The quantification of adenosine deaminase (ADA) in porcine saliva samples has been analyzed for its use as a marker of disease. First, an analytical validation of the enzymatic assay used for ADA ...measurements was performed. Afterwards, saliva samples were collected from 50 healthy animals and 64 animals with different symptoms of disease, which were divided into local inflammation, gastrointestinal disorder, respiratory disorder and growth retardation. To optimize ADA measurements, total ADA (tADA), specific ADA (sADA) and ADA isoforms 1 and 2 activities were calculated. Moreover, to preliminarily estimate the diagnostic value of tADA activity measurements for disease detection, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses was performed and compared to the results obtained for salivary acute phase proteins, haptoglobin (Hp) and C-reactive protein (CRP). The salivary levels of tADA activity were significantly elevated in animals with local inflammation, gastrointestinal disorder and respiratory disorder. The calculation of the different ADA activities did not provide additional information to tADA activity quantification for disease detection. The diagnostic value of tADA activity was superior to those observed for Hp and CRP measurements in the present study. It might be concluded that ADA analysis in saliva could be used as a simple, rapid, economic and non-invasive diagnostic tool in porcine production in field conditions.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder, with an onset in childhood, that accompanies the person throughout their life, with prevalence between 3 and 5% in adults. ...Recent studies point towards a fourth core symptom of the disorder related to the emotional information processing that would explain the repercussions that ADHD has on the social, academic, and professional life of the people affected. This review aims to describe emotion dysregulation features as well as the brain activity associated in adults with ADHD. A search of the scientific literature was launched in specialized databases: PsycInfo, Medline, Eric, PsycArticle, Psicodoc and Scopus, following PRISMA guidelines. Twenty-two articles met the inclusion criteria: (a) an ADHD clinical diagnosis, (b) participants over 18 years old, (c) emotion regulation measurement, (d) empirical studies, and (c) in English. Due to the heterogeneity of the studies included, they were classified into three sections: measures and features of emotion regulation (ER) in people with ADHD, neurological and psychophysiological activity related to ER, and treatments. The studies found that meet the selection criteria are scarce and very heterogeneous both in aims and in sample features. Adults with ADHD show a more frequent use of non-adaptive emotion regulation strategies compared to people without ADHD symptoms. Moreover, emotion dysregulation was associated with symptom severity, executive functioning, psychiatric comorbidities, and even with criminal conviction. Different patterns of brain activity were observed when people with and without ADHD were compared. These results may suggest that psychopharmacological treatments as well as behavioral therapies could be useful tools for improving emotional difficulties in adult ADHD.
Metabolic switches in various immune cell subsets enforce phenotype and function. In the present study, we demonstrate that the active form of vitamin D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3), ...induces human monocyte-derived tolerogenic dendritic cells (DC) by metabolic reprogramming. Microarray analysis demonstrated that 1,25(OH)2D3 upregulated several genes directly related to glucose metabolism, tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA), and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Although OXPHOS was promoted by 1,25(OH)2D3, hypoxia did not change the tolerogenic function of 1,25(OH)2D3-treated DCs. Instead, glucose availability and glycolysis, controlled by the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, dictate the induction and maintenance of the 1,25(OH)2D3-conditioned tolerogenic DC phenotype and function. This metabolic reprogramming is unique for 1,25(OH)2D3, because the tolerogenic DC phenotype induced by other immune modulators did not depend on similar metabolic changes. We put forward that these metabolic insights in tolerogenic DC biology can be used to advance DC-based immunotherapies, influencing DC longevity and their resistance to environmental metabolic stress.
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•1,25(OH)2D3 triggers transcriptionally mediated metabolic reprogramming in human DCs•1,25(OH)2D3 induces oxidative and glycolytic metabolic pathways in human DCs•Glucose, glycolysis, and PI3K/Akt/mTOR are essential for the 1,25D3-DC function•Other tolerance-inducing agents are not dependent on PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling
Ferreira et al. show that the active form of vitamin D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, promotes tolerogenic human monocyte-derived dendritic cells via the activation of glucose metabolism in these cells. Specifically, glucose availability and glycolysis, controlled by the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, dictate the induction and maintenance of the tolerogenic DC phenotype and function.
NiMo/Al2O3 catalysts were obtained by one-pot simultaneous impregnation of Mo, Ni and P (at 12, 3 and 1.6 wt%, respectively) over alumina. Citric acid (CA) was added (Ni/CA=1 mol ratio) to determine ...its influence over molybdenum species, as nickel precursor used was complexated Ni acetate. Three different preparation methodologies were used: (a) modification of calcined (400 °C) NiMo/Al2O3 by CA impregnation, (b) CA deposition directly onto Al2O3 carrier, prior to Ni-Mo-P impregnation, (c) simultaneous Ni-Mo-P-CA deposition on alumina support. Materials were characterized by N2 physisorption, infrared and UV-vis spectroscopies, temperature-programmed reduction and thermal analysis (TG-DTG), and tested in liquid-phase benzothiophene (BT) conversion in batch reactor. CA deposition over calcined NiMo/Al2O3 resulted in diminished proportion of refractory Mo6+(t) tetrahedral species but also in octahedral Mo6+(o) reducible at higher temperature, as to those over non-modified NiMo/alumina. That was reflected in lower hydrodesulfurizating (HDS) ability. The highest BT HDS activity (70% increase, as to the conventional calcined formulation with no organic additive) was found when CA was impregnated over bare alumina prior to Ni-Mo-P deposition. In that case, decreased interaction between deposited molybdenum and nickel species and the support was evidenced, that due to surface “passivation” from citric adsorption/decomposition on alumina surface. On the other hand, simultaneous Ni-Mo-P-CA deposition, where low pH of impregnating solution (pH~1.4) devoided citric acid ionization, (then, no Mo-citrate complex formation) was ineffective in providing catalyst of enhanced HDS activity.
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•The effect of citric acid addition to NiMo/Al2O3 on benzothiophene HDS was determined.•Citric acid deposition onto already-calcined NiMo/Al2O3 ineffective in enhancing HDS.•One-pot Ni-Mo-P-citric acid deposition is detrimental in benzothiophene conversion.•Citric acid deposition on Al2O3 prior to Ni-Mo-P provided enhanced HDS properties.
•Se metallomics during lactic fermentation for preparing yogurt was evaluated.•AF4 technique was used for pre-fractionation before separation by SDS–PAGE.•Chaperones, heat-shock proteins, were ...affected by the presence of selenium.•Selenocysteine is the primary seleno-containing species found in Se-rich yogurt.
Selenium biotransformation by lactic acid bacteria during the preparation of Se-enriched yogurt was evaluated. The study focused on the distribution of selenium in the aqueous soluble protein fraction and the detection of selenoamino acids. Screening of selenium in Tris-buffer–urea soluble fraction was carried out by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis after pre-fractionating with asymmetric field flow fractionation using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry as the detector. Selenium-containing fractions were identified by peptide mapping using nano LC-ESI/LTQMS. Proteins such as thioredoxin, glutaredoxin, albumin, β-lactoglobulin, and lactoperoxidase were identified in the selenium-containing fraction. All these proteins were detected in both the control and the selenium-enriched yogurt except chaperones, which were only detected in the control samples. Chaperones are heat-shock proteins expressed in response to elevated temperature or other cellular stresses. Selenium may have an effect on chaperones expression in Lactobacillus. For the amino acids analysis, selenocysteine was the primary seleno-containing species.
Chiral induction from macroscopic objects possessing topological chirality to small molecules is demonstrated using nonchiral organic chromophores based on pyrene and perylene derivatives covalently ...grafted onto nanometric silica helices. The grafted chromophores are found to display induced chiroptical signals despite the absence of asymmetric atoms. The observed chiral induction is attributed to supramolecular chiral organization of the chromophores on the helical silica surface as evidenced by the variation of the induced circular dichroism signal with increasing surface density of the achiral chromophore. The magnitude of the induced chiroptical signals increases exponentially with the grafting density of the chromophores, suggesting that chiral induction occurs cooperatively.
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that has been proposed to be a useful alternative in cases of a poor response to other treatments in patients with depression. Remarkably, beneficial clinical ...actions of ketamine are detected once its psychotropic actions disappear. Therefore, clinical actions may occur independently of dose. Most current studies focus on actions of ketamine on neurotrophic factors, but few studies have investigated actions of ketamine on neural structures for which actions of antidepressants have been previously explored. Lateral septal nucleus (LSN) stimulation reduces neural activity in the prelimbic cortex (PL) and infralimbic cortex (IL) subregions of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Fluoxetine increases inhibitory responsivity of the LSN-IL connection. In the present study, actions of an anesthetic dose of ketamine were compared with a high dose of fluoxetine on behavior and neural responsivity 24 h after drug administration. Fluoxetine reduced immobility in the forced swim test without changing locomotor activity in the open field test. Ketamine strongly decreased locomotor activity and did not produce changes in immobility. In another set of Wistar rats that received similar drug treatment regimens, the results indicated that LSN stimulation in saline-treated animals produced a long-lasting inhibitory afterdischarge in these mPFC subregions. Actions of ketamine on the LSN-mPFC connection reproduced actions of fluoxetine, consisting of accentuated inhibition of the LSN action on the mPFC. These findings suggest that independent of different actions on neurotransmission, the common final pathway of antidepressants lies in their actions on forebrain structures that are related to emotional regulation.
Photoexcitation of a zinc phthalocyanine−perylenediimide (ZnPc−PDI) dyad and a bis(zinc phthalocyanine)−perylenediimide (ZnPc)2−PDI triad results in formation of the triplet excited state of the PDI ...moiety without the fluorescence emission, whereas addition of Mg2+ ions to the dyad and triad results in formation of long-lived charge-separated (CS) states (ZnPc•+−PDI•−/Mg2+ and (ZnPc)2 •+−PDI•−/Mg2+) in which PDI•− forms a complex with Mg2+. Formation of the CS states in the presence of Mg2+ was confirmed by appearance of the absorption bands due to ZnPc•+ and PDI•−/Mg2+ complex in the time-resolved transient absorption spectra of the dyad and triad. The one-electron reduction potential (E red) of the PDI moiety in the presence of a metal ion is shifted to a positive direction due to the binding of Mg2+ to PDI•−, whereas the one-electron oxidation potential of the ZnPc moiety remains the same. The binding of Mg2+ to PDI•− was confirmed by the ESR spectrum, which is different from that of PDI•− without Mg2+. The energy of the CS state (ZnPc•+−PDI•−/Mg2+) is determined to be 0.79 eV, which becomes lower that of the triplet excited state (ZnPc−3PDI*: 1.07 eV). This is the reason why the long-lived CS states were attained in the presence of Mg2+ instead of the triplet excited state of the PDI moiety.
Accurately simulating heterogeneously catalyzed reactions requires reliable barriers for molecules reacting at defects on metal surfaces, such as steps. However, first-principles methods capable of ...computing these barriers to chemical accuracy have yet to be demonstrated. We show that state-resolved molecular beam experiments combined with ab initio molecular dynamics using specific reaction parameter density functional theory (SRP-DFT) can determine the molecule-metal surface interaction with the required reliability. Crucially, SRP-DFT exhibits transferability: the functional devised for methane reacting on a flat (111) face of Pt (and Ni) also describes its reaction on stepped Pt(211) with chemical accuracy. Our approach can help bridge the materials gap between fundamental surface science studies on regular surfaces and heterogeneous catalysis in which defected surfaces are important.
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