Anti-Human PRKDC (Phospho-Thr2638) polyclonal antibody

Humanized mice have emerged as a testing platform for HIV-1 pathobiology by reflecting natural human disease processes. Their use to study HIV-1 biology, virology, immunology, pathogenesis and therapeutic development has served as a robust alternative to more-well developed animal models for HIV/ AIDS. A critical component in reflecting such human pathobiology rests in defining the tissue and cellular sites for HIV-1 infection. To this end, we examined the tissue sites for viral infection in bone marrow, blood, spleens, liver, gut, brain, kidney and lungs of human CD34+ hematopoietic stem cell engrafted virus-infected NOD. Cg-Prkdc(scid) Il2rg(tm1Wjl)/SzJ mice. Cells were analyzed by flow cytometry and sorted from species mixtures defined as CD34+ lineage negative progenitor cells, CD14+CD16+ monocyte-macrophages and central, stem cell and effector memory T cells. The cell distribution and viral life cycle were found dependent on the tissue compartment and time of infection. Cell subsets contained HIV-1 total and integrated DNA as well as multi-spliced and unspliced RNA in divergent proportions. The data support the idea that humanized mice can provide a means to examine the multifaceted sites of HIV-1 replication including, but not limited to progenitor cells and monocytemacrophages previously possible only in macaques and human.

DNA repair deficiency results in neurodegenerative disease and increased susceptibility to excitotoxic cell death, suggesting a critical but undefined role for DNA damage in neurodegeneration. We compared DNA damage, Ku70-Bax interaction, and Bax-dependent excitotoxic cell death in kainic acid-treated primary cortical neurons derived from both wild-type mice and mice deficient in the DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs) encoded by the Prkdc gene. In both wild-type and Prkdc(-/-) neurons, kainic acid treatment resulted in rapid induction of DNA damage (53BP1 foci formation) followed by nuclear pyknosis. Bax deficiency, by either Bax shRNA-mediated knockdown or gene deletion, protected wild-type and heterozygous but not Prkdc(-/-) neurons from kainate-induced excitotoxicity. Cotransfection of DNA-PKcs with Bax shRNA restored Bax shRNA-mediated neuroprotection in Prkdc(-/-) neurons, suggesting that DNA-PKcs is required for kainate-induced activation of the pro-apoptotic Bax pathway. Immunoprecipitation studies revealed that the DNA-PKcs-nonphosphorylatable Ku70 (S6A/S51A) bound 3- to 4-fold greater Bax than wild-type Ku70, suggesting that DNA-PKcs-mediated Ku70 phosphorylation causes release of Bax from Ku70. In support of this, kainic acid induced translocation of a Bax-EGFP fusion protein to the mitochondria in the presence of a cotransfected wild-type, but not mutant Ku70 (S6A/S51A) gene when examined at 4 and 8 h following kainate addition. We conclude that DNA-PKcs links DNA damage to Bax-dependent excitotoxic cell death, by phosphorylating Ku70 on serines 6 and/or 51, to initiate Bax translocation. to the mitochondria and directly activate a pro-apoptotic Bax-dependent death cascade. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.