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Byline: McNichol, Beth Sports massage may be one of the most important parts of your training program. Here's why Loretta ulibarri, 49, is training for her 49th marathon this summer, [...]

Byline: McNichol, Beth How running helps the brain grow stronger It's no secret that smart people exercise (that's what we say around our office). The question is, are runners smart [...]

Byline: McNichol, Beth Why cutting calories isn't as good for you as you might think Calorie-counters beware: The fountain of youth isn't low-cal. If you think limiting your daily calorie [...]

ABSTRACTLong-term stability is a desired characteristic of vaccines, especially anthrax vaccines, which must be stockpiled for large-scale use in an emergency situation; however, spontaneous deamidation of purified vaccine antigens has the potential to adversely affect vaccine immunogenicity over time. In order to explore whether spontaneous deamidation of recombinant protective antigen (rPA)—the major component of new-generation anthrax vaccines—affects vaccine immunogenicity, we created a “genetically deamidated” form of rPA using site-directed mutagenesis to replace six deamidation-prone asparagine residues, at positions 408, 466, 537, 601, 713, and 719, with either aspartate, glutamine, or alanine residues. We found that the structure of the six-Asp mutant rPA was not significantly altered relative to that of the wild-type protein as assessed by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and biological activity. In contrast, immunogenicity of aluminum-adjuvanted six-Asp mutant rPA, as measured by induction of toxin-neutralizing antibodies, was significantly lower than that of the corresponding wild-type rPA vaccine formulation. The six-Gln and six-Ala mutants also exhibited lower immunogenicity than the wild type. While the wild-type rPA vaccine formulation exhibited a high level of immunogenicity initially, its immunogenicity declined significantly upon storage at 25°C for 4 weeks. In contrast, the immunogenicity of the six-Asp mutant rPA vaccine formulation was low initially but did not change significantly upon storage. Taken together, results from this study suggest that spontaneous deamidation of asparagine residues predicted to occur during storage of rPA vaccines would adversely affect vaccine immunogenicity and therefore the storage life of vaccines.

Reveals that massage therapy administered a few hours after exercise reduced the intensity of muscle soreness, according to a 2004 study by researchers from Ithaca College in New York.

Reports on a research on the effects of exercise and eating more on health by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

Presents the results of a research on the benefits of running for the brain.