Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND), caused by marine bacteria Vibrio Parahaemolyticus, is a huge problem in shrimp farms. The V. parahaemolyticus infecting material is contained in a ...plasmid which encodes for the lethal toxins PirABVp, whose primary target tissue is the hepatopancreas, causing sloughing of epithelial cells, necrosis, and massive hemocyte infiltration. To get a better understanding of the hepatopancreas response during AHPND, juvenile shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei were infected by immersion with V. parahaemolyticus. We performed transcriptomic mRNA sequencing of infected shrimp hepatopancreas, at 24 hours post-infection, to identify novel differentially expressed genes a total of 174,098 transcripts were examined of which 915 transcripts were found differentially expressed after comparative transcriptomic analysis: 442 up-regulated and 473 down-regulated transcripts. Gene Ontology term enrichment analysis for up-regulated transcripts includes metabolic process, regulation of programmed cell death, carbohydrate metabolic process, and biological adhesion, whereas for down-regulated transcripts include, microtubule-based process, cell activation, and chitin metabolic process. The analysis of protein- protein network between up and down-regulated genes indicates that the first gene interactions are connected to oxidation-processes and sarcomere organization. Additionally, protein-protein networks analysis identified 20-top highly connected hub nodes. Based on their immunological or metabolic function, ten candidate transcripts were selected to measure their mRNA relative expression levels in AHPND infected shrimp hepatopancreas by RT-qPCR. Our results indicate a close connection between the immune and metabolism systems during AHPND infection. Our RNA-Seq and RT-qPCR data provide the possible immunological and physiological scenario as well as the molecular pathways that take place in the shrimp hepatopancreas in response to an infectious disease.
Ladybird homeobox (Lbx) transcription factors have crucial functions in muscle and nervous system development in many animals. Amniotes have two Lbx genes, but only Lbx1 is expressed in spinal cord. ...In contrast, teleosts have three lbx genes and we show here that zebrafish lbx1a, lbx1b, and lbx2 are expressed by distinct spinal cell types, and that lbx1a is expressed in dI4, dI5, and dI6 interneurons, as in amniotes. Our data examining lbx expression in Scyliorhinus canicula and Xenopus tropicalis suggest that the spinal interneuron expression of zebrafish lbx1a is ancestral, whereas lbx1b has acquired a new expression pattern in spinal cord progenitor cells. lbx2 spinal expression was probably acquired in the ray‐finned lineage, as this gene is not expressed in the spinal cords of either amniotes or S. canicula. We also show that the spinal function of zebrafish lbx1a is conserved with mouse Lbx1. In zebrafish lbx1a mutants, there is a reduction in the number of inhibitory spinal interneurons and an increase in the number of excitatory spinal interneurons, similar to mouse Lbx1 mutants. Interestingly, the number of inhibitory spinal interneurons is also reduced in lbx1b mutants, although in this case the number of excitatory interneurons is not increased. lbx1a;lbx1b double mutants have a similar spinal interneuron phenotype to lbx1a single mutants. Taken together these data suggest that lbx1b and lbx1a may be required in succession for correct specification of dI4 and dI6 spinal interneurons, although only lbx1a is required for suppression of excitatory fates in these cells.
Research Highlights
lbx1 spinal expression and function is conserved in vertebrates. In contrast, zebrafish lbx1b and lbx2 have novel spinal expression patterns that probably evolved in the ray‐finned vertebrate lineage (lbx2) or teleosts (lbx1b).
Background
Until now, most of the research addressing long-term humoral responses in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had only evaluated the serum titers of anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome ...coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) IgGs, without the assessment of the baseline antiviral clinical and immune profile, which is the aim of this study and may be the key factor leading to a broad and sustained antibody response.
Methods
We included 103 patients with COVID-19. When the patients sought medical attention (baseline), a blood sample was drawn to perform immunophenotype of lymphocytes by flow cytometry. The patients were assessed 15 days after baseline and then every month until the third month, followed by a last visit 6 months after recruitment. We evaluated the anti-SARS-COV-2 IgG at all time points, and the serum levels of cytokines, chemokines, anti-cellular (AC) antibodies and neutrophil extracellular traps were also assessed during the follow-up. The primary outcome of the study was the presence of a sustained immune humoral response, defined as an anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG titer >4.99 arbitrary units/mL in at least two consecutive measures. We used generalized lineal models to assess the features associated with this outcome and to assess the effect of the changes in the cytokines and chemokines throughout time on the development of a sustained humoral immune response.
Results
At baseline the features associated to a sustained immune humoral response were the diagnosis of critical disease, absolute number of lymphocytes, serum IP-10, IL-4, IL-2, regulatory T cells, CD8
+
T cells, and positive AC antibodies. Critical illness and the positivity of AC antibodies were associated with a sustained humoral immune response after 3 months, whilst critical illness and serum IL-13 were the explanatory variables after 6 months.
Conclusion
A sustained immune humoral response is strongly related to critical COVID-19, which is characterized by the presence of AC antibodies, quantitative abnormalities in the T cell compartment, and the serum cytokines and chemokines during acute infection and throughout time.
The degree of liver fibrosis is diagnosed, among other studies, with transition elastography; it is known that liver injury is heterogeneous, so underdiagnosing the degree of fibrosis when performing ...the survey at a single point may be possibly described in a standard way. This study aimed to evaluate the sensitivity of transition elastography at three different points to determine its performance.
Patients with liver disease were included; transition elastography was performed at three different points, point A at the site indicated by the manufacturers; point B, an intercostal space downwards, and point C, an intercostal space upwards; descriptive and inferential statistics were performed.
One hundred nine patients were evaluated, 64 men (59%) and 45 women (41%) average age of 52.6. Paired t-tests were run between the three different combinations (K1 vs. K2, K1 vs. K3, and K2 vs. K3). For all these tests, the value of p>0.05, no statistically significant differences were found between the measurements. Correlation tests were performed between the same combinations, finding a value of p<0.05 for the three, which means that the observations are correlated. ROC curves were constructed. It can be seen that in all 6 cases, the ROC curve is close to the ideal values. Figures 1 and 2.
For the diagnosis of fibrosis, there is no difference between the three points in the same organ, even though the liver injury is heterogeneous.
Los fitoestrógenos (FEs) son compuestos químicos provenientes del metabolismo secundario de algunos vegetales, tienen un efecto potencial sobre los parámetros reproductivos de los animales ...domésticos, al actuar como agonistas o antagonistas de los receptores estrogénicos. El objetivo de esta revisión es conocer los efectos que produce una dieta rica en FEs en la fisiología reproductiva de los animales de abasto. Se realizó una revisión sistemática en dos bases de datos mediante el uso de palabras clave relacionadas con los efectos que produce la ingestión de FEs en la dieta, sobre la reproducción de animales de abasto, únicamente se consideraron los estudios controlados desarrollados in vivo. Se encontraron resultados contradictorios, por un lado, la ingesta de un alto contenido de los compuestos polifenólicos, provenientes de distintos forrajes en la hembra bovina, estuvo relacionado con la disminución de la fertilidad, presencia de abortos y de quistes ováricos; por otro lado, la ingesta de alto contenido de FEs indujo un aumento en la calidad seminal de los machos de las especies: bovinos, ovinos y lepóridos; por lo que, dichos efectos se pueden atribuir a la concentración, al tipo de FEs, sexo, especie e incluso a la raza del animal.
Atheromatous fibrous caps are produced by smooth muscle cells (SMCs) that are recruited to the subendothelial space. We tested whether the recruitment mechanisms are the same as in embryonic artery ...development, which relies prominently on Notch signaling to form the subendothelial medial SMC layers.
Notch elements were expressed in regions of fibrous cap in human and mouse plaques. To assess the causal role of Notch signaling in cap formation, we studied atherosclerosis in mice where the Notch pathway was inactivated in SMCs by conditional knockout of the essential effector transcription factor RBPJ (recombination signal-binding protein for immunoglobulin kappa J region). The recruitment of cap SMCs was significantly reduced without major effects on plaque size. Lineage tracing revealed the accumulation of SMC-derived plaque cells in the cap region was unaltered but that Notch-defective cells failed to re-acquire the SMC phenotype in the cap. Conversely, to analyze whether the loss of Notch signaling is required for SMC-derived cells to accumulate in atherogenesis, we studied atherosclerosis in mice with constitutive activation of Notch signaling in SMCs achieved by conditional expression of the Notch intracellular domain. Forced Notch signaling inhibited the ability of medial SMCs to contribute to plaque cells, including both cap SMCs and osteochondrogenic cells, and significantly reduced atherosclerosis development.
Sequential loss and gain of Notch signaling is needed to build the cap SMC population. The shared mechanisms with embryonic arterial media assembly suggest that the cap forms as a neo-media that restores the connection between endothelium and subendothelial SMCs, transiently disrupted in early atherogenesis.
Synthesis of three photovoltaic polymers
PFBT-HH
,
PFBT-HF
and
PFBT-FF
based on benzothiadiazole derivatives and fluorene ring was carried out by direct arylation reaction. The polymers were designed ...to have a donor–π–acceptor –(D–π–A)
n
– structure, PFBT derivatives were synthetized employing similar reaction conditions to evaluate the effect of fluorine atoms into the acceptor moiety. For synthesis of PFBT-polymers via direct arylation reaction, the presence of fluorine atoms promotes materials with lower molecular weight and with deep HOMO and LUMO energy levels. An expected increment of photochemical stability with the substitution of fluorine atoms on polymers was observed for its pristine films, and the reduction of polymers photodegradation due to presence of PC
61
BM fullerene derivative. Photovoltaic characteristics of PFBT-polymers were evaluated into Polymer Solar Cell with bulk- heterojunction architecture fabricated under the configuration glass/ITO/PEDOT:PSS/polymer:PC
61
BM/PFN/FM. Devices were fabricated at room atmospheric conditions, using an easy-to-manufacture superior electrode (FM = Field’s metal) which was free vacuum deposited by melting it about 90 °C, average power conversion efficiencies of 2.3, 1.1 and 1.2% were reached for high molecular weight fractions of polymers
PFBT-HH
,
PFBT-HF
and
PFBT-FF
, respectively.
Background
Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is one of the main predictors of mortality in Chagas cardiomyopathy (CC). Although the substrate of sustained and nonsustained‐VT (NS‐VT) seems to be the same, ...little is known about the distribution of late enhancement (LE). Our aim was to compare the clinical findings and the amount and patterns of LE in Chagas disease according to the presence and type of VT.
Methods and Results
Magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 54 Chagas seropositive patients: 8 indeterminate and 46 with CC of whom 15 were without VT, 13 with NS‐VT, and 18 with sustained‐VT (S‐VT). There were 31 males (57%), mean age was 55.9 ± 12.2 years. LE was found in 87% of all patients and in 50%, 80%, and 100% of the indeterminate, without VT and VT groups, respectively. The percentage of LE increased progressively in the indeterminate, CC without VT, and CC with VT groups; without a significant difference between NS‐VT and S‐VT (0.93%, 15.2%, 23.2%, and 21.4%, respectively). The amount of LE increased with the functional class. LE in the basal and mid lateral wall was more frequent in VT, without difference between S‐VT and NS‐VT. The only predictor of VT was the percentage of LE, odds ratio (OR), 6.2; (95% confidence interval CI, 3.7‐28.4; P = .01) with a cutoff of Odds Ratio 17.1%.
Conclusions
The amount of LE increases in relation to the clinical stage of the disease and its functional class in Chagas seropositive patients. The amount of LE was the main predictor of VT, without difference between S‐VT and NS‐VT.
Currently, there is scant information regarding the features associated to the persistence of post-COVID-19 syndrome, which is the main aim of the present study.
A cohort study of 102 COVID-19 ...patients was conducted. The post-COVID-19 symptoms were assessed by a standardised questionnaire. Lymphocyte immunophenotyping was performed by flow cytometry and chemokines/cytokines, neutrophil extracellular traps, the tripartite motif 63, anti-cellular, and anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies were addressed in serum. The primary outcome was the persistence of post-COVID-19 syndrome after six months follow-up.
Thirteen patients (12.7%) developed the primary outcome and had a more frequent history of post-COVID-19 syndrome 3 months after infection onset (p = .044), increased levels of IL-1α (p = .011) and IP-10 (p = .037) and increased CD57 expression in CD8
+
T cells (p = .003). There was a trend towards higher levels of IFN-γ (p = .051), IL-1β (p = .062) and IL-6 (p = .087). The history of post COVID-19 in the previous 3 months, obesity, baseline serum MIP-1α and IP-10, and CD57 expression in CD8
+
T cells were independently associated with the persistence of post-COVID-19 syndrome.
Our data suggest an important relationship between a pro-inflammatory state mediated through metabolic pathways related to obesity and increased cellular senescence as a key element in the persistence of post-COVID-19 syndrome at six months of follow-up.
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