Elevated signs of anxiety are observed in both humans and rodents during withdrawal from chronic as well as acute ethanol exposure, and it represents an important motivational factor for ethanol relapse. Several reports have suggested the involvement of brain adenosine receptors in different actions produced by ethanol such as motor incoordination and hypnotic effects. In addition, we have recently demonstrated that adenosine A 1 receptors modulate the anxiolytic-like effect induced by ethanol in mice. In the present study, we evaluated the potential of adenosine A 1 and A 2A receptor agonists in reducing the anxiety-like behavior during acute ethanol withdrawal (hangover) in mice. Animals received a single intraperitoneal administration of saline or ethanol (4 g/kg) and were tested in the elevated plus maze after an interval of 0.5-24 h. The results indicated that hangover-induced anxiety was most pronounced between 12 and 18 h after ethanol administration, as indicated by a significant reduction in the exploration of the open arms of the maze. At this time interval, ethanol was completely cleared. The acute administration of 'nonanxiolytic' doses of adenosine and the selective adenosine A 1 receptor agonist 2-chloro-N6-cyclopentyladenosine (CCPA), but not the adenosine A 2A receptor agonist N6-[2-(3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-(2-methylphenyl)ethyl]adenosine (DPMA), at the onset of peak withdrawal (18 h), reduced this anxiogenic-like response. In addition, the effect of CCPA on the anxiety-like behavior of ethanol hangover was reversed by pretreatment with the selective adenosine A 1 receptor antagonist 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine (DPCPX). These results reinforce the notion of the involvement of adenosine receptors in the anxiety-like responses and indicate the potential of adenosine A 1 receptor agonists to reduce the anxiogenic effects during ethanol withdrawal.

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It is known that in a part of the population, mainly among children, some are hypersensitive to soybean protein, although it is not yet completely elucidated which protein fraction is more immunogenic/ allergenic. The objective of the study was to compare the immunogenicity and allergenicity of the soy protein fractions. The 2S (conglycinin), 7S (β conglycinin) and 11S (glycinin) fractions were isolated from soy protein by affinity chromatography. These purified soy protein fractions were used as antigens for immunizing BALB/c mice to evaluate their immunogenicity by following the appearance of specific IgM and IgG antibodies in blood serum by ELISA. The allergenicity of these soy protein fractions was evaluated by the following approaches: i) the production of IgE antibodies against 2S, 7S and 11S soy protein fractions by BALBc mice in the anaphylactic cutaneous passive test (PCA), and ii) the production of IgG1 specific antibodies against the 7S fraction in BALB/c mice. The 7S and 11S fractions induced the formation of IgM and IgG antibodies. The PCA test showed that only the 7S fraction was allergenic leading to the production of IgE antibodies. Another evidence that reinforces the allergenicity of the 7S soy protein fraction is the presence of IgG1 specific antibodies reactive to this protein fraction in immunized mice. Our study shows that the 7S soy protein fraction is important to elicit allergic reactions in mice and may contribute to elucidate the allergenicity of soy-derived products. INTRODUCTIONAllergic reactions to foods result from heightened immunologic responses to glycoprotein components present in the foods and constitute a frequent health complaint (Metcalfe, 1991;Shah, Walker, 2002). Children and adults who develop such reactions are said to have a food hypersensitivity or food allergy that are terms proposed to define a reaction to food exposure causing objectively reproducible symptoms or signs at a dose A. L. Bittencourt, M. F. M. Soares, R. R. Pires, C. S. Honmoto, M. K. Tanaka, C. M. A. Jacob, D. S. P. Abdalla 598 tolerated by normal subjects (Crespo et al., 2004). The prevalence of food allergy in children appears to be increasing for reasons that are still poorly understood. It has been estimated that approximately 6% of young children and about 2% of the general population have food allergy, with the majority experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms (Sampson, 2003).A number of factors can affect the development of food allergy. One is the amount of a particular food that is ingested, which is influenced by diet and culture of a country. This can have a significant effect on the prevalence of a specific food allergy in that region. Examples of this are codfish allergy in Norway, rice and soy allergy in Japan, and peanut allergy in the U.S. Other factors involved in food allergies are the gut permeability, that has been considered to be a major factor in food allergy sensitization, and the food processing that can substantially modify food allergen content. Most food allergens are stable ...

Avaliação da cinética da produção de anticorpos IgM é 19G dirigidos contra as frações protéicas 2S, 7S e 11 S da soja, em

A panel of four monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) recognizing antigenic determinants on soy protein was produced and partially characterized. The protein fractions 7S and 11S were extracted and purified from the soy protein isolate and defatted flour of soy, respectively. To obtain hybridomas, popliteal lymph nodes of BALB/c immunized mice (10,0 mg protein/ footpad) were excised and fused to SP2-0 myeloma cells. The hybridomas were screened by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using peroxidase-labelled rat anti-mouse IgG MAb and cloned under limiting dilution conditions. The specificity of these antibodies was evaluated by Western blotting. Three antibodies produced by stable clones (1H4, 2A8 and 1F9) recognized the subunits a, a? and b of the 7S soy protein fraction and one monoclonal antibody (3F2) recognized the basic subunit of the 11S fraction. ELISA assays with the MAbs anti-7S (IgG2b) and 11S (IgG1) fractions were able to detect the presence of these fractions in soycontaining commercial products as yogurt, milk and juice. The present study showed that these MAbs specifically detect the subunits of the 7S fraction and the basic subunits of the 11S fraction of soy protein and may be used in immunoassays to detect these protein fractions in soybased products.