► Elements and persistent organic pollutants are present in aquatic systems worldwide. ► Loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta is in Red List of threatened species of the IUCN. ► This is a review on the ...internationally available literature in turtles samples. ► Levels of contaminants in organs, tissues and fluids are reported and discussed.
Chemical elements and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are globally present in aquatic systems and their potential transfer to loggerhead marine turtles (Caretta caretta) has become a serious threat for their health status. The environmental fate of these xenobiotics may be traced by the analysis of turtles’ tissues and blood. Generally, loggerhead turtles exhibited a higher metal load than other turtle species, this could be explained by differences in diet habits being food the main source of exposure. Literature shows that muscle, liver and kidney are most considered for the quantification of chemical elements, while, organic compounds are typically investigated in liver and fat.
This paper is an overview of the international studies carried out on the quantification of chemical elements, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorines (OCs) and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), in tissues, organs and fluids of C. caretta from the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.
Several widespread occurrences of anomalous blue coloration of Mozzarella cheese have been recorded in the United States and some European countries. Official laboratory analysis and health ...authorities have linked the occurrences to contamination of the processing water with strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens, although several experts questioned how to unequivocally link the blue color to the presence of the microorganism. To establish a method to determine whether a given Pseudomonas spp. strain is responsible for the defect and study the evolution of the coloration under different storage conditions, we developed an in vitro system for the evaluation of blue coloration of Mozzarella cheese intentionally contaminated with strains of P. fluorescens. The purpose of the system was to determine whether P.fluorescens strains, isolated from Mozzarella cheese with anomalous blue coloration, were able to reproduce the blue coloration under controlled experimental conditions. Thirty-six trials of experimental inoculation of Mozzarella cheese in different preservation liquids were conducted using various suspensions of P.fluorescens (P. fluorescens ATCC 13525, P.fluorescens CFBP 3150, and P. fluorescens 349 field strain isolated from blue-colored Mozzarella cheese) at different concentrations and incubated at different temperatures. Growth curves of all tested P.fluorescens strains demonstrated that after 3 d of incubation the concentration was generally >106 cfu/g of Mozzarella cheese incubated in either tryptic soy broth (control) or conditioning brine. Prolonged incubation for 5 d at either 20°C or 8°C led to concentrations up to 109 cfu/g of Mozzarella cheese incubated in tryptic soy broth and up to 108 cfu/g of Mozzarella cheese incubated in preservation liquid. All Mozzarella cheeses inoculated with the field strain of P. fluorescens, except those opened 1h after packaging and stored at 8°C, showed the characteristic anomalous blue coloration, which appeared from 1 to 72h after opening the packaging, and was proportional to colony count, duration of storage, and storage temperature. With the proposed system, which enabled a larger number of samples to be analyzed under controlled experimental conditions and a large amount of data to be generated in a short time, we described precisely how and under which conditions the presence of P. fluorescens in Mozzarella cheese is responsible for the anomalous blue coloration. The system will help producers intercept contaminated batches and help consumers avoid the conditions under which the defect can appear.
Among the three deleted genes, it has been suggested that ProSAP2/SHANK3 is involved in the severe language impairment that characterises the 22q13 deletion syndrome. 11, 51 Indeed, ProSAP2/SHANK3 is ...preferentially expressed in the cortex and cerebellum 52 and encodes a protein involved in the postsynaptic density of excitatory synapses. ...the fact that behavioural disorders are present in both patients also suggests that the ProSAP2/SHANK3 gene could be involved in the appearance of this feature, which we have shown to be part of the phenotype that increases in severity with age. Conclusions Although the incidence of the deletion is not yet established, the increasing number of 22q13 deletions that have been reported recently indicates that these types of deletion may be occurring more often than previously thought.
•We analyzed 11 elements in one carapace of Caretta caretta.•The distribution of the elements in carapace was studied.•Mapping elements as a strategy for biomonitoring contamination in sea ...turtles.•Some elements resulted representative for central and lateral areas of carapace.
This study analyzed the carapace distribution of Ca, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mg, Mn, Pb, Sb, U, V and Zn by GF-AAS and ICP-AES in one specimen of Caretta caretta from Mediterranean Sea. Calcium, Mg, Mn, Pb, U, Zn were mainly distributed in the central area while Cd, Cr, Cu, Sb, V in lateral areas. Cadmium, Cr, Mg, Mn, Sb, U and V were different between lateral areas.
The different distribution may be related to several exposures during lifetime and/or the shell ossification during growth. Carapace may be a suitable matrix for metal biomonitoring, however, further studies are required to confirm these findings.
This study investigated the molecular epidemiology of a clonal outbreak of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii that occurred between June 2003 and June 2004 in a tertiary-care hospital in ...Naples, Italy. A. baumannii was isolated from 74 patients, of whom 38 were infected and 36 were colonised. Thirty-three patients had ventilator-associated pneumonia, three had hospital-acquired pneumonia, and two had sepsis. Genotypic analysis of 45 available A. baumannii isolates revealed two distinct pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns. Of these, PFGE pattern 1 was represented by isolates from 44 patients and was identical to that of an epidemic A. baumannii clone isolated in another hospital of Naples during 2002. All A. baumannii isolates of PFGE type 1 showed identical multiresistant antibiotypes, characterised by resistance to all antimicrobial agents tested, including carbapenems, with the exception of colistin. In these isolates, inhibition of OXA enzymes by 200 mM NaCl reduced the imipenem MIC by up to four-fold. Molecular analysis of antimicrobial resistance genes showed that all A. baumannii isolates of PFGE type 1 harboured a class 1 integron containing the aacA4, orfX and blaOXA-20 gene cassettes, an ampC gene and a blaOXA-51-like allele. Moreover, a blaOXA-58-like gene surrounded by the regulatory elements ISAba2 and ISAba3 was identified in a 30-kb plasmid from A. baumannii isolates of PFGE type 1, but not PFGE type 2. Thus, selection of a single A. baumannii clone producing an OXA-58-type carbapenem-hydrolysing oxacillinase was responsible for the increase in the number of A. baumannii infections that occurred in this hospital.
To detect novel molecules involved in immune functions, a subtracted cDNA library between closely related murine lymphoid cells was prepared using improved technology. Differential screening of this ...library yielded several clones with a very restricted tissue specificity, including one that we named CTLA-8. CTLA-8 transcripts could be detected only in T cell hybridoma clones related to the one used to prepare the library. Southern blots showed that the CTLA-8 gene was single copy in mice, rats, and humans. By radioactive in situ hybridization, the CTLA-8 gene was mapped at a single site on mouse chromosome 1A and human chromosome 2q31, in a known interspecific syntenic region. The CTLA-8 cDNA sequence indicated the presence, in the 3'-untranslated region of the mRNA, of AU-rich repeats previously found in the mRNA of various cytokines, growth factors, and oncogenes. The CTLA-8 cDNA contained an open reading frame encoding a putative protein of 150 amino acids. This protein was 57% homologous to the putative protein encoded by the ORF13 gene of herpesvirus Saimiri, a T lymphotropic virus. These findings are discussed in the context of other genes of this herpesvirus homologous to known immunologically active molecules. More generally, CTLA-8 may belong to the growing set of virus-captured functionally important cellular genes related to the immune system or to cell death and cell survival.
Crotamine is a natural polypeptide from snake venom which delivers nucleic acid molecules into cells, besides having pronounced affinity for negatively charged membranes and antifungal activity. We ...previously demonstrated that crotamine derived short linear peptides were not very effective as antifungal, although the non-structured recombinant crotamine was overridingly more potent compared to the native structured crotamine. Aiming to identify the features necessary for the antifungal activity of crotamine, two linear short peptides, each comprising half of the total positively charged amino acid residues of the full-length crotamine were evaluated here to show that these linear peptides keep the ability to interact with lipid membrane model systems with different phospholipid compositions, even after forming complexes with DNA. Interestingly, the presence of cysteine residues in the structure of these linear peptides highly influenced the antifungal activity, which was not associated to the lipid membrane lytic activity. In addition to the importance of the positive charges, the crucial role of cysteine residues was noticed for these linear analogs of crotamine, although the tridimensional structure and lipid membrane lytic activity observed only for native crotamine was not essential for the antifungal activity. As these peptides still keep the ability to form complexes with DNA molecules with no prejudice to their ability to bind to lipid membranes, they may be potentially advantageous as membrane translocation vector, as they do not show lipid membrane lytic activity and may harbor or not antifungal activity, by keeping or not the semi-essential amino acid cysteine in their sequence.
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•antimicrobial activity is influenced by cysteines in crotamine-derived peptides, but not the lipid membrane interactions;•short linear peptides with cysteine residues keep the ability to with lipid membrane in the presence or absence of DTT;•cysteine bearing short linear peptides form complexes with nucleic acid molecules in the presence or absence of DTT;•short linear cysteine containing peptides lack lipid membrane lytic activity in the presence or absence of DTT;•short linear peptides complex formation with DNA does not affect the interaction with lipid membranes;
M. Viganò, T. Dengler, M.F. Mattei, A. Poncelet, J. Vanhaecke, E. Vermes, R. Kleinloog, Y. Li, Y. Gezahegen, J.F. Delgado, on behalf of the RAD A2411 Study Investigators. Lower incidence of ...cytomegalovirus infection with everolimus versus mycophenolate mofetil in de novo cardiac transplant recipients: a randomized, multicenter study. Transpl Infect Dis 2010: 12: 23–30. All rights reserved
: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a major cause of infectious complications following cardiac transplantation, severely affecting short‐ and long‐term outcomes. A 12‐month, multicenter, randomized, open‐label study in de novo cardiac transplant patients was undertaken to compare the efficacy, renal function, and safety of everolimus plus reduced cyclosporine versus mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) plus standard cyclosporine (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00150046). CMV‐specific data was prospectively collected on infections, laboratory evidence, CMV syndrome, and CMV disease. In total, 176 patients were randomized (everolimus 92; MMF 84). Use of CMV prophylaxis was similar between groups (everolimus 20.8%; MMF 24.0%). Patients in the everolimus arm had a significantly lower incidence of any CMV event (8.8% versus 32.5% with MMF, P<0.001), CMV infection as an adverse event (4.4% versus 16.9%, P=0.011), laboratory evidence of CMV (antigenemia 7.7% versus 27.7%, P<0.001; polymerase chain reaction assay 2.2% versus 12.0%, P=0.015), and CMV syndrome (1.1% versus 8.4%, P=0.028). In the donor (D)+/recipient (R)+and D−/R+ subgroups, even after adjusting for use of prophylaxis, the CMV event rate remained significantly lower with everolimus than with MMF (P=0.0015 and P=0.0381, respectively). In conclusion, de novo cardiac transplant recipients experienced lower rates of CMV infection, CMV syndrome, or organ involvement on an everolimus‐based immunosuppressant regimen compared with MMF.
Operation and exploitation of present and future Tokamak reactors require advanced scenario modeling in order to optimize engineering parameters in the design phase as well as physics performance ...during the exploitation phase. The simulation of Tokamak scenarios involves simultaneous modeling of different regions of the reactor, characterized by different physics and symmetries, in order to predict quantities such as particle and energy confinement, fusion yield, power deposited on wall, wall load from fast particles. JINTRAC is a system of 25 interfaced Tokamak-physics codes for the integrated simulation of all phases of a Tokamak scenario. JINTRAC predictions reflect the physics and assumptions implemented in each module and extensive comparison with experimental data is needed to allow validation of the models and improvement of Tokamak-physics understanding.
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