences', a new BLAST-based tool for aligning two protein or nucleotide sequences, is described. While the standard BLAST program is widely used to search for homologous sequences in nucleotide and protein databases, one often needs to compare only two sequences that are already known to be homologous, coming from related species or, e.g. different isolates of the same virus. In such cases searching the entire database would be unnecessarily time-consuming. 'BLAST 2 Sequences' utilizes the BLAST algorithm for pairwise DNA-DNA or protein-protein sequence comparison. A World Wide Web version of the program can be used interactively at the NCBI WWW site (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gorf/bl2.++ +html). The resulting alignments are presented in both graphical and text form. The variants of the program for PC (Windows), Mac and several UNIX-based platforms can be downloaded from the NCBI FTP site (ftp://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).

National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association guidelines for the neuropathologic assessment of Alzheimer's disease

Abstract: A consensus panel from the United States and Europe was convened recently to update and revise the 1997 consensus guidelines for the neuropathologic evaluation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other diseases of brain that are common in the elderly. The new guidelines recognize the pre-clinical stage of AD, enhance the assessment of AD to include amyloid accumulation as well as neurofibrillary change and neuritic plaques, establish protocols for the neuropathologic assessment of Lewy body disease, vascular brain injury, hippocampal sclerosis, and TDP-43 inclusions, and recommend standard approaches for the workup of cases and their clinico-pathologic correlation.