Identification of antioxidants for prevention of peroxide-mediated oxidation of recombinant human ciliary neurotrophic factor and recombinant human nerve growth factor.

Peroxides present in non-ionic surfactants used to stabilize certain recombinant protein formulations (e.g. polysorbate 80) can result in the oxidative degradation of proteins. In this study, the ability of various pharmaceutically acceptable antioxidants to prevent the oxidative degradation of two therapeutic proteins, recombinant human Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor (rhCNTF) and recombinant human Nerve Growth Factor (rhNGF), caused by alkyl hydroperoxides and hydrogen peroxide was studied. For rhCNTF, the rank order of effectiveness of the antioxidants tested was: thiols (cysteine, glutathione, thioglycerol) >> thioethers (methionine). Other parenterally acceptable antioxidants (ascorbic acid, propyl gallate and sodium bisulfite) destabilized the protein. The thiol antioxidants (cysteine and glutathione) were also the most effective antioxidants for rhNGF; however, in contrast to rhCNTF, ascorbic acid did not destabilize rhNGF. The rank order of effective antioxidants for rhNGF was: thiols (cysteine, glutathione) > > thioethers (methionine) > ascorbic acid.

Toys and social interaction between infant peers.

Claims that young infants fail to react in a social manner to one another and that toys preempt attention to peers were assessed by comparing the interactions observed between infant peers when they met in the presence of toys versus in their absence. 44 pairs of unacquainted infants (either 10--12 or 22--24 months of age) came with their mothers to an unfamiliar room. Without toys available in the room, infants of both ages more often contacted one another, smiled at and gestured to one another, and duplicated each other's actions. With toys, they showed and exchanged toys and spent more time synchronously manipulating similar play material. The results document that infants as young as 10 months of age are responsive to the person and behavior of an unfamiliar peer and that they are no less responsive than older infants to the social versus nonsocial aspects of a novel setting.

Sensitizing medical students to impression formation processes in the patient interview.

Medical students in a course that included instruction in patient interviewing participated in an experiment devised to alert them to sources of bias which might influence their judgements and management of patients. Students were randomly assigned to one of four groups and exposed to either a videotaped or audiotaped interview of the same patient presented as either normal weight or overweight. Questionnaire responses of students in the two audio groups indicated no detectable differences in the sound tracks of the overweight and normal weight versions of the interview, and these groups were combined for subsequent analysis. A discriminant analysis indicated that students exposed to the overweight video version formed impressions and assessed patient treatment and outcome differently from those exposed to either the video normal or audio versions of the interview. Implications of these findings for medical education are discussed, and suggestions are made for incorporating such sensitization experiments in the medical curriculum.