Previously, we have reported that N-benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Leu-leucinal (zVLL-CHO) reduced APP beta-CTF accumulation in axonal swellings of degenerating neurons. Here, in an effort to discover more effective neuroprotective agents, we examined the effects of the beta-secretase inhibitors, H-KTEEISEVN-stat-VAEF-OH (VAEF) and H-EVNstatineVAEF-NH2 (GL-189) as well as zVLL-CHO on OA (okadaic acid)-induced neurodegeneration. Unexpectedly, we found that pretreatment with zVLL-CHO (1 mu M) protected neurons after OA treatment, whereas both VAEF and GL-189 Dactolisib molecular weight lacked neuroprotective effects. Interestingly, 1 mu
M zVLL-CHO did not inhibit beta-secretase. We previously reported that calpain is activated by OA treatment and calpain inhibitors protect against OA-induced neurodegeneration. The data presented here show that pretreatment with 1 mu M zVLL-CHO decreased the levels of calpain-cleaved alpha-spectrin with a concomitant decrease in LDH release and an increase in average dendritic branch length compared to neurons treated with OA alone. These findings suggest that zVLL-CHO protects against OA-induced neurodegeneration via calpain inactivation. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of heat treatment and culture media on the immunoregulatory
Liproxstatin-1 mouse effects of a probiotic strain, Lactobacillus gasseri TMC0356 (TMC0356).
Methods and Results: TMC0356 cultured in deMan-Rogosa-Sharpe and same food grade (FG) media were inactivated with the heat treatment at 70 and 90 degrees C. Viable and heat-killed TMC0356 were tested for their ability to induce interleukin (IL)-12 production in the murine macrophage cell line J774.1. These TMC0356 were examined for their
resistance to N-acetylmuramidase. Their morphology was observed by scanning electron microscopy. The heat-killed TMC0356 Ferrostatin-1 significantly induced IL-12 production in J774.1 cells and exhibited enhanced resistance to N-acetylmuramidase compared with viable TMC0356. Morphological changes were observed in TMC0356 when cultured in FG medium. Cell morphology and induction of IL-12 production in J774.1 cells were also associated.
Conclusions: These results suggest that heat treatment and culture medium composition modified the immunoregulatory effects of TMC0356 to induce IL-12 production in macrophages.
Significance and Impact of the Study: These results demonstrate that probiotic immunoregulatory effects may be modified by the processing technology of cell preparation.”
“An assumption in the reading literature is that access to semantics is gated by stimulus properties such as orthographic regularity or familiarity. In the electrophysiological domain, this assumption has led to a debate about the features necessary to initiate semantic processing as indexed by the N400 event-related potential (ERP) component.