Gratitude and subjective well-being in a group of adolescents

M.A.Satisfactory psychosocial development during adolescence will equip individuals with intrapersonal and interpersonal resources to facilitate adaptive negotiations of the complex adult world. There has been increasing empirical interest in fostering optimal development in adolescents through enhancing positive attributes and aspects of mental health. Accordingly, researchers have begun investigating the benefits of frequent experiences of gratitude, and have found that gratitude is associated with subjective well-being (SWB) among adolescents. The relationship between gratitude and SWB may be particularly important for South African youth, whose development occurs within the context of socio-political difficulties associated with transformation in the post-apartheid era, which could have a negative impact on their SWB. However, there has been no research undertaken to investigate gratitude and SWB among South African adolescents. This study investigated the prevalence of gratitude, and the relationship between gratitude and SWB, among 812 adolescents in Gauteng. Specifically, the prevalence of state gratitude and trait gratitude were determined, and compared across female and male adolescents, and among participants from different population groups. Further, the relationship between state gratitude and SWB, and trait gratitude and SWB, was established and compared across gender and among individuals from various population groups. A quantitative non-experimental design was employed. Data was collected by self-report questionnaires assessing the prevalence of gratitude and SWB. The data was analysed by examining mean scores, conducting one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs), as well as Pearson‟s product moment-correlation coefficients, and a multivariate analysis of variance and follow-up ANOVAs

Latency can be conferred to a variety of cytokines by fusion with latency-associated peptide from TGF-β

OBJECTIVES: Targeting cytokines to sites of disease has clear advantages because it increases their therapeutic index. We designed fusion proteins of the latent-associated peptide (LAP) derived from TGF-β with various cytokines via a matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) cleavage site. This design confers latency, increased half-life and targeting to sites of inflammation. The aim of this study is to determine whether this approach can be applied to cytokines of different molecular structures and sizes. METHODS: Mature cytokines cloned downstream of LAP and a MMP cleavage site were expressed in 293T cells and assessed for latency and biological activity by Western blotting and bioassay. RESULTS: We demonstrate here that fusion proteins of TGF-β, erythropoietin, IL-1ra, IL-10, IL-4, BMP-7, IGF1 and IL-17 were rendered latent by fusion to LAP, requiring cleavage to become active in respective bioassays. As further proof of principle, we also show that delivery of engineered TGF-β can inhibit experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and that this approach can be used to efficiently deliver cytokines to the brain and spinal cord in mice with this disease. CONCLUSIONS: The latent cytokine approach can be successfully applied to a range of molecules, including cytokines of different molecular structure and mass, growth factors and a cytokine antagonist