The versatile soybean

China’s most valuable gift to the Western World— the food of millions for centuries and an ingredient in modern adhesives, plastics, foaming solutions, spreaders, waxes, soaps, linoleum, paints and numerous other industrial products.     

Virus and autoimmunity: induction of autoimmune disease in mice by mouse T lymphotropic virus (MTLV) destroying CD4+ T cells

Neonatal infection of the mouse T lymphotropic virus (MTLV), a member of herpes viridae, causes various organ-specific autoimmune diseases, such as autoimmune gastritis, in selected strains of normal mice. The infection selectively depletes CD4+ T cells in the thymus and periphery for 2-3 wk from 1 wk after infection. Thymectomy 3 wk after neonatal MTLV infection enhances the autoimmune responses and produces autoimmune diseases at higher incidences and in a wider spectrum of organs than MTLV infection alone. On the other hand, inoculation of peripheral CD4+ cells from syngeneic noninfected adult mice prevents the autoimmune development. These autoimmune diseases can be adoptively transferred to syngeneic athymic nude mice by CD4+ T cells. The virus is not detected by bioassay in the organs/tissues damaged by the autoimmune responses. Furthermore, similar autoimmune diseases can be induced in normal mice by manipulating the neonatal thymus/T cells (e.g., by neonatal thymectomy) without virus infection. These results taken together indicate that neonatal MTLV infection elicits autoimmune disease by primarily affecting thymocytes/T cells, not self Ags. It may provoke or enhance thymic production of CD4+ pathogenic self-reactive T cells by altering the thymic clonal deletion mechanism, or reduce the production of CD4+ regulatory T cells controlling self-reactive T cells, or both. The possibility is discussed that other T cell-tropic viruses may cause autoimmunity in humans and animals by affecting the T cell immune system, not the self Ags to be targeted by the autoimmunity.     

Predicting response to reassurances and uncertainties in bioterrorism communications for urban populations in New York and California

Recent national plans for recovery from bioterrorism acts perpetrated in densely populated urban areas acknowledge the formidable technical and social challenges of consequence management. Effective risk and crisis communication is one priority to strengthen the U.S.'s response and resilience. However, several notable risk events since September 11, 2001, have revealed vulnerabilities in risk/crisis communication strategies and infrastructure of agencies responsible for protecting civilian populations. During recovery from a significant biocontamination event, 2 goals are essential: (1) effective communication of changing risk circumstances and uncertainties related to cleanup, restoration, and reoccupancy; and (2) adequate responsiveness to emerging information needs and priorities of diverse populations in high-threat, vulnerable locations. This telephone survey study explored predictors of public reactions to uncertainty communications and reassurances from leaders related to the remediation stage of an urban-based bioterrorism incident. African American and Hispanic adults (N=320) were randomly sampled from 2 ethnically and socioeconomically diverse geographic areas in New York and California assessed as high threat, high vulnerability for terrorism and other public health emergencies. Results suggest that considerable heterogeneity exists in risk perspectives and information needs within certain sociodemographic groups; that success of risk/crisis communication during recovery is likely to be uneven; that common assumptions about public responsiveness to particular risk communications need further consideration; and that communication effectiveness depends partly on preexisting values and risk perceptions and prior trust in leaders. Needed improvements in communication strategies are possible with recognition of where individuals start as a reference point for reasoning about risk information, and comprehension of how this influences subsequent interpretation of agencies' actions and communications.     

Phenotypic, functional, and molecular genetic comparisons of the abnormal lymphoid cells of C3H-lpr/lpr and C3H-gld/gld mice

Lymph node cells from C3H mice homozygous for lpr and gld were compared for expression of cell surface antigens, lectin-binding sites, functional characteristics, expression of ecotropic MuLV, and organization of Ig and T cell receptor (TcR) beta-chain genes. The abnormal cells (Ly-2-/L3T4-) populating nodes of both mutant strains were specifically purified by using plate separation techniques. The purified abnormal cells were shown to express the beta-chain of the TcR, to exhibit rearrangements of the beta-chain genes, and to express TcR beta and alpha gene mRNA, demonstrating the T cell origin of these populations. FMF analyses of the separated abnormal cells showed them to be Thy-1+, Ly-1+, Ly-2-, L3T4-, Ly-5(B220)+, Ly-6+, Ly-22+, Ly-24+, sIg-, ThB-, Ia-, HSA-/+, and PC.1+ and to bind at high levels lectins that normally bind preferentially to B cells. These cells did not proliferate or generate CTL in response to stimulation with alloantigens, and supernatants of cells stimulated with Con A were devoid of IL 2. These characteristics do not correspond to those of any known immature or mature population of normal T cells. The findings that the abnormal T cells of lpr and gld homozygotes are indistinguishable for each parameter examined support the suggestion that these mutations may affect different enzymes in a common metabolic pathway of major importance to T cell differentiation and function.     

Measuring foraging activity in bumblebee nests: a simple nest‐entrance trip recorder

We describe a new, electronic, apparatus for measuring the activity of bumblebees as they fly from and to their nests. The bee activity recorder (BAR) works on the principle that bees leaving and returning to their nest crawl through a tube equipped with infrared emitters and detectors so that when the beam is interrupted by the passage of a bee, the event is recorded as either an exit or an entry. Tests of BARs indicate that they are highly accurate, BAR counts and visual counts highly correlated with an almost one‐to‐one correspondence. We suggest that BARs can be used for recording the foraging activities of bumblebees through nest exit and entry counts in many practical and research applications.     

A fibronectin scaffold approach to bispecific inhibitors of epidermal growth factor receptor and insulin-like growth factor-I receptor

Engineered domains of human fibronectin (Adnectins™) were used to generate a bispecific Adnectin targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and insulin-like growth factor-I receptor (IGF-IR), two transmembrane receptors that mediate proliferative and survival cell signaling in cancer. Single-domain Adnectins that specifically bind EGFR or IGF-IR were generated using mRNA display with a library containing as many as 10¹³ Adnectin variants. mRNA display was also used to optimize lead Adnectin affinities, resulting in clones that inhibited EGFR phosphorylation at 7 to 38 nM compared to 2.6 µM for the parental clone. Individual optimized Adnectins specific for blocking either EGFR or IGF-IR signaling were engineered into a single protein (EI-Tandem Adnectin). The EI-Tandems inhibited phosphorylation of EGFR and IGF-IR, induced receptor degradation and inhibited down-stream cell signaling and proliferation of human cancer cell lines (A431, H292, BxPC3 and RH41) with IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.1 to 113 nM. Although Adnectins bound to EGFR at a site distinct from those of anti-EGFR antibodies cetuximab, panitumumab and nimotuzumab, like the antibodies, the anti-EGFR Adnectins blocked the binding of EGF to EGFR. PEGylated EI-Tandem inhibited the growth of both EGFR and IGF-IR driven human tumor xenografts, induced degradation of EGFR and reduced EGFR phosphorylation in tumors. These results demonstrate efficient engineering of bispecific Adnectins with high potency and desired specificity. The bispecificity may improve biological activity compared to monospecific biologics as tumor growth is driven by multiple growth factors. Our results illustrate a technological advancement for constructing multi-specific biologics in cancer therapy.Key words: Adnectin, biologics, EGFR, IGF-IR, bispecific