The Irrelevance of a Moral Right to Privacy for Biomedical Moral Enhancement

Neuroethics - In opposition to what we claimed in Unfit for the Future, Jan Christoph Bublitz argues that people have a right to privacy which stands in the way of the use of biomedical moral...     

Afferent connexions to Group I activated cells in the main cuneate nucleus of the cat

1. Extracellular recordings were made from a total of 240 group I activated cells in the main cuneate nucleus. Cuneothalamic relay neurones (128) were identified by antidromic stimulation of the medial lemniscus in the ventrobasal thalamic complex.2. A majority of the relay neurones were activated by afferents in only one of six dissected forelimb nerves innervating muscle groups at various joints. Even among afferents from adjacent synergistic muscles, convergence to individual neurones was infrequent.3. Some of the relay neurones received excitation from group II muscle afferents in the same nerve that provided group I excitation. Excitation from group II muscle afferents in other nerves was uncommon. Some neurones were weakly excited by cutaneous volleys.4. Inhibition of group I relay cells was produced from cutaneous afferents and group II muscle afferents. Weak inhibition was sometimes observed from group I afferents. The relay cells were also inhibited by stimulation of the cerebral cortex with a focus around the lateral end of the cruciate sulcus. A good correspondence was found between the inhibition and the depolarization of group I afferent terminals in the cuneate nucleus.5. A majority of the group I activated cells not antidromically activated from the ventrobasal complex (;non-relay cells') were excited by cortical stimulation. Excitation from cutaneous afferents and group II muscle afferents was frequently found among these cells.6. The group I activated cells were found almost exclusively in the ventral part of the nucleus.7. The pattern of convergence found in eleven group I activated cells in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord from C 2 to C 4 is described.     

Toll-like receptor-dependent activation of several human blood cell types by protamine-condensed mRNA

We reported that RNA condensed on protamine is protected from RNase-mediated degradation and can be used for vaccination. Here, we show that such complexes are also danger signals that activate mouse cells through a MyD88-dependent pathway. Moreover, mRNA-protamine complexes stimulate human blood cells. They strongly activate DC and monocytes, leading to TNF-alpha and IFN-alpha secretion. In addition, protamine-RNA complexes directly activate B cells, NK cells and granulocytes. The detailed analysis of the activated cell types, the study of the cytokines released from PBMC cultured with protamine-RNA complexes and recently published results suggest that TLR-7 and TLR-8 may be involved in the recognition of protamine-stabilized RNA. Our data indicate that protamine-stabilized RNA, which may be similar to RNA condensed in the nucleocapsids of RNA viruses, is a strong danger signal. Thus, similarly to plasmid DNA, protamine-RNA combines antigen production and non-specific immunostimulation. The studies presented here explain the capacity of protamine-RNA to act as a vaccine, and pave the way towards the development of safe and efficient mRNA-based immunotherapies.     

Relative Validity of a Short 15-Item Food Frequency Questionnaire Measuring Dietary Quality,by the Diet History Method

Food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) are commonly used dietary assessment tools. The aim was to assess the relative validity of a 15-item FFQ, designed for the screening of poor dietary patterns with a validated diet history (DH). The study population was derived from the Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort Studies. The DH registrations were harmonized in accordance with the FFQ frequencies. The agreement was assessed by Cohen’s kappa with corresponding confidence intervals (CI) for the frequency and categorical variables. Bland–Altman plots were used for the numeric variables. The study comprised data from 848 individuals (55.2% women). Overall, there was high agreement between the methods, with the exact and adjacent level of agreement over 80% for eight variables. The proportion attributed to the opposite frequency was fairly low for most of the frequency variables. Most of the kappa values were in fair or moderate agreement. The highest kappa values were calculated for the type of cooking fat (k = 0.68, CI = 0.63–0.72) and sandwich spread (k = 0.55, CI = 0.49–0.53), and the lowest for type of bread (0.13, CI = 0.07–0.20) and sweets (0.22 CI = 0.18–0.27). In conclusion, the FFQ showed overall good agreement compared with the DH. We, therefore, think it, with some improvements, could serve as a simple screening tool for poor dietary patterns.