Recent journal publications

CONCLUSION: The effect of Treg on T cell-mediated immunocompetence against mCMV early after BMT depends on the relative contribution of peripheral expansion and thymopoiesis to T cell regenration. PMID: 20801217 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Transplant Immunology)

MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

In this study, we investigated whether ADAMTS1 promoter-driven reporter signal is detectable by acute hypoxia. We constructed the GFP-expression vector (AHR-GFP) under the control of ADAMTS1 promoter and compared it with the constitutive GFP-expressing vector under the control of cytomegalovirus promoter (CMV-GFP). We transduced AHR-GFP and examined whether GFP signals can be detected under the acute hypoxia. When the human umbilical vein (HUVEC) was transduced under normoxia, there were few GFP signals, while CMV-GFP showed considerable GFP signals. When HUVEC was stimulated with hypoxia, GFP signals from AHR-GFP gene were induced under hypoxic conditions. Notably, the GFP signals peaked at 3h under hypoxia. In ischemic hind limb model, transduced AHR-GFP showed hypoxic induction of GFP s...

Source: Health Protection Agency (HPA) Area: News According to UK figures released by the Health Protection Agency (HPA), a total of 482,696 new sexually transmitted infection diagnoses were reported to the agency from sexual health clinics across the UK and community based chlamydia testing in 2009. This is almost 12,000 more cases than were reported in 2008 when there were 470,701 new diagnoses, continuing the steady upward trend seen over the past decade.   Figures released include the following:     . Chlamydia diagnoses increased by 7% (from 203,773 in 2008 to 217,570 in 2009).   . Gonorrhoea diagnoses increased by 6% (from 16,451 in 2008 to 17,385 in 2009).   . Genital herpes diagnoses increased by 5% (from 28,807 in 2008 to ...

Authors: Wallace DL, Masters JE, de Lara CM, Henson SM, Worth A, Zhang Y, Kumar SR, Beverley PC, Akbar AN, Macallan DC Summary The immune response to human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is characterized by the accumulation of HCMV-specific CD8(+) T cells, particularly in the elderly; such expansions may impair immune responses to other pathogens. We investigated mechanisms underlying HCMV-specific expansions in 12 young and 21 old healthy subjects (although not all analyses were performed on all subjects). Phenotypically, HCMV-pentamer(+) CD8(+) T cells were characterized by marked Vbeta restriction, advanced differentiation (being predominantly CD27(-) CD28(-)), and variable CD45RO/RA expression. Although more common and larger in older subjects, expansions had similar phenotypic c...

(Source: Reactions)

(Source: Reactions)

Conclusion: EBV infection is a frequent event in apical periodontitis, whereas the involvement of HCMV still remains to be elucidated. This study showed that symptomatic manifestation was likely to occur if a large-sized apical periodontitis lesion is aggravated with active EBV infection. (Source: Journal of Endodontics)

Conclusion Clinically important drug-drug interactions can occur in immunocompromised transplant recipients who are treated for CMV infection. Because of the high toxicity and narrow therapeutic range of the antiviral medications available for CMV management, patients should be carefully monitored for any potential adverse effects from such interactions. PMID: 20720240 [PubMed - in process] (Source: American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy : AJHP)

Co-infections are common and may be missed if providers relay on clinical examination and history only. Medscape Nurses (Source: Medscape Today Headlines)

Title: Infectious MononucleosisCategory: Diseases and ConditionsCreated: 12/31/1997Last Editorial Review: 8/20/2010 (Source: MedicineNet Skin General)

We report that UL97 prevents the deposition of aggregates of two non-polyQ proteins: a protein chimera (GFP170*) composed of the green fluorescent protein and a fragment of the Golgi Complex protein (GCP-170); and a chimera composed of the red fluorescent protein (RFP) fused to the Werner Syndrome protein (WRN), a RecQ helicase and exonuclease involved in DNA repair. Furthermore, we show that UL97 inhibits aggregate deposition in cellular models of HD and SCA3. UL97 prevents the deposition of aggregates of the mutant huntingtin exon 1 containing 82 glutamine repeats (HttExon1-Q82) or full length ataxin-3 containing a 72 polyQ track (AT3-72Q). The kinase activity of UL97 appears critical, as the kinase dead UL97 mutant (K335M) fails to prevent aggregate formation. We further show that UL97 ...

MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

Authors: Gonzalez AM, Podvin S, Leadbeater W, Borboa A, Burg M, Sawada R, Rayner J, Sims K, Terasaki T, Johanson C, Stopa E, Eliceiri B, Baird A Because the choroid plexus normally controls the production and composition of cerebrospinal fluid and as such, its many functions of the central nervous system, we investigated whether ligand-mediated targeting could deliver genes to its secretory epithelium. We show here that when bacteriophage are targeted with epidermal growth factor, they acquire the ability to enter choroid epithelial cells grown in vitro as cell cultures, ex vivo as tissue explants or in vivo by intra-cerebro-ventricular injection. The binding and internalization of these particles activates EGF receptors on targeted cells and the dose-, and time- dependant internalizat...

Authors: Brodeur ND, Spencer JV Interleukin-10 is as a pivotal determinant of virus clearance or persistence. Two human herpesviruses, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) are unique among persistent viruses because they not only trigger production of host IL-10, but both viruses encode homologs of IL-10 that are expressed during infection. Because anti-human IL-10 antibodies have diagnostic value and therapeutic potential for many chronic infections, cross-reactivity with ebvIL-10 and cmvIL-10 was evaluated in this study. Six of seven anti-hIL-10 antibodies tested recognized ebvIL-10 and neutralized its immunosuppressive activity. In contrast, cmvIL-10 was neither recognized nor neutralized by any anti-human IL-10 antibody. These findings demonstrate that IL-10-ne...

Source: AJHSP Area: News Clinically important drug-drug interactions can occur in immunocompromised transplant recipients who are treated for cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. In this review, the authors discuss interactions with the following antivirals:   . Ganciclovir . Valganciclovir . Foscarnet . Cidofovir . Leflunomide . CMV IVIG (Source: NeLM - News)

ABSTRACT (Source: Acta Paediatrica)

Authors: Brunner S, Herndler-Brandstetter D, Weinberger B, Grubeck-Loebenstein B Immunosenescence comprises a set of dynamic changes occurring to both, the innate as well as the adaptive immune system that accompany human aging and result in complex manifestations of still poorly defined deficiencies in the elderly population. One of the most prominent alterations during aging is the continuous involution of the thymus gland which is almost complete by the age of 50. Consequently, the output of naïve T cells is greatly diminished in elderly individuals which puts pressure on homeostatic forces to maintain a steady T cell pool for most of adulthood. In a great proportion of the human population, this fragile balance is challenged by persistent viral infections, especially Cytomegalov...

MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

Authors: van Bergen J, Koning F Summary The killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) locus comprises a variable and rapidly evolving set of genes encoding multiple inhibitory and activating receptors. The activating receptors recently evolved from the inhibitory receptors and both bind HLA class I and probably also class I-like structures induced by viral infection. Although generally considered natural killer (NK) cell receptors, KIR are also expressed by a large fraction of effector memory T cells, which slowly accumulate during human life. These effector memory cells are functionally similar to NK cells, as they are immediate effector cells that are cytotoxic and produce IFN-gamma. However, different rules apply to NK and T cells with respect to KIR expression and function. Fo...

Viral Immunology Aug 2010, Vol. 23, No. 4: 443-447. (Source: Viral Immunology)

In this report we demonstrate an HLA-A*0201 restricted CMV-specific CD8 T-cell response (designated YVL) that represents several percent of the CD8 T-cell subset, yet fails to bind tetrameric major histocompatibility complex (MHC) ligands. However, these tetramer-negative cells are both phenotypically and functionally similar to other CMV-specific CD8 T cells. YVL peptide-specific CD8 T-cell clones were generated and found to be of high avidity in both cytotoxicity and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) assays, and comparable with other CMV peptide-specific CD8 T-cell clones. However, under conditions of CD8 blockade, the response was almost nullified even at very high ligand concentrations. This was also the case in IFN-gamma experiments using peripheral blood mononuclear cells stimulated with ...

MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

In this study, we investigated the anti-HCMV activity of chemically sulfated derivatives of Escherichia coli K5 capsular polysaccharide. These compounds are structurally related to cellular heparan sulfate and have been previously shown to be effective against some enveloped and non-enveloped viruses. We demonstrated that two derivatives, i.e., K5-N,OS(H) and K5-N,OS(L), are able to prevent cell infection by different strains of HCMV at concentrations in the nanomolar range while having no significant cytotoxicity. Studies performed to elucidate the mechanism of action of their anti-HCMV activity revealed that these compounds do not interact with either the host cell or the viral particle but need a virus-cell interaction to exert antiviral effects. Furthermore, these K5 derivatives were a...