J., Pamer, E.G., 1997. Enhanced intracellular dissociation of major histocompatibility complex class I-associated peptides: a mechanism for optimizing the spectrum of cell surface-presented cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes. J. Exp. Med. 185,

1403-1411] describing the processing and presentation of two antigenic peptides derived from the p60 proteins of the facultatively intracellular bacterium Listeria monocytogenes shows that p60 proteins accumulating intracellularly during bacterial infection of cells play no measurable role as substrate for the cytosolic antigen presentation pathway. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine; MDMA) has potent CNS stimulant effects. Besides the acute effects of MDMA, such as psychomotor activation, euphoria, decreased appetite, and hyperthermia, long-term damage of dopaminergic

and serotonergic nerve terminals in multiple brain areas have Adriamycin also been reported. Although some studies have demonstrated that considerable amounts of MDMA reach the vitreous humor of the eye, and that serious visual consequences can result from MDMA consumption, the toxic effect of MDMA on the retina has not been completely elucidated. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is present in the CNS, including the retina. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of MDMA on rat retinal neural cell viability and investigate the involvement of 5-HT 2A-receptor (5-HT2A) activation. Moreover,

the neuroprotective Clomifene role of NPY on MDMA-induced toxicity was also investigated. MDMA induced necrosis [MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) and propidiurn TPCA-1 solubility dmso iodide assays] and apoptosis (immunoreactivity of cleaved caspase-3) in mixed cultures of retinal neural cells (neurons, macroglia and microglia), in a concentration-dependent manner. MDMA-induced toxicity was enhanced at higher temperature (40 degrees C) and was reduced by the 5HT(2A)-receptor antagonist, ketanserin (1 mu M). Interestingly, necrotic and apoptotic cell death induced by MDMA was inhibited by NPY (100 nM).

In conclusion, MDMA induces cell death in retinal neural cells, which is potentiated by elevated temperature. The toxic effect of MDMA involves the activation of 5-HT2A-receptor and can be inhibited by exogenous NPY. Thus, NPY or NPY analogues might be useful agents against retinal degeneration induced by drugs or in neurodegenerative eye diseases. (C) 2008 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“A k-noncrossing RNA pseudoknot structure is a graph over 1,…,n without 1-arcs, i.e. arcs of the form (i, i + 1) and in which there exists no k-set of mutually intersecting arcs. In particular, RNA secondary structures are 2-noncrossing RNA structures. In this paper we prove a central and a local limit theorem for the distribution of the number of 3-noncrossing RNA structures over n nucleotides with exactly h bonds.