Mammalian granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and some CpG motifs have an effect on the immunogenicity of DNA and subunit vaccines in fish.

A eukaryotic plasmid DNA carrying the AACGTT CpG motif in its ampR gene is a 'danger' signal for mice and caused an increase in the specific antibody titres of fish and mice after immunization with beta-galactosidase (beta-gal). A second pUC-based plasmid, which is inactive in mice and contains the GACGTC CpG motif in its cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter, had no effect on antibody responses to beta-gal in either fish or mice. A synthetic oligonucleotide, which contains the GACGTT motif, potentiated antibody responses to co-administered beta-gal protein in mice, but not in fish. This is early evidence that lower and higher vertebrates recognize different unmethylated CpG motifs as 'danger' signals. In addition, plasmid DNA expressing mouse granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) had a marked effect on cytotoxic T-cell-like activity in fish by reducing the average number of myofibres that expressed beta-gal, 28 days after co-injection with plasmid DNA expressing beta-gal. Although the mechanism by which the mouse GM-CSF exerted its biological effects in fish is unknown, this finding might have important implications for fish vaccination, particularly when cytotoxic T cells may play a critical role.

Grandparent deaths and severe maternal reaction in the etiology of adolescent psychopathology.

Relationships between the extent of psychopathology and the occurrence of 21 major life events during five developmental periods (prebirth, infancy, childhood, latency, and adolescence) were examined with multiple regression and X2 analyses for 114 hospitalized male and female adolescents. Psychopathology was assessed with the Global Assessment Scale (GAS) at admission to long-term residential treatment in a private psychiatric hospital. Data on deaths, physical illnesses, psychological disturbances, and socioenvironmental events experienced by patients before admission were gleaned from interviews and institutional records. Life events and GAS were scored independently. Only deaths and socioenvironmental events were significantly associated with psychopathology. Specifically, deaths of grandparents during infancy corresponded to lower functioning at admission. Additional analyses showed that severe reactions of patients' mothers to grandparent deaths had been more common among those adolescents who were most disturbed at the time they were admitted to the hospital. These findings were largely serendipitous, however, and need replication.