Enhanced detection of glutamate via transverse relaxation encoding with narrowband decoupling in the human brain.

Purpose: This study aims to improve the detection of glutamate (Glu) concentration and T using an enhanced transverse relaxation encoding with narrowband decoupling (TREND) technique.

Methods: A new editing pulse was designed to simultaneously invert both Glu H3 spins (2.12 ppm and 2.

In vivo GABA detection by single-pulse editing with one shot.

Purpose: Two-shot γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) difference editing techniques have been used widely to detect the GABA H4 resonance at 3.01 ppm. Here, we introduce a single-shot method for detecting the full GABA H2 resonance signal, which avoids contamination from the coedited M macromolecules.

Prepackaged hand hygiene educational tools facilitate implementation.

The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee released hand hygiene guidelines recommending that hospitals educate personnel to increase compliance with hand hygiene. However, few educational tools are available to assist hospitals in this effort. Eight hospitals were recruited to implement hand hygiene educational tools.

Dendritic cells are responsible for the capacity of CpG oligodeoxynucleotides to act as an adjuvant for protective vaccine immunity against Leishmania major in mice.

Vaccination with leishmanial Ag and CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) confers sustained cellular immunity and protection to infectious challenge up to 6 mo after immunization. To define the cellular mechanism by which CpG ODN mediate their adjuvant effects in vivo, the functional capacity of distinct dendritic cell (DC) subsets was assessed in the lymph nodes (LNs) of BALB/c mice, 36 h after immunization with the leishmanial antigen (LACK) and CpG ODN. After this immunization, there was a striking decrease in the frequency of the CD11c+B220+ plasmacytoid DCs with a proportionate increase in CD11c+CD8-B220- cells.

Enhanced immunogenicity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis by vaccination with an alphavirus plasmid replicon expressing antigen 85A.

The immunogenicity of a plasmid DNA vaccine incorporating Sindbis virus RNA replicase functions (pSINCP) and expressing antigen 85A (Ag85A) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis was compared with a conventional plasmid DNA vector encoding Ag85A. pSINCP-85A was highly immunogenic in mice and gave enhanced long-term protection against M. tuberculosis compared with the conventional vector.

Quantitative assessment of the integrity of the blood-retinal barrier in mice.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop and characterize a quantitative assay of blood-retinal barrier (BRB) function in mice and to determine the effect of several purported vasopermeability factors on the BRB.

Methods: Adult C57BL/6J mice were treated with three regimens of increasingly extensive retinal cryopexy and subsequently were given an intraperitoneal injection of 1 microCi/g body weight of [(3)H]mannitol. At several time points, the amount of radioactivity per milligram tissue was compared in retina, lung, and kidney.

Vaccination with heat-killed leishmania antigen or recombinant leishmanial protein and CpG oligodeoxynucleotides induces long-term memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses and protection against leishmania major infection.

CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) have potent effects on innate and adaptive cellular immune responses. In this report, the ability of CpG ODN to confer long-term immunity and protection when used as a vaccine adjuvant with a clinical grade of leishmanial antigen, autoclaved Leishmania major (ALM), or a recombinant leishmanial protein was studied. In two different mouse models of L.