Given that broad immunosuppression may be undesirable in COPD patients, this study provides proof-of-concept for more targeted approaches to inhibiting the role of T cells in emphysema development.”
“In vitro diagnosis Proteasome structure of MTB-infection uses MTB-proteins coded for by genes of the region of differentiation 1 (RD1) of the MTB genome. This study wants to test if proteins preferentially expressed during MTB-intracellular growth might provide new targets for the diagnosis of MTB-infection.\n\nTo this end seventy-five multiepitopic HLA-promiscuous MTB-peptides were designed by quantitative implemented peptide-binding

motif analysis from 3 MTB-protein genes expressed in activated human macrophages (MA), 4 genes expressed during growth in non-activated human macrophages (MN-A), 12 housekeeping genes (HKG) and 6 genes of the RD1 region (RD1) as control. ELISpot for IFN-was Rigosertib mouse performed to measure the responses of PBMCs deriving from 45 patients affected by active tuberculosis and 34 controls.\n\nIn active-TB patients, the mean response to RD1-derived peptides was higher than that to either MA (p <

0.01), MN-A (p < 0.008) or HKG (p < 0.01) derived peptides. In TST-positive subjects all selected peptides elicited significant IFN-T-cell responses (p < 0.02 compared to TST-negatives), but without differences between the subgroups. Further, T-cell responses to RD1 peptides were lower in the 23 active-TB treated patients than in the untreated ones (p < 0.01). The response to MA peptides in treated active-TB was higher than when untreated (p < 0.01).\n\nThese results demonstrate that the use of in vitro models of MTB-intracellular infection to select MTB gene products for further in silica and in vitro assessment LXH254 of their immunogenicity have the potential to identify novel antigens amenable to the design of new tools for diagnosis and monitoring of tuberculosis.

(C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.”
“Sulphiting agents are commonly used food additives. They are not allowed in fresh meat preparations. In this work, 2250 fresh meat samples were analysed to establish the maximum concentration of sulphites that can be considered as “natural” and therefore be admitted in fresh meat preparations. The analyses were carried out by an optimised Monier-Williams Method and the positive samples confirmed by ion chromatography. Sulphite concentrations higher than the screening method LOQ (10.0 mg . kg(-1)) were found in 100 samples. Concentrations higher than 76.6 mg . kg(-1), attributable to sulphiting agent addition, were registered in 40 samples. Concentrations lower than 41.3 mg . kg(-1) were registered in 60 samples. Taking into account the distribution of sulphite concentrations obtained, it is plausible to estimate a maximum allowable limit of 40.0 mg . kg(-1) (expressed as SO(2)). Below this value the samples can be considered as “compliant”. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd.