Anti-C5 monoclonal antibody, clone 046-10.2.2 (10-04)

In mammals, spinal cord injuries often result in muscle paralysis through the apoptosis of lower motor neurons and denervation of neuromuscular junctions. Previous research shows that the inflammatory response to a spinal cord injury can cause additional tissue damage after the initial trauma. To modulate this inflammatory response, we delivered lentiviral anti-inflammatory interleukin-10, via loading onto an implantable biomaterial scaffold, into a left-sided hemisection at the C5 vertebra in mice. We hypothesized that improved behavioral outcomes associated with anti-inflammatory treatment are due to the sparing of fine motor circuit components. We examined behavioral recovery using a ladder beam, tissue sparing using histology, and electromyogram recordings using intraspinal optogenetic stimulation at 2 weeks post-injury. Ladder beam analysis shows interleukin-10 treatment results in significant improvement of behavioral recovery at 2 and 12 weeks post-injury when compared to mice treated with a control virus. Histology shows interleukin-10 results in greater numbers of lower motor neurons, axons, and muscle innervation at 2 weeks post-injury. Furthermore, electromyogram recordings suggest that interleukin-10-treated animals have signal-to-noise ratios and peak-to-peak amplitudes more similar to that of uninjured controls than to that of control injured animals at 2 weeks post-injury. These data show that gene therapy using anti-inflammatory interleukin-10 can significantly reduce tissue damage and subsequent motor deficits after a spinal cord injury. Together, these results suggest that early modulation of the injury response can preserve muscle function with long-lasting benefits.

Catalytic degradation of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) to produce value-added BTEXs (i.e., benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes) is a promising approach to dispose of solid wastes. In this work, the effects of catalyst contact mode (in-situ or ex-situ), catalyst type, and reaction conditions on desirable BTEXs production were investigated. Experimental results indicated that a limited amount of BTEXs with selectivity of 11.1% was obtained in the non-catalytic run, while a similar to 6-fold content increase was attained upon employing ultrastable Y (USY) zeolite as a catalyst in the in-situ catalytic trial. The USY catalyzed run also produced more C-4 olefin, C5-6 linear alkanes and alkenes, and C9+ aromatic hydrocarbons. A comparison between in-situ and ex-situ catalytic pyrolysis suggesting that the former was more beneficial to the generation of BTEXs as the enhanced factor was 11.5% higher than that of the ex-situ catalytic pyrolysis. Catalyst type played a critical role in the catalytic degradation of SBR, and the BTEXs formation was highly dependent on the acidic property of the employed catalyst. The Y type zeolites with a higher content of acid sites, larger surface area, and moderate pore size, generated more targeted BTEXs than H beta, HZSM-5, and SAPO-34. The optimized reaction conditions to promote the formation of BETXs in the catalytic degradation of SBR over USY, including heating rate, pyrolysis temperature, and catalyst to feedstock mass ratio, were determined to be at 10 degrees C/ms, 700 degrees C, and 3:1, respectively.