Seven-day intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract demonstrated a dose-dependent effect on increasing fat oxidation during 120-min cycling at 65% [Formula: see text] in endurance-trained male cyclists.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a blood-borne virus estimated to infect around 170 million people worldwide and is, therefore, a major disease burden. In some individuals the virus is spontaneously cleared during the acute phase of infection, whilst in others a persistent infection ensues. Of those persistently infected, severe liver diseases such as cirrhosis and primary liver cancer may develop, although many individuals remain asymptomatic. A range of factors shape the course of HCV infection, not least host genetic polymorphisms and host immunity. A number of studies have shown that neutralizing antibodies (nAb) arise during HCV infection, but that these antibodies differ in their breadth and mechanism of neutralization. Recent studies, using both mAbs and polyclonal sera, have provided an insight into neutralizing determinants and the likely protective role of antibodies during infection. This understanding has helped to shape our knowledge of the overall structure of the HCV envelope glycoproteins -the natural target for nAb. Most nAb identified to date target receptor-binding sites within the envelope glycoprotein E2. However, there is some evidence that other viral epitopes may be targets for antibody neutralization, suggesting the need to broaden the search for neutralization epitopes beyond E2. This review provides a comprehensive overview of our current understanding of the role played by nAb in HCV infection and disease outcome and explores the limitations in the study systems currently used. In addition, we briefly discuss the potential therapeutic benefits of nAb and efforts to develop nAb-based therapies. IntroductionHepatitis C virus (HCV) infects approximately 170 million people worldwide (Ascione et al., 2007) and as many as 3 million individuals are newly infected each year (Anonymous, 1999). Currently, there is no available vaccine to prevent HCV infection. In 20-30 % of infections the virus is cleared spontaneously (Santantonio et al., 2008); however, in the majority of patients the virus persists. The mechanism by which some individuals spontaneously resolve infection, while others become chronically infected is not clearly understood. Chronic HCV infection can lead to cirrhosis of the liver and, in some cases, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which ultimately requires a liver transplantation. HCV infection is the predominant indication for liver transplantation and no treatments are currently available to prevent reinfection of a grafted liver. The current standard therapy for chronic infection -pegylated alpha interferon (IFN-a) and ribavirin -is only effective in 40-60 % of cases and response to therapy varies between different viral genotypes. Two recently developed protease inhibitors, boceprevir and telaprevir, given in combination with IFN-a and ribavirin, improve sustained virological response (SVR) rates to 75 % in genotype 1-infected patients (Kwo et al., 2010;McHutchison et al., 2010). This development in the treatment of hepatitis C is encouraging; however, HCV still represents a majo...

Seven-days intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract demonstrated dose-dependent changes on some cardiovascular parameters during supine rest in endurance-trained male cyclists.

Wearable physical activity (PA) monitors have improved the ability to estimate free-living total energy expenditure (TEE) but their application during arduous military training alongside more well-established research methods has not been widely documented.This study aimed to assess the validity of two wrist-worn activity monitors and a PA log against doubly labeled water (DLW) during British Army Officer Cadet (OC) training. For 10 days of training, twenty (10 male and 10 female) OCs (mean ± SD: age 23 ± 2 years, height 1.74 ± 0.09 m, body mass 77.0 ± 9.3 kg) wore one researchgrade accelerometer (GENEActiv, Cambridge, UK) on the dominant wrist, wore one commercially available monitor (Fitbit SURGE, USA) on the non-dominant wrist, and completed a self-report PA log. Immediately prior to this 10-day period, participants consumed a bolus of DLW and provided daily urine samples, which were analyzed by mass spectrometry to determine TEE. Bivariate correlations and limits of agreement (LoA) were employed to compare TEE from each estimation method to DLW. Average daily TEE from DLW was 4112 ± 652 kcal·day −1 against which the GENEActiv showed near identical average TEE (mean bias ± LoA: −15 ± 851 kcal . day −1 ) while Fitbit tended to underestimate (−656 ± 683 kcal·day −1 ) and the PA log substantially overestimate (+1946 ± 1637 kcal·day −1 ). Wearable physical activity monitors provide a cheaper and more practical method for estimating free-living TEE than DLW in military settings. The GENEActiv accelerometer demonstrated good validity for assessing daily TEE and would appear suitable for use in large-scale, longitudinal military studies. K E Y W O R D Saccelerometry, army, doubly labeled water, physical activity, wearable technology