Dopamine enhances signal-to-noise ratio in cortical-brainstem encoding of aversive stimuli.

Dopamine modulates medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activity to mediate diverse behavioural functions; however, the precise circuit computations remain unknown. One potentially unifying model by which dopamine may underlie a diversity of functions is by modulating the signal-to-noise ratio in subpopulations of mPFC neurons, where neural activity conveying sensory information (signal) is amplified relative to spontaneous firing (noise). Here we demonstrate that dopamine increases the signal-to-noise ratio of responses to aversive stimuli in mPFC neurons projecting to the dorsal periaqueductal grey (dPAG).

The Homolog of the Gene of the BTP1 Phage from Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium ST313 Is an Antivirulence Gene in Salmonella enterica Serovar Dublin.

In a previous study, a novel virulence gene, , identified in a serovar Typhimurium sequence type 313 (ST313) strain was found to be conserved in all published serovar Dublin genomes. In order to analyze the role of this gene in the host-pathogen interaction in Dublin, a mutant where this gene was deleted ( Dublin Δ) and a mutant which was further genetically complemented with ( Dublin 3246-C) were constructed and tested in models of and infection as well as during growth competition assays in M9 medium, Luria-Bertani broth, and cattle blood. In contrast to the results obtained for a strain of Typhimurium ST313, the lack of was found to be associated with increased virulence in Dublin.

Multiple roles of putrescine and spermidine in stress resistance and virulence of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium.

Polyamines (putrescine and spermidine) are small-cationic amines ubiquitous in nature and present in most living cells. In recent years they have been linked to virulence of several human pathogens including Shigella spp and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium).

Human infection with Ascaris lumbricoides is associated with suppression of the interleukin-2 response to recombinant cholera toxin B subunit following vaccination with the live oral cholera vaccine CVD 103-HgR.

To investigate the potential immunomodulatory effects of concurrent ascariasis on the cytokine response to a live oral vaccine, we measured cytokine responses to cholera toxin B subunit (CT-B) following vaccination with the live oral cholera vaccine CVD 103-HgR in Ascaris lumbricoides-infected subjects randomized in a double-blind study to receive two doses of either albendazole or placebo prior to vaccination and in a group of healthy U.S. controls.