T-t interaction in the generation of helper cells in vitro.

Levy and her colleagues have reported that the antigen performic acid oxidised ferrodoxin (OFd), derived from Clostridium pasteurianum has only 2 major antigenic determinants located in the carboxyl and amino terminal regions of the molecule. They reported that cooperation between cells primed to the determinants situated at the COOH (C hapten) and at the NH2 terminus (N hapten) is necessary for the generation of a proliferative response of guinea pig lymph node cells in vitro to the whole antigen, OFd, but not for the expression of hypersensitivity reactions. Having recently described a system for the development of helper cells in vitro, the authors attempted to determine whether the T helper cell response to OFd required cooperation between two populations of T cells, in analogy with other cooperative proliferative response to OFd

Plasma Biomarkers of AD Emerging as Essential Tools for Drug Development: An EU/US CTAD Task Force Report

There is an urgent need to develop reliable and sensitive blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that can be used for screening and to increase the efficiency of clinical trials. The European Union-North American Clinical Trials in Alzheimer’s Disease Task Force (EU/US CTAD Task Force) discussed the current status of blood-based AD biomarker development at its 2018 annual meeting in Barcelona, Spain. Recent improvements in technologies to assess plasma levels of amyloid beta indicate that a single sample of blood could provide an accurate estimate of brain amyloid positivity. Plasma neurofilament light protein appears to provide a good marker of neurodegeneration, although not specific for AD. Plasma tau shows some promising results but weak or no correlation with CSF tau levels, which may reflect rapid clearance of tau in the bloodstream. Blood samples analyzed using -omics and other approaches are also in development and may provide important insight into disease mechanisms as well as biomarker profiles for disease prediction. To advance these technologies, international multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder collaboration is essential