Since personal and verbal reporting of alcohol use is not necessarily accurate, objective markers to assess alcohol consumption are required. The currently available markers, however, are limited in sensitivity and specificity for screening of excessive alcohol drinkers. Therefore, searches for novel markers are warranted. Recently, surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) has been successfully used to detect disease-associated proteins in complex biological specimens. We used the ProteinChip SELDI technology to generate comparative protein profiles of the consecutive serum samples obtained during abstinence from a total of 16 chronic alcoholic patients hospitalized for a rehabilitation program. We recognized two peaks (5.9 and 7.8 kDa), both of which had been downregulated on admission, the expression level of which significantly increased after a one-week abstinence. These changes were also seen in nonresponders of gamma-glutamyltransferase. These two proteins were partially purified and subjected to amino acid sequencing. The 5.9 kDa protein was identified as a fragment of fibrinogen alphaE chain and the 7.8 kDa was a fragment of apoprotein A-II. These novel protein fragments may be promising biomarkers for excessive alcohol drinking.
The effect of recombinant human interleukin-la on the survival rate of Std-ddY male mice systemically infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa 12 or Klebsiella pneumoniae P-5709 was evaluated. In P. aeruginosa infection, interleukin-la given intramuscularly twice, 3 days and 1 day before inoculation of bacteria, most effectively protected animals from death due to infection. The effect was dose dependent, with a maximum survival rate of 92.5% at 10 ,ug per mouse, while only 8.3% of the control group survived until the end of the observation period. The 50% effective dose of interleukin-la was 0.261 ,ug per mouse. In K. pneumoniae infection, interleukin-la given intramuscularly twice, simultaneously with and 1 day after the inoculation of bacteria, was most effective. The protective effect of interleukin-la was again dose dependent and was generally more marked than in P. aeruginosa infection. The 50% effective dose was 0.034 ,ug per mouse. In both infections, there was no significant increase in the survival rates of animals injected with human albumin or heat-inactivated interleukin-la. These observations raise the possibility that human interleukin-la could serve as a therapeutic tool for patients with bacterial infections.
RESULTSSystemic infection with P. aeruginosa. The control group of mice injected with 3 x 106 cells showed a mortality rate of 1436 on August 6, 2020 by guest http://iai.asm.org/ Downloaded from
In the search for active cathode catalysts for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) using inexpensive materials, several valve metal oxide electrodes, TiO x , ZrO x , TaO x , with corresponding binary oxide electrodes were selected for the evaluation of catalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) by means of cyclic voltammetry in 0.1 M HClO 4 at 60°C. These oxide electrodes were prepared mainly by the dip-coating method on a titanium plate substrate at a temperature between 400°C and 500°C and were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Among the oxide-coated electrodes investigated, Ti 0.7 Zr 0.3 O x /Ti provided the highest ORR specific activity, with an onset potential, E ORR , of 0.86 V vs. RHE during the cathodic potential sweep.Fine TaO x particles prepared as an extension of the dip-coating method, showed very high catalytic activity determined by means of hydrodynamic voltammetry in 0.1 M HClO 4 at 30°C with an E ORR of 0.90 V vs. RHE.2
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