Real-Time Neural Signals of Disorder and Order Perception

Order and disorder are prevalent in everyday life, yet little is known about the neural real-time processing that occurs during the perception of disorder relative to order. In the present study, from a cognitive perspective, by adopting the ERP method, we aimed to examine the elicited real-time neural signals of disorder and order perception when participants processed physical environmental and basic visual disorder and order pictures in an irrelevant red or green rectangle detection task, and we attempted to test the hypothesis of cognitive disfluency in disorder perception. Generally, we observed that at each measured time interval, the ERPs elicited by order stimuli were more positive (less negative) in amplitude than those elicited by disorder stimuli at the frontal electrodes (represented by F7/F8, FT7/FT8, Fz, and FCz), whereas at the posterior electrodes (represented by P7/P8, PO7/PO8, Pz, and POz), the opposite was true. These data reveal for the first time the neural underpinnings of disorder and order perception, extending our understanding of the nature of disorder and order. This study also contributes to the cognitive fluency literature and indirectly expands the research on disorder and order stimuli in cognitive fluency

The Expression of Tristetraprolin and Its Relationship with Urinary Proteins in Patients with Diabetic Nephropathy.

Tristetraprolin (TTP), also known as zinc finger protein 36, is an RNA binding protein that has a significant role in regulating the expression of mRNAs containing AU-rich elements. We postulated that TTP might regulate interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-18 expression in diabetes. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that the levels of TTP are correlated with nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes.Eighty-seven patients (61.3±9.6 years old) who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus and 41 age and sex matched healthy control subjects were enrolled. The diabetes patients were classified into those without proteinuria, with microalbuminuria, and with clinical proteinuria groups according to the ratio of urinary excretion of albumin/creatinine (ACR).Serum and urinary levels of IL-6 and IL-18 were significantly elevated, but those of TTP were significantly decreased in patients with diabetes as compared with control subjects. In addition, serum and urinary levels of IL-6 and IL-18 were significantly higher, but those of TTP were significantly lower in patients with proteinuria than in patients without proteinuria or with microalbuminuria. There was a significant correlation between serum TTP and IL-6/IL-18 (correlation coefficients of -0.572 and -0.685, P < 0.05).These results show that diabetes with clinical proteinuria is accompanied by decreased urinary and serum level of TTP and increased levels of IL-6 and IL-18. Decreased TTP expression might occur prior to the increase in IL-6 and IL-18, and decrease of TTP might provide an earlier marker for glomerular dysfunction than IL-6 and IL-18

Protein contents of IL-6, IL-18, and TTP in urine and serum samples.

<p>Samples from urine (A) and serum (B) of patients from the normal (n = 41), diabetic without proteinuria (n = 33), diabetic with microalbuminuria (n = 29), and diabetic with clinical proteinuria (n = 25) groups were analyzed by ELISA. The data are presented as mean±S.E. *<i>P</i>< 0.05, **<i>P</i> < 0.01 compared with normal healthy controls, ^## P<0.01 compared with diabetic without proteinuria, and ^△△P<0.01 compared with diabetic with microalbuminuria.</p

Characteristics of all subjects.

<p>The data are presented as mean±S.E.</p><p>*<i>P</i> < 0.05</p><p>***<i>P</i> < 0.001 versus normal healthy controls.</p><p>BMI: body mass index; HbA1c: hemoglobin A1c; TG: triglyceride; Cr: creatinine; BUN: blood urea nitrogen; ACR, albumin to creatinine ratio; H-CRP: high-sensitive C-reactive protein. ACEI: angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor; ARB: angiotensin Ⅱ receptor antagonist</p><p>Characteristics of all subjects.</p

Characteristics of all subjects.

<p>The data are presented as mean±S.E.</p><p>*<i>P</i> < 0.05</p><p>***<i>P</i> < 0.001 versus normal healthy controls.</p><p>BMI: body mass index; HbA1c: hemoglobin A1c; TG: triglyceride; Cr: creatinine; BUN: blood urea nitrogen; ACR, albumin to creatinine ratio; H-CRP: high-sensitive C-reactive protein. ACEI: angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor; ARB: angiotensin Ⅱ receptor antagonist</p><p>Characteristics of all subjects.</p

Inverse relationship between serum TTP and IL-18 or IL-6.

<p>The correlation between serum TTP and IL-6 (A) or IL-18 (B) protein levels was determined by plotting the corresponding values for individual diabetic patients. A best fit line is drawn.</p

Sustained activity of novel THIOMAB antibody-antibiotic conjugate against Staphylococcus aureus in a mouse model: Longitudinal pharmacodynamic assessment by bioluminescence imaging.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infections are a leading cause of death by an infectious agent. Survival within host phagocytic cells is one mechanism by which S. aureus evades antibiotic treatment. A novel THIOMAB™ antibody-antibiotic conjugate (TAC) strategy was developed to kill S. aureus intracellularly and mitigate the spread of infection. In this report, we used a longitudinal whole-body bioluminescence imaging method to study the antibacterial dynamics of TAC alone or in combination with vancomycin in a mouse infection model. Injections of stably luminescent S. aureus bacteria into mice resulted in exponential increases in whole body bioluminescence with a reduction in body weight and survival rate. Vancomycin, a standard-of-care antibiotic, suppressed bacterial growth in mice. However, bacterial growth rebounded in these animals once treatment was discontinued. In contrast, single dose of TAC showed rapid reduction of bioluminescence intensity, which persisted for up to 19 days. The combination of TAC and vancomycin achieved a more sustained and significantly greater reduction of bioluminescence compared with vancomycin alone. In summary, the present study showed an imaging method to longitudinally assess antibacterial drug dynamics in mice and demonstrated that TAC monotherapy or in combination with vancomycin had superior and sustained activity compared to vancomycin alone

mRNA levels of IL-6, IL-18, and TTP in urine and serum samples.

<p>Samples from urine (A and B) and serum (A and C) were analyzed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR and visualized by electrophoresis on acrylamide gels. Representative gels are shown in A; and quantification of the results of patients from each group (normal, n = 41; diabetic without proteinuria, n = 33; diabetic with microalbuminuria, n = 29; and diabetic with clinical proteinuria, n = 25) is shown in B and C. The data are presented as mean±S.E. *<i>P</i> < 0.05, **<i>P</i> < 0.01 compared with normal healthy controls, ^## P<0.01 compared with diabetic without proteinuria, and ^△△P<0.01 compared with diabetic with microalbuminuria.</p