We investigated the question of whether 7-oxygenated cholesterol derivatives could affect inflammatory and/or immune responses in atherosclerosis by examining their effects on expression of IL-23 in monocytic cells. 7α-Hydroxycholesterol (7αOHChol) induced transcription of the TLR6 gene and elevated the level of cell surface TLR6 protein in THP-1 monocytic cells. Addition of an agonist of TLR6,...

BACKGROUND Epigenetic drugs like sodium butyrate (NaB) show antidepressant-like effects in preclinical studies, but the exact molecular mechanisms of the antidepressant effects remain unknown. While research using NaB has mainly focused on its role as a histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi), there is also evidence that NaB affects DNA methylation. METHODS The purpose of this study was to exam...

Despite years of drug development, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) remains the most effective treatment for severe depression. The exact therapeutic mechanism of action of ECT is still unresolved and therefore we tested the hypothesis that the beneficial effect of ECT could in part be the result of increased noradrenergic neurotransmission leading to a decrease in α2-adrenoceptor binding. We ha...

We investigated the question of whether cholesterol catabolite can influence expression of inflammatory cytokines via Toll-like receptors (TLR) in monocytic cells. Treatment of THP-1 monocytic cells with 27-hydroxycholesterol (27OHChol) resulted in induction of gene transcription of TLR6 and elevated level of cell surface TLR6. Addition of FSL-1, a TLR6 agonist, to 27OHChol-treated cells result...

Offloading the complex computational kernel from the processor is the common way to improve performance of embedded system. In our work we are using MicroBlaze softcore processor in design and implementation of acceleration framework. In acceleration framework MicroBlaze is coupled with co-processor with the help of communication bus. We can attach the co-processor to our design that can handle...

Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (efMRI) has emerged as a powerful technique for detecting brains’ responses to presented stimuli. A primary goal in efMRI data analysis is to estimate the Hemodynamic Response Function (HRF) and to locate activated regions in human brains when specific tasks are performed. This paper develops new methodologies that are important improvements n...

Enterobacter aerogenes (Enterobacteriaceae) is an important opportunistic pathogen that causes hospital-acquired pneumonia, bacteremia, and urinary tract infections. Recently, multidrug-resistant E. aerogenes have been a public health problem. To develop an effective antimicrobial agent, bacteriophage phiEap-2 was isolated from sewage and its genome was sequenced because of its ability to lyse ...

The neurobiological bases of mood disorders remain elusive but both monoamines and neuropeptides may play important roles. The neuropeptide cocaine and amphetamine regulated transcript (CART) was shown to induce anxiety-like behavior in rodents, and mutations in the human CART gene are associated with depression and anxiety. We measured CART-like immunoreactivity (-LI) in genetic rat models of ...

We study access control policies based on the says operator by introducing a logical framework called Fibred Security Language (FSL) which is able to deal with features like joint responsibility between sets of principals and to identify them by means of first-order formulas. FSL is based on a multimodal logic methodology. We first discuss the main contributions from the expressiveness point of...