We perform Bayesian model selection with parameter estimation to identify potentially lensed gravitational-wave images from the second observing run (O2) of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. ...Specifically, we compute the Bayesian evidence for a pair of events being lensed or not lensed (unlensed) using nested sampling. We consider in the model selection the discrete coalescence phase shifts that can be induced if the gravitational-wave signal intersects with the lens caustics. We find that the pair of events, GW170104 and GW170814 with a π/2 coalescence phase shift, has a significant Bayes factor ( ) favoring the lensing hypothesis. However, after taking into account the long time delay of approximately 7 months between events, the timing Bayes factor is significantly small (Bt ∼ 8.7 × 10−2). The prior probability for detecting strongly lensed pairs at O2 sensitivity is exceedingly small for both galaxy and galaxy cluster lensing. Combining the lensing and timing Bayes factors with the prior odds on lensing gives an odds ratio of . With the value of the odds ratio after including model dependence of the timing and prior odds factors, we do not have strong evidence to demonstrate that the aforementioned pair is strongly lensed.
Introduction Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is a severe extra-pulmonary tuberculosis with high fatality. This meta-analysis aimed to assess the impact of linezolid on TBM treatment outcomes. Methods We ...searched multiple databases for studies published up to May 18, 2024 comparing the effects of linezolid on TBM. Meta-analysis was conducted using Review Manager 5.4. Results Our findings indicated that linezolid may reduce treatment failure risk (RR = 0.42 (0.20, 0.89), p = 0.02) and improve temperature recovery (RR = 1.56 (1.21, 2.02), p < 0.001) in TBM patients. Conclusions The analysis suggests a positive association between linezolid treatment and therapeutic improvements, with no significant adverse reactions reported.
Vibrio fluvialis is an emerging enteric pathogen of increasing public health threat. Two quorum sensing (QS) systems, VfqI-VfqR and CqsA/LuxS-HapR, and two type VI secretion systems (T6SSs), VflT6SS1 ...and VflT6SS2, have been identified in V. fluvialis. Whether there exists any correlation between the two systems is unclear. In this study, we found that CqsA/LuxS-HapR circuit regulator LuxO represses while HapR activates VflT6SS2. The effect of LuxO is more pronounced at low cell density and is HapR-dependent. Deletion of hapR abolished Hcp expression and alleviated antibacterial virulence. However, these effects were rescued by HapR-expressing plasmid. Reporter fusion analyses showed that HapR is required for the promoter activities of VflT6SS2. Sequence inspection of the major cluster promoter revealed two potential Motif 1 HapR binding sites, and their bindings to HapR were confirmed by both electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and DNase I footprinting assay. Meanwhile, two single Motif 2 sites were identified in tssD2_a (hcpA) and tssD2_b (hcpB) promoter regions of the orphan cluster which are less conserved and displayed lower affinities to HapR. Together, our study demonstrated that CqsA/LuxS-HapR QS manipulate VflT6SS2 in V. fluvialis, and this finding will enhance our understanding of possible crosstalk between T6SS and QS in microbes.
Abstract
Background
Lung resident mesenchymal stem cells (LR-MSCs) play an important role in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) by transforming into myofibroblasts, thereby losing their repair ...ability. Evidence suggests that key proteins of multiple signaling pathways are involved in myofibroblast differentiation of LR-MSCs, such as β-Catenin and GLI family zinc finger 1 (GLI1). These proteins are regulated by SUMO (small ubiquitin-like modifier) modification, which is a post-translational modification that promotes protein degradation, while Sumo specific protein 1 (SENP1)-mediated deSUMOylation produces the opposite biological effects. Therefore, we speculated that SENP1 might be a potential target for treating pulmonary fibrosis by preventing the myofibroblast differentiation of LR-MSCs.
Methods
LR-MSCs were isolated from mice by using immunomagnetic beads. The extracted LR-MSCs were identified by flow cytometric analysis and multilineage differentiation assays. Lentivirus packaged shRNA silenced the expression of SENP1 in vitro and vivo. The silencing efficacy of SENP1 was verified by real-time quantitative PCR. The effect of down-regulated SENP1 on the myofibroblast differentiation of LR-MSCs was assessed by Immunofluorescence and Western blot. Immunoprecipitation was used to clarify that SENP1 was a key target for regulating the activity of multiple signaling pathways in the direction of LR-MSCs differentiation. LR-MSCs resident in the lung was analyzed with in vivo imaging system. HE and Masson staining was used to evaluate the therapeutic effect of LR-MSCs with SENP1 down-regulation on the lung of BLM mice.
Results
In this study, we found that the myofibroblast differentiation of LR-MSCs in IPF lung tissue was accompanied by enhanced SENP1-mediated deSUMOylation. The expression of SENP1 increased in LR-MSCs transition of bleomycin (BLM)-induced lung fibrosis. Interfering with expression of SENP1 inhibited the transformation of LR-MSCs into myofibroblasts in vitro and in vivo and restored their therapeutic effect in BLM lung fibrosis. In addition, activation of the WNT/β-Catenin and Hedgehog/GLI signaling pathways depends on SENP1-mediated deSUMOylation.
Conclusions
SENP1 might be a potential target to restore the repair function of LR-MSCs and treat pulmonary fibrosis.
Candia tropicalis is an increasingly important human pathogen, causing nosocomial fungemia among patients with neutropenia or malignancy. However, limited research has been published concerning its ...pathogenicity. Based on the phenotypes of C. tropicalis in our previous study, we selected nine representative strains with different activities of virulence factors (adhesion, biofilm formation, secreted aspartic proteinases, and hemolysins), and one reference strain, ATCC750. The present study aimed to investigate the filamentation ability, the expression of virulence genes (ALST1-3, LIP1, LIP4, and SAPT1-4) and the cell damage of C. tropicalis strains with diverse virulences. C. tropicalis exhibited strain-dependent filamentation ability, which was positively correlated with biofilm formation. Reverse transcriptase PCR analysis showed that the ALST3 and SAPT3 genes had the highest expression in their corresponding genes for most C. tropicalis. The expressions of virulence genes, except ALST3 on polystyrene, were upregulated compared with growth in the planktonic and on human urinary bladder epithelial cell line (TCC-SUP) surface. Clustering analysis of virulence genes showed that isolates had a high biofilm forming ability on polystyrene formed a group. Lactate dehydrogenase assays showed that the cell damage induced by C. tropicalis markedly increased with longer infection time (24 and 48 h). Strain FXCT01, isolated from blood, caused the most serious cell damage; while ZRCT52, which had no filamentation ability, caused the least cell damage. Correlation analysis demonstrated significant correlation existed between adhesion on epithelial cells or the expression of ALST2-3 and cell damage. Overall, our results supported the view that adhesion and filamentation may play significant roles in the cell damage caused by C. tropicalis.
Drug resistance prominently hampers the effects of systemic therapy of sorafenib to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Epigenetics have critical regulatory roles in drug resistance. However, the ...contributions of histone methylatransferase SET and MYND domain containing 3 (SMYD3) to sorafenib resistance in HCC remain largely unknown. Here, using our established sorafenib-resistant HCC cell and xenograft models, we found SMYD3 was markedly elevated in sorafenib-resistant tumors and cells. Functionally, loss- and gain-of-function studies showed that SMYD3 promoted the migration, invasion, metastasis and stemness of sorafenib-resistant HCC cells. Mechanistically, SMYD3 is required for SMAD2/3-mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in sorafenib-resistant HCC cells by interacting with SMAD2/3 and epigenetically promoting the expression of SOX4, ZEB1, SNAIL1 and MMP9 genes. In summary, our data demonstrate that targeting SMYD3 is an effective approach to overcome sorafenib resistance in HCC.
Display omitted
•SMYD3 is upregulated in sorafenib-resistant HCC xenografts models and cells•SMYD3 promotes sorafenib-resistant HCC cell metastasis and tumorigenesis•SMYD3 interact with SMAD2/3•SMYD3 epigenetically regulates SMAD2/3-mediated EMT program
Drugs; Epigenetics; Cancer
Vibrio fluvialis is a halophilic Gram-negative bacterium regarded as an emerging unusual enteric pathogen of increasing public health concern. Our previous work has identified two type VI secretion ...systems (T6SSs) in V. fluvialis, VflT6SS1, and VflT6SS2, and the latter is functional in mediating interbacterial competitiveness. However, its antibacterial effectors remain to be clarified. In this work, we focused on a new potential effector/immunity pair TssI2/TsiI2. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that the C-terminal domain of TssI2 belongs to a widespread family of pesticin, and its antibacterial toxicity and corresponding protection by TsiI2 were proved via bacterial killing assays, and their action sites were localized to the periplasm of bacterial cells. The interaction of TssI2 and TsiI2 was demonstrated by the bacterial adenylate cyclase two-hybrid, protein pull-down and isothermal titration calorimetry assays. Site-directed mutagenesis demonstrated that, in addition to Glu-844, Thr-863, and Asp-869, which correspond to three reported residues in pesticin of Yersinia pestis, additional residues including Phe-837, Gly-845, Tyr-851, Gly-867, Gln-963, Trp-975, and Arg-1000 were also proved to be crucial to the bactericidal activity of TssI2. Muramidase/lysozyme-related peptidoglycan (PG) hydrolase activities of TssI2 and its variants were validated with permeabilized Escherichia coli cells and purified PG substrate. Based on sequence homologies at C-terminals in various V. fluvialis isolates, TssI2 was subdivided into five clusters (12-22% identity among them), and the antibacterial activities of representative effectors from other four Clusters were also confirmed through periplasmic over-expression in E. coli host. Two selected cognate immunities were proved to confer protection against the toxicities of their effectors. Additionally, TsiI2, which belongs to Cluster I, exhibited cross-protection to effector from Cluster V. Together, current findings expand our knowledge of the diversity and consistency of evolved VgrG effectors in V. fluvialis and on how VflT6SS2 mediates a competitive advantage to gain a better survival.
, an emerging foodborne pathogen of increasing public health concern, contains two distinct gene clusters encoding type VI secretion system (T6SS), the most newly discovered secretion pathway in ...Gram-negative bacteria. Previously we have shown that one of the two T6SS clusters, namely VflT6SS2, is active and associates with anti-bacterial activity. However, how its activity is regulated is not completely understood. Here, we report that the global regulator integration host factor (IHF) positively modulates the expression and thus the function of VflT6SS2 through co-regulating its major cluster and
2
2 (also known as
) orphan clusters. Specifically, reporter gene activity assay showed that IHF transactivates the major and orphan clusters of VflT6SS2, while deletion of either
or
, the genes encoding the IHF subunits, decreased their promoter activities and mRNA levels of
2,
, and
2 for the selected major cluster genes and
2 and
2 for the selected orphan cluster genes. Subsequently, the direct bindings of IHF to the promoter regions of the major and orphan clusters were confirmed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). Site-directed mutagenesis combined with reporter gene activity assay or EMSA pinpointed the exact binding sites of IHF in the major and orphan cluster promoters, with two sites in the major cluster promoter, consisting with its two observed shifted bands in EMSA. Functional studies showed that the expression and secretion of hemolysin-coregulated protein (Hcp) and the VflT6SS2-mediated antibacterial virulence were severely abrogated in the deletion mutants of Δ
and Δ
, but restored when their trans-complemented plasmids were introduced, suggesting that IHF mostly contributes to environmental survival of
.
by directly binding and modulating the transactivity and function of VflT6SS2.
To observe the clinical efficacy of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) on the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by severe pneumonia after kidney transplantation.
The clinical ...data of 17 patients who were diagnosed as ARDS caused by severe pneumonia after kidney transplantation and treated with NIV in Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital from January 1st, 2014 to June 1st, 2016 were collected and retrospectively analyzed. According to the result of NIV treatment, the patients were divided into NIV success group (n = 9) and NIV failure group (n = 8). The differences in gender, age, underlying diseases, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score, laboratory parameters on the day when ARDS was diagnosed, daily immunosuppressive dosage, NIV support condition and duration, arterial blood gas analysis and adverse reactions between the two groups were compared. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was plotted, and the predictive value of each parameters for NI
Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a disease in which excessive extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation occurs in pulmonary mesenchyme, which induces the destruction of alveolar structures and poor ...prognosis. Macrophage death is responsible for ECM accumulation after alveolar epithelial injury in PF. Depending on the local micro-environments, macrophages can be polarized to either classically activated (M1) or alternatively activated (M2) macrophage phenotypes. In general, M1 macrophages can promote inflammation and sterilization, stop the continuous damage process and prevent excessive repair, while M2 macrophages are anti-inflammatory and promote tissue repair, and excessive M2 macrophage activity may inhibit the absorption and degradation of ECM. Emerging evidence has revealed that death forms such as pyroptosis mediated by inflammasome affect polarization direction and ultimately lead to the development of PF. Pharmacological manipulation of macrophages death signals may serve as a logical therapeutic strategy for PF. This review will focus on the current state of knowledge regarding the regulation and underlying mechanisms of macrophages and their mediators in the influence of macrophage death on the development of PF. We expect to provide help in developing effective therapeutic strategies in clinical settings.
PDF
