B- and T-Lymphocyte Attenuator in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Pathogenesis.

B- and T-lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA; CD272) is an immunoglobulin superfamily member and part of a family of checkpoint inhibitory receptors that negatively regulate immune cell activation. The natural ligand for BTLA is herpes virus entry mediator (HVEM; TNFRSF14), and binding of HVEM to BTLA leads to attenuation of lymphocyte activation. In this study, we evaluated the role of BTLA and HVEM expression in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a multisystem autoimmune disease.

Epitope topography of agonist antibodies to the checkpoint inhibitory receptor BTLA.

B and T lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA) is an attractive target for a new class of therapeutics that attempt to rebalance the immune system by agonizing checkpoint inhibitory receptors (CIRs). Herpesvirus entry mediator (HVEM) binds BTLA in both trans- and cis-orientations. We report here the development and structural characterization of three humanized BTLA agonist antibodies, 22B3, 25F7, and 23C8.

Estuarine fish assemblages present a species-specific difference in the multixenobiotics resistance activity.

We investigated the activity of the multixenobiotic resistance (MXR) phenotype, a biological defense system in aquatic organisms, in the fish assemblages of two tropical estuaries with different degrees of environmental impacts, the Paraiba River and Mamanguape River Estuaries. The aim of this work was to compare the activity of the MXR phenotype of different fishes to test the hypothesis that each species has an inherent activity level and to use this activity as a bioindicator of aquatic contamination. We assessed the MXR activity of the gills, using rhodamine B (RB) accumulation assay.

Gill parasites of fish from two estuaries in northeastern Brazil: new hosts and geographical records.

Parasites are important components of communities and constitute great part of the biological diversity found in ecosystems, providing valuable information about their hosts and the environment in which they live. However, despite its importance, parasitic diversity is still not well known in some regions of Brazil, especially with respect to fish parasites in the Northeast Region. The present study aims to perform the survey of gill parasites of fish from two tropical estuaries located in northeastern Brazil: Paraíba and Mamanguape rivers.