Spinal motoneurons can exhibit bistable behavior, which consists of stable self-sustained firing that is initiated by a brief excitatory input and terminated by brief inhibitory input. This bistable behavior is generated by a persistent inward current (I(PIC)). In cat motoneurons with low input conductances and slow axonal conduction velocities, I(PIC) exhibits little decay with time and thus s...

Polyinosine-polycytidylic acid [pIC] is a synthetic dsRNA that acts as an immune agonist of TLR3 and RLR to activate dendritic and natural killer cells that can kill tumor cells. pIC can also trigger apoptosis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells (PDAC) but its mechanism of action is obscure. In this study, we investigated the potential therapeutic activity of a formulation of pIC with pol...

We evaluated the frequency and practice pattern of immediate postoperative intravesical chemotherapy (PIC) after transurethral resection of a bladder tumor (TURBT) in suspected non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Information from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service database from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2013 was used. Patients with bladder cancer who received TURBT...

It has been suggested that picolinic acid (PIC), an endogenous metabolite of l-tryptophan, possesses neuro-protective and anti-proliferative effects within the CNS. However, the literature surrounding PIC is limited, and its exact endogenous function is not known. Picolinic acid is produced via the kynurenine pathway which has been implicated in the pathogenesis of a range of neuro-inflammatory...

Retinoic acid (RA), a bioactive retinoid, and polyriboinosinic:polyribocytidylic acid (PIC) are known to promote immunity in vitamin A-deficient animals. In this study, we hypothesized that RA, PIC, and the combination can provide significant immunoadjuvant activity even in the vitamin A-adequate state. Six-week-old C57BL/6 mice were immunized with tetanus toxoid (TT) and treated with RA and/or...

OBJECTIVE To describe the clinical features and outcomes of a large group of patients with a spectrum of clinical appearances and diagnosed as having punctate inner choroidopathy (PIC). METHODS In a retrospective consecutive case series, patients seen during a 16-year period at Moorfields Eye Hospital who were diagnosed as having PIC and had a minimum of 12 months' follow-up were included. Pa...

We examined the modulation of persistent inward currents (PICs) by serotonin (5-HT) in spinal motoneurons of normal and chronic spinal rats. PICs are composed of both a TTX-sensitive persistent sodium current (Na PIC) and a nimodipine-sensitive persistent calcium current (Ca PIC), and we focused on quantifying the Na PIC (and its action on the total PIC), which is known to be critical in enabli...

After chronic spinal injury, motoneurons spontaneously develop two persistent inward currents (PICs): a TTX-sensitive persistent sodium current (sodium PIC) and a nimodipine-sensitive persistent calcium current (calcium PIC). In the present paper, we examined how these PICs contributed to motoneuron firing. Adult rats were spinalized at the S(2) sacral level, and after 2 months intracellular re...

New records of four species (Lema lacertosa Lacordaire, 1845, Lema diversipes Pic, 1921, Lema cyanella (Linnaeus, 1758), Lema trivittata trivittata Say, 1824 and additional information on one recently recorded species (Lema solani Fabricius, 1798) are reported for Taiwan. Lema diversipes Pic, 1921 is removed from synonymy with Lema lacertosa Lacordaire, 1845; both species are redescribed. A lec...

The synthetic polysaccharide iron complex (PIC) molecule has been suggested as a 'biomimic', i.e. a counterpart, to the naturally occurring biological molecule ferritin with respect to its magnetic properties based on the identification of ferrihydrite as the major mineral in both. Magnetization measurements were used to investigate the magnetic properties of PIC in relation to those of ferriti...