We present Warm Spitzer/IRAC secondary eclipse time series photometry of three short-period transiting exoplanets, HAT-P-3b, HAT-P-4b and HAT-P-12b, in both the available 3.6 and 4.5μm bands. HAT-P-3b and HAT-P-4b are Jupiter-mass, objects orbiting an early K and an early G dwarf stars, respectively. For HAT-P-3b we find eclipse depths of 0.112% −0.030% (3.6μm) and 0.094% +0.016% −0.009% (4.5μm...

Systemic lupus erythmatosus is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by abnormal immune response with overproduction of auto-antibodies, self-destructive complexes and hyperactivity of both T and B lymphocytes. Although the exact pathogenesis of SLE remains unclear, it has been found that the imbalance of Th1/Th2, subsequent cytokines and antior pro-inflammatory mediators could reflect the...

Nucleic acid probes (Gen-Probe, San Diego, Calif.) can be used to identify mycobacteria in BACTEC 12B broth cultures prior to detection of growth on solid media. We developed an algorithm that can be used to make an initial choice of a probe (either Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex [MTB] or M. avium complex [MAC]) for use in testing respiratory specimens. The algorithm was based on both the f...

The aim of our study was to investigate the association between common polymorphisms in interleukin-12 (IL-12) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk using meta-analysis. A search was conducted in the PubMed database, covering all papers published by October 14, 2015. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to evaluate the strength of this association. Publication bias was asse...

INTRODUCTION ES-62, a phosphorylcholine (PC)-containing immunomodulator secreted by the parasitic worm Acanthocheilonema viteae, protects against nephritis in the MRL/Lpr mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, ES-62 is not suitable for development as a therapy and thus we have designed drug-like small molecule analogues (SMAs) based around its active PC-moiety. To provide p...

One of the main characteristics of HIV-1 infection is persistent systemic immune activation. This immune activation and dysregulation is characterized by a specific pattern of cytokine production, expression of membrane activation molecules on the cells of the immune system, and changes in the levels of several immune parameters in blood. Therefore, the aim of the present work was to evaluate t...

67 www.ijntr.org Abstract—Genome-wide association studies of psoriasis identified interleukin (IL)-12B and IL-23R as significantly associated loci with psoriasis, thus emphasizing to the important role of these genes in the pathogenesis of this disease and have influenced the development of medications that specifically target these key immunological players. Here we report an association study...

HCV is a major cause of liver disease worldwide. IL-12 plays an essential role in the balance of T helper 1 (Th1) differentiation versus a T helper 2 (Th2) driven response from its naïve precursor. Linkage disequilibrium measures the degree to which alleles at two loci are associated and the non-random associations between alleles at two loci. Haplotypes of the three IL-12B loci studied were de...