Moving Women of Color from Reliable Voters to Candidates for Public Office

In recent presidential elections, women, people of color, millennials, and new immigrants shaped the outcomes of those elections. Women of color standing at the nexus of two underrepresented groups in politics- racial minorities and women- demonstrated their commitments to democracy by maintaining their traditions as reliable voters, far exceeding expectations. In this project, we ask what is necessary to move these women of color from reliable voters to candidates for political office and locate our answer with women of color. They are doing much of the work to deepen democratic engagement in communities of color, namely mobilizing voters and political candidates. They are redefining democratic inclusion, reshaping the electorate, and they stand to change the demographics of voters and officeholders alike. Likewise, they are redefining and disrupting traditional notions of political actors. How and why they see this as important work for themselves and their communities helps us to understand how people challenge exclusions and make a place for themselves, particularly in the political sphere which is marked by white, male dominance. Scholars have not documented this significant role women of color are playing in extending democracy and this documentation is critical to preserving women of color’s historic contributions to formal electoral politics. While the existing scholarship is rich in denoting the propensity of women of color to act as social change agents, we lag behind in scholarship recognizing the richness of their contributions to formal electoral politics. Their contributions deserve to be recorded and linked to the long line of scholarly engagements with women of color activism and leadership. We begin the project by establishing the landscape of existing WOC organizations, civic groups, collaborations and projects engaged in this work including the full landscape of programs, initiatives and organizations seeking to mobilize women of color as voters and political candidates. We explore their origin stories and contributions to civic engagement of marginalized groups. Our long term goals of the project are to strengthen the capacity of these organizations by bringing attention to their contributions; sharing best practices across groups that are not currently networked; and to leverage resources to strengthen their capacities

Mycobacterium indicus pranii Supernatant Induces Apoptotic Cell Death in Mouse Peritoneal Macrophages In Vitro

Mycobacterium indicus pranii (MIP), also known as Mw, is a saprophytic, non-pathogenic strain of Mycobacterium and is commercially available as a heat-killed vaccine for leprosy and recently tuberculosis (TB) as part of MDT. In this study we provide evidence that cell-free supernatant collected from original MIP suspension induces rapid and enhanced apoptosis in mouse peritoneal macrophages in vitro. It is demonstrated that the MIP cell-free supernatant induced apoptosis is mitochondria-mediated and caspase independent and involves mitochondrial translocation of Bax and subsequent release of AIF and cytochrome c from the mitochondria. Experiments with pharmacological inhibitors suggest a possible role of PKC in mitochondria-mediated apoptosis of macrophages

Evaluation of Cellular Phenotypes Implicated in Immunopathogenesis and Monitoring Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome in HIV/Leprosy Cases

BACKGROUND: It is now evident that HAART-associated immunological improvement often leads to a variety of new clinical manifestations, collectively termed immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome, or IRIS. This phenomenon has already been described in cases of HIV coinfection with Mycobacterium leprae, most of them belonging to the tuberculoid spectrum of leprosy disease, as observed in leprosy reversal reaction (RR). However, the events related to the pathogenesis of this association need to be clarified. This study investigated the immunological profile of HIV/leprosy patients, with special attention to the cellular activation status, to better understand the mechanisms related to IRIS/RR immunopathogenesis, identifying any potential biomarkers for IRIS/RR intercurrence. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Eighty-five individuals were assessed in this study: HIV/leprosy and HIV-monoinfected patients, grouped according to HIV-viral load levels, leprosy patients without HIV coinfection, and healthy controls. Phenotypes were evaluated by flow cytometry for T cell subsets and immune differentiation/activation markers. As expected, absolute counts of the CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from the HIV-infected individuals changed in relation to those of the leprosy patients and controls. However, there were no significant differences among the groups, whether in the expression of cellular differentiation phenotypes or cellular activation, as reflected by the expression of CD38 and HLA-DR. Six HIV/leprosy patients identified as IRIS/RR were analyzed during IRIS/RR episodes and after prednisone treatment. These patients presented high cellular activation levels regarding the expression of CD38 in CD8+ cells T during IRIS/RR (median: 77,15%), dropping significantly (p<0,05) during post-IRIS/RR moments (median: 29,7%). Furthermore, an increase of cellular activation seems to occur prior to IRIS/RR. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: These data suggest CD38 expression in CD8+ T cells interesting tool identifying HIV/leprosy individuals at risk for IRIS/RR. So, a comparative investigation to leprosy patients at RR should be conducted

Azole compounds designed by molecular modelling show antifungal activity as predicted

372-381Rational approaches involving drug discovery technologies such as computational and combinatorial chemistry and high throughput screening have been useful tools to design and discover new drugs more efficiently. The interplay among structure-activity relationships, computer modelling, chemical synthesis and pharmacological testing can lead to better products for a particular therapeutic purpose. The work presented in this paper reports an example of successful application of computer-aided drug design method to find new azole antifungal agents. The designed compounds have been synthesized in the laboratory and tested for anti fungal activity against Candida albicans ATCC 24433 in vitro. Two compounds exhibit good activity in vitro, which can be optimized for better activity