Comparing attentional bias to smoking cues in current smokers, former smokers, and non-smokers using a dot-probe task

Much evidence documents that individuals with emotional and drug-use disorders demonstrate biased attention toward stimuli associated with their disorder. This bias appears to diminish following successful treatment. Two studies examined whether current cigarette smokers show biased attention toward smoking-related images compared with non-smokers (Studies 1 and 2) and whether this bias is less pronounced in former smokers (Study 2). Attentional bias toward cigarette-related photographs was examined using the dot-probe task. Pairs of images (one smoking-related) appeared side by side for 500 ms on a computer screen prior to the presentation of a probe (an asterisk) replacing one of the photographs. Subjects struck a key as quickly as possible to indicate the probe location. Attentional bias was defined as faster reaction times when the probe replaced the smoking-related image. In both studies, current smokers displayed significantly greater attentional bias toward cigarette stimuli than did non-smokers. Former smokers in Study 2 displayed an intermediate level of bias, but did not differ significantly in bias score from either of the other groups. These results support further use of the dot-probe task as a measure of attentional bias in non-abstinent smokers and in individuals undergoing smoking cessation treatment

Mood state and recent cocaine use are not associated with levels of cocaine cue reactivity

Eighty-one cocaine-dependent outpatients were assessed for their reactions to cocaine-related cues in a laboratory setting. All subjects contributed a urine sample prior to the session. Compared with non-drug control cues, the cocaine stimuli produced increases in physiological arousal, self-reports of high, craving, and withdrawal, and self-reports of negative mood. Subjects who tested cocaine-positive on the day of testing differed only in skin resistance responding from those who tested cocaine-negative. Changes in cue-induced physiological and self-report measures were also not associated with between-subject variations in mood as measured by the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire administered prior to cue assessment. Thus, variations in baseline mood and recent cocaine use history do not introduce an additional source of variability in cue reactivity measurements. However, negative mood states at the start of a session were associated with higher levels of self-reported craving, high, and withdrawal both before and after cue exposure

A Scalable Synthesis of Adjuvanting Antigen Depots Based on Met-al-Organic Frameworks

Vaccines have saved countless lives by preventing and even irradicating infectious diseases. Commonly used subunit vaccines comprising one or multiple recombinant proteins isolated from a pathogen demonstrate a better safety profile than live or attenuated vaccines. However, the immunogenicity of these vaccines is weak, and therefore, subunit vaccines require a series of doses to achieve sufficient immunity against the pathogen. Here, we show that the biomimetic mineralization of the inert model antigen, ovalbumin (OVA), in zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) significantly improves the humoral immune response over three bolus doses of OVA (OVA 3×). Encapsulation of OVA in ZIF-8 (OVA@ZIF) demonstrated higher serum antibody titers against OVA than OVA 3×. OVA@ZIF vaccinated mice displayed higher populations of germinal center (GC) B cells and IgG1+ GC B cells as opposed to OVA 3×, indicative of class-switching recombination. We show that the mechanism of this phenomenon is at least partly owed to the metalloimmunological effects of the zinc metal as well as the sustained release of OVA from the ZIF-8 composite. The system acts as an antigen reservoir for antigen-presenting cells to traffic into the draining lymph node, enhancing the humoral response. Lastly, our model system OVA@ZIF is produced quickly at the gram scale in a laboratory setting, sufficient for up to 20,000 vaccine doses