The consumption of Western diets, high in sugar and saturated fat, is a crucial contributor to the alarming incidence of obesity and its associated morbidities. These diets have been reported to ...induce an inflammatory response in the hypothalamus, which promotes the development of central leptin resistance and obesity. This inflammatory signalling involves dynamic changes in the expression and activity of several mediators of the innate immune system, including toll‐like receptor 4, IκB kinase‐β/nuclear factor‐κB, c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase, suppressor of cytokine signalling 3 and pro‐inflammatory cytokines, as well as the induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress and autophagy defect. Although the exact cellular mechanisms remain incompletely understood, recent evidence suggests that the inflammatory response is at least mediated by interactions between neurons and non‐neuronal cells such as microglia and astrocytes. Current evidence of the contribution of each inflammatory mediator to leptin resistance and diet‐induced obesity (DIO), including their reciprocal interactions and cell‐type‐specific effects, is reviewed and integrated in a conceptual model. Based upon this model and pharmacological intervention studies, several inflammatory mediators are proposed to be promising therapeutic targets for the treatment of DIO.
Perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) are known to be defect-tolerant, possessing a clean band gap with optically inactive benign defect states. However, we show that there exist significant deep trap ...states beyond the conduction band minimum, although the extent of shallow trap states is observed to be minimal. The extent of deep trap states beyond the conduction band minimum seems to be significant in PQDs; however, the extent is less than that of even optically robust CdSe- and InP-based core/alloy-shell QDs. In-depth analyses based on ultrafast transient absorption and ultrasensitive single-particle spectroscopic investigations decode the underlying degree of charge carrier recombination in CsPbBr3 PQDs, which is quite important for energy applications.
Exposure to ambient air pollution may be associated with impaired mental health, including depression. However, evidence originates mainly from animal studies and epidemiological studies in specific ...subgroups. We investigated the association between air pollution and depressed mood in four European general population cohorts.
Data were obtained from LifeLines (the Netherlands), KORA (Germany), HUNT (Norway), and FINRISK (Finland). Residential exposure to particles (PM2.5, PM2.5absorbance, PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was estimated using land use regression (LUR) models developed for the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE) and using European wide LUR models. Depressed mood was assessed with interviews and questionnaires. Logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the cohort specific associations between air pollution and depressed mood.
A total of 70,928 participants were included in our analyses. Depressed mood ranged from 1.6% (KORA) to 11.3% (FINRISK). Cohort specific associations of the air pollutants and depressed mood showed heterogeneous results. For example, positive associations were found for NO2 in LifeLines (odds ratio OR=1.34; 95% CI: 1.17, 1.53 per 10μg/m3 increase in NO2), whereas negative associations were found in HUNT (OR=0.79; 95% CI: 0.66, 0.94 per 10μg/m3 increase in NO2).
Our analyses of four European general population cohorts found no consistent evidence for an association between ambient air pollution and depressed mood.
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 is considered a global emergency, resulting in an exacerbated crisis in the health public in the world. Although there are advances in vaccine development, it is still limited for ...many countries. On the other hand, an immunological response that mediates protective immunity or indicates that predict disease outcome in SARS-CoV-2 infection remains undefined. This work aimed to assess the antibody levels, avidity, and subclasses of IgG to RBD protein, in symptomatic patients with severe and mild forms of COVID-19 in Brazil using an adapted in-house RBD-IgG ELISA. The RBD IgG-ELISA showed 100% of specificity and 94.3% of sensibility on detecting antibodies in the sera of hospitalized patients. Patients who presented severe COVID-19 had higher anti-RBD IgG levels compared to patients with mild disease. Additionally, most patients analyzed displayed low antibody avidity, with 64.4% of the samples of patients who recovered from the disease and 84.6% of those who died in this avidity range. Our data also reveals an increase of IgG1 and IgG3 levels since the 8th day after symptoms onset, while IgG4 levels maintained less detectable during the study period. Surprisingly, patients who died during 8–14 and 15–21 days also showed higher anti-RBD IgG4 levels in comparison with the recovered (P < 0.05), suggesting that some life-threatening patients can elicit IgG4 to RBD antibody response in the first weeks of symptoms onset. Our findings constitute the effort to clarify IgG antibodies' kinetics, avidity, and subclasses against SARS-CoV-2 RBD in symptomatic patients with COVID-19 in Brazil, highlighting the importance of IgG antibody avidity in association with IgG4 detection as tool laboratory in the follow-up of hospitalized patients with more significant potential for life-threatening.
•The reduction progress of graphene oxide (GO) by ascorbic acid was studied.•Depending on the reduction time, the properties of the reduced product can be tuned.•High purity grade natural graphite ...from Sri Lanka was used as the raw material.•GO and reduced GO (RGO) was synthesized in a much cheaper and scalable way.
Graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) are in greater demand in many research fields. As a result, the synthesis of these materials on a large scale in a costeffective manner is more concerned for numerous applications. In the present work, GO was synthesized by oxidizing natural graphite and reduced by ascorbic acid (AA), which is a green reductant. The reduced products obtained at different time periods were in detail characterized by UV–Visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FT-IR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results showed that the oxidation of graphite has given highly oxidized GO with a 9.30 Å interlayer space and about 33% of oxygen atomic percentage. Until 50 min of the reduction, both GO and RGO coexist. The reduction rate is fast within the first 30 min. In addition, the suitability of natural graphite over synthetic graphite for the synthesis of GO is shown. The findings of this work pave the way to select GO and RGO for applications of interest in a cheap, green and efficient manner.
Stem cell therapy for neurological disorders Pepper, M.S.; De Bruin, K.; Preynat-Seauve, O. ...
South African medical journal,
08/2019, Letnik:
109, Številka:
8 Supplement 1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Neurological disease encompasses a diverse group of disorders of the central and peripheral nervous systems, which collectively are the leading cause of disease burden globally. The scope of ...treatment options for neurological disease is limited, and drug approval rates for improved treatments remain poor when compared with other therapeutic areas. Stem cell therapy provides hope for many patients, but should be tempered with the realisation that the scientific and medical communities are still to fully unravel the complexities of stem cell biology, and to provide satisfactory data that support the rational, evidence-based application of these cells from a therapeutic perspective. We provide an overview of the application of stem cells in neurological disease, starting with basic principles, and extending these to describe the clinical trial landscape and progress made over the last decade. Many forms of stem cell therapy exist, including the use of neural, haematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells. Cell therapies derived from differentiated embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells are also starting to feature prominently. Over 200 clinical studies applying various stem cell approaches to treat neurological disease have been registered to date (Clinicaltrials.gov), the majority of which are for multiple sclerosis, stroke and spinal cord injuries. In total, we identified 17 neurological indications in clinical stage development. Few studies have progressed into large, pivotal investigations with randomised clinical trial designs. Results from such studies will be essential for approval and application as mainstream treatments in the future.
Pulmonary thrombosis is a significant cause of patient mortality; however, there are no effective in vitro models of thrombi formation in human lung microvessels that could also assess therapeutics ...and toxicology of antithrombotic drugs. Here, we show that a microfluidic lung alveolus‐on‐a‐chip lined by human primary alveolar epithelium interfaced with endothelium and cultured under flowing whole blood can be used to perform quantitative analysis of organ‐level contributions to inflammation‐induced thrombosis. This microfluidic chip recapitulates in vivo responses, including platelet‐endothelial dynamics and revealed that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) endotoxin indirectly stimulates intravascular thrombosis by activating the alveolar epithelium, rather than acting directly on endothelium. This model is also used to analyze inhibition of endothelial activation and thrombosis due to a protease activated receptor‐1 (PAR‐1) antagonist, demonstrating its ability to dissect complex responses and identify antithrombotic therapeutics. Thus, this methodology offers a new approach to study human pathophysiology of pulmonary thrombosis and advance drug development.
Anthocyanins are amazing plant-derived colorants with highly valuable properties; however, their chemical and color instability issues limit their wide application in different food industry-related ...products such as active and intelligent packaging. In a previous study, it was demonstrated that anthocyanins could be stabilized into green plasticizers namely deep eutectic solvents (DESs). In this work, the fabrication of edible films by integrating anthocyanins along with DESs into biocompatible chitosan (CHT)-based formulations enriched with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and PVA nanoparticles was investigated. CHT/PVA-DES films’ physical properties were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, water vapor permeability, swelling index, moisture sorption isotherm, and thermogravimetry analysis. Innovative red-to-blue formulation films were achieved for CHT/PVA nanoparticles (for 5 min of sonication) at a molar ratio 1:1, and with 10% of ternary DES (TDES)-containing malvidin-3-glucoside (0.1%) where the physical properties of films were enhanced. After immersion in solutions at different pH values, films submitted to pHs 5–8 were revealed to be more color stable and resistant with time than at acidic pH values.
Understanding the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection is critical for therapeutic and public health strategies. Viral-host interactions can guide discovery of disease regulators, and protein ...structure function analysis points to several immune pathways, including complement and coagulation, as targets of coronaviruses. To determine whether conditions associated with dysregulated complement or coagulation systems impact disease, we performed a retrospective observational study and found that history of macular degeneration (a proxy for complement-activation disorders) and history of coagulation disorders (thrombocytopenia, thrombosis and hemorrhage) are risk factors for SARS-CoV-2-associated morbidity and mortality-effects that are independent of age, sex or history of smoking. Transcriptional profiling of nasopharyngeal swabs demonstrated that in addition to type-I interferon and interleukin-6-dependent inflammatory responses, infection results in robust engagement of the complement and coagulation pathways. Finally, in a candidate-driven genetic association study of severe SARS-CoV-2 disease, we identified putative complement and coagulation-associated loci including missense, eQTL and sQTL variants of critical complement and coagulation regulators. In addition to providing evidence that complement function modulates SARS-CoV-2 infection outcome, the data point to putative transcriptional genetic markers of susceptibility. The results highlight the value of using a multimodal analytical approach to reveal determinants and predictors of immunity, susceptibility and clinical outcome associated with infection.
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