A skin condition characterised by scaly red patches, psoriasis is an autoimmune disorder linked to dysfunctional immune signalling, causing inflammation and accelerating cell division in the outermost layer of skin, the epidermis. Treatments targeting a shared feature of signalling proteins interleukin-12 (IL-12) and interleukin-23 (IL-23) can alleviate symptoms, but later drugs affecting only IL-23 proved even more effective, prompting questions about the role of IL-12. By selectively deleting the receptor for IL-12 in epidermal skin cells, keratinocytes, in mice, researchers showed that IL-12 actually protects against psoriasis. In the skin samples above, dividing keratinocytes in the epidermis (left of the white line), are highlighted in red; cells possessing the IL-12 receptor (left panel) are dividing less than those lacking it (right), suggesting that IL-12 acts to reduce cell proliferation. Future therapies should therefore concentrate on IL-23, a result with potential implications for other conditions treated by blocking both proteins.
Written by Emmanuelle Briolat
Image from work by Pascale Zwicky and colleagues, University of Zurich
Institute of Experimental Immunology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Image copyright held by the original authors
Research published in Science Immunology, October 2021
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Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is one of the most important health problems in Egypt. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy, and tolerability of two therapeutic modalities, dual (Sofosbuvir+ribavirin)and triple (sofosbuvir + ribavirin + peg-interferon), in treating Egyptian patients infected with HCV genotype-4. In addition, we determined serum IL-12p70 and TLR7 gene expression in patients infected with HCV with and without treatment, compared to the normal volunteers. No significant changes in serum creatinine and fasting blood glucose concentrations were reported at the end of the treatment with dual and triple therapy and after 3 months of follow up. Pateints infected with HCV showed a non significant change in the relative quantitation of TLR7 gene expression, and a significant elevation in serum IL-12p70 concentration (161.73%, p
FLORA, Ill. — As Ruthie Welty waited for her coffee at Common Grounds Coffee Lounge last month, she thought about who she’ll vote for in the
Kelsey Landis at St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
FLORA, Ill. — As Ruthie Welty waited for her coffee at Common Grounds Coffee Lounge last month, she thought about who she’ll vote for in the upcoming Republican primary election for the U.S. House.
Her options are a conservative incumbent who sees bipartisanship as necessary to making government work, and a far-right challenger who says he’s willing to shut government down to advance his agenda.
But the 76-year-old military veteran from rural southeast Illinois had one dominant feeling about the race.
“I hate to see Christian Republicans going against each other,” Welty said.
The contest in the 12th Congressional District, which takes in a large swath of mostly rural southern Illinois stretching into the Metro East, is a microcosm of the national fight playing out in the Republican Party, which has seen the business of Congress interrupted by lengthy leadership fights and dysfunction.
On March 19, voters here will be deciding between Rep. Mike Bost, who has represented the district since 2015, and Darren Bailey, a former state legislator who made a name for himself during the pandemic with his combative style.
Their policies don’t differ much: They’re gun owners, staunchly anti-abortion, critics of the Biden administration’s border policies and loyal to former President Donald Trump, who previously endorsed them both in separate races. They both say they are devout Christians.
But the key difference between the two is their position on bipartisanship, and it’s symbolic of a rift within the GOP nationally over government spending. On one side is a majority of Republicans who admit bipartisanship is often necessary to pay the bills — and federal workers, including military servicemembers.
Bost counts himself among the majority.
“I’m a governing conservative,” Bost told members of the local farm bureau at a campaign stop in Belleville last month. “Governing means, yes, we’re still going to operate government. We’re not going to blow up the world. We’re going to actually allow government to do its job, and we’re going to be as wise as we can.”
On the other side is the House Freedom Caucus, a small, far-right, pro-Trump faction of House Republicans that sees bipartisan deals as failures. They block House business using procedural rules, and some of its members have said they’d let the government shut down to secure spending cuts, among other demands.
Bailey’s on that side.
“Shut it down and let the American people rise up and wake up, and see that failed leadership has created that,” Bailey said in January during an interview at his homestead in rural southeastern Illinois.
The 12th Congressional District covers 34 southern Illinois counties measuring more than 5,000 square miles, and it’s deeply conservative. Whoever wins the Republican primary in the 12th District is likely to win the general election.
Some will vote for Bost because they know him, and feel he has been a true conservative and loyal to Trump, said Kent Redfield, political science professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
But there are others, a core of Make America Great Again, or MAGA, conservatives, who will see Bailey as the authentic Trump candidate because of his take-it-or-leave it attitude.
“Bost has the incumbency, the loyalty, the familiarity, whatever it may be,” Redfield said. “But Bailey’s going to say, ‘I’m the real conservative. This person isn’t pure enough. I’m the MAGA person.’”
The #IL12 GOP primary between incumbent Mike Bost and challenger Darren Bailey is a microcosm of the battle for the ideological soul of the Republican Party.
Both Bost and Bailey have far-right records and MAGA cred; however, Bost occasionally shows moments of bipartisanship, while Bailey is taking more of a Freedom Caucus-esque tack. #Twill #ILPrimary
Democratic Party leaders are trying to recruit Rick Watson, the St. Clair County sheriff, to run in the March 15, 2016, Democratic Party primary for the 12th U.S. House District seat.
Democratic Party leaders are trying to recruit Rick Watson, the St. Clair County sheriff, to run in the March 15, 2016, Democratic Party primary for the 12th U.S. House District seat.
Watson said he plans fly out Tuesday morning to Washington, D.C., where representatives of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee intend to try to sell him on the idea on why he should enter the race. So far, there is one other Democratic candidate — Belleville lawyer C.J. Baricevic, who officially rolled out his campaign Monday.
St. Clair County Sheriff Rick Watson
“It’s such an honor to be asked,” Watson said. “I have to give it some thought.”
The Democrats are trying to win back the 12th District House seat, which freshman incumbent Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, won in November after beating one-term incumbent Bill Enyart, D-Belleville. Previously, Democrats had held that seat since World War II with two congressmen — Melvin Price of East St. Louis and Jerry Costello of Belleville.
Watson said he hasn’t made up his mind about whether to enter the race, though he has spoken with Costello, a longtime friend. Costello held the 12th District seat for nearly a quarter of a century before retiring in 2011.
Watson made it clear the Democrats in Washington will have a tough sell on their hands. Watson said he loves his job as sheriff and would be very reluctant to leave it.
“I love what I’m doing,” Watson said. “I don’t know how they’re going to drag me away from here.”
Watson was appointed sheriff in December 2012 after the death of Mearl Justus, who held the job for eight terms. Watson served with the Cahokia Police Department from 1978 to 2011, when he retired as police chief. In 2014, he easily won election to the sheriff’s post.
Let’s hope he makes Bost a one-term wonder.
h/t: Mike Fitzgerald at BND.com
Republican state Rep. Mike Bost, who has been nicknamed "Meltdown Mike" for his epic meltdowns in the Statehouse, has defeated first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Enyart in southern Illinois' 12th District.
The district has been in Democratic hands for more than two decades but has grown increasingly conservative on social issues. It stretches from the eastern St. Louis suburbs to the Kentucky border.
Bost is from Murphysboro and has served in the Illinois House for 19 years. Enyart is a Belleville Democrat and former Illinois National Guard adjutant general.
RELATED: Illinois GOP candidate Mike Bost once shot and killed a beagle
The race was considered one of the most competitive in Illinois and a key Republican pickup nationally. Republican House Speaker John Boehner traveled to the district last week to campaign for Bost.
Bost also defeated Green Party candidate Paula Bradshaw, an emergency room nurse who is credited with siphoning liberal votes away from Enyart.
