Background/aims Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a cytokine participating in inflammation with potent endothelial cell effects. It is produced by macrophages, neutrophils and vascular ...endothelial cells and can alter vessel permeability. Behçet's syndrome is a systemic inflammatory disorder with unknown etiology. Vascular endothelial dysfunction is one of the prominent features of the disease. We previously demonstrated the possible involvement of proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α, soluble interleukin‐2 receptor (sIL‐2R), interleukin (IL)‐6 and IL‐8, nitric oxide (NO) and adrenomedullin in the etiopathogenesis of Behçet's syndrome. Since VEGF expression is induced by these cytokines and VEGF itself is a potent stimulator of NO production with endothelial cell effects, this study aimed to investigate whether VEGF was affected during the course of Behçet's syndrome. We also assessed the possible involvement of VEGF in ocular Behçet's syndrome or in disease activity.
Methods This multicenter case–control study included a total of 39 patients with active (n = 22) or inactive (n = 17) Behçet's syndrome (mean age, 38.1 ± 10.4 years; 21 men and 18 women) satisfying International Study Group criteria, and 15 healthy hospital‐based control volunteers (mean age, 39.2 ± 9.3 years; eight men and seven women) matched for age and gender from a similar ethnic background. Patients were examined by a dermatologist and an ophthalmologist with an interest in Behçet's syndrome. Plasma VEGF concentrations were measured using a newly established enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Clinical findings and acute‐phase reactant parameters such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate, α1‐antitrypsin, α2‐macroglobulin, and neutrophil count were used to classify the disease in Behçet's patients as active or inactive. The Wilcoxon test or the Mann–Whitney U‐test was used for statistical analysis as indicated and the results were expressed as mean ± SD, with range.
Results The mean plasma VEGF level in patients with Behçet's syndrome (291.9 ± 97.1 pg/mL; range 121–532 pg/mL) was higher than that in control subjects (103.0 ± 43.6 pg/mL; range 25–187 pg/mL) and the difference was significant (P < 0.001). Patients with active disease had significantly (P < 0.001) higher VEGF levels than patients with inactive disease (347.6 ± 87.1 vs. 219.9 ± 51.6 pg/mL). In addition, ocular Behçet's patients (n = 23) had higher VEGF levels (315.7 ± 92.1 pg/mL) than nonocular patients (n = 16, 257.8 ± 96.6 pg/mL) and the difference was of borderline significance (P = 0.041). The levels of all acute‐phase reactant parameters were significantly higher in the active stage than in the inactive stage (for each, P < 0.01) or in control subjects (for each, P < 0.001).
Conclusions VEGF may participate in the course of Behçet's syndrome, especially in the active stage, and elevated levels of VEGF may be an additional risk factor for the development of ocular disease, contributing to poor visual outcome.
Pyridinium (the protonated form of pyridine) and related compounds have been proposed to be promising homogenous electrocatalysts in the electrochemical reduction of CO2 to methanol due to the low ...overpotential required to achieve faradaic yields of about 20 %, although the percentage yields vary dramatically between different research groups. In this study, experimental conditions were varied during the electrolysis of CO2 at a platinum electrode in the presence of pyridinium to determine the reasons for the discrepancies in the yields of methanol reported between different research groups. Two other vitamin‐based and environmentally friendly nitrogen‐containing heterocyclic compounds (nicotinamide and nicotinic acid) which have structural similarities to the promising but toxic pyridine homogeneous electrocatalyst, were also investigated as alternative electrocatalysts for the reduction of CO2 in aqueous acidic media. Cyclic voltammetry studies suggest that nicotinamide and nicotinic acid (forms of vitamin B3) follow a similar reaction mechanism as pyridine in the reduction of CO2. Relatively low faradaic yields of methanol were obtained during controlled potential electrolysis experiments for all the electrocatalysts (0.4–1.9 %) which can be attributed to the low solubility of CO2 along with the competing hydrogen evolution reaction. It was found that adventitious sources of methanol were responsible for greatly inflating the apparent yields of methanol unless scrupulous care was taken in controlling the experimental conditions. The problem with background methanol is particularly difficult to control due to the electrochemical reactions typically generating products in the parts per million range, considerably lower than normal synthetic reactions.
The quantification of methanol produced on platinum during the electrochemical reduction of CO2 in the presence of pyridinium catalysts is influenced by the CO2 purging rate. The use of resins for removing electrolyte ions post‐electrolysis can introduce positive or negative biases into the calculated faradaic yields.
Background/aims: Behçet's disease (BD) is a systemic inflammatory vasculitis of young adults with unknown aetiology, characterised by endothelial dysfunction and occlusion in both deep venous and ...retinal circulation. Ocular involvement occurs in 70% of cases and is characterised by periphlebitis, periarteritis, vascular occlusion, and thrombosis leading to blindness despite vigorous treatment. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is a vasoconstricting peptide while nitric oxide (NO) is a relaxing molecule and both are released by endothelium for blood flow regulation. Homocysteinaemia is a newly defined term connected to the increased risk of atherothrombotic and atherosclerotic systemic and retinal vascular occlusive diseases, and its role in the course of BD has not been previously described. The authors aimed to detect serum total homocysteine (tHcy), ET-1, and NO in BD and to assess if tHcy, ET-1, and NO are associated with ocular BD or disease activity. Methods: 43 consecutive patients with ocular (n = 27) or non-ocular (n = 16) BD (36.95 (SD 9.80) years, 22 male, 21 female) satisfying international criteria, and 25 age and sex matched healthy control subjects (37.88 (8.73) years, 13 male, 12 female) without a history of systemic or retinal venous thrombosis were included in this study. Patients were examined by two ophthalmologists with an interest in BD. Serum tHcy, ET-1, and NO concentrations were measured in both groups. Hyperhomocysteinaemia was defined as a tHcy level above the 95th percentile in the control group. Patients were divided into active and inactive period by acute phase reactants including α1 antitrypsin, α2 macroglobulin, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and neutrophil count. Results: The overall mean serum tHcy, ET-1, and NO levels were significantly higher in patients with BD than in control subjects (tHcy = 15.83 (4.44) v 7.96 (2.66) ng/ml, p <0.001; ET-1 = 17.47 (4.33) v 5.74 (2.34) μmol/ml, p <0.001; NO = 37.60 (10.31) v 27.08 (7.76) μmol/l, p <0.001). Serum tHcy, ET-1, and NO levels were significantly higher in active patients than in inactive patients and control subjects. In addition, among patients with ocular BD, the mean tHcy levels were significantly increased and correlated with ET-1 and NO levels when compared with non-ocular disease and control subjects. All acute phase reactant levels were significantly higher in active period than in inactive stage and controls. Conclusions: Elevated tHcy may be responsible for the endothelial damage in BD and may be an additional risk factor for the development of retinal vascular occlusive disease, contributing to the poor visual outcome in these patients. Assessment of tHcy may be important in the investigation and management of patients with BD, especially with ocular disease.
Application level multicasting is increasingly being used to overcome the problem of non-ubiquitous deployment of IP multicast across heterogeneous networks. To the best of our knowledge, this paper ...is among the first papers A comparative study of application layer multicast protocols, Unpublished report; IEEE Network, January/February, 2003 to provide a comprehensive survey of most of the various milestone research work in application level multicast in terms of both breadth and depth. The paper classifies them into different broad categories based on their topology design, service model and architecture to facilitate better understanding of their contributions and discuss their merits and limitations. As these techniques vary widely in their goals, designs, performance evaluation metrics and evaluation strategies, it is impossible to quantify their relative performance. However, this paper is able to provide a comparative insight into their performance through the use of a set of evaluation metrics identified to be common to the techniques and are directly related to their performance and whose data can be derived and inferred from their designs. The metrics used here include scaleability measured intuitively in terms of the size of the multicast receivers it can support, the protocol efficiency in terms of the quality of data paths, control overheads, amount of state information to be maintained at each member node and failure tolerance.
Summary Background Behçet's syndrome is a systemic, relapsing immuno‐inflammatory disease with a generalized vasculitis of the microvasculature endothelial dysfunction. Leptin, a recently discovered ...neuroendocrine hormone, is a metabolic peptide that appears to be involved. Serum proinflammatory cytokines upregulate leptin levels and leptin itself directly induces nitric oxide production from endothelial cells with its specific receptors.
Objectives To detect changes of serum leptin concentrations in patients with Behçet's syndrome compared with age‐ and sex‐matched healthy volunteers by using enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. We also investigated whether disease activity or the duration of Behçet's syndrome correlates with leptin concentration.
Methods Thirty‐five consecutive patients with Behçet's syndrome (41·2 ± 8·4 years, 16 male, 19 female) and 20 age‐ and sex‐matched healthy control subjects (40·4 ± 10·91 years, nine male, 11 female) were included in this study. The body mass index (BMI) weight (kg) height−1 (m2) was calculated for subjects at study enrolment. We measured serum leptin with a leptin enzyme immunoassay kit, and acute‐phase reactants, including erythrocyte sedimentation rate, α1‐antitrypsin, α2‐macroglobulin and neutrophil count. The Mann–Whitney U‐test was used for statistical analysis and P < 0·05 was considered significant. Values were expressed as mean ± SD.
Results The gender ratio, age and BMI were not substantially different among Behçet's patients and controls. The mean serum leptin concentrations in patients with Behçet's syndrome (16·8 ± 7·49 ng mL−1) were significantly (P < 0·001) higher than in healthy control volunteers (7·5 ± 2·77 ng mL−1). Active Behçet's patients had significantly (P = 0·001) higher leptin concentrations (20·5 ± 7·99 ng mL−1) when compared with patients in inactive periods (12·8 ± 4·43 ng mL−1). In addition, patients with longer disease duration (mean, 20·1 ± 5·15 years) had also significantly (P = 0·013) higher leptin concentrations (20·2 ± 8·52 ng mL−1) than those with shorter disease duration (13·4 ± 4·52 ng mL−1) (mean, 7·4 ± 3·29 years). All acute‐phase reaction parameters were found to be significantly (for each, P < 0·01) increased in active disease.
Conclusions Leptinmay have a role in modulating endothelial function and may be involved in mechanisms for vessel endothelium repair, during an exacerbation as well as in chronic disease.
In Singapore, 10 captive lions tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by real-time PCR. Genomic analyses of nanopore sequencing confirmed human-to-animal transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant. Viral ...genomes from the lions and zookeeper shared a unique spike protein substitution, S:A1016V. Widespread SARS-CoV-2 transmission among humans can increase the likelihood of anthroponosis.
Cross-sectional controlled study.
To evaluate the elbow joint with ultrasound in paraplegic patients, determine the related factors and compare it with healthy controls.
A training and research ...rehabilitation hospital in Istanbul.
A total of 30 paraplegic patients and 20 healthy controls were included in the study. Patients demographic data, pain in the elbow joint, level and duration of injury, ambulation status, type of wheelchair used, daily duration of wheelchair and other ambulation equipment usage, transfers being dependent or independent, daily number of push-ups were recorded. Elbow joints were evaluated with ultrasound for presence of fluid and thickness of the triceps tendon.
Mean triceps tendon thickness values of the right side were larger in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients when compared with those of healthy controls'. Joint effusion on the right elbow joint was also found to be more common in SCI patients than in normal subjects. Triceps tendon thickness measurements were not found to be correlated with demographic and clinical factors. Seven paraplegic patients (23%) reported that they have pain in the elbow.
In this preliminary study, our results showed that right elbow effusion was more frequent and right triceps tendon was thicker in SCI patients when compared with healthy subjects.
Trade in pangolins is illegal, and yet tons of their scales and products are seized at various ports. These large seizures are challenging to process and comprehensively genotype for upstream ...provenance tracing and species identification for prosecution. We implemented a scalable DNA barcoding pipeline in which rapid DNA extraction and MinION sequencing were used to genotype a substantial proportion of pangolin scales subsampled from 2 record shipments seized in Singapore in 2019 (37.5 t). We used reference sequences to match the scales to phylogeographical regions of origin. In total, we identified 2346 cytochrome b (cytb) barcodes of white‐bellied (Phataginus tricuspis) (from 1091 scales), black‐bellied (Phataginus tetradactyla) (227 scales), and giant (Smutsia gigantea) (1028 scales) pangolins. Haplotype diversity was higher for P. tricuspis scales (121 haplotypes, 66 novel) than that for P. tetradactyla (22 haplotypes, 15 novel) and S. gigantea (25 haplotypes, 21 novel) scales. Of the novel haplotypes, 74.2% were likely from western and west‐central Africa, suggesting potential resurgence of poaching and newly exploited populations in these regions. Our results illustrate the utility of extensively subsampling large seizures and outline an efficient molecular approach for rapid genetic screening that should be accessible to most forensic laboratories and enforcement agencies.
Revelación de la magnitud de la caza furtiva del pangolín africano mediante el genotipo extenso de nanoporos de ADN de escamas incautadas
Resumen
Aunque el mercado de pangolines es ilegal, se incautan toneladas de sus escamas y productos derivados en varios puertos comerciales. Es un reto procesar estas magnas incautaciones y obtener el genotipo completo para usarlo en la trazabilidad logística ascendente e identificación de la especie y así imponer sanciones. Implementamos una canalización escalable del código de barras de ADN en el cual usamos la extracción rápida de ADN y la secuenciación MinION para obtener el genotipo de una proporción sustancial de las escamas de pangolín submuestreadas en dos cargamentos incautados en 2019 en Singapur (37.5 t). Usamos secuencias referenciales para emparejar las escamas con las regiones filogeográficas de origen. Identificamos en total 2,346 códigos de citocromo b (cytb) del pangolín de vientre blanco (Phataginus tricuspis) (de 1,091 escamas), de vientre negro (P. tetradactyla) (227 escamas) y del pangolín gigante (Smutsia gigantea) (1,028 escamas). La diversidad de haplotipos fue mayor en las escamas de P. tricuspis (121 haplotipos, 66 nuevos) que en las de P. tetradactyla (22 haplotipos, 15 nuevos) y S. gigantea (25 haplotipos, 21 nuevos). De los haplotipos nuevos, el 74.2% probablemente provenía del occidente y centro‐occidente de África, lo que sugiere un resurgimiento potencial de la caza furtiva y poblaciones recién explotadas en estas regiones. Nuestros resultados demuestran la utilidad de submuestrear extensivamente las grandes incautaciones y esboza una estrategia molecular eficiente para un análisis genético rápido que debería ser accesible para la mayoría de los laboratorios forenses y las autoridades de aplicación.
We detected African swine fever virus (ASFV) from a wild boar in Singapore. In <72 hours, we confirmed and reported ASFV p72 genotype II, CD2v serogroup 8, and IGR-II variant by using a combination ...of real-time PCR and whole-genome sequencing. Continued biosurveillance will be needed to monitor ASFV in Singapore.
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