Non-fermenting Gram-negative bacteria are problematic in clinical locations, being one of the most prevalent causes of nosocomial infections. Many of these non-fermenting Gram-negative bacteria are ...opportunistic pathogens that affect patients that are suffering with underlying medical conditions and diseases. Brevundimonas spp., in particular Brevundimonas diminuta and Brevundimonas vesicularis, are a genus of non-fermenting Gram-negative bacteria considered of minor clinical importance. Forty-nine separate instances of infection relating to Brevundimonas spp were found in the scientific literature along with two pseudo-infections. The majority of these instances were infection with Brevundimonas vesicularis (thirty-five cases - 71%). The major condition associated with Brevundimonas spp infection was bacteraemia with seventeen individual cases/outbreaks (35%). This review identified forty-nine examples of Brevundimonas spp. infections have been discussed in the literature. These findings indicate that infection review programs should consider investigation of possible Brevundimonas spp outbreaks if these bacteria are clinically isolated in more than one patient.
A new wave of portable biosensors allows frequent measurement of health-related physiology. We investigated the use of these devices to monitor human physiological changes during various activities ...and their role in managing health and diagnosing and analyzing disease. By recording over 250,000 daily measurements for up to 43 individuals, we found personalized circadian differences in physiological parameters, replicating previous physiological findings. Interestingly, we found striking changes in particular environments, such as airline flights (decreased peripheral capillary oxygen saturation SpO2 and increased radiation exposure). These events are associated with physiological macro-phenotypes such as fatigue, providing a strong association between reduced pressure/oxygen and fatigue on high-altitude flights. Importantly, we combined biosensor information with frequent medical measurements and made two important observations: First, wearable devices were useful in identification of early signs of Lyme disease and inflammatory responses; we used this information to develop a personalized, activity-based normalization framework to identify abnormal physiological signals from longitudinal data for facile disease detection. Second, wearables distinguish physiological differences between insulin-sensitive and -resistant individuals. Overall, these results indicate that portable biosensors provide useful information for monitoring personal activities and physiology and are likely to play an important role in managing health and enabling affordable health care access to groups traditionally limited by socioeconomic class or remote geography.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The biotechnological potential of whey Ryan, Michael P.; Walsh, Gary
Reviews in environmental science and biotechnology,
09/2016, Letnik:
15, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
Whey is a highly polluting by-product of cheese and casein powder manufacture with worldwide production of whey estimated at around 190 × 10
6
ton/year and growing. Historically whey was considered ...a burdensome, environmentally damaging by-product. In the last decades however, much research has gone into finding viable alternatives for whey rather than just disposing of it. Multiple biotechnological avenues have been explored and in some cases exploited to turn this waste product into a valuable commodity. Avenues explored include traditional uses of whey as both an animal and human food to the more advanced uses such as the use of whey protein as health promoters and the potential of whey to be used as a feed stock to manufacture a whole range of useful substances e.g. ethanol.
Abstract Revision knee data from six joint arthroplasty centers were compiled for 2010 and 2011 to determine mechanism of failure and time to failure. Aseptic loosening was the predominant mechanism ...of failure (31.2%), followed by instability (18.7%), infection (16.2%), polyethylene wear (10.0%), arthrofibrosis (6.9%), and malalignment (6.6%). Mean time to failure was 5.9 years (range 10 days to 31 years). 35.3% of all revisions occurred less than 2 years after the index arthroplasty, 60.2% in the first 5 years. In contrast to previous reports, polyethylene wear is not a leading failure mechanism and rarely presents before 15 years. Implant performance is not a predominant factor of knee failure. Early failure mechanisms are primarily surgeon-dependent.
Thermogenesis by brown and beige adipose tissue, which requires activation by external stimuli, can counter metabolic disease
. Thermogenic respiration is initiated by adipocyte lipolysis through ...cyclic AMP-protein kinase A signalling; this pathway has been subject to longstanding clinical investigation
. Here we apply a comparative metabolomics approach and identify an independent metabolic pathway that controls acute activation of adipose tissue thermogenesis in vivo. We show that substantial and selective accumulation of the tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediate succinate is a metabolic signature of adipose tissue thermogenesis upon activation by exposure to cold. Succinate accumulation occurs independently of adrenergic signalling, and is sufficient to elevate thermogenic respiration in brown adipocytes. Selective accumulation of succinate may be driven by a capacity of brown adipocytes to sequester elevated circulating succinate. Furthermore, brown adipose tissue thermogenesis can be initiated by systemic administration of succinate in mice. Succinate from the extracellular milieu is rapidly metabolized by brown adipocytes, and its oxidation by succinate dehydrogenase is required for activation of thermogenesis. We identify a mechanism whereby succinate dehydrogenase-mediated oxidation of succinate initiates production of reactive oxygen species, and drives thermogenic respiration, whereas inhibition of succinate dehydrogenase supresses thermogenesis. Finally, we show that pharmacological elevation of circulating succinate drives UCP1-dependent thermogenesis by brown adipose tissue in vivo, which stimulates robust protection against diet-induced obesity and improves glucose tolerance. These findings reveal an unexpected mechanism for control of thermogenesis, using succinate as a systemically-derived thermogenic molecule.
We define the chromatin accessibility and transcriptional landscapes in 13 human primary blood cell types that span the hematopoietic hierarchy. Exploiting the finding that the enhancer landscape ...better reflects cell identity than mRNA levels, we enable 'enhancer cytometry' for enumeration of pure cell types from complex populations. We identify regulators governing hematopoietic differentiation and further show the lineage ontogeny of genetic elements linked to diverse human diseases. In acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chromatin accessibility uncovers unique regulatory evolution in cancer cells with a progressively increasing mutation burden. Single AML cells exhibit distinctive mixed regulome profiles corresponding to disparate developmental stages. A method to account for this regulatory heterogeneity identified cancer-specific deviations and implicated HOX factors as key regulators of preleukemic hematopoietic stem cell characteristics. Thus, regulome dynamics can provide diverse insights into hematopoietic development and disease.
In parallel to the genetic code for protein synthesis, a second layer of information is embedded in all RNA transcripts in the form of RNA structure. RNA structure influences practically every step ...in the gene expression program. However, the nature of most RNA structures or effects of sequence variation on structure are not known. Here we report the initial landscape and variation of RNA secondary structures (RSSs) in a human family trio (mother, father and their child). This provides a comprehensive RSS map of human coding and non-coding RNAs. We identify unique RSS signatures that demarcate open reading frames and splicing junctions, and define authentic microRNA-binding sites. Comparison of native deproteinized RNA isolated from cells versus refolded purified RNA suggests that the majority of the RSS information is encoded within RNA sequence. Over 1,900 transcribed single nucleotide variants (approximately 15% of all transcribed single nucleotide variants) alter local RNA structure. We discover simple sequence and spacing rules that determine the ability of point mutations to impact RSSs. Selective depletion of 'riboSNitches' versus structurally synonymous variants at precise locations suggests selection for specific RNA shapes at thousands of sites, including 3' untranslated regions, binding sites of microRNAs and RNA-binding proteins genome-wide. These results highlight the potentially broad contribution of RNA structure and its variation to gene regulation.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Although mothers influence the traits of their offspring in many ways beyond the transmission of genes, it remains unclear how important such ‘maternal effects’ are to phenotypic differences among ...individuals. Synthesizing estimates derived from detailed pedigrees, we evaluated the amount of phenotypic variation determined by maternal effects in animal populations. Maternal effects account for half as much phenotypic variation within populations as do additive genetic effects. Maternal effects most greatly affect morphology and phenology but, surprisingly, are not stronger in species with prolonged maternal care than in species without. While maternal effects influence juvenile traits more than adult traits on average, they do not decline across ontogeny for behaviour or physiology, and they do not weaken across the life cycle in species without maternal care. These findings underscore maternal effects as an important source of phenotypic variation and emphasise their potential to affect many ecological and evolutionary processes.
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