Role of CD28/B7 costimulation and IL-12/IL-10 interaction in the radiation-induced immune changes

BACKGROUND: The present paper aims at studying the role of B7/CD28 interaction and related cytokine production in the immunological changes after exposure to different doses of ionizing radiation. RESULTS: The stimulatory effect of low dose radiation (LDR) on the proliferative response of lymphocytes to Con A was found to require the presence of APCs. The addition of APCs obtained from both low- and high-dose-irradiated mice to splenic lymphocytes separated from low-dose-irradiated mice caused stimulation of lymphocyte proliferation. B7-1/2 expression on APCs was up-regulated after both low and high doses of radiation. There was up-regulation of CD28 expression on splenic and thymic lymphocytes after LDR and its suppression after high dose radiation (HDR), and cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) expression showed changes in the opposite direction. IL-12 secretion by macrophages was stimulated after both low and high doses of radiation, but IL-10 synthesis by splenocytes was suppressed by low dose radiation and up-regulated by high dose radiation. CONCLUSION: The status of CD28/CTLA-4 expression on T lymphocytes in the presence of up-regulated B7 expression on APCs determined the outcome of the immune changes in response to radiation, i.e., up-regulation of CD28 after LDR resulted in immunoenhancement, and up-regulation of CTLA-4 associated with down-regulation of CD28 after HDR led to immunosuppression. Both low and high doses of radiation up-regulated B7-1/2 expression on APCs. After LDR, the stimulated proliferative effect of increased IL-12 secretion by APCs, reinforced by the suppressed secretion of IL-10, further strengthened the intracellular signaling induced by B7-CD28 interaction

Geometric phase driven Josephson junction: Possible experimental scheme for the search of spin superfluidity

We use the Gross-Pitaevskii equation to study Josephson tunneling between two weakly coupled Bose-Einstein condensates, which compose spin-1 bosons. We show that a rotating magnetic field on one side can produce a phase difference across the junction, resulting in an oscillatory tunneling spin current. Besides numerical calculation, we derive analytical results in two extreme cases, namely the low- and high-frequency limits: in the low-frequency limit (magnetic field rotates adiabatically), a non-Abelian geometric phase arises and leads to the oscillatory spin current. By sharp contrast, the physics is intrinsically different in the high-frequency limit, where an average Zeeman energy difference leads to an oscillatory spin current. This proposed apparatus should be promising for the future experimental search of spin superfluidity.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures. Published version. Title changed. Comments are welcom

A new species of Polycelis (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Planariidae) from China

In this paper, a new species of Polycelis of the family Planariidae from China is described. Mature individuals have 80–140 eyespots; the testes are well-developed and most of them occupy the entire dorso-ventral space; the penis is a long cone with well-developed musculature; the boundary between the penis bulb and penis papilla is vague and the bulbar cavity is not observed; the bursal canal is surrounded by a well-developed coat of circular muscles, and a thin layer of longitudinal muscles. The karyotype shows a diploid complement of 38 chromosomes, with the formula 2n = 38 = 24m + 14sm

Bis(μ-4-bromo­benzoato)-κ3 O,O′:O′;O:O,O′-bis­[μ-1,3-bis­(pyridin-4-yl)propane-κ2 N:N′]bis­[(4-bromo­benzoato-κ2 O,O′)cadmium]

The dinuclear complex, [Cd2(C7H4BrO2)4(C13H14N2)2], lies on a twofold rotation axis crossing midway between the two metal atoms. The CdII cation is seven-coordinated with a geometry that can be considered as distorted penta­gonal bipyramidal, with the N atom of the N-heterocyclic units occupying the apical sites and the O atoms of the 4-bromo­benzoate units in the equatorial plane. The middle methyl­ene group of the 1,3-bis­(4-pyrid­yl)propane ligands is located outside of the twofold rotation axis and consequently is disordered over two sites around this symmetry element with fixed occupancies factors of 0.5

3-[(E)-2-Chloro-3,3,3-trifluoro­prop-1-en-1-yl]-N-(2-chloro­phen­yl)-2,2-dimethyl­cyclo­propane-1-carboxamide

In the title compound, C15H14Cl2F3NO, synthesized by the reaction of 3-[(E)-2-chloro-3,3,3-trifluoro­prop-1-en­yl]-2,2-dimethyl­cyclo­propane­carb­oxy­lic acid and 2-chloro­aniline, the aromatic ring makes a dihedral angle of 76.7 (3)° with the plane of the cyclo­propane ring. In the crystal, inter­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into chains running along the b axis

hidden charm decays of X(4014)X(4014) in a D∗Dˉ∗D^{*}\bar{D}^{*} molecule scenario

Inspired by the recent observation of a new structure, $X(4014)$, in the process $\gamma\gamma\to \gamma\psi(2S)$, we evaluate the possibility of assigning $X(4014)$ as a $D^\ast \bar{D}^\ast$ molecular state with $I(J^{PC})=0(0^{++})$ by investigating the hidden charm decays of $X(4014)$. The partial widths of $J/\psi\omega$, $\eta_{c}\eta$ and $\eta_{c}\eta^{\prime}$ channels are evaluated to be about $(0.41\sim 5.00)$, $(2.05\sim7.49)$ and $(0.11\sim0.51)\ \mathrm{MeV}$, respectively. Considering the experimental observation and the present estimations, we proposed to search $X(4014)$ in the $\gamma \gamma \to J/\psi \omega$ process in Belle II.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.