Selectively Expanded of CD4+ T Cells from Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Induced by Interleukin-2 Plus Anti-CD3 : Effects on the Cytotoxicity, the Proliferation and the Modulation of HLA Antigens and Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 against Human Malignant Melanoma Cell Lines

We selected human CD4? T cells using immunomagnetic beads from periph-eral blood mononuclear cells of 5 healthy volunteers, and cultured with recom-binant interleukin-2 (RIL-2) plus anti-CD3 culture supernatants. After success-ful generation of the CD4? T cell cultures, we examined the therapeutic value for human malignant melanoma. Through flow cytometry analysis, ??Cr-release assay and proliferation assay, we found that a) the total increase in 7 to 10 day cultures ranged from 30 to 100-fold ; b) the expanded cells were mostly CD2?, CD3?, CD4?, CD8?, CD25?, CD29?, CD56? and T cell receptor (α/β)? T cell ; c) some of them possessed moderate levels of natural killer cell and lymphokine -activated killer cell activities ; d) culture supernatants significantly inhibited the growth of cultured human melanoma cell lines ; e) culture supernatants enhanced surface expression of class I, class II and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 on cultured human melanoma cell lines ; and f) culture supernatants contained large amounts of cytokines such as IL-2, IL-6 and interferon-γ. These results sug-gested that selectively expanded CD4+ T cells may be available as a new strategy in the future human adoptive immunotherapy

Safety and immunogenicity of sequential administration of PCV13 followed by PPSV23 in pneumococcal vaccine-naïve adults aged ≥ 65 years : Comparison of booster effects based on intervals of 0.5 and 1.0 year

Objective: An open-label study was conducted to compare the safety and immunogenicity of a　sequential administration of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) followed by 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23) between an interval of 0.5 (0.5-y) and 1 year (1.0-y) in adults aged ≥ 65 years. Methods: Pneumococcal vaccine-naïve adults aged ≥ 65 years (n = 129) received a sequential administration with an interval of 0.5-y or 1.0-y or received a single administration of PPSV23 (single PPSV23). We evaluated the immunogenicity before and 1 month after each vaccination and at 0.5-y intervals for 2 years. The primary endpoint was the increase in geometric mean fold rises (GMFRs) of immunoglobulin G (IgG) or opsonophagocytic activity (OPA) for eight common serotypes one month after one dose of PPSV23. The secondary endpoint was the safety profile for one dose of PPSV23. Results: One month after administration of PPSV23, the GMFRs of IgG considerably increased for five of eight serotypes in the 1.0-y interval group, whereas the GMFRs of IgG considerably increased for two serotypes in the 0.5-y interval group. Furthermore, GMFRs of OPA markedly increased for all eight serotypes in the 1.0-y interval group, while GMFRs of OPA markedly increased for four serotypes in the 0.5-y interval group. At 2 years after initial vaccination, GMFRs of IgG or OPA were higher for all serotypes, except for serotype 3, than those in the single PPSV23 group irrespective of intervals. No significant difference was found in the frequencies of local reactions of all grades between the two intervals. Conclusions: The 1.0-y interval provided better booster effects induced by PPSV23 than those of the 0.5-y interval in a sequential administration in pneumococcal vaccine-naïve adults aged ≥ 65 years. No difference was found in the safety profile between both intervals

Effects of continuous supplementation of Acanthopanax senticosus Harms on the cardiac autonomic function of community-dwelling elderly individuals during resting and standing tests: a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundCardiac autonomic function (CAF) decreases with aging, and Acanthopanax senticosus Harms (ASH) consumption reportedly induces anti-stress effects. This study aimed to assess the effect of continuous supplementation of ASH on CAF during resting and standing tests in the elderly population.MethodsThis double-blind, randomized controlled trial was conducted in the morning in a laboratory setting and was carried out between June 2017 and July 2017 at Kambaikan, Doshisha University (Karasuma-higashi-iru, Imadegawa-dori, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8580, Japan). In total, 28 community-dwelling elderly individuals (mean ± standard deviation = 72.5 ± 4.5 years) were included. Each subject was instructed to consume ASH or placebo supplements twice daily for 4 weeks. An autonomic reflex orthostatic tolerance recorder was used to measure CAF in pre- and post-intervention phases. Parameters were measured in a seated position and included coefficient of variation of R-R intervals (CVRR), low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF), LF/HF ratio, blood pressure, and heart rate (HR). Changes in each parameter were evaluated before and after standing. All parameters were defined as the difference between the mean value obtained in a standing position for 2 min and that obtained in a 2-min seated position.ResultsA two-way analysis of variance revealed a significant group-time interaction effect on CVRR, HF, and ΔLF/HF ratio. Following the intervention, CVRR, HF, LF/HF ratio, systolic blood pressure (SBP), HR, ΔLF/HF ratio, ΔSBP, and ΔHR improved significantly in the ASH group only.ConclusionsFour-week supplementation of ASH improved CAF in community-dwelling elderly individuals during resting and standing tests.Clinical Trial Registrationhttps://center6.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000031218, UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN000027251)

Aseptic Meningoencephalitis Complicated by Retrobulbar Neuritis

A 25-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for testing and follow-up of aseptic meningoencephalitis. After admission to our hospital, the patient suddenly complained of visual field disorder and a decrease of visual acuity in the right eye. We diagnosed aseptic meningitis complicated by retrobulbar neuritis using MRI. We immediately initiated weekly steroid pulse therapy, and eventually, marked improvement in visual acuity and the visual field disorder was observed without any late effects

Fast deuteron diagnostics using visible light spectra of 3He produced by deuteron–deuteron reaction in deuterium plasmas

The fast deuteron (non-Maxwellian component) diagnostic method, which is based on the higher resolution optical spectroscopic measurement, has been developed as a powerful tool. Owing to a decrease in the D–H charge-exchange cross section, the diagnostic ability of conventional optical diagnostic methods should be improved for ∼MeV energy deuterons. Because the 3He–H charge-exchange cross section is much larger than that of D–H in the ∼MeV energy range, the visible light (VIS) spectrum of 3He produced by the dueteron–dueteron (DD) reaction may be a useful tool. Although the density of 3He is small because it is produced via the DD reaction, improvement of the emissivity of the VIS spectrum of 3He can be expected by using a high-energy beam. We evaluate the VIS spectrum of 3He for the cases when a fast deuteron tail is formed and not formed in the ITER-like beam injected deuterium plasma. Even when the beam energy is in the MeV energy range, a large change appears in the half width at half maximum of the VIS spectrum. The emissivity of the VIS spectrum of 3He and the emissivity of bremsstrahlung are compared, and the measurable VIS spectrum is obtained. It is shown that the VIS spectrum of 3He is a useful tool for the MeV beam deuteron tail diagnostics

Developmental trajectory of the corpus callosum from infancy to the juvenile stage: Comparative MRI between chimpanzees and humans

[email protected] brains develop during early life is one of the most important topics in neuroscience because it underpins the neuronal functions that mature during this period. A comparison of the neurodevelopmental patterns among humans and nonhuman primates is essential to infer evolutional changes in neuroanatomy that account for higher-order brain functions, especially those specific to humans. The corpus callosum (CC) is the major white matter bundle that connects the cerebral hemispheres, and therefore, relates to a wide variety of neuronal functions. In humans, the CC area rapidly expands during infancy, followed by relatively slow changes. In chimpanzees, based on a cross-sectional study, slow changes in the CC area during the juvenile stage and later have also been reported. However, little is known about the developmental changes during infancy. A longitudinal study is also required to validate the previous cross-sectional observations about the chimpanzee CC. The present longitudinal study of magnetic resonance imaging scans demonstrates that the CC development in chimpanzees and humans is characterized by a rapid increase during infancy, followed by gradual increase during the juvenile stage. Several differences between the two species were also identified. First, there was a tendency toward a greater increase in the CC areas during infancy in humans. Second, there was a tendency toward a greater increase in the rostrum during the juvenile stage in chimpanzees. The rostral body is known to carry fibers between the bilateral prefrontal and premotor cortices, and is involved in behavior planning and control, verbal working memory, and number conception. The rostrum is known to carry fibers between the prefrontal cortices, and is involved in attention control. The interspecies differences in the developmental trajectories of the rostral body and the rostrum might be related to evolutional changes in the brain systems. © 2017 Sakai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Indirect energy transfer channel between fast ions via nuclear elastic scattering observed on the large helical device

An energy transfer phenomenon between energetic ions, which cannot be explained only considering the Coulomb scattering process, was observed on a large helical device (LHD). This phenomenon often occurs in fusion reactivity enhancement and fast-ion slowing-down process that can be observed as a delay in the decay time of the D(d,n)3He neutron generation rate. The transferred energy required to induce such a reactivity enhancement or delay in the fast-ion slowing-down time (neutron decay time) was examined based on the Boltzmann−Fokker−Planck analysis in which a discrete energy transfer process, called nuclear elastic scattering (NES), is included. It was shown that even though the cross section of the NES is smaller than that of the Coulomb scattering, enough knock-on population appears in the energetic region in ion distribution function to induce the observable NES effects; thus, enough energy is transferred from beam ions to fast component of bulk ion distribution function indirectly and the transferred energy per unit time via NES is comparable to the Coulomb scattering rate. This study analytically demonstrates that the observed phenomena on LHD can be explained smoothly by considering the alternative indirect energy transfer channel between energetic ions, which can be comparable with the one via Coulomb scattering

Carbon impurities behavior and its impact on ion thermal confinement in high-ion-temperature deuterium discharges on the Large Helical Device

The behavior of carbon impurities in deuterium plasmas and its impact on thermal confinement were investigated in comparison with hydrogen plasmas in the Large Helical Device (LHD). Deuterium plasma experiments have been started in the LHD and high-ion-temperature plasmas with central ion temperature (T i) of 10 keV were successfully obtained. The thermal confinement improvement could be sustained for a longer time compared with hydrogen plasmas. An isotope effect was observed in the time evolution of the carbon density profiles. A transiently peaked profile was observed in the deuterium plasmas due to the smaller carbon convection velocity and diffusivity in the deuterium plasmas compared with the hydrogen plasmas. The peaked carbon density profile was strongly correlated to the ion thermal confinement improvement. The peaking of the carbon density profile will be one of the clues to clarify the unexplained mechanisms for the formations of ion internal transport barrier and impurity hole on LHD. These results could also lead to a better understanding of the isotope effect in the thermal confinement in torus plasma

Additive effect of pneumococcal vaccine and influenza vaccine on acute exacerbation in patients with chronic lung disease

To determine the clinical efficacy of combined vaccination with 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine (PV) and influenza vaccine (IV) against pneumonia and acute exacerbation of chronic lung diseases (CLD), we conducted an open-label, randomized, controlled study among 167 adults with CLD over a 2-year period. Subjects were randomly assigned to a PV + IV group (n = 87) or an IV group (n = 80). The number of patients with CLD experiencing infectious acute exacerbation (P = 0.022), but not pneumonia (P = 0.284), was significantly lower in the PV + IV group compared with the IV group. When these subjects were divided into subgroups, an additive effect of PV with IV in preventing infectious acute exacerbation was significant only in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (P = 0.037). In patients with CLD, the Kaplan-Meier survival curves demonstrated a significant difference for infectious acute exacerbation (P = 0.016) between the two groups. An additive effect of PV with IV on infectious acute exacerbation was found during the first year after vaccination (P = 0.019), but not during the second year (P = 0.342), and was associated with serotype-specific immune response in sera of these patients who used PV during the same period