Anaphylactic Reaction to Tc-99m Macrosalb

A 49-year-old woman developed an anaphylactic reaction to Tc-99m macrosalb used for pulmonary scintigraphy. The patient received an intravenous injection of Tc-99m macrosalb 120 MBq, containing macroaggregates of human albumin 0.14 mg. Within 1 min she developed itching all over her body, an itching throat and dyspnoea. This was followed by urticaria and facial oedema. She was diagnosed with an anaphylactic shock. The patient received clemastine and prednisone, and fully recovered after release from the hospital. According to the Naranjo assessment algorithm, the relationship between the allergic reaction and the administration of Tc-99m macrosalb should be considered as 'probable'

Binary metal oxides for composite ultrafiltration membranes

A new ultrafiltration membrane was developed by the incorporation of binary metal oxides inside polyethersulfone. Physico-chemical characterization of the binary metal oxides demonstrated that the presence of Ti in the TiO2?ZrO2 system results in an increase of the size of the oxides, and also their dispersity. The crystalline phases of the synthesized binary metal oxides were identified as srilankite and zirconium titanium oxide. The effect of the addition of ZrO2 can be expressed in terms of the inhibition of crystal growth of anocrystalline TiO2 during the synthesis process. For photocatalytic applications the band gap of the synthesized semiconductors was determined, confirming a gradual increase (blue shift) in the band gap as the amount of Zr loading increases. Distinct distributions of binary metal oxides were found along the permeation axis for the synthesized membranes. Particles with Ti are more uniformly dispersed throughout the membrane cross-section. The physico-chemical characterization of membranes showed a strong correlation between some key membrane properties and the spatial particle distribution in the membrane structure. The proximity of metal oxide fillers to the membrane surface determines the hydrophilicity and porosity of modified membranes. Membranes incorporating binary metal oxides were found to be promising candidates for wastewater treatment by ultrafiltration, considering the observed improvement influx and anti-fouling properties of doped membranes. Multi-run fouling tests of doped membranes confirmed the stability of permeation through membranes embedded with binary TiO2?ZrO2 particles

CD8 T-cell responses against the immunodominant Theileria parvapeptide Tp249-59 are composed of two distinct populations specific for overlapping 11-mer and 10-mer epitopes

Immunity against Theileria parva is associated with CD8 T-cell responses that exhibit immunodominance, focusing the response against limited numbers of epitopes. As candidates for inclusion in vaccines, characterization of responses against immunodominant epitopes is a key component in novel vaccine development. We have previously demonstrated that the Tp249–59 and Tp1214–224 epitopes dominate CD8 T-cell responses in BoLA-A10 and BoLA-18 MHC I homozygous animals, respectively. In this study, peptide–MHC I tetramers for these epitopes, and a subdominant BoLA-A10-restricted epitope (Tp298–106), were generated to facilitate accurate and rapid enumeration of epitope-specific CD8 T cells. During validation of these tetramers a substantial proportion of Tp249–59-reactive T cells failed to bind the tetramer, suggesting that this population was heterogeneous with respect to the recognized epitope. We demonstrate that Tp250–59 represents a distinct epitope and that tetramers produced with Tp50–59 and Tp49–59 show no cross-reactivity. The Tp249–59 and Tp250–59 epitopes use different serine residues as the N-terminal anchor for binding to the presenting MHC I molecule. Molecular dynamic modelling predicts that the two peptide–MHC I complexes adopt structurally different conformations and Tcell receptor β sequence analysis showed that Tp249–59 and Tp250–59 are recognized by non-overlapping T-cell receptor repertoires. Together these data demonstrate that although differing by only a single residue, Tp249–59 and Tp250–59 epitopes form distinct ligands for T-cell receptor recognition. Tetramer analysis of T. parva-specific CD8 T-cell lines confirmed the immunodominance of Tp1214–224 in BoLA-A18 animals and showed in BoLA-A10 animals that the Tp249–59 epitope response was generally more dominant than the Tp250–59 response and confirmed that the Tp298–106 response was subdominant

Unique Roles of Mothering and Fathering in Child Anxiety; Moderation by Child’s Age and Gender

We examined the associations between the parenting dimensions autonomy granting, over control, and rejection and children’s anxiety, in relation to parent and child gender and child age. Elementary school-aged children (n = 179, Mage = 10.27, SD = 1.30), adolescents (n = 127, Mage = 15.02, SD = 1.54) and both their parents completed questionnaires on parenting and children’s anxiety. Parenting was more strongly related to child anxiety in elementary school children than in adolescents. Maternal over control was uniquely related to elementary school-aged children’s anxiety whereas paternal over control was more important during adolescence. Opposite to our expectations, we found higher levels of parental autonomy granting to be related to higher levels of anxiety for younger elementary school-aged children (age < 10). For adolescents, the association between paternal over control and anxiety was stronger for older adolescents (age > 15), with higher levels of over control related to higher levels of anxiety. For both elementary school-aged children and adolescents, the associations between parenting and child anxiety did not differ as a function of the child’s gender. If we are to understand the associations between parenting and children’s anxiety, it is important to distinguish parental autonomy granting from parental over control and to consider the role of parent gender and the age of the child

A novel strategy for the identification of antigens that are recognised by bovine MHC class I restricted cytotoxic T cells in a protozoan infection using reverse vaccinology

BACKGROUND: Immunity against the bovine protozoan parasite Theileria parva has previously been shown to be mediated through lysis of parasite-infected cells by MHC class I restricted CD8(+ )cytotoxic T lymphocytes. It is hypothesized that identification of CTL target schizont antigens will aid the development of a sub-unit vaccine. We exploited the availability of the complete genome sequence data and bioinformatics tools to identify genes encoding secreted or membrane anchored proteins that may be processed and presented by the MHC class I molecules of infected cells to CTL. RESULTS: Of the 986 predicted open reading frames (ORFs) encoded by chromosome 1 of the T. parva genome, 55 were selected based on the presence of a signal peptide and/or a transmembrane helix domain. Thirty six selected ORFs were successfully cloned into a eukaryotic expression vector, transiently transfected into immortalized bovine skin fibroblasts and screened in vitro using T. parva-specific CTL. Recognition of gene products by CTL was assessed using an IFN-γ ELISpot assay. A 525 base pair ORF encoding a 174 amino acid protein, designated Tp2, was identified by T. parva-specific CTL from 4 animals. These CTL recognized and lysed Tp2 transfected skin fibroblasts and recognized 4 distinct epitopes. Significantly, Tp2 specific CD8(+ )T cell responses were observed during the protective immune response against sporozoite challenge. CONCLUSION: The identification of an antigen containing multiple CTL epitopes and its apparent immunodominance during a protective anti-parasite response makes Tp2 an attractive candidate for evaluation of its vaccine potential

Nanofiltration separation of polyvalent and monovalent anions in desalination brines

This work, as part of a global membrane process for the recovery of alkali and acids from reverse osmosis (RO) desalination brines, focuses on the nanofiltration (NF) separation of polyvalent and monovalent anions, more specifically sulfate and chloride. This pretreatment stage plays a key role in the whole recovery process. Working with model brines simulating the concentration of RO concentrates, 0.2–1.2 M chloride concentration and 0.1 M sulfate concentration, the experimental performance and modeling of the NF separation is reported. The study has been carried out with the NF270 (Dow Filmtec) membrane. The effect of operating pressure (500–2000 kPa), ionic strength (0.4–1.3 M) and chloride initial concentration (0.2–1.2 M) on the membrane separation capacity has been investigated. Finally, the Donnan Steric Pore Model (DSPM) together with experimentally determined parameters, effective pore radius (rp), thickness of the membrane effective layer (d) and effective membrane charge density (Xd), was proved accurate enough to satisfactorily describe the experimental results. In this work we provide for the first time the analysis of partitioning effects and transport mechanism in the NF separation of sulfate and chloride anions in concentrations that simulate those found in RO desalination brines.This work has been financially supported by projects CTQ2008-0690, ENE2010-15585 and CTM2011-23912 (co-financed by ERDF Funds).The authors would like to acknowledge SADYT, S.A. for providing assistance for this work

Challenges to the development of antigen-specific breast cancer vaccines

Continued progress in the development of antigen-specific breast cancer vaccines depends on the identification of appropriate target antigens, the establishment of effective immunization strategies, and the ability to circumvent immune escape mechanisms. Methods such as T cell epitope cloning and serological expression cloning (SEREX) have led to the identification of a number target antigens expressed in breast cancer. Improved immunization strategies, such as using dendritic cells to present tumor-associated antigens to T lymphocytes, have been shown to induce antigen-specific T cell responses in vivo and, in some cases, objective clinical responses. An outcome of successful tumor immunity is the evolution of antigen-loss tumor variants. The development of a polyvalent breast cancer vaccine, directed against a panel of tumor-associated antigens, may counteract this form of immune escape

Nanofiltration of hormone mimicking trace organic contaminants

The removal mechanisms of three hormone mimicking organic compounds by nanofiltration (NF) membranes have been examined. Two NF membranes having different pore size were used in laboratory-scale nanofiltration experiments with feed solutions spiked with a hormone mimicking compound ¾ nonylphenol, tert-butyl phenol, or bisphenol A. Retention of the compounds was determined at various solution chemistries, namely aqueous solution pH, ionic strength, and presence of natural organic matter. The nanofiltration behavior of the selected hormone mimicking compounds appears similar to that of natural hormones as reported in our previous work. While the solution pH can dramatically influence the retention of hormone mimicking compounds by a loose NF membrane, ionic strength does not affect the nanofiltration of such contaminants. However, in the presence of natural organic matter in the feed solution, ionic strength appears to play a significant role in solute-solute and solute-membrane interactions, resulting in increased retention due to partitioning of the hormone mimicking compounds onto organic matter at a higher ionic strength

An Efficient Strategy to Induce and Maintain In Vitro Human T Cells Specific for Autologous Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma

BACKGROUND: The efficient expansion in vitro of cytolytic CD8+ T cells (CTLs) specific for autologous tumors is crucial both for basic and translational aspects of tumor immunology. We investigated strategies to generate CTLs specific for autologous Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma (NSCLC), the most frequent tumor in mankind, using circulating lymphocytes. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Classic Mixed Lymphocyte Tumor Cultures with NSCLC cells consistently failed to induce tumor-specific CTLs. Cross-presentation in vitro of irradiated NSCLC cells by autologous dendritic cells, by contrast, induced specific CTL lines from which we obtained a high number of tumor-specific T cell clones (TCCs). The TCCs displayed a limited TCR diversity, suggesting an origin from few tumor-specific T cell precursors, while their TCR molecular fingerprints were detected in the patient's tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, implying a role in the spontaneous anti-tumor response. Grafting NSCLC-specific TCR into primary allogeneic T cells by lentiviral vectors expressing human V-mouse C chimeric TCRalpha/beta chains overcame the growth limits of these TCCs. The resulting, rapidly expanding CD4+ and CD8+ T cell lines stably expressed the grafted chimeric TCR and specifically recognized the original NSCLC. CONCLUSIONS: This study defines a strategy to efficiently induce and propagate in vitro T cells specific for NSCLC starting from autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes