Agri-News, August 17, 2006, Vol. 6, no. 16

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Agri-News, August 22, 2006, Vol. 6, no. 17

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

EPI Update, June 17, 2011

Weekly newsletter for Center For Acute Disease Epidemiology of Iowa Department of Public Health.

Agri-News, September 17, 2010, Vol. 10, no. 16

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Agri-News, October 8, 2010, Vol. 10, no. 17

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Human alveolar macrophages infected by virulent bacteria expressing SipB are a major source of active interleukin-18.

Recent publications have demonstrated that the protease caspase-1 is responsible for the processing of pro-interleukin 18 (IL-18) into the active form. Studies on cell lines and murine macrophages have shown that the bacterial invasion factor SipB activates caspase-1, triggering cell death. Thus, we investigated the role of SipB in the activation and release of IL-18 in human alveolar macrophages (AM), which are the first line of defense against inhaled pathogens. Under steady-state conditions, AM are a more important source of IL-18 than are dendritic cells (DC) and monocytes. Cytokine production by AM and DC was compared after both types of cells had been infected with a virulent strain of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and an isogenic sipB mutant, which were used as an infection model. Infection with virulent Salmonella led to marked cell death with features of apoptosis while both intracellular activation and release of IL-18 were demonstrated. In contrast, the sipB mutant did not induce such cell death or the release of active IL-18. The specific caspase-1 inhibitor Ac-YVAD-CMK blocked the early IL-18 release in AM infected with the virulent strain. However, the type of Salmonella infection did not differentially regulate IL-18 gene expression. We concluded that the bacterial virulence factor SipB plays an essential posttranslational role in the intracellular activation of IL-18 and the release of the cytokine in human AM.

Agri-News, October 16, 2009, Vol. 9, no. 17

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Agri-News, October 17, 2008, Vol. 8, no. 16

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Agri-News, November 7, 2008, Vol. 8, no. 17

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Agri-News, November 6, 2007, Vol. 7, no. 17

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Sequence analysis and expression of the attachment and fusion proteins of canine distemper virus wild-type strain A75/17.

The biological properties of wild-type A75/17 and cell culture-adapted Onderstepoort canine distemper virus differ markedly. To learn more about the molecular basis for these differences, we have isolated and sequenced the protein-coding regions of the attachment and fusion proteins of wild-type canine distemper virus strain A75/17. In the attachment protein, a total of 57 amino acid differences were observed between the Onderstepoort strain and strain A75/17, and these were distributed evenly over the entire protein. Interestingly, the attachment protein of strain A75/17 contained an extension of three amino acids at the C terminus. Expression studies showed that the attachment protein of strain A75/17 had a higher apparent molecular mass than the attachment protein of the Onderstepoort strain, in both the presence and absence of tunicamycin. In the fusion protein, 60 amino acid differences were observed between the two strains, of which 44 were clustered in the much smaller F2 portion of the molecule. Significantly, the AUG that has been proposed as a translation initiation codon in the Onderstepoort strain is an AUA codon in strain A75/17. Detailed mutation analyses showed that both the first and second AUGs of strain A75/17 are the major translation initiation sites of the fusion protein. Similar analyses demonstrated that, also in the Onderstepoort strain, the first two AUGs are the translation initiation codons which contribute most to the generation of precursor molecules yielding the mature form of the fusion protein.

Friday Facts, June 17, 2011, Vol. 106

Bureau of Nutrition and Health Promotion part of the Iowa Department of Public Health produces of weekly newsletter about the Iowa WIC Program for the State of Iowa citizen.