The dismal prognosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA) is due in part due to a lack of molecular information regarding disease development. Established cell lines remain a useful tool for investigating these molecular events. Here we present a review of available information on commonly used PA cell lines as a resource to help investigators select the cell lines most appropriate for their particular research needs. Information on clinical history, in vitro and in vivo growth characteristics, phenotypic characteristics, such as adhesion, invasion, migration and tumorigenesis, and genotypic status of commonly altered genes (KRAS, p53, p16, and SMAD4) was evaluated. Identification of both consensus and discrepant information in the literature suggests careful evaluation before selection of cell lines and attention be given to cell line authentication.

The retroviruses including the human pathogens HIV-1 and HIV-2 are diploid inasmuch as they encapsidate two copies of their RNA genome. Prior to or during encapsidation, two copies of fulllength genomic RNA recognize and stably bind each other in a process called dimerization. RNA structures within the viral genome promote dimerization in both HIV-1 and HIV-2 and are located in the 5′ untranslated leader region. Inhibition of dimerization by mutation of these RNA signals has been demonstrated to drastically reduce virus infectivity and replication kinetics, and thus represents a potential target for antiretroviral therapy. In this study, we identified sites in HIV-2 leader region RNA that are functionally accessible to hybridization with oligonucleotides by reverse transcription with random oligonucleotide libraries, or RT-ROL (Allawi et al., 2001). We then tested specific oligonucleotides directed against these regions for their efficacy in inhibiting RNA dimerization in vitro. We determined that of several hybridization-competent oligonucleotides, only two were very effective in inhibiting RNA dimerization. Both of these oligonucleotides were complementary to viral RNA at the primer binding site (PBS). These results identify regions with high accessibility to oligonucleotide binding on HIV-2 RNA and help to map the region(s) essential for dimerization within the viral RNA.Introduction: