A useful approach to total analysis of RISC-associated RNA

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長崎市の飼い犬の飼育環境と人畜共通寄生虫，犬糸状虫の予防の実態に関するアンケート調査

犬糸状虫の感染と犬の飼育環境や飼い主の予防の実施の有無との関連性の手がかりをつかむため，1989年と1993年に長崎市の南部の戸町地区と北部の坂本，高尾，山里の3地区の320名または397名の飼い主を対象に犬の飼育環境と予防の実態についてアンケート調査を実施した．1989年と1993年の回収率はそれぞれ65.9％または55.9％であった．感染率の低い北部3 地区では家の中で犬を飼うと答えた人が多かった．感染率の高い南部の1地区では庭で犬を飼う人が多かった．このことから南部の犬は北部の犬に比べて主要伝搬蚊であるアカイエカに刺される機会が多くなることが推測される．予防措置としてはどの地区でも蚊取り線香が高頻度に使われていることがわかった．予防薬を投与している飼い主は一般に少なかった．To examine the role of living environments of domestic dogs and the measures taken by dogs owners to protect their dogs in the prevention of Dirofilaria immitis infection, we carried out a questionnaire survey in Tomachi (from the southern part of Nagasaki City) and Sakamoto, Takao and Yamazato (from the northern part of the same city) in 1989 (for 320 dog owners) and 1993 (for 397 owners). The percentage of dog owners who answered to the questionnaire was 65.9% in 1989 and 55.9% in 1993. In the northern 3 districts where positive rates the percentage of larvae-carrying dogs were low, dogs were often kept indoors. In the southern district (Tomachi) where the positive rate was high, dogs were often kept outdoors (in the yard). The high percentage of dogs kept outdoors in Tomachi seems to have increased the exposure of dogs to main vector mosquito, Cx. p. pallens. In all districts, mosquito-repellent coils were most frequently used as a means to control mosquitoes. The percentage of dog owners who used preventive drugs tended to be low

Emergence of a Twisted Magnetic Flux Bundle as a Source of Strong Flare Activity

Sunspot proper motions and flares of a super active region NOAA 5395, which was the biggest and the most flare-active region in the 22nd sunspot cycle, were analyzed in details. We measured sunspot proper motions by using the H-alpha - 5.0 A images obtained with the 60-cm Domeless Solar Telescope (DST) at Hida Observatory, Kyoto University and found some peculiar vortex-like motions of small satellite spots successively emerged from the leading edge of this sunspot group. To explain these motions of small sunspots, we proposed a schematic model of the successive emergence of twisted and winding magnetic flux ropes coiling around a trunk of magnetic flux tube. The location of the strongest flare activity was found to coincide with very the site of the vortex-like motions of sunspots. We conclude that the flare-productive magnetic shear is produced by the emergence of the twisted magnetic flux bundle. Magnetic energy is stored in the twisted flux tubes which are originally formed in the convection zone and released as flares in the course of the emergence of the twisted flux tubes above the photosphere.Comment: 19 pages LaTeX, 8 figures, ApJ accepted high resolution figures : e-mail to [email protected]

Nectin-2 is a potential target for antibody therapy of breast and ovarian cancers

BACKGROUND: Nectin-2 is a Ca(2+)-independent cell-cell adhesion molecule that is one of the plasma membrane components of adherens junctions. However, little has been reported about the involvement of Nectin-2 in cancer. METHODS: To determine the expression of Nectin-2 in cancer tissues and cancer cell lines, we performed gene expression profile analysis, immunohistochemistry studies, and flow cytometry analysis. We also investigated the potential of this molecule as a target for antibody therapeutics to treat cancers by generating and characterizing an anti-Nectin-2 rabbit polyclonal antibody (poAb) and 256 fully human anti-Nectin-2 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). In addition, we tested anti-Nectin-2 mAbs in several in vivo tumor growth inhibition models to investigate the primary mechanisms of action of the mAbs. RESULTS: In the present study, we found that Nectin-2 was over-expressed in clinical breast and ovarian cancer tissues by using gene expression profile analysis and immunohistochemistry studies. Nectin-2 was over-expressed in various cancer cell lines as well. Furthermore, the polyclonal antibody specific to Nectin-2 suppressed the in vitro proliferation of OV-90 ovarian cancer cells, which express endogenous Nectin-2 on the cell surface. The anti-Nectin-2 mAbs we generated were classified into 7 epitope bins. The anti-Nectin-2 mAbs demonstrated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and epitope bin-dependent features such as the inhibition of Nectin-2-Nectin-2 interaction, Nectin-2-Nectin-3 interaction, and in vitro cancer cell proliferation. A representative anti-Nectin-2 mAb in epitope bin VII, Y-443, showed anti-tumor effects against OV-90 cells and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells in mouse therapeutic models, and its main mechanism of action appeared to be ADCC. CONCLUSIONS: We observed the over-expression of Nectin-2 in breast and ovarian cancers and anti-tumor activity of anti-Nectin-2 mAbs via strong ADCC. These findings suggest that Nectin-2 is a potential target for antibody therapy against breast and ovarian cancers

Human Blood Feeding Activity of Female Hybrids between Culex pipiens pipiens and Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus（Diptera: Culicidae）

Human blood feeding activity was examined in females of hybrids between Culex pipiens pipiens and Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus during long photoperiod at 25℃. Blood feeding rates of hybrids were lower than in Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus and Culex pipiens pallens, and higher than in Culex pipiens pipiens, because no females fed on human blood in Culex pipiens pipiens

Eosinophil Hyporesponse of Jirds Induced by Microfilariae of Brugia Pahangi

Male jirds (Meriones unguiculatus) were inoculated sc with 100 infective larvae of Brugia pahangi. After 16 weeks, the animals were reinoculated with a comparable number of organisms. Blood eosinophil responses during the 5 weeks subsequent to this attempt to reinfect were much lower than those of comparable naive animals, while the response to a heterologous infection (Toxocara canis) was comparable to that of controls. Mebendazole was given to infected animals for 2 weeks beginning 5 weeks (prepatent) or 16 weeks (patent) after infection. At comparable intervals after drug administration, the animals were reinoculated with infective larvae and the blood eosinophil response was measured over a 5 week period. The response in the animals treated during the prepatent period was higher than the untreated infected controls. Treatment during the patent period had no demonstrable effect. Jirds made artificially microfilaremic by intravenous inoculation of viable filaria before and after the standard infecting dose had a low eosinophil response to infective larvae