PppA, a surface-exposed protein of Streptococcus pneumoniae, elicits cross-reactive antibodies that reduce colonization in a murine intranasal immunization and challenge model.

The multivalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine is effective against both systemic disease and otitis media caused by serotypes contained in the vaccine. However, serotypes not covered by the present conjugate vaccine may still cause pneumococcal disease. To address these serotypes, and the remaining otitis media due to Streptococcus pneumoniae, efforts have been devoted to identifying protective protein antigens.

Rheumatoid arthritis: neuroendocrine immune integrated physiopathogenetic perspectives and therapy.

Current concepts of neuroendocrine immune (NEI) aspects of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are reviewed and recent clinical trials of glucocorticoids and sex steroids are summarized. A novel physiopathogenetic perspective is presented. Data are provided of amplified NEI interactions and dysregulation, many years before symptomatic onset of RA.

Circadian rhythms and arthritis.

The clinical symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) show a circadian variation; joint stiffness and pain are more prominent in the early morning. An altered functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (cortisol) and of the pineal gland (melatonin) seems to be important factors in the perpetuation and clinical circadian symptoms of RA. Consistently, human proinflammatory cytokine production exhibits a diurnal rhythmicity with peak levels during the night and early morning, at a time when plasma cortisol (anti-inflammatory) is lowest and melatonin (proinflammatory) is highest.

Role of television in childhood obesity prevention.

Objective: To assess the role of television as tool for childhood obesity prevention.

Method: Review of the available literature about the relationship between television and childhood obesity, eating habits and body shape perception.

Results: The reviewed studies showed the following: television watching replaces more vigorous activities; there is a positive correlation between time spent watching television and being overweight or obese on populations of different age; obesity prevalence has increased as well as the number of hours that TV networks dedicate to children; during the last 30 y, the rate of children watching television for more than 4 h per day seems to have increased; children are exposed to a large number of important unhealthy stimulations in terms of food intake when watching television; over the last few years, the number of television food commercials targeting children have increased especially when it comes to junk food in all of its forms; the present use of food in movies, shows and cartoons may lead to a misconception of the notion of healthy nutrition and stimulate an excessive intake of poor nutritional food; and obese subjects shown in television programmes are in a much lower percentage than in real life and are depicted as being unattractive, unsuccessful and ridiculous or with other negative traits and this is likely to result in a worsening of the isolation in which obese subjects are often forced.

Developmentally regulated expression of the mouse homologues of the potassium channel encoding genes m-erg1, m-erg2 and m-erg3.

Deciphering the expression pattern of K+ channel encoding genes during development can help in the understanding of the establishment of cellular excitability and unravel the molecular mechanisms of neuromuscular diseases. We focused our attention on genes belonging to the erg family, which is deeply involved in the control of neuromuscular excitability in Drosophila flies and possibly other organisms. Both in situ hybridisation and RNase Protection Assay experiments were used to study the expression pattern of mouse (m)erg1, m-erg2 and m-erg3 genes during mouse embryo development, to allow the pattern to be compared with their expression in the adult.

Multimodal rehabilitation for faecal incontinence: experience of an Italian centre devoted to faecal disorder rehabilitation.

Background: Sphincter exercises and biofeedback therapy have been used to treat faecal incontinence but results have been unpredictable and standards of treatment have not yet been established. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the effects of a new multimodal rehabilitation model on faecal incontinence.

Methods: All of the rehabilitative procedures are guided by manometric data.

Are adolescent idiopathic scoliosis and ankylosing spondylitis counter-opposing conditions? A hypothesis on biomechanical contributions predisposing to these spinal disorders.

Human spinal biomechanics are profoundly complex and not well understood, especially in terms of the dynamic spine function. Translation of biomechanics to disease is difficult, particularly since cause must be separated from effect. Primary dynamics predisposing to the onset of chronic spinal disorders, e.

A new percutaneous nephrostomy technique in the treatment of obstructive uropathy.

Purpose: To describe the percutaneous nephrostomy technique used at our centre in the treatment of supravesical urinary tract obstruction and to analyse the results obtained.

Materials And Methods: Three-hundred and seventy-three patients underwent 412 percutaneous nephrostomies, most of which (78%) in an emergency setting, performed with a newly devised "mixed" technique. The procedure combines the positive elements of the two techniques employed to date in the management of upper urinary tract obstruction: the Seldinger angiographic technique and the Goodwin technique.

Chromosome instability and nibrin protein variants in NBS heterozygotes.

The frequency of spontaneous chromosome abnormalities in peripheral blood lymphocytes and the X-ray G2 sensitivity in lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) have been evaluated in heterozygous subjects from three unrelated Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome (NBS) families, characterised by different mutations in the NBS1 gene. In all the 13 NBS heterozygotes analysed, we found spontaneous chromosome instability consisting in chromosome and chromatid breakages and rearrangements, while radiosensitivity was similar to that of control LCLs in seven out of eight tested NBS heterozygotes. The densitometric analysis of nibrin by immunoblotting indicated only a slight reduction in some of the LCLs from NBS carriers, whereas the immunoprecipitation assay appears a more reliable tool to detect NBS carriers.

Genetic heterogeneity for a Nijmegen breakage-like syndrome.

Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS) is a rare, autosomal-recessive chromosome instability disorder characterized by growth and developmental defects, immunodeficiency, high susceptibility to lymphoid malignancies, hypersensitivity to ionizing radiation and aberrant cell-cycle checkpoint control. The disease is caused by mutations in the NBS1 gene, which encodes nibrin, a component of the hMre11-Rad50-p95 complex involved in cellular response to DNA double-strand breaks. Genetic heterogeneity has been suggested in at least two patients with the NBS phenotype, but no mutation in the NBS1 gene; recently, mutations in the gene encoding the enzyme ligase IV have been identified in patients with signs of NBS.

Ankylosing spondylitis: integrated clinical and physiological perspectives.

This hypothesis paper draws upon clinical epidemiological and physiological perspectives of axial muscle tone relevant to ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Skeletal muscle tonus is the property of intrinsic tension or resistance to stretch with no additional muscle contraction. The interpretations call attention to novel concepts of the intrinsic axial muscular system contributions to enthesopathic lesions in AS.

Person-centered approach to care, teaching, and research in fibromyalgia syndrome: justification from biopsychosocial perspectives in populations.

Objectives: To describe complex interactions of multiple factors believed to contribute to fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) at a person-centered level to enhance approaches to care, teaching, and research. The main factors addressed were central nervous system sensory sensitization, autonomic nervous system (ANS) activation, neurohumoral perturbations, and psychosocial and environmental stressors. A person-centered approach is defined as attention to major biopsychosocial issues of affected individuals.

Carbon and nitrogen metabolism in barley plants exposed to UV-B radiation.

The effect of UV-B radiation on FW, leaf and stem length, photosynthetic O2 evolution, levels of carbohydrates and nitrates, and extractable activities of some of the enzymes involved in C and N metabolism was evaluated in barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Express) seedlings during the 9 days following transfer to an UV-B enriched environment.

The functional properties of the human ether-à-go-go-like (HELK2) K+ channel.

The voltage-dependent K+ channels belonging to the ether-à-go-go family (eag, erg, elk) are widely expressed in the mammalian CNS. Their neuronal function, however, is poorly understood. Among the elk clones, elk2 is the most abundantly expressed in the brain.

Perspectives on the relationship of adrenal steroids to rheumatoid arthritis.

An expanded model of RA is presented that incorporates cumulative multifactorial processes operating over a prolonged physiological phase prior to initial clinical manifestations. During this phase, progressive imbalances in the homeostasis of core neuroendocrine, immunological, and microvascular systems are believed to occur. Normal adrenal function plays an essential role in helping to maintain homeostasis of core systems in health.

Isolation of a long-lasting eag-related gene-type K+ current in MMQ lactotrophs and its accommodating role during slow firing and prolactin release.

Native rat lactotrophs express thyrotrophin-releasing hormone-dependent K+ currents consisting of fast and slow deactivating components that are both sensitive to the class III anti-arrhythmic drugs that block the eag-related gene (ERG) K+ current (I(ERG)). Here we describe in MMQ prolactin-releasing pituitary cells the isolation of the slowly deactivating long-lasting component (I(ERGS)), which, unlike the fast component (I(ERGF)), is insensitive to verapamil 2 microm but sensitive to a novel scorpion toxin (ErgTx-2) that hardly affects I(ERGF). The time constants of I(ERGS) activation, deactivation, and recovery from inactivation are more than one order of magnitude greater than in I(ERGF), and the voltage-dependent inactivation is left-shifted by approximately 25 mV.

G2-phase radiation response in lymphoblastoid cell lines from Nijmegen breakage syndrome.

The relationship between G2-phase checkpoint activation, cytoplasmic cyclin-B1 accumulation and nuclear phosphorylation of p34CDC2 was studied in Nijmegen breakage syndrome cells treated with DNA damaging agents. Experiments were performed on lymphoblastoid cell lines from four Nijmegen breakage syndrome patients with different mutations, as well as on cells from an ataxia telangiectasia patient. Lymphoblastoid cell lines were irradiated with 0.