Cellular Immune Responses to Nine Mycobacterium tuberculosis Vaccine Candidates following Intranasal Vaccination

BACKGROUND: The identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis vaccines that elicit a protective immune response in the lungs is important for the development of an effective vaccine against tuberculosis. METHODS AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this study, a comparison of intranasal (i.n.) and subcutaneous (s.c.) vaccination with the BCG vaccine demonstrated that a single moderate dose delivered intranasally induced a stronger and sustained M. tuberculosis-specific T-cell response in lung parenchyma and cervical lymph nodes of BALB/c mice than vaccine delivered subcutaneously. Both BCG and a multicomponent subunit vaccine composed of nine M. tuberculosis recombinant proteins induced strong antigen-specific T-cell responses in various local and peripheral immune compartments. Among the nine recombinant proteins evaluated, the alanine proline rich antigen (Apa, Rv1860) was highly antigenic following i.n. BCG and immunogenic after vaccination with a combination of the nine recombinant antigens. The Apa-induced responses included induction of both type 1 and type 2 cytokines in the lungs as evaluated by ELISPOT and a multiplexed microsphere-based cytokine immunoassay. Of importance, i.n. subunit vaccination with Apa imparted significant protection in the lungs and spleen of mice against M. tuberculosis challenge. Despite observed differences in the frequencies and location of specific cytokine secreting T cells both BCG vaccination routes afforded comparable levels of protection in our study. CONCLUSION AND SIGNIFICANCE: Overall, our findings support consideration and further evaluation of an intranasally targeted Apa-based vaccine to prevent tuberculosis

A bootstrapped neural network model applied to prediction of the biodegradation rate of reactive Black 5 dye

Current essay forwards a biodegradation model of a dye, used in the textile industry, based on a neural network propped by bootstrap remodeling. Bootstrapped neural network is set to generate estimates that are close to results obtained in an intrinsic experience in which a chemical process is applied. Pseudomonas oleovorans was used in the biodegradation of reactive Black 5. Results show a brief comparison between the information estimated by the proposed approach and the experimental data, with a coefficient of correlation between real and predicted values for a more than 0.99 biodegradation rate. Dye concentration and the solution's pH failed to interfere in biodegradation index rates. A value above 90% of dye biodegradation was achieved between 1.000 and 1.841 mL 10 mL(-1) of microorganism concentration and between 1.000 and 2.000 g 100 mL(-1) of glucose concentration within the experimental conditions under analysis.353565572University Nove de Julh

Bayesian inference on field data for genetic parameters for some reproductive and related traits of Nellore cattle (Bos indicus)

We used Gibbs sampling in single and two-trait animal models to estimate genetic parameters for some reproductive and related traits of Nellore cattle (Bos indicus). Female traits were age at first calving (AFC), cumulative productivity (CP) and adult weight (AW). For males, scrotal circumferences at 365 and 450 days of age were analyzed. Gibbs sampling using the ‘Multiple Trait using Gibbs Sampling under Animal Model’ (MTGSAM) program of Van Tassel and Van Vleck was used to estimate the (co)variance components of the traits and conduct genetic analyses. Heritabilities were AFC = 0.26, AW = 0.36 and CP = 0.25 under the single-trait animal model. The mean, mode and median estimates for genetic parameters obtained from the marginal posterior distributions were similar for all traits except AW, which presented lower values for the mode than the mean and median. However, the marginal posterior distributions for the traits studied presented a tendency toward normality. Favorable, but low, negative genetic correlations were found between male scrotal circumference and female age at first calving. The reproductive traits showed medium-magnitude heritabilities, which indicates that these traits should respond to selection and therefore should be included in genetic improvement programs