Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.”
“Human noroviruses cause approximately 58% of foodborne illnesses in the USA. Recent studies have shown norovirus attachment to the carbohydrates moieties of host cellular receptors. Using murine norovirus (MNV) as a surrogate, an ELISA method was utilized to assess attachment through binding to host cell receptors; MNV attachment was correlated to infectivity determined by plaque

assay. ELISA plates were coated with porcine gastric mucin and untreated, heat-, high pressure-, ozone- and UV-treated MNV was added followed by monoclonal anti-MNV IgG antibody. The average OD405 of MNV-containing wells were divided by negative control wells and expressed as the ‘P/N ratio’: values >= 2 were considered positive. Infectivity of MNV following heat and HPP treatments was determined using the plaque assay. Heat-treated MNV attachment decreased significantly with decreasing viral infectivity whereby the P/N SRT2104 ratio

was <2 after treatment at 80 and 100 degrees C for 5 mm which correlated with a non-intact capsid as shown by RNase treatment. No significant difference in attachment was observed for pressure-, ozone- and UV-treated MNV. These findings suggest potentially different Selleckchem ZD1839 effects on the viral capsid due to different food processing methods. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“Abnormalities in dendritic spines have commonly been observed in brain specimens from epilepsy patients and animal models of epilepsy. However, the functional implications and clinical consequences of this dendritic pathology for epilepsy are uncertain. Dendritic spine abnormalities may promote hyperexcitable circuits

and seizures in some types of epilepsy, especially in specific genetic syndromes with documented dendritic pathology, but in these cases it is difficult to differentiate their effects on seizures versus other comorbidities, such as QNZ chemical structure cognitive deficits and autism. In other situations, seizures themselves may cause damage to dendrites and dendritic spines and this seizure-induced brain injury may then contribute to progressive epileptogenesis, memory problems and other neurological deficits in epilepsy patients. The mechanistic basis of dendritic spine abnormalities in epilepsy has begun to be elucidated and suggests novel therapeutic strategies for treating epilepsy and its complications.

This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Dendritic Spine Plasticity in Brain Disorders. (c) 2012 IBRO Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Illusions provide a useful tool to study the mechanisms by which top-down and bottom-up processes interact in perception. Patients suffering from schizophrenia are not as subject to the hollow-mask illusion as healthy controls, since studies have shown that controls perceive a hollow mask as a normal face, while patients with schizophrenia do not.