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HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) are highly prevalent in people living with HIV (PLWH) despite successful treatment with combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). HAND pathogenesis is complex and definitive surrogate biomarkers are not clearly defined. Brain function has been assessed through the evaluation of cortical source rhythms with delta waves associated with neurological impairment. The aim of this study was to assess the correlation between EEG cortical sources, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers, and neurocognitive tests in PLWH with HAND. PLWH with HAND without significant comorbidities were enrolled. Baseline rsEEG-LORETA waves, CSF biomarkers (t-tau, p-tau, β-amiloid42, neopterin, S100β), and neurocognitive tests were correlated and compared through non-parametric tests (Spearman's rho and Mann–Whitney); data are presented as medians (interquartile ranges). Fifty-four patients were enrolled. Median time of suppressed HIV-RNA and CD4+ T-lymphocyte were 10 years (5.5–15) and 691/uL (477–929). Thirty-nine participants (72%) underwent CSF collection: abnormal biomarkers were found in a small percentage. Only neopterin showed a statistically significant correlation with delta activity [parietal (rho 0.579; p < 0.001), occipital (rho 0.493; p = 0.007), and global sources (rho 0.464 p = 0.011)]. Seven patients (12.9%) showed an abnormal neopterin level (> 1.5 ng/mL) with significantly higher delta source activity compared to the ones with in-range concentrations. We observed a statistically significant correlation between working memory test Trail Making B with both CSF neopterin levels and delta waves (p values < 0.05). In a small sample of PLWH with HAND, we observed that higher CSF neopterin levels were associated with higher EEG delta waves and worse working memory tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic immunization against tumor antigens is an effective way to induce an immune response able to oppose cancer progression. Overexpression of HER-2/neu can lead to neoplastic transformation and has been found in many human primary breast cancers. We constructed DNA expression vectors encoding the full-length neu oncogene of rat cDNA (pCMV-NeuNT), the neu extracellular domain (pCMV-ECD), or the neu extracellular and transmembrane domains (pCMV-ECD-TM). We evaluated whether i.m. injection of these plasmids induces protection against the development of mammary tumors occurring spontaneously in FVB/N neutransgenic mice. We found that pCMV-ECD-TM induced the best protection, whereas both pCMV-ECD and pCMVNeuNT were less effective. The coinjection with a bicistronic vector for murine IL-12 increased the efficacy of pCMV-ECD and pCMV-NeuNT plasmids, and led to the same protection obtained with pCMV-ECD-TM alone. Anti-neuECD antibodies were detected in pCMV-ECD-TM vaccinated mice and, after coinjection with pCMV-IL12 plasmids, they appeared also in animals immunized with pCMV-ECD. Our data demonstrate the effectiveness of DNA vaccination using truncated Neu plasmids in inducing antitumor protection in a spontaneous mammary tumor model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of an investigation concerned with schemes of commonsense knowledge connecting the elements weight, air and gravity to the phenomena of free fall are reported here. The research was conducted on samples of primary school children, secondary school and university students and adults who were non‐experts in physics. It was found that all levels from the secondary education level onwards, alternative commonsense schemes were held by the majority of people, who invoked air as a necessary factor for falling. Primary school children could be shown to hold the belief that the floating of objects on the moon is an experimental fact which may be explained by a force of gravity centred on the Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]