Natural Products and Molecular Therapy: First International Conference, Volume 1056

Introductory Remarks: African Perspective on Natural Products and Molecular Medicine (A D Mbewu).

Part I: Allergy, Apoptosis, Inflammation, and Immunomodulators.

1. Vaccinia Virus Complement Control Protein Diminishes Formation of Atherosclerotic Lesions: Complement Is Centrally Involved in Atherosclerotic Disease (Perla Thorbjornsdottir, Ragnhildur Kolka, Eggert Gunnarsson, Slavko H. Bambir, Guðmundur Thorgeirsson, Girish J. Kotwal, and Guðmundur J. Arason).

2. Cytokine Therapy (Antony Cutler and Frank Brombacher).

3. Fighting Food Allergy: Current Approaches (Natalie E. Nieuwenhuizen and Andreas L. Lopata).

4. Parasite Mitochondria as a Target of Chemotherapy: Inhibitory Effect of Licochalcone A on the Plasmodium falciparum Respiratory Chain (Fumika Mi-Ichi, Hiroko Miyadera, Tamaki Kobayashi, Shinzaburo Takamiya, Seiji Waki, Susumu Iwata, Shoji Shibata, and Kiyoshi Kita).

5. Vaccinia Virus Complement Control Protein Ameliorates Collagen-Induced Arthritic Mice (Purushottam Jha, Scott A. Smith, David E. Justus, and Girish J. Kotwal).

6. The Vaccinia Virus N1L Protein Influences Cytokine Secretion in Vitro after Infection (Zhouning Zhang, Melissa-Rose Abrahams, Lawrence A. Hunt, Jill Suttles, William Marshall, Debomoy K. Lahiri, and Girish J. Kotwal).

7. The Vaccinia Virus N1L ORF May Encode a Multifunctional Protein Possibly Targeting Different Kinases, One of Which Influences ATP Levels in Vivo (Melissa-Rose Abrahams, Zhouning Zhang, Sufan Chien, Tim Skerns, and Girish J. Kotwal).

8. Curcumin Inhibits the Classical and the Alternate Pathways of Complement Activation (Amod P. Kulkarni, Yohannes T. Ghebremariam, and Girish J. Kotwal).

9. Humanized Recombinant Vaccinia Virus Complement Control Protein (hrVCP) with Three Amino Acid Changes, H98Y, E102K, and E120K Creating an Additional Putative Heparin Binding Site, Is 100-fold More Active Than rVCP in Blocking Both Classical and Alternative Complement Pathways (Yohannes T. Ghebremariam, Odutayo O. Odunuga, Kristen Janse, and Girish J. Kotwal).

10. Intervention Strategies and Agents Mediating the Prevention of Xenorejection (Yohannes T. Ghebremariam, Scott A. Smith, J B Anderson, D Kahn, and Girish J. Kotwal).

11. Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome: An Example of Insufficient Complement Regulation on Self-Tissue (John P. Atkinson, M Kathryn Liszewski, Anna Richards, David Kavanagh, and Elizabeth A. Moulton).

Part II: Structural Biology of Natural Proteins.

12. Oligomeric Structure of Nitrilases: Effect of Mutating Interfacial Residues on Activity (B T Sewell, R N Thuku, X Zhang, and M J Benedik).

13. Development of Domain-Selective Angiotensin I-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors (Pierre Redelinghuys, Aloysius T. Nchinda, and Edward D. Sturrock).

14. Opportunities for New Therapies Based on the Natural Regulators of Complement Activation (Eve Brook, Andrew P. Herbert, Huw T. Jenkins, Dinesh C. Soares, and Paul N. Barlow).

Part III: Natural Enhancers of Health and Fertility.

15. Arthropod-Derived Protein EV131 Inhibits Histamine Action and Allergic Asthma (Wynne Weston-Davies, Isabelle Couillin, Silvia Schnyder, Bruno Schnyder, Rene Moser, Olga Lissina, Guido C. Paesen, Patricia Nuttall, and Bernhard Ryffel).

16. Histamine Scavenging Attenuates Endotoxin-Induced Acute Lung Injury (Bernhard Ryffel, Isabelle Couillin, Isabelle Maillet, Bruno Schnyder, Guido C. Paesen, Patricia Nuttall, and Wynne Weston-Davies).

Part IV: Traditional African, Asian, and Mediterranean.

17. Curcumin: Getting Back to the Roots (Shishir Shishodia, Gautam Sethi, and Bharat B. Aggarwal).

18. Transcription Factor NF-B: A Sensor for Smoke and Stress Signals (Kwang Seok Ahn and Bharat B. Aggarwal).

19. Thiolsulfinate Allicin from Garlic: Inspiration for a New Antimicrobial Agent (Roger Hunter, Mino Caira, and Nashia Stellenboom).

20. Effect of Rhythmic Breathing (Sudarshan Kriya and Pranayam) on Immune Functions and Tobacco Addiction (Vinod Kochupillai, Pratik Kumar, Devinder Singh, Dhiraj Aggarwal, Narendra Bhardwaj, Manisha Bhutani, and Satya N. Das).

21. Mediterranean Diet and Cardiovascular Health (Dario Giugliano and Katherine Esposito).

22. Antiulcer and Antioxidant Activity of Asparagus racemosus WILLD and Withania somnifera DUNAL in Rats (Maheep Bhatnagar, Siddhraj S. Sisodia, and Rekha Bhatnagar).

Part V: Antiviral, Antimicrobial Live Vaccine and Plant Vaccines.

23. Novel Drugs and Vaccines Based on the Structure and Function of HIV Pathogenic Proteins Including Nef (Ahmed A. Azad).

24. Anti-HIV, Anti-Poxvirus, and Anti-SARS Activity of a Nontoxic, Acidic Plant Extract from the Trifollium Species Secomet-V/anti-Vac Suggests That It Contains a Novel Broad-Spectrum Antiviral (Girish J. Kotwal, Jennifer N. Kaczmarek, Steven Leivers, Yohannes T. Ghebremariam, Amod P. Kulkarni, Gabriele Bauer, Corena De Beer, Wolfgang Preiser, and Abdu Rahman Mohamed).

25. In Vitro Mutagenicity Studies of the Antiretrovirals AZT, Didanosine, and 3TC and a Plant Antiviral Extract Secomet-V Derived from the Trifollium Species (Michela Ballardin, Roberto Scarpato, Girish J. Kotwal, and Roberto Barale).

26. Punica granatum (Pomegranate) Juice Provides an HIV-1 Entry Inhibitor and Candidate Topical Microbicide (A Robert Neurath, Nathan Strick, Yun-Yao Li, and Asim K. Debnath).

27. Strategies for Human Papillomavirus Therapeutic Vaccines and Other Therapies Based on the E6 and E7 Oncogenes (V A Govan).

Part VI: Cutting Edge Technologies and Delivery System.

28. ProtExTM: A Novel Technology to Display Exogenous Proteins on the Cell Surface for Immunomodulation (Narendra P. Singh, Esma S. Yolcu, Nadir Askenasy, and Haval Shirwan).

29. Development and Evaluation of a Suppository Formulation Containing Lactobacillus and Its Application in Vaginal Diseases (Vinita V. Kale, Rashmi V. Trivedi, Sanjay P. Wate, and Kishor P. Bhusari).

30. Novel Bacterial Delivery System with Attenuated Salmonella typhimurium Carrying Plasmid Encoding Mtb Antigen 85A for Mucosal Immunization: Establishment of Proof of Principle in TB Mouse Model (Shreemanta K. Parida, Kris Huygen, Bernhard Ryffel, and Trinad Chakraborty).

Part VII: Natural Anticancer Therapy.

31. TRAIL (TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand) Induces Necrosis-Like Cell Death in Tumor Cells at Acidic Extracellular pH (Olivier Meurette, Laurence Huc, Amelie Rebillard, Gwenaelle Le Moigne, Dominique Lagadic-Gossmann, and Marie-Therese Dimanche-Boitrel).

32. Cloning and Expression of a Functionally Active Truncated N-Glycosylated KSHV ORF4/KCP/Kaposica in the Methylotrophic Yeast Pichia pastoris (Neuza A. Gomes Pereira, Maria A. Juliano, Adriana K. Carmona, Edward D. Sturrock, and Girish J. Kotwal).

33. Antiesophageal Cancer Activity from Southern African Marine Organisms (Catherine E. Whibley, Robert A. Keyzers, Andrew G. Soper, Michael T. Davies-Coleman, Toufiek Samaai, and Denver T. Hendricks).

Part VIII: Neuroprotection.

34. Herbal Complement Inhibitors in the Treatment of Neuroinflammation: Future Strategy for Neuroprotection (Amod P. Kulkarni, Laurie A. Kellaway, and Girish J. Kotwal).

35. Amyloid, Cholinesterase, Melatonin, and Metals and Their Roles in Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases (Debomoy K. Lahiri, De-Mao Chen, Preeti Lahiri, Steve Bondy, and Nigel H. Greig).

36. Administration of Vaccinia Virus Complement Control Protein Shows Significant Cognitive Improvement in a Mild Injury Model (Nirvana S. Pillay, Laurie A. Kellaway, and Girish J. Kotwal).

37. Novel Peptides of Therapeutic Promise from Indian Conidae (K Hanumae Gowd, V Sabareesh, S Sudarslal, Prathima Iengar, Benjamin Franklin, Antony Fernando, Kalyan Dewan, Mani Ramaswami, Siddhartha P. Sarma, Sujit Sikdar, P Balaram, and K S Krishnan).

38. Stabilization of Mitochondrial Membrane Potential and Improvement of Neuronal Energy Metabolism (Ginkgo Biloba Extract EGb 761 (Anne Eckert, Uta Keil, Isabel Scherping, Susanne Hauptmann, and Walter E. Müller).

Part IX: Wound Healing and Laser Therapy.

39. Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) as an Effective Therapeutic Modality for Delayed Wound Healing (D Hawkins, N Houreld, and H Abrahamse).

Closing Remarks (Manto Tshabalala-Msimang).

Index of Contributors.