Safety and immunogenicity of a Herpes Zoster subunit vaccine in Japanese population aged ≥50 years when administered subcutaneously vs. intramuscularly.

The impact of alternate routes of vaccine administration, subcutaneous (SC) or intramuscular (IM), on the safety and immunogenicity of herpes zoster subunit candidate vaccine (HZ/su) was assessed in Japanese adults aged ≥ 50 y. During this phase III open-label study, 60 subjects were randomized (1:1) to receive HZ/su through SC or IM routes in a 0, 2 month schedule. Vaccine response rates (VRRs) and geometric mean concentrations (GMCs) of varicella zoster virus glycoprotein E (gE)-specific antibodies were determined by ELISA.

Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 4α Controls Iron Metabolism and Regulates Transferrin Receptor 2 in Mouse Liver.

Iron is an essential element in biological systems, but excess iron promotes the formation of reactive oxygen species, resulting in cellular toxicity. Several iron-related genes are highly expressed in the liver, a tissue in which hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α (HNF4α) plays a critical role in controlling gene expression. Therefore, the role of hepatic HNF4α in iron homeostasis was examined using liver-specific HNF4α-null mice (Hnf4a(ΔH) mice).

Attentional facilitation of detection of flicker on moving objects.

We investigated the influence of attention and motion on the sensitivity of flicker detection for a target among distractors. Experiment 1 showed that when the target and distractors were moving, detection performance plummeted compared to when they were not moving, suggesting that the most sensitive detectors were local, temporal frequency-tuned receptive fields. With the stimuli in motion, a qualitatively different strategy was required and this led to much reduced performance.

Tumor-specific cytotoxicity and type of cell death induced by naphtho[2,3-b]furan-4,9-diones and related compounds in human tumor cell lines: relationship to electronic structure.

A total of thirty-nine naphtho[2,3-b]furan-4,9-diones and related compounds were tested for their cytotoxicity against three human normal oral cells (gingival fibroblast, HGF, pulp cell, HPC, periodontal ligament fibroblast, HPLF) and four human tumor cell lines (oral squamous cell carcinoma HSC-2, HSC-3, HSC-4, promyelocytic leukemia HL-60). 2-Acetylnaphtho[2,3-b]furan-4,9-dione [1] was highly cytotoxic to both normal and tumor cells, yielding low tumor-specificity. 2-Acetyl-4,9-dimethoxynaphtho[2,3-b]furan [4], the 2-(3-furanoyl) benzoic acids [5, 6] and the 1,4-naphthoquinones [7, 8] showed much reduced cytototoxicity and low tumor-specificity.

Cytotoxic activity toward KB cells of 2-substituted naphtho[2,3-b]furan-4,9-diones and their related compounds.

We investigated the cytotoxic activity of 2-substituted naphtho[2,3-b]furan-4,9-diones. We have previously synthesized 33 types of 2-substituted and related compounds, and the cytotoxic activity of these compounds was then examined by a KB cell culture assay. 2-(3-Furanoyl)benzoic acids and 1,4-naphthoquinones had no activity.

Fusobacterium varium localized in the colonic mucosa of patients with ulcerative colitis stimulates species-specific antibody.

Background: Microbial agents are a possible cause of ulcerative colitis. We have previously reported evidence of bacteria invading the colonic mucosa of patients with ulcerative colitis. We have isolated bacteria from inflamed colonic mucosa, examined the localization of the species in the mucosa, and assayed for serum antibodies to the bacteria.