A phase I, randomized study of combined IL-2 and therapeutic immunisation with antiretroviral therapy

Background  

Fully functional HIV-1-specific CD8 and CD4 effector T-cell responses are vital to the containment of viral activity and disease progression. These responses are lacking in HIV-1-infected patients with progressive disease. We attempted to augment fully functional HIV-1-specific CD8 and CD4 effector T-cell responses in patients with advanced chronic HIV-1 infection.     

A study of common discovery dosing formulation components and their potential for causing time-dependent matrix effects in high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry assays

Hydroxyproyl-beta-cyclodextran (HPBCD), methyl cellulose (MC), Tween 80 and PEG400 are commonly used in dosing formulations in pharmacokinetic (PK) studies during the early drug discovery stage. A series of studies was designed to evaluate the potential matrix effects of these dosing vehicles when the samples are assayed by high-performance liquid chromatography combined with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS/MS). These dosing vehicles were dosed into the rats via either an intravenous (IV) or an oral route (PO) and plasma samples were collected for a 24-h post-dose period. Five test compounds with CLog P values ranging from 0.9 to 5.4 were spiked into the collected rat plasma. After protein precipitation, these samples were analyzed using a generic fast-gradient HPLC/MS/MS method. Three popular mass spectrometers (Thermo-Finnigan Quantum with ESI and APCI, AB-Sciex API 3000 with ESI and APCI, and Waters-Micromass Quattro Ultima with ESI) were used to test these plasma samples. Results indicated that there was no observed matrix effect for all five compounds when 20% HPBCD or 0.4% MC was used as the vehicle in either the IV or the PO route, respectively. In addition, 0.1% Tween 80 dosed either IV or PO caused significant ion suppression (50-80%, compared to results obtained from plasma samples free from vehicles) for compounds that eluted at the beginning of the chromatogram. Also, PEG400 when used in an oral formulation caused significant ion suppression (30-50%) for early eluting compounds. These matrix effects were not only ionization mode (ESI or APCI) dependent, but also source design (Thermo-Finnigan, AB-Sciex or Waters-Micromass) dependent. Overall, the APCI mode proved to be less vulnerable to matrix effects than the ESI mode. Some possible mechanisms of these matrix effects are proposed and simple strategies to avoid these matrix effects are discussed.     

Femtosecond vibrational dynamics of self-trapping in a quasi-one-dimensional system

We have directly time resolved the lattice motions associated with the formation of the self-trapped exciton in the quasi-one-dimensional system [Pt(en)(2)] [Pt(en)2Br2];(PF6)(4) ( en = ethylene-diamine, C2H8N2), using femtosecond impulsive excitation techniques. A strongly damped, low-frequency wave packet modulation at approximately 110 cm(-1) accompanies the formation of the self-trapped exciton on a approximately 200 fs time scale following excitation of the intervalence charge-transfer transition. Coherent oscillations at the ground state vibrational frequency and its harmonics are also detected.     

Spectral Asymptotics for Higher-Order Ordinary Differential Equations

This paper gives one-term componentwise asymptotics for theM and spectral matrices of a self-adjoint realisation of aneven-order ordinary differential expression. The underlyinginterval is assumed to have at least one regular endpoint, andthe boundary conditions are supposed to be separated. Furthermore,the weight function and the reciprocal of the highest-ordercoefficient are supposed to be of regular variation at the regularendpoint, in the sense of Bingham, Goldie and Teugels. 1991Mathematics Subject Classification: 34B24, 34E05.     

TRPM5-expressing microvillous cells in the main olfactory epithelium

Background  

The main olfactory epithelium (MOE) in the nasal cavity detects a variety of air borne molecules that provide information regarding the presence of food, predators and other relevant social and environmental factors. Within the epithelium are ciliated sensory neurons, supporting cells, basal cells and microvillous cells, each of which is distinct in morphology and function. Arguably, the least understood, are the microvillous cells, a population of cells that are small in number and whose function is not known. We previously found that in a mouse strain in which the TRPM5 promoter drives expression of the green fluorescent protein (GFP), a population of ciliated olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), as well as a population of cells displaying microvilli-like structures is labeled. Here we examined the morphology and immunocytochemical properties of these microvillous-like cells using immunocytochemical methods.     

The role of pore size and stationary phase composition in preventing aqueous-induced retention time loss in reversed-phase HPLC

The phenomenon of aqueous mobile phase induced retention time loss, which has also been referred to as phase-collapse behavior, is investigated using a variety of stationary phases with an aqueous mobile phase. The loss of retention of several water-soluble B vitamins is measured as a function of silica pore size, bonded-phase chemistry, and bonded stationary phase density. It is found that these variables influence the magnitude of the retention time loss behavior and that controlling/optimizing these variables can result in a stationary phase with sufficient retention of the analyte without the column exhibiting the so-called phase-collapse behavior.     

An adeno-associated viral vector transduces the rat hypothalamus and amygdala more efficient than a lentiviral vector

Background  

This study compared the transduction efficiencies of an adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector, which was pseudotyped with an AAV1 capsid and encoded the green fluorescent protein (GFP), with a lentiviral (LV) vector, which was pseudotyped with a VSV-G envelop and encoded the discosoma red fluorescent protein (dsRed), to investigate which viral vector transduced the lateral hypothalamus or the amygdala more efficiently. The LV-dsRed and AAV1-GFP vector were mixed and injected into the lateral hypothalamus or into the amygdala of adult rats. The titers that were injected were 1 × 10⁸ or 1 × 10⁹ genomic copies of AAV1-GFP and 1 × 10⁵ transducing units of LV-dsRed.