Adult male offspring of ethanol and stress exposed dams (E + S) showed decreased F-partition time and increased M-partition time. Whereas F-partition time in all control mice prevailed over M-partition time, 78% E + S mice
demonstrated prevailed M-partition time. E + S mice were more active in social interaction with juvenile male. No significant differences between E + S and control mice in the open field and novelty tests were revealed. Therefore, E + S exposure during dam gestation inverted sexual partner preference in male offspring, suggesting that stress and alcohol in pregnancy produces predisposition to homosexuality. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Intramuscular administration of inactivated influenza virus vaccine is the main vaccine platform used
for the prevention of seasonal influenza virus infection. In clinical trials, inactivated H5N1 vaccines have been shown to be safe and capable of eliciting 8-Bromo-cAMP research buy immune correlates of protection. However, the H5N1 vaccines are poorly immunogenic compared to seasonal influenza virus vaccines. Needle-free vaccination would be more efficient and economical in a pandemic, and the development of an effective and safe mucosal adjuvant will be an important milestone. A stabilized chemical analog of double-stranded RNA, PIKA, was previously reported to be a potent mucosal adjuvant in a murine model. While PIKA selleck stimulates dendritic cells in vitro, little was known about its receptor and adjuvanting mechanism in vivo. In
this study, we demonstrated that the immunostimulatory effect of PIKA resulted in an increased number of mature antigen-presenting cells, with the induction of proinflammatory cytokines at the inoculation site. In addition, coadministration of PIKA with a poorly immunogenic H5N1 subunit vaccine led to antigen sparing and quantitative and qualitative improvements of the immune responses over those achieved with an unadjuvanted vaccine in mice. The adjuvanted vaccine provided protection against lethal challenge with homologous and heterologous H5N1 wild-type HKI-272 clinical trial viruses. Mice lacking functional TLR3 showed diminished cytokine production with PIKA stimulation, diminished antibody responses, and reduced protective efficacy against wild-type virus challenge following vaccination. These data suggest that TLR3 is important for the optimal performance of PIKA as an adjuvant. With its good safety profile and antigen-sparing effect, PIKA could be an attractive adjuvant for use in future pandemics.”
“The width of the attentional focus during the selection of one of two concurrent normal human participants was investigated using event-related potentials. Two stories were presented from virtual locations located 15 degrees to the left and right azimuth by convolving the speech message by the appropriate head-related transfer function determined for each individual participant.