Immunization with germ line-targeting SOSIP trimers elicits broadly neutralizing antibody precursors in infant macaques.

Adolescents are a growing population of people living with HIV. The period between weaning and sexual debut presents a low-risk window for HIV acquisition, making early childhood an ideal time for implementing an immunization regimen. Because the elicitation of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) is critical for an effective HIV vaccine, our goal was to assess the ability of a bnAb B cell lineage-designed HIV envelope SOSIP (protein stabilized by a disulfide bond between gp120-gp41-named "SOS"-and an isoleucine-to-proline point mutation-named "IP"-at residue 559) to induce precursor CD4 binding site (CD4bs)-targeting bnAbs in early life.

Maternal alcohol drinking patterns predict offspring neurobehavioral outcomes.

The timing, rate, and quantity of gestational alcohol consumption, collectively referred to here as Maternal Drinking Patterns (MDPs), are of known importance to fetal developmental outcomes. However, few studies have directly evaluated the impact of MDPs on offspring behavior. To do so, we used specialized equipment to record the precise amount and timing of alcohol consumption in pregnant dams, and then characterized MDPs using Principle Component Analysis (PCA).

Independent and Combined Effects of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and Prenatal Stress on Fetal HPA Axis Development.

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and prenatal stress (PS) are highly prevalent conditions known to affect fetal programming of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The objectives of this study were to assess the effect of light PAE, PS, and PAE-PS interaction on fetal HPA axis activity assessed via placental and umbilical cord blood biomarkers. Participants of the ENRICH-2 cohort were recruited during the second trimester and classified into the PAE and unexposed control groups.

Mapping Human Neuronal Diversity in the Search for New Therapeutics: Using Real Human Neuron Data Sets to Build Student Quantitative Skills.

Case studies are a high impact educational practice that engage students in collaborative problem solving through storytelling. HITS, an NSF funded research coordination network dedicated to exposing students to high-throughput discovery science, drove creation of this case. In this case, students imagine themselves as researchers developing new therapeutic drugs for epilepsy.

Prenatal alcohol exposure promotes NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent immune actions following morphine treatment and paradoxically prolongs nerve injury-induced pathological pain in female mice.

Background: Neuroimmune dysregulation from prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) may contribute to neurological deficits associated with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). PAE is a risk factor for developing peripheral immune and spinal glial sensitization and release of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β, which lead to neuropathic pain (allodynia) from minor nerve injury. Although morphine acts on μ-opioid receptors, it also activates immune receptors, TLR4, and the NLRP3 inflammasome that induces IL-1β.

Germline-targeting SOSIP trimer immunization elicits precursor CD4 binding-site targeting broadly neutralizing antibodies in infant macaques.

A vaccine that can achieve protective immunity prior to sexual debut is critical to prevent the estimated 410,000 new HIV infections that occur yearly in adolescents. As children living with HIV can make broadly neutralizing antibody (bnAb) responses in plasma at a faster rate than adults, early childhood is an opportune window for implementation of a multi-dose HIV immunization strategy to elicit protective immunity prior to adolescence. Therefore, the goal of our study was to assess the ability of a B cell lineage-designed HIV envelope SOSIP to induce bnAbs in early life.

The FDA-approved compound, pramipexole and the clinical-stage investigational drug, dexpramipexole, reverse chronic allodynia from sciatic nerve damage in mice, and alter IL-1β and IL-10 expression from immune cell culture.

During the onset of neuropathic pain from a variety of etiologies, nociceptors become hypersensitized, releasing neurotransmitters and other factors from centrally-projecting nerve terminals within the dorsal spinal cord. Consequently, glial cells (astrocytes and microglia) in the spinal cord are activated and mediate the release of proinflammatory cytokines that act to enhance pain transmission and sensitize mechanical non-nociceptive fibers which ultimately results in light touch hypersensitivity, clinically observed as allodynia. Pramipexole, a D2/D3 preferring agonist, is FDA-approved for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and demonstrates efficacy in animal models of inflammatory pain.

Prenatal alcohol exposure alters mRNA expression for stress peptides, glucocorticoid receptor function and immune factors in acutely stressed neonatal brain.

Background: The amygdala, hippocampus and hypothalamus are critical stress regulatory areas that undergo functional maturation for stress responding initially established during gestational and early postnatal brain development. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), a consequence of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE), results in cognitive, mood and behavioral disorders. Prenatal alcohol exposure negatively impacts components of the brain stress response system, including stress-associated brain neuropeptides and glucocorticoid receptors in the amygdala, hippocampus and hypothalamus.

Prenatal alcohol exposure dysregulates spinal and circulating immune cell circular RNA expression in adult female rats with chronic sciatic neuropathy.

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy is associated with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) that results in a continuum of central nervous system (CNS) deficits. Emerging evidence from both preclinical and clinical studies indicate that the biological vulnerability to chronic CNS disease in FASD populations is driven by aberrant neuroimmune actions. Our prior studies suggest that, following minor nerve injury, prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is a risk factor for developing adult-onset chronic pathological touch sensitivity or allodynia.

A Systematic Review of Culture-Based Methods for Monitoring Antibiotic-Resistant Acinetobacter, Aeromonas, and Pseudomonas as Environmentally Relevant Pathogens in Wastewater and Surface Water.

Purpose Of Review: Mounting evidence indicates that habitats such as wastewater and environmental waters are pathways for the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and mobile antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). We identified antibiotic-resistant members of the genera Acinetobacter, Aeromonas, and Pseudomonas as key opportunistic pathogens that grow or persist in built (e.g.

Towards the standardization of culture methods for waterborne antibiotic resistance monitoring: A critical review of trends across studies.

Antibiotic resistance is a major 21 century One Health (humans, animals, environment) challenge whose spread limits options to treat bacterial infections. There is growing interest in monitoring water environments, including surface water and wastewater, which have been identified as key recipients, pathways, and sources of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB). Aquatic environments also facilitate the transmission and amplification of ARB.

Evolving beyond antiracism: Reflections on the experience of developing a cultural safety curriculum in a tertiary education setting.

There is an inextricable link between cultural and clinical safety. In Australia high-profile Aboriginal deaths in custody, publicised institutional racism in health services and the international Black Lives Matter movement have cemented momentum to ensure culturally safe care. However, racism within health professionals and health professional students remains a barrier to increasing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health professionals.

Hybridization and low genetic diversity in the endangered Alabama red-bellied turtle ().

is one of the most endangered freshwater turtle species in the United States due to its restricted geographic distribution in coastal Alabama and Mississippi. Populations of are geographically isolated from one another by land and saltwater, which could act as barriers to gene flow. It is currently unknown how differentiated these populations are from one another and whether they have experienced reductions in population size.

Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring of Water Environments: A Framework for Standardized Methods and Quality Control.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a grand societal challenge with important dimensions in the water environment that contribute to its evolution and spread. Environmental monitoring could provide vital information for mitigating the spread of AMR; this includes assessing antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) circulating among human populations, identifying key hotspots for evolution and dissemination of resistance, informing epidemiological and human health risk assessment models, and quantifying removal efficiencies by domestic wastewater infrastructure. However, standardized methods for monitoring AMR in the water environment will be vital to producing the comparable data sets needed to address such questions.

The maternal-placental-fetal interface: Adaptations of the HPA axis and immune mediators following maternal stress and prenatal alcohol exposure.

This review addresses underlying physiological, cellular, and molecular factors that alter the developing fetal brain stress circuits and responses of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis caused by maternal stress and prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). An emphasis is placed on the contribution of the placenta following maternal stress separately, and as a co-occurrence with PAE. Altered fetal HPA axis ultimately results in dysregulation of the brain stress-response system long after birth and possibly lifelong.

Effects of prenatal opioid and alcohol exposures on immune and serotonin factors in human placenta.

Purpose: Opioids and alcohol impact critical serotonin (5-HT) function in the developing placenta and fetus through the actions of immune proinflammatory factors. Yet, possible convergent effects of opioids and alcohol on human placental toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) activation and subsequent 5-HT homeostasis remain entirely unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of prenatal exposure to opioids with or without prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) on the expression of key placental immune and serotonin signaling factors in human placental tissue obtained from a well-characterized prospective cohort.

Variation in copper sensitivity between laboratory and wild strains of Caenorhabditis elegans.

Ecological risk assessments of chemicals are frequently based on laboratory toxicity data from a small number of model species that may be reared in labs for years or decades. These populations can undergo many processes in the lab including artificial selection, founder effect, and genetic drift, and may not adequately represent their wild counterparts, potentially undermining the goal of protecting natural populations. Here we measure variation in lethality to copper chloride among strains of an emerging model species in toxicology, Caenorhabditis elegans.

Peripherally administered cannabinoid receptor 2 (CBR) agonists lose anti-allodynic effects in TRPV1 knockout mice, while intrathecal administration leads to anti-allodynia and reduced GFAP, CCL2 and TRPV1 expression in the dorsal spinal cord and DRG.

The transient receptor potential (TRP) superfamily of cation channels, of which the TRP vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) receptor plays a critical role in inflammatory and neuropathic pain, is expressed on nociceptors and spinal cord dorsal horn neurons. TRPV1 is also expressed on spinal astrocytes and dorsal root ganglia (DRG) satellite cells. Agonists of the cannabinoid type 2 receptor (CBR) suppress allodynia, with some that can bind TRPV1.

Mapping the Terrain for Pathogen Persistence and Proliferation in Non-potable Reuse Distribution Systems: Interactive Effects of Biofiltration, Disinfection, and Water Age.

Diverse pathogens can potentially persist and proliferate in reclaimed water distribution systems (RWDSs). The goal of this study was to evaluate interactive effects of reclaimed water treatments and water age on persistence and proliferation of multiple fecal (e.g.

Achieving cultural safety for Australia's First Peoples: a review of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency-registered health practitioners' Codes of Conduct and Codes of Ethics.

Objective Health practitioners' Codes of Conduct and Codes of Ethics articulate practice standards across multiple domains, including the domain of cultural safety. As key tools driving individual practice and systems reform, Codes are integral to improving health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It is, therefore, critical that their contents specify meaningful cultural safety standards as the norm for institutional and individual practice.

Source-to-Tap Assessment of Microbiological Water Quality in Small Rural Drinking Water Systems in Puerto Rico Six Months After Hurricane Maria.

Maria made a landfall in Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017 as a category 4 hurricane, causing severe flooding, widespread electricity outages, damage to infrastructure, and interruptions in water and wastewater treatment. Small rural community water systems face unique challenges in providing drinking water, which intensify after natural disasters. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the functionality of six very small rural public water systems and one large regulated system in Puerto Rico six months after Maria and survey a broad sweep of fecal, zoonotic, and opportunistic pathogens from the source to tap.

Next generation sequencing approaches to evaluate water and wastewater quality.

The emergence of next generation sequencing (NGS) is revolutionizing the potential to address complex microbiological challenges in the water industry. NGS technologies can provide holistic insight into microbial communities and their functional capacities in water and wastewater systems, thus eliminating the need to develop a new assay for each target organism or gene. However, several barriers have hampered wide-scale adoption of NGS by the water industry, including cost, need for specialized expertise and equipment, challenges with data analysis and interpretation, lack of standardized methods, and the rapid pace of development of new technologies.

Peripheral versus central mechanisms of the cannabinoid type 2 receptor agonist AM1710 in a mouse model of neuropathic pain.

The CB R agonist AM1710, examined in animal models of peripheral neuropathy, is effective in controlling aberrant light touch sensitivity, referred to as mechanical allodynia. However, nonspecific binding of AM1710 to CB R, either peripherally or centrally, could be partially responsible for the analgesic effects of AM1710. Thus, we sought to determine in mice whether spinal (intrathecal; i.