Preclinical evaluation of therapeutic vaccines for chronic hepatitis B that stimulate antiviral activities of T cells and NKT cells.

Background & Aims: Liver diseases resulting from chronic HBV infection are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Vaccines that elicit T-cell responses capable of controlling the virus represent a treatment strategy with potential for long-term effects. Here, we evaluated vaccines that induce the activity of type I natural killer T (NKT) cells to limit viral replication and license stimulation of conventional antiviral T-cells.

Glycolipid-peptide conjugate vaccines elicit CD8 T-cell responses and prevent breast cancer metastasis.

Objectives: Metastasis is the principal cause of breast cancer mortality. Vaccines targeting breast cancer antigens have yet to demonstrate clinical efficacy, and there remains an unmet need for safe and effective treatment to reduce the risk of metastasis, particularly for people with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Certain glycolipids can act as vaccine adjuvants by specifically stimulating natural killer T (NKT) cells to provide a universal form of T-cell help.

Does socioeconomic status impact the relationship between school absence and outcomes?

Unlabelled: Absence from school, especially frequent or prolonged absence, is acknowledged as a potential factor in school dropout and suboptimal academic achievement. The issue of absence from school took on added significance in 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, which resulted in schooling interruptions in several jurisdictions. However, there is little agreement in the literature on the exact relationship between absence and school outcomes as a function of socioeconomic status (SES).

Practise till you drop: Trialing an online intervention for late-career medical practitioners to promote planning for retirement.

Many medical practitioners in Australia work beyond the traditional retirement age. Transitioning to retirement is important, however, because the likelihood of poorer clinical outcomes increases with practitioner age. The objective of the present study was to develop and trial an online educational intervention to promote planning for a smoother transition to retirement using a non-randomized control group pre- and post-test design.

Early adolescent drinking and cannabis use predicts later sleep-quality problems.

A range of biopsychosocial changes occur during adolescence that contribute to changes in the sleep-wake system. Use of alcohol and cannabis also increases during early adolescence; however, limited studies have examined the associations between changes in the use of alcohol and cannabis and later sleep problems. Participants ( = 245) aged 12 years were recruited from schools and completed a baseline assessment, which included questions about their alcohol and cannabis use.

Genetic regulation of antibody responsiveness to immunization in substrains of BALB/c mice.

Antibody-mediated immunity is highly protective against disease. The majority of current vaccines confer protection through humoral immunity, but there is high variability in responsiveness across populations. Identifying immune mechanisms that mediate low antibody responsiveness may provide potential strategies to boost vaccine efficacy.

A feasibility study: association between gut microbiota enterotype and antibody response to seasonal trivalent influenza vaccine in adults.

Objective: We investigated the potential feasibility of a randomized controlled trial of a nutritional intervention that may alter human gut microbiota and support immune defence against respiratory tract infection in adults (Proposed Study).

Methods: In total, 125 healthy adults aged 18-64 participated in a 6-month study that measured antibody response to the seasonal trivalent influenza vaccine. We assessed completion rates, procedure adherence rates and the influence of possible exclusion criteria on potential recruitment into the Proposed Study.

Using Balanced Time Perspective to Explain Well-Being and Planning in Retirement.

The notion of whether people focus on the past, present or future, and how it shapes their behavior is known as Time Perspective. Fundamental to the work of two of its earliest proponents, Zimbardo and Boyd (2008), was the concept of balanced time perspective and its relationship to wellness. A person with balanced time perspective can be expected to have a flexible temporal focus of mostly positive orientations (past-positive, present-hedonistic, and future) and much less negative orientations (past-negative and present-fatalistic).