Cytomegalovirus-based vaccine expressing Ebola virus glycoprotein protects nonhuman primates from Ebola virus infection.

Ebolaviruses pose significant public health problems due to their high lethality, unpredictable emergence, and localization to the poorest areas of the world. In addition to implementation of standard public health control procedures, a number of experimental human vaccines are being explored as a further means for outbreak control. Recombinant cytomegalovirus (CMV)-based vectors are a novel vaccine platform that have been shown to induce substantial levels of durable, but primarily T-cell-biased responses against the encoded heterologous target antigen. Herein, we demonstrate the ability of rhesus CMV (RhCMV) expressing Ebola virus (EBOV) glycoprotein (GP) to provide protective immunity to rhesus macaques against lethal EBOV challenge. Surprisingly, vaccination was associated with high levels of GP-specific antibodies, but with no detectable GP-directed cellular immunity

Transcriptomic Analyses of Sexual Dimorphism of the Zebrafish Liver and the Effect of Sex Hormones

10.1371/journal.pone.0053562PLoS ONE81

Multi-center feasibility study evaluating recruitment, variability in risk factors and biomarkers for a diet and cancer cohort in India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>India's population exhibits diverse dietary habits and chronic disease patterns. Nutritional epidemiologic studies in India are primarily of cross-sectional or case-control design and subject to biases, including differential recall of past diet. The aim of this feasibility study was to evaluate whether a diet-focused cohort study of cancer could be established in India, providing insight into potentially unique diet and lifestyle exposures.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Field staff contacted 7,064 households within three regions of India (New Delhi, Mumbai, and Trivandrum) and found 4,671 eligible adults aged 35-69 years. Participants completed interviewer-administered questionnaires (demographic, diet history, physical activity, medical/reproductive history, tobacco/alcohol use, and occupational history), and staff collected biological samples (blood, urine, and toenail clippings), anthropometric measurements (weight, standing and sitting height; waist, hip, and thigh circumference; triceps, sub-scapula and supra-patella skin fold), and blood pressure measurements.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Eighty-eight percent of eligible subjects completed all questionnaires and 67% provided biological samples. Unique protein sources by region were fish in Trivandrum, dairy in New Delhi, and pulses (legumes) in Mumbai. Consumption of meat, alcohol, fast food, and soft drinks was scarce in all three regions. A large percentage of the participants were centrally obese and had elevated blood glucose levels. New Delhi participants were also the least physically active and had elevated lipids levels, suggesting a high prevalence of metabolic syndrome.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A high percentage of participants complied with study procedures including biological sample collection. Epidemiologic expertise and sufficient infrastructure exists at these three sites in India to successfully carry out a modest sized population-based study; however, we identified some potential problems in conducting a cohort study, such as limited number of facilities to handle biological samples.</p

Enhancement strategies for transdermal drug delivery systems: current trends and applications

Transdermal drug delivery systems have become an intriguing research topic in pharmaceutical technology area and one of the most frequently developed pharmaceutical products in global market. The use of these systems can overcome associated drawbacks of other delivery routes, such as oral and parenteral. The authors will review current trends, and future applications of transdermal technologies, with specific focus on providing a comprehensive understanding of transdermal drug delivery systems and enhancement strategies. This article will initially discuss each transdermal enhancement method used in the development of first-generation transdermal products. These methods include drug/vehicle interactions, vesicles and particles, stratum corneum modification, energy-driven methods and stratum corneum bypassing techniques. Through suitable design and implementation of active stratum corneum bypassing methods, notably microneedle technology, transdermal delivery systems have been shown to deliver both low and high molecular weight drugs. Microneedle technology platforms have proven themselves to be more versatile than other transdermal systems with opportunities for intradermal delivery of drugs/biotherapeutics and therapeutic drug monitoring. These have shown that microneedles have been a prospective strategy for improving transdermal delivery systems. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]</p

Degradation of haloaromatic compounds

An ever increasing number of halogenated organic compounds has been produced by industry in the last few decades. These compounds are employed as biocides, for synthetic polymers, as solvents, and as synthetic intermediates. Production figures are often incomplete, and total production has frequently to be extrapolated from estimates for individual countries. Compounds of this type as a rule are highly persistent against biodegradation and belong, as "recalcitrant" chemicals, to the class of so-called xenobiotics. This term is used to characterise chemical substances which have no or limited structural analogy to natural compounds for which degradation pathways have evolved over billions of years. Xenobiotics frequently have some common features. e.g. high octanol/water partitioning coefficients and low water solubility which makes for a high accumulation ratio in the biosphere (bioaccumulation potential). Recalcitrant compounds therefore are found accumulated in mammals, especially in fat tissue, animal milk supplies and also in human milk. Highly sophisticated analytical techniques have been developed for the detection of organochlorines at the trace and ultratrace level

Role of regulatory monitoring in the Indian Oil and Gas Sector for Risk Reduction

Abstract OALP was introduced in 2016 by GoI with a less regulatory burden to the government and pricing freedom to investing firms. Earlier policy NELP was with exploration and production cost recovery and price control by GoI. The new policy OALP is with no-cost recovery (exploration and production cost), revenue sharing, and pricing freedom to the firm. The Oil and gas industry is involved with a wide variety of risks. In OALP, there is no regulatory monitoring and no cost recovery; this has increased the risk to the Indian oil and gas industry; a firm may go for cheap alternatives, which can cause accidents and create direct loss to the industry and the country's reputation. In addition, pricing freedom for the firm can increase the natural gas price, and the gas-dependent sectors face trouble in purchasing. This paper studied the role of regulatory monitoring in risk reduction in the Indian oil and gas sector.</jats:p

Role of regulatory monitoring in the Indian Oil and Gas Sector for Risk Reduction

Abstract OALP was introduced in 2016 by GoI with a less regulatory burden to the government and pricing freedom to investing firms. Earlier policy NELP was with exploration and production cost recovery and price control by GoI. The new policy OALP is with no-cost recovery, revenue sharing, and pricing freedom to the firm. The Oil and gas industry is involved with a wide variety of risks. In OALP, there is no regulatory monitoring and no cost recovery; this has increased the risk to the Indian oil and gas industry; a firm may go for cheap alternatives, which can cause accidents and create direct loss to the industry and the country's reputation. In addition, pricing freedom for the firm can increase the natural gas price, and the gas-dependent sectors face trouble in purchasing. This paper studied the role of regulatory monitoring in risk reduction in the Indian oil and gas sector</jats:p

Multicystic renal dysplasia of lower moiety in a duplicated system causing hypertension

Multicystic renal dysplasia is an extremely uncommon cause of hypertension in children. Ipsilateral duplication anomalies associated with multicystic kidney have rarely been reported. Hypertension associated with multicystic kidney has been reported previously in a few cases but on Medline search no report was found where hypertension was associated with segmental multicystic dysplasia in a duplicated system. We report a one-year-old girl in whom hypertension was associated with left partial duplicated system and lower moiety multicystic dysplasia. After lower pole heminephrectomy the hypertension resolved and remained so at six months follow-up. In our knowledge this is the first report of its type