The findings of this study underscore the significantly increasing endemicity of hepatitis viruses, syphilis and HIV among the voluntary blood donors of our community. The pilot study indicates a high rate of prevalence of HBV DNA among HBsAg negative/anti-HBc positive donors and thus emphasizes the need for a more sensitive and stringent screening algorithm for blood donations.

BackgroundMicroglial cells, which are resident macrophages of the central nervous system, play important roles in immune responses and pathogenesis. Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a neurotropic virus that infects microglial cells in brain. Several microRNAs including miR-155 and miR-146a play an important role in defining the microglia inflammatory profile. In this study, we have investigated the effect of miR-155 and miR-146a modulation on JEV infection as well as innate immune responses in human microglial cells.MethodsIn vitro studies were performed in JEV-infected human microglial CHME3 cells. miR-155 or miR-146a were overexpressed and total RNA and protein were extracted following JEV-infection. Expression of genes involved in innate immune responses was studied by PCR array, quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), western blot and Fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS). JEV replication was monitored by studying the viral RNA by qPCR, protein by western blot, and titres by plaque assay.ResultsOverexpression of miR-155 in CHME3 cells resulted in significantly reduced JEV replication whereas miR-146a overexpression had an insignificant effect. Additionally, interferon regulatory factor 8 (IRF8) and complement factor H (CFH) were induced during JEV infection; however, this induction was attenuated in miR-155 overexpressing cells following JEV infection. Further, JEV-induced NF-κB regulated downstream gene expression was attenuated. Interestingly, an increased level of CD45, a negative regulator of microglia activation and a reduced phosphorylated-Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription (p-STAT1) expression was observed in miR-155 overexpressing cells upon JEV infection.ConclusionInduction of miR-155 in human microglial cells may negatively modulate JEV-induced innate immune gene expression and may have a beneficial role in limiting JEV replication in human microglial cells.

admission and the presence of gastrointestinal bleeding or haematuria. Mild drug reactions were well recognised by these patients, but not severe ones. Breast examination is important in older women, in whom the incidence of breast cancer is higher. 1 It is, however, an intimate examination, and older patients and doctors may be deterred for several reasons. The attitudes of older women to this procedure have not previously been established. Both this and the attitudes of doctors may determine whether the procedure remains part of the routine physical examination. Subjects, methods, and resultsThe study was approved by the Wirral district's ethics committee. One hundred elderly (mean (range) age 83 (71-94) years) female inpatients (abbreviated mental test score 8/10 or more) were interviewed by a doctor not involved in their medical care. All patients were fully recovered from their acute illness. A questionnaire (available from us) was administered and the responses recorded. The case notes of the same 100 patients were audited by using a standardised proforma.One hundred hospital doctors working in two hospitals were given a questionnaire (available from us); 75 responded. Replies were anonymous so non-responders could not be recontacted.Review of 100 case notes showed only 11 of the patients had had a breast examination documented (two of which yielded abnormal results). Of 10 patients with a history of bone pain, only one had a breast examination, while four with weight loss had no breast examination documented. Liver function tests gave abnormal results in 15 women, only two of whom had a breast examination. There were five patients with a history of breast cancer, none of whom had a breast examination documented.None of the patients said they would be offended if they were asked to undergo a breast examination. Fifty four patients felt neutral about it, 32 would be pleased to be asked, 10 would be reluctant about being examined, two would be upset, and two would be embarassed. Most patients (86) thought a breast examination was important and would give permission for this examination. Most (88) also had not had mammography or a breast examination previously. A few patients (12) said that they would always want a chaperone, while 18 wanted a chaperone only when a male doctor was examining. Most (70) were not concerned whether a chaperone was present or not. Only a few patients (13) thought a breast examination would worry them, while 45 thought it would reassure them. None of the patients had refused to undergo a breast examination. Some (25) would prefer a female doctor to examine them, but most (70) had no preference.Of the hospital doctors interviewed, only five said that they would routinely do a breast examination on every woman over the age of 50 years, though 43 thought breast examinations should be a routine part of the physical examination. Some doctors (15) felt uncomfortable in performing breast examinations, and 34 (all men) would insist on a chaperone. Only 12 would be deterred because of the ...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope glycoproteins, E1 and E2, were used with MF59 adjuvant as a candidate vaccine for a phase I safety and immunogenicity trial. Ten of the 41 vaccinee sera tested displayed a VSV/HCV surrogate pseudotype neutralization titer of ≥1/20, 15 of the 36 sera tested had a neutralization titer of ≥ 1/400 against HIV/HCV pseudotype, and 10 of the 36 sera tested had a neutralization titer of ≥1/20 of cell culture grown HCVgenotype 1a. Neutralizing sera had increased affinity, and displayed >2 fold higher specific activity to well characterized epitopes on E1/E2, especially to the hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) of E2.

We carry out a computational study on the geometric and electronic properties of multi-layers of silicene in different stacking configurations using a state-of-art abinitio density functional theory based calculations. In this work we investigate the evolution of these properties with increasing number of layers (n) ranging from 1 to 10. Though, mono-layer of silicene possesses properties similar to those of graphene, our results show that the geometric and electronic properties of multilayers of silicene are strikingly different from those of multi-layers of graphene. We observe that there exist strong inter-layer covalent bondings between the layers in multi-layers of silicene as opposed to weak van der Waal's bonding which exists between the graphene layers. The inter-layer bonding strongly influences the geometric and electronic structures of these multi-layers. Like bilayers of graphene, silicene with two different stacking configurations AA and AB exhibits linear and parabolic dispersions around the Fermi level, respectively. However, unlike graphene, for bi-layers of silicene, these dispersion curves are shifted in band diagram; this is due to the strong inter-layer bonding present in the latter. For n > 3, we study the geometric and electronic properties of multi-layers with four different stacking configurations namely, AAAA, AABB, ABAB and ABC. Our results on cohesive energy show that all the multi-layers considered are energetically stable. Furthermore, we find that the three stacking configurations (AAAA, AABB and ABC) containing tetrahedral coordination have much higher cohesive energy than that of Bernal (ABAB) stacking configuration. This is in contrast to the case of multi-layers of graphene where ABAB is reported to be the lowest energy configuration. We also observe that bands near the Fermi level in lower energy stacking configurations AAAA, AABB and ABC correspond to the surface atoms and these surface states are responsible for the semi-metallic character of these multi-layers.