Human coronavirus NL63 open reading frame 3 encodes a virion-incorporated N-glycosylated membrane protein.

Background: Human pathogenic coronavirus NL63 (hCoV-NL63) is a group 1 (alpha) coronavirus commonly associated with respiratory tract infections. In addition to known non-structural and structural proteins all coronaviruses have one or more accessory proteins whose functions are mostly unknown. Our study focuses on hCoV-NL63 open reading frame 3 (ORF 3) which is a highly conserved accessory protein among coronaviruses.

Pasireotide and octreotide stimulate distinct patterns of sst2A somatostatin receptor phosphorylation.

Pasireotide (SOM230) is currently under clinical evaluation as a successor compound to octreotide for the treatment of acromegaly, Cushing's disease, and carcinoid tumors. Whereas octreotide acts primarily via the sst(2A) somatostatin receptor, pasireotide was designed to exhibit octreotide-like sst(2A) activity combined with enhanced binding to other somatostatin receptor subtypes. In the present study, we used phophosite-specific antibodies to examine agonist-induced phosphorylation of the rat sst(2A) receptor.

Novel sample preparation method for molecular detection of Mollicutes in cell culture samples.

Research laboratories, raw materials and media suppliers as well as the biopharmaceutical industry face recurrent contamination with Mollicutes. Culture-based detection methods are very slow (28 days) and could ideally be replaced by nucleic acid testing (NAT) for rapid result. These methods are nonetheless hampered by their companion sample preparation methods.

Magneto-optical Kerr effect spectroscopy--a sensitive tool for investigating the molecular orientation in organic semiconductor films.

The detection and control of the molecular growth mode is a key prerequisite for fabricating opto-electronic devices. In this work we present the magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) spectroscopy to be a highly sensitive method for the detection of the molecular orientation. On the example of metal free phthalocyanine (H(2)Pc) in thin films, it will be shown that also for diamagnetic molecules a strong magneto-optical response can be expected.

New horizons: otitis media research in Australia.

Otitis media affects nearly all children worldwide. Despite an enormous amount of research, our understanding of this common condition continues to be challenged. New pathogens involved in otitis media are still being identified.

Otitis media: viruses, bacteria, biofilms and vaccines.

Otitis media typically presents as either acute otitis media (AOM), with symptoms including fever, otalgia, otorrhoea or irritability and short duration; or as otitis media with effusion (OME), which is often asymptomatic and characterised by accumulation of fluid in the middle ear. Diagnostic certainty of otitis media is challenging, given the young age of patients and variability of symptoms. Otitis media predominantly occurs as coincident to viral upper respiratory tract infections and/or bacterial infections.

Association of the aromatase gene with Alzheimer's disease in women.

Associations have been reported of aromatase polymorphisms with Alzheimer's disease (AD). We studied nine polymorphisms in 207 cases of AD, 23 cases of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 233 controls, all from the OPTIMA cohort. We replicated two reported associations and found others.

Nucleotide excision repair genes are expressed at low levels and are not detectably inducible in Caenorhabditis elegans somatic tissues, but their function is required for normal adult life after UVC exposure.

We performed experiments to characterize the inducibility of nucleotide excision repair (NER) in Caenorhabditis elegans, and to examine global gene expression in NER-deficient and -proficient strains as well as germline vs. somatic tissues, with and without genotoxic stress. We also carried out experiments to elucidate the importance of NER in the adult life of C.

Maternal antibodies to pneumolysin but not to pneumococcal surface protein A delay early pneumococcal carriage in high-risk Papua New Guinean infants.

Immunization of pregnant women can be an efficient strategy to induce early protection in infants in developing countries. Pneumococcal protein-based vaccines may have the capacity to induce pneumococcal serotype-independent protection. To understand the potential of maternal pneumococcal protein-specific antibodies in infants in high-risk areas, we studied the placental transfer of naturally acquired antibodies to pneumolysin (Ply) and pneumococcal surface protein A family 1 and 2 (PspA1 and PspA2) in relation to onset of pneumococcal nasopharyngeal carriage in infants in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Regulation of immature dendritic cell migration by RhoA guanine nucleotide exchange factor Arhgef5.

There are a large number of Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factors, most of which have no known functions. Here, we carried out a short hairpin RNA-based functional screen of Rho-GEFs for their roles in leukocyte chemotaxis and identified Arhgef5 as an important factor in chemotaxis of a macrophage phage-like RAW264.7 cell line.

Replication by the Epistasis Project of the interaction between the genes for IL-6 and IL-10 in the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Chronic inflammation is a characteristic of Alzheimer's disease (AD). An interaction associated with the risk of AD has been reported between polymorphisms in the regulatory regions of the genes for the pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-6 (IL-6, gene: IL6), and the anti-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-10 (IL-10, gene: IL10).

Methods: We examined this interaction in the Epistasis Project, a collaboration of 7 AD research groups, contributing DNA samples from 1,757 cases of AD and 6,295 controls.

Association study of MICA and MICB in Alzheimer's disease.

Following the replication of the association of the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) allele, HLA-B*07, with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the cohort of the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing (OPTIMA) in a previous study, we examined whether that association could be due to linkage disequilibrium with MICA or MICB alleles. We found a possible association of MICA*00801 heterozygotes with AD in subjects positive for the epsilon 4 allele of apolipoprotein E. This finding was supported by Hardy-Weinberg analysis, by stratified association analysis and by interaction analysis, but did not survive correction for multiple testing.

Meditators and non-meditators: EEG source imaging during resting.

Many meditation exercises aim at increased awareness of ongoing experiences through sustained attention and at detachment, i.e., non-engaging observation of these ongoing experiences by the intent not to analyze, judge or expect anything.

Core networks for visual-concrete and abstract thought content: a brain electric microstate analysis.

Commonality of activation of spontaneously forming and stimulus-induced mental representations is an often made but rarely tested assumption in neuroscience. In a conjunction analysis of two earlier studies, brain electric activity during visual-concrete and abstract thoughts was studied. The conditions were: in study 1, spontaneous stimulus-independent thinking (post-hoc, visual imagery or abstract thought were identified); in study 2, reading of single nouns ranking high or low on a visual imagery scale.

The synergy factor: a statistic to measure interactions in complex diseases.

Background: One challenge in understanding complex diseases lies in revealing the interactions between susceptibility factors, such as genetic polymorphisms and environmental exposures. There is thus a need to examine such interactions explicitly. A corollary is the need for an accessible method of measuring both the size and the significance of interactions, which can be used by non-statisticians and with summarised, e.

Neonatal innate cytokine responses to BCG controlling T-cell development vary between populations.

Background: The protective effect of Mycobacterium bovis BCG vaccination against infection and atopy varies between populations.

Objective: To identify differences in neonatal responses to BCG between diverse populations and study longitudinal associations with memory T-cell responses.

Methods: Cord blood mononuclear cells were collected from Papua New Guinean (PNG) and Western Australian (WA) newborns.

Seasonality of respiratory viral identification varies with age and Aboriginality in metropolitan Western Australia.

Background: Viral respiratory infections are a major cause of pediatric illness. It is not known whether seasonality of viruses differs between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children of varying ages.

Methods: We extracted data on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza viruses A and B, parainfluenza virus types 1, 2, and 3 and adenovirus identified through cell culture or direct immunofluorescence between 1997 and 2005 from nasopharyngeal or throat specimens at Western Australia's only pediatric hospital.

Involvement of PLC-beta3 in the effect of morphine on memory retrieval in passive avoidance task.

Phospholipase C (PLC) is one signalling effector enzyme whose activity is directly modulated by opioids. Several physiological studies have implicated PLC-linked pathways in in-vivo pain regulation and opioid tolerance. Co-administration of PLC-beta(2/3) activity blocker M119 with morphine resulted in a dramatic increase in morphine-induced amnesic effect in mice, proving a role for beta subunit of PLC enzyme in these processes.

Tonic activity level in the right prefrontal cortex predicts individuals' risk taking.

Human risk taking is characterized by a large amount of individual heterogeneity. In this study, we applied resting-state electroencephalography, which captures stable individual differences in neural activity, before subjects performed a risk-taking task. Using a source-localization technique, we found that the baseline cortical activity in the right prefrontal cortex predicts individual risk-taking behavior.

Neonatal pneumococcal conjugate vaccine immunization primes T cells for preferential Th2 cytokine expression: a randomized controlled trial in Papua New Guinea.

The effects of neonatal immunization with 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (7vPCV) on development of T-cell memory and general immune maturation were studied in a cohort of Papua New Guinean newborns. Neonatal 7vPCV priming (followed by a dose at 1 and 2 months of age) was associated with enhanced Th2, but not Th1, cytokine responses to CRM(197) compared to 7vPCV at 1 and 2 months of age only. T cell responses to non-7vPCV vaccine antigens were similar in all groups, but TLR-mediated IL-6 and IL-10 responses were enhanced in 7vPCV vaccinated compared to controls.

Nanostructured Silver Substrates With Stable and Universal SERS Properties: Application to Organic Molecules and Semiconductor Nanoparticles.

Nanostructured silver films have been prepared by thermal deposition on silicon, and their properties as SERS substrates investigated. The optimal conditions of the post-growth annealing of the substrates were established. Atomic force microscopy study revealed that the silver films with relatively dense and homogeneous arrays of 60-80-nm high pyramidal nanoislands are the most efficient for SERS of both organic dye and inorganic nanoparticles analytes.

Carbon dioxide does not affect the methylation status of prognostic important oncogenes Rassf1A and DCR2 in neuroblastoma cells.

Purpose: The aim of the current study was to investigate effects of CO(2) atmosphere, mimicking conditions of the pneumoperitoneum during laparoscopy, on epigenetic conditions of Rassf1A and DCR2 oncogenes in neuroblastoma cells.

Methods: SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were exposed to 100% CO(2) for 4 h. Cells were lysed 4, 8 and 168 h after exposure.