The antiherpetic effects of 9-(1,3-dihydroxy-2-propoxymethyl)guanine (DHPG) in vitro and in vivo were investigated in comparison with those of acyclovir (ACV) and 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine (IDU). ACV was found to be consistently superior to the other two agents in antiviral activity against all ocular isolates in vitro. In vivo tests in mice, in contrast, showed DHPG in ointment form to be more effective than ACV in treating herpetic keratitis. It was noted that even 0.03% DHPG ointment was as efficacious as 0.3% ACV ointment. Other studies using the same keratitis model also demonstrated that DHPG eyedrop solution is far more effective than IDU eyedrop solution. These results indicate that DHPG can be a useful antiviral agent in the treatment of herpetic keratitis.
The development of composite abrasives considering the cleanability of the polished work piece was previously reported. In glass polishing, composite abrasives exhibit improved polishing characteristics and result in superior cleanability in comparison with conventional polishing compounds. In this study, the application of these composite abrasives to the polishing of stainless alloy, cast iron and sapphire are investigated. New manufacturing methods and polymer particles are proposed for the various material applications. The experimental results show that composite abrasives improve the polishing removal rate for metal and sapphire substrates.
“The Tale of Genji” is a classic literature written in the early 11th century, and has many mysteries such as the author and sequence of working out. This paper demonstrates three visualization techniques of literatures for “The Tale of Genji”: discrete wavelets multi-resolution analysis, text mining for statistical analysis, and story visualization scheme. The discrete wavelets multi-resolution analysis visualizes the variation of the narration by using auxiliary verbs of “Ta-form” and “Ru-form.” A text mining of auxiliary verbs and feature extraction using the Hayashi’s quantification method are applied to visualize the difference between the volumes. The story visualization scheme by the keyword-based statistical analysis succeeds in showing its general features of the story patterns with elegant, sublime, and beautiful atmosphere of the story.
Japanese traditional herbal medicine (Kampo) have been used to improve the general physical condition after surgery and to mitigate the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy in tumor patients. Juzentaihoto (JTT) consists of ten medical herbs, and is also called Shi-Quan-Da-Bu-Tang in Chinese herbal medicine. Among Kampo medicines, JTT has especially gained attention as a biological response modifier. Currently, clinical trials of various tumor vaccine therapies are being performed world-wide. However, tumor antigens that are inoculated as vaccines do not have high immunogenicity; thus, it is difficult to obtain an effective therapeutic effect. Thus, it is necessary to develop a tumor vaccine adjuvant that is more potent and very safe. In the present study, we examined the efficacy of JTT as an oral adjuvant when given together with tumor vaccines. As a result, JTT enhanced the phagocytic ability of OVA antigen and the presentation ability of OVA antigen in dendritic cells in vitro. Furthermore, tumor growth was markedly decreased, and the survival period was significantly prolonged in mice inoculated with mouse lymphoma, which is expressed with tumor model antigen. In conclusion, these findings suggest that JTT can be used with tumor vaccines as an immune adjuvant.
ABSTRACT Aim Vaccines have made great contributions to human welfare, and can be used even more effectively with adjuvants. The immune‐inducible effects of adjuvants are classified into four categories: T ‐helper ( Th )1, Th2 , antibody, and cytotoxic T ‐lymphocyte ( CTL ) responses. Exogenous antigens are mainly presented to major histocompatibility complex ( MHC ) class II molecules, but are also presented to MHC class I molecules via the antigen cross‐presentation process in dendritic cells. The enhancement of cross‐presentation of an injected vaccine antigen by an adjuvant leads to Th1 and CTL responses, resulting in successful intracellular infection and tumor vaccine therapy. Methods It is widely known that herbal medicines have strong immune response effects. With this in mind, we developed a novel vaccine adjuvant from natural compounds used in herbal medicine, through an in vitro model vaccine antigen (ovalbumin, OVA ) cross‐presentation assay. Results Among 89 natural compounds, 1,2,3,4,6‐penta‐ O ‐galloyl‐β‐ d ‐glucose ( PGG ) most enhanced cross‐presentation in dendritic cells. While the expression of MHC class II molecules was suppressed, PGG enhanced the expression of MHC class I molecules, restricted to OVA ‐derived peptides. Conclusion Restricted MHC class I expression resulting from the use of PGG enhanced cross‐presentation by dendritic cells.
Abstract We propose a method for visualizing literary works that quantitatively extracts the mutual relationships among play characters from the narrative of a storyline. The method first determines the cross-correlation of the appearance frequencies in the time domain between two play characters, which is calculated for all pairs of characters in each narrative. We also calculate the correlation among three play characters to find unique triangular relationships. Then we create a graphical representation of the relationships using node-link representations based on a physical potential model. The method is suitable for dramas, as demonstrated for ten famous Shakespeare plays. The resulting visualizations show good agreement with the conventional understanding of each play and also provide new insight into Shakespearean criticism.
Initial enamel crystals of porcine tooth germs were observed by means of high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) and immunoelectron microscopy. The observed spacings of lattice fringes were 0.82 nm, 1.04 nm, 1.39 nm and 1.65 nm. The lattice spacing of 0.82 nm represents the (100) plane of hydroxyapatite (HA). The other value were considered to represent modified octacalciumphosphate (OCP). In the initial process of enamel crystal formation, OCP is a precursor of HA and grows on dentin crystals. OCP transform to HA, probably involving the hydrolysis of OCP and the epitaxial over-growth of HA on OCP.
