Primary oral vaccination followed by a vaginal pull protects mice against genital HSV-2 infection.

PROBLEM: HSV-2 infected more than 491 million people aged 15-49 world-wide in 2016. The morbidity associated with recurrent infections and the increased risk of HIV infection make this a major health problem. To date there is no effective vaccine. Because HSV-2 ascends to the dorsal route ganglion within 12-18 h of infection, an effective vaccine will need to elicit a strong local resident CD8+ T cell response to prevent the infection from becoming life-long. METHOD OF STUDY: Using a mouse model we investigated the potential of oral immunization with a novel lipid adjuvant (LiporaleTM ) followed by local vaginal application of an inflammatory agents to protect against primary HSV-2 infections. RESULTS: Oral vaccination of mice with live-attenuated HSV-2 in Liporale followed by vaginal application of DNFB or CXCL9/10 led to recruitment of tissue-resident CD8+ memory cells into the genital epithelia. This prime and pull vaccination strategy provided complete protection against wild-type HSV-2 challenge and prevented viral dissemination to the spinal cords. CONCLUSIONS: Activation of mucosal immunity by oral immunization, combined with induction of transient local genital inflammation can recruit long-lived tissue resident CD8+ T cells into the genital epithelium, providing significant protection against primary HSV-2 infection.

Registered nurses' reflections on bioscience courses during the undergraduate nursing programme: an exploratory study.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore new graduate registered nurses' reflections of bioscience courses during their nursing programme and the relationship between bioscience content and their clinical practice. BACKGROUND: Undergraduate nursing students internationally find bioscience courses challenging, which may be due to the volume of content and level of difficulty of these courses. Such challenges may be exacerbated by insufficient integration between bioscience theory and nursing clinical practice. DESIGN: A descriptive, cross-sectional mixed methods study was conducted. METHODS: A 30-item questionnaire with five written response questions which explored recently registered nurses' reflections on bioscience courses during their nursing degree was employed. Descriptive analyses were reported for individual items. Thematic analysis of qualitative responses was grouped to reveal emerging themes. RESULTS: Registered nurses' (n = 22) reflections revealed that bioscience courses were a significant challenge during their undergraduate programme, and they lacked confidence explaining the biological basis of nursing. Participants would like improved knowledge of the relevant bioscience for nursing and agreed that bioscience courses should be extended into the undergraduate final year. The importance of relating bioscience content to nursing practice was elaborated extensively throughout written responses. CONCLUSIONS: Although registered nurses reflected that bioscience courses were difficult with large volumes of content, having more bioscience with greater relevance to nursing applications was considered important in their current clinical practice. It is suggested that bioscience academics develop greater contextual links between bioscience content and clinical practice relevant to nursing. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: After working as a registered nurse, there was appreciation of bioscience relevance for clinical practice, and the nurses believed they would have benefitted from more nursing-related bioscience during their undergraduate programme. Focussed integration of bioscience with clinical nursing courses should be driven by academics, nurse educators and clinical nurses to provide a biological basis for patient care to nursing students.

Final year Australian nursing students' experiences with bioscience: A cross-sectional survey.

Nursing students have reported bioscience to be challenging and difficult to understand. This might have a negative impact upon their ability to understand patients' clinical conditions and nursing practice. We sought information about students' experiences with bioscience. A total of 126 final year nursing students completed a questionnaire. The findings showed that the majority of participants considered bioscience subjects to require more work compared to nursing subjects (65.9%), and that they would like a better understanding of bioscience (73.8%), but understood that bioscience forms the foundation of nursing practice (76.2%). Younger participants without secondary school science rated bioscience harder than nursing subjects and spent more time studying bioscience compared to older participants. Participants without any secondary school science lacked an ability to apply bioscience concepts to patient conditions. These results showed that nursing students, especially those without secondary school science, would benefit from improved bioscience integration with nursing practice. Nursing and bioscience educators should consider greater alignment of bioscience with nursing practice subjects, especially earlier in the curriculum.

Histochemical localisation of a galactose-containing glycoconjugate expressed by sensory neurones innervating different peripheral tissues in the rat.

The plant lectin Bandeiraea simplicifolia I-isolectin B4 (BSI-B4) identifies a galactose-containing, membrane-associated glycoconjugate expressed by a discrete subpopulation of unmyelinated primary sensory neurones in the rat. We have previously suggested that BSI-B4 selectively binds to primary sensory neurones that innervate the skin. However, in that study, the tracer diamidino yellow was applied to the cut ends of peripheral nerves to identify neurones innervating particular target tissues. In this study, we have avoided axotomy by retrogradely labelling primary sensory neurones from peripheral tissues using the carbocyanine dye 1,1'-dioctadecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethylindocarbacyanine perchlorate (DiI). DiI was injected into the plantar skin, gastrocnemius muscle, and pyloric region of the stomach in rats. Corresponding ganglia were sectioned, incubated in BSI-B4 conjugated to fluorescein isothiocyanate, and examined with a fluorescence microscope. DiI-labelled cells were identified by red fluorescence within the cytoplasm, whereas cells binding BSI-B4 displayed green fluorescence associated with the plasma membrane and Golgi apparatus. Quantitative analysis revealed that 36.2% of cutaneous neurones, 7.6% of muscle neurones, and 6.8% of visceral neurones expressed the BSI-B4-binding site, indicating that a small but significant proportion of small-diameter primary sensory neurones innervating muscle and viscera also express BSI-B4-binding sites.

Analysis of the unmyelinated primary sensory neurone projection through the dorsal columns of the rat spinal cord using transganglionic transport of the plant lectin Bandeiraea simplicifolia I-isolectin B4.

We have examined the projection of unmyelinated primary sensory neurones through the dorsal columns of the rat spinal cord using transganglionic transport of the plant lectin Bandeiraea simplicifolia I-isolectin B4. A small volume of the lectin was injected into the sciatic nerve of anaesthetised rats to label the central terminals of nociceptive primary sensory neurones. Following a survival period of 7 days, transverse and longitudinal sections of the superficial dorsal horn, dorsolateral funiculus and the dorsal columns from spinal segments L4 through to T13 were screened for lectin transport using light and electron microscopy. Longitudinal sections of the thoraco-lumbar region of spinal cord were also examined for lectin binding. Light and electron microscopy revealed transganglionically transported and bound lectin in the superficial dorsal horn and dorsolateral funiculus of the L3 and L4 segments of spinal cord. However, no lectin transport or binding was observed within the dorsal columns at any level of spinal cord examined. From these results, we suggest that the unmyelinated neurones within the dorsal columns do not express the binding site for BSI-B4 and, as such, may be responsible for visceral rather than cutaneous sensation. In line with the theories regarding a postsynaptic dorsal column pathway, these results suggest that nociceptors that bind BSI-B4 are not involved in a direct ascending projection through the dorsal columns.

Distribution of binding sites for the plant lectin Ulex europaeus agglutinin I on primary sensory neurones in seven different mammalian species.

There is an increasing body of evidence to suggest that different functional classes of neurones express characteristic cell-surface carbohydrates. Previous studies have shown that the plant lectin Ulex europaeus agglutinin-I (UEA) binds to a population of small to medium diameter primary sensory neurones in rabbits and humans. This suggests that a fucose-containing glycoconjugate may be expressed by nociceptive primary sensory neurones. In order to determine the extent to which this glycoconjugate is expressed by other species, in the current study, we have examined the distribution of UEA-binding sites on primary sensory neurones in seven different mammals. Binding sites for UEA were associated with the plasma membrane and cytoplasmic granules of small to medium dorsal root ganglion cells and their axon terminals in laminae I-III of the grey matter of the spinal cord, in the rabbit, cat and marmoset monkey. However, no binding was observed in either the dorsal root ganglia or spinal cord in the mouse, rat, guinea pig or flying fox. These results indicate an inter-species variation in the expression of cell-surface glycoconjugates on mammalian primary sensory neurones.

Analysis of the distribution of binding sites for the plant lectin Bandeiraea simplicifolia I-isolectin B4 on primary sensory neurones in seven mammalian species.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the binding patterns of the plant lectin Bandeiraea simplicifolia I-isolectin B(4) (BSI-B(4)) to sensory neurones in seven mammalian species. The dorsal root ganglia and spinal cords of three rats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, flying foxes, cats, and marmoset monkeys were screened for BSI-B(4) using lectin histochemistry. BSI-B(4) binding was associated with the soma of predominantly small-diameter primary sensory neurones in the dorsal root ganglia and their axon terminals within laminae I and II of the superficial dorsal horn in all seven species. The similarities of lectin binding patterns in each of these species suggest that the glycoconjugate to which BSI-B(4) binds has a ubiquitous distribution in mammals, and supports the proposal that this lectin may preferentially bind to a subpopulation of sensory neurones with a similar functional role in each of these species.