Interleukin-17 (IL-17) and Rho-kinase (ROCK) play an important role in regulating the expression of inflammatory mediators, immune cell recruitment, hyper-responsiveness, tissue remodeling, and ...oxidative stress. Modulation of IL-17 and ROCK proteins may represent a promising approach for the treatment of this disease.
To study the effects of an anti-IL17 neutralizing antibody and ROCK inhibitor treatments, separately and in combination, in a murine model of chronic allergy-induced lung inflammation.
Sixty-four BALBc mice, were divided into eight groups (
= 8): SAL (saline-instilled); OVA (exposed-ovalbumin); SAL-RHOi (saline and ROCK inhibitor), OVA-RHOi (exposed-ovalbumin and ROCK inhibitor); SAL-anti-IL17 (saline and anti-IL17); OVA-anti-IL17 (exposed-ovalbumin and anti-IL17); SAL-RHOi-anti-IL17 (saline, ROCK inhibitor and anti-IL17); and OVA-RHOi-anti-IL17 (exposed-ovalbumin, anti-IL17, and ROCK inhibitor). A 28-day protocol of albumin treatment was used for sensitization and induction of pulmonary inflammation. The anti-IL17A neutralizing antibody (7.5 μg per treatment) was administered by intraperitoneal injection and ROCK inhibitor (Y-27632) intranasally (10 mg/kg), 1 h prior to each ovalbumin challenge (days 22, 24, 26, and 28).
Treatment with the anti-IL17 neutralizing antibody and ROCK inhibitor attenuated the percentage of maximal increase of respiratory system resistance and respiratory system elastance after challenge with methacholine and the inflammatory response markers evaluated (CD4
, CD8
, ROCK1, ROCK2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10 IL-13, IL-17, TNF-α, TGF-β, NF-κB, dendritic cells, iNOS, MMP-9, MMP-12, TIMP-1, FOXP3, isoprostane, biglycan, decorin, fibronectin, collagen fibers content and gene expression of IL-17, VAChT, and arginase) compared to the OVA group (
< 0.05). Treatment with anti-IL17 and the ROCK inhibitor together resulted in potentiation in decreasing the percentage of resistance increase after challenge with methacholine, decreased the number of IL-5 positive cells in the airway, and reduced, IL-5, TGF-β, FOXP3, ROCK1 and ROCK2 positive cells in the alveolar septa compared to the OVA-RHOi and OVA-anti-IL17 groups (
< 0.05).
Anti-IL17 treatment alone or in conjunction with the ROCK inhibitor, modulates airway responsiveness, inflammation, tissue remodeling, and oxidative stress in mice with chronic allergic lung inflammation.
To determine the effect of rivers, environmental conditions, and isolation by distance on the distribution of species in Amazonia. Location: Brazilian Amazonia. Time period: Current. Major taxa ...studied: Birds, fishes, bats, ants, termites, butterflies, ferns + lycophytes, gingers and palms. We compiled a unique dataset of biotic and abiotic information from 822 plots spread over the Brazilian Amazon. We evaluated the effects of environment, geographic distance and dispersal barriers (rivers) on assemblage composition of animal and plant taxa using multivariate techniques and distance- and raw-data-based regression approaches. Environmental variables (soil/water), geographic distance, and rivers were associated with the distribution of most taxa. The wide and relatively old Amazon River tended to determine differences in community composition for most biological groups. Despite this association, environment and geographic distance were generally more important than rivers in explaining the changes in species composition. The results from multi-taxa comparisons suggest that variation in community composition in Amazonia reflects both dispersal limitation (isolation by distance or by large rivers) and the adaptation of species to local environmental conditions. Larger and older river barriers influenced the distribution of species. However, in general this effect is weaker than the effects of environmental gradients or geographical distance at broad scales in Amazonia, but the relative importance of each of these processes varies among biological groups.
• Species distribution is strongly driven by local and global gradients in water availability but the underlying mechanisms are not clear. Vulnerability to xylem embolism (P50) is a key trait that ...indicates how species cope with drought and might explain plant distribution patterns across environmental gradients. Here we address its role on species sorting along a hydrotopographical gradient in a central Amazonian rainforest and examine its variance at the community scale.
• We measured P50 for 28 tree species, soil properties and estimated the hydrological niche of each species using an indicator of distance to the water table (HAND).
• We found a large hydraulic diversity, covering as much as 44% of the global angiosperm variation in P50. We show that P50: contributes to species segregation across a hydrotopographic gradient in the Amazon, and thus to species coexistence; is the result of repeated evolutionary adaptation within closely related taxa; is associated with species tolerance to P-poor soils, suggesting the evolution of a stress-tolerance syndrome to nutrients and drought; and is higher for trees in the valleys than uplands.
• The large observed hydraulic diversity and its association with topography has important implications for modelling and predicting forest and species resilience to climate change.
Summary
A negative relationship between stand biomass and the density of stems is expected to develop during the self‐thinning process in resource‐limited forests; this leads to a large proportion of ...the total biomass occurring in large trees. Nevertheless, frequent disturbance regimes can reduce self‐thinning and the accumulation of large trees.
We investigated size–density relationships and the contribution of large trees (dbh ≥ 70 cm) to stand biomass in 55 1‐ha plots along a 600 km transect in central‐southern Amazonia. The effects of natural‐disturbance gradients (frequency of storms and soil characteristics) and seasonality on forest‐structure components (density of stems and mean individual mass) and stand biomass were examined.
Contrary to self‐thinning predictions, stand biomass increased in forests with higher stem densities. Large trees contained only an average of 5% of stand biomass, and half of the stand biomass was represented by small trees with diameters < 27 cm. These findings indicate that persistent or strong disturbance plays a critical role in forest structure and biomass in the central‐southern Amazon. Frequent storms were identified as an important source of disturbance in the region. Forests under higher frequency of storms had trees with lower individual mass and higher stem packing. More physically restrictive soils seem to magnify the effects of exogenous disturbances limiting individual tree size.
Forests in areas with longer dry seasons had lower stem densities; however, individual mass was higher in these areas. These structural components of biomass seem to counterbalance each other in generating total stand biomass. Seasonality affected forest structural components but not stand biomass.
Synthesis. Forests of central‐southern Amazonia are not resource limited and accumulate most part of their biomass in small‐ to mid‐sized trees. The effects of environmental gradients on specific structural components of stand biomass differ such that strong positive effects on one component can mitigate strong negative effects on other component. Future work on the determinants of stand biomass should investigate forest structure and the contributions of individual components to stand biomass.
Forests of central‐southern Amazonia are not resource limited and accumulate most part of their biomass in small‐ to mid‐sized trees. Disturbance gradients given by the frequency of storms and soil conditions and seasonality were investigated as possible underlying factors influencing this pattern and the variations in stem density, mean individual mass and ultimately above‐ground woody biomass in these forests.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an important health care issue, and IL-17 can modulate inflammatory responses. We evaluated preventive and therapeutic effect of anti-interleukin ...(IL)-17 in a model of lung injury induced by elastase, using 32 male C57Bl6 mice, divided into 4 groups: SAL, ELASTASE CONTROL (EC), ELASTASE + PREVENTIVE ANTI-IL-17 (EP), and ELASTASE + THERAPEUTIC ANTI-IL-17 (ET). On the 29th day, animals were anesthetized with thiopental, tracheotomized, and placed on a ventilator to evaluate lung mechanical, exhaled nitric oxide (eNO), and total cells of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was collected. We performed histological techniques, and linear mean intercept (Lm) was analyzed. Both treatments with anti-IL-17 decreased respiratory resistance and elastance, airway resistance, elastance of pulmonary parenchyma, eNO, and Lm compared with EC. There was reduction in total cells and macrophages in ET compared with EC. Both treatments decreased nuclear factor-кB, inducible nitric oxide synthase, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9, MMP-12, transforming growth factor-β, tumor necrosis factor-α, neutrophils, IL-1β, isoprostane, and IL-17 in airways and alveolar septa; collagen fibers, decorin and lumican in airways; and elastic fibers and fibronectin in alveolar septa compared with EC. There was reduction of collagen fibers in alveolar septa and biglycan in airways in EP and a reduction of eNO synthase in airways in ET. In conclusion, both treatments with anti-IL-17 contributed to improve most of parameters evaluated in inflammation and extracellular matrix remodeling in this model of lung injury.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a moderate increase in protein intake on muscle strength, functional capacity and lean mass quality improvements in postmenopausal women following ...resistance exercise. Forty-seven postmenopausal women were randomized in two groups: Normal protein (NP,
= 25), who received a dietary plan containing ~0.8 g protein·kg
·d
(recommended dietary allowance-RDA recommendations); and higher protein (HP,
= 22), which a moderate increase in protein intake was recommended (~1.2 g protein·kg
·d
). Resistance training was performed for 10 weeks, three times/week. Muscle strength (handgrip strength and one repetition maximum test-1-RM), functional capacity and lean mass (LM) quality (muscle strength to lean mass ratio) were evaluated. Dietary intake was assessed by nine 24 h food recalls. After intervention, both groups increased similarly the leg extension 1-RM and handgrip strength. Regarding functional capacity tests, both groups increased the balance test score (SPPB) and 10 m walk test speed, with no differences between the groups. In addition, an increase in speed to perform the 6 min and 400 m walk tests was observed over the time, with an additional improvement in the HP group (time × group interaction;
= 0.007 and
= 0.004, respectively). About LM quality, leg extension 1-RM/leg LM improved over the time in both groups (
= 0.050), with no time × group interaction. All these significant changes had a low effect size. In conclusion, a moderate increase in protein intake promoted a small additional improvement in functional capacity, but it did not induce a greater increase in strength and LM quality after 10 weeks of resistance exercise in postmenopausal women. This trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT03024125.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of death from malignant tumors in women worldwide. Early diagnosis is essential for the treatment and cure of patients. Breast anomalies, such as cysts, cancers and ...benign tumors, show an increase in blood supply in their region, causing temperature variations in the area, which can be detected through thermographic images. Thermography has shown to be a promising tool in the detection of breast cancer as it is low cost, harmless to the patient and it can be performed in younger people, whose breast tissue is denser, making the diagnosis more difficult through mammography, which is currently the gold standard for detecting this disease. The aim of this work is to develop a computer vision technique based on a convolutional neural network in order to detect breast cancer using thermographic images. Thus, a single dataset with thermographic data obtained from 97 patients was used with two different class assignments. First, the dataset was separated into three classes: benign, malignant and cyst, resulting in a global error rate of
7.5
%
and a sensitivity of
98.46
%
. Afterward, a binary classification was performed in order to label the images into cancer and non-cancer, obtaining a
21.94
%
global error rate and
81.66
%
sensitivity. The method proposed in this work had the best performance in both cases when compared with the results obtained by existing algorithms in the literature.
The need for biodiversity conservation is increasing at a rate much faster than the acquisition of knowledge of biodiversity, such as descriptions of new species and mapping species distributions. As ...global changes are winning the race against the acquisition of knowledge, many researchers resort to the use of surrogate groups to aid in conservation decisions. Reductions in taxonomic and numerical resolution are also desirable, because they could allow more rapid the acquisition of knowledge while requiring less effort, if little important information is lost. In this study, we evaluated the congruence among 22 taxonomic groups sampled in a tropical forest in the Amazon basin. Our aim was to evaluate if any of these groups could be used as surrogates for the others in monitoring programs. We also evaluated if the taxonomic or numerical resolution of possible surrogates could be reduced without greatly reducing the overall congruence. Congruence among plant groups was high, whereas the congruence among most animal groups was very low, except for anurans in which congruence values were only slightly lower than for plants. Liana (Bignoniaceae) was the group with highest congruence, even using genera presence–absence data. The congruence among groups was related to environmental factors, specifically the clay and phosphorous contents of soil. Several groups showed strong spatial clumping, but this was unrelated to the congruence among groups. The high degree of congruence of lianas with the other groups suggests that it may be a reasonable surrogate group, mainly for the other plant groups analyzed, if soil data are not available. Although lianas are difficult to count and identify, the number of studies on the ecology of lianas is increasing. Most of these studies have concluded that lianas are increasing in abundance in tropical forests. In addition to the high congruence, lianas are worth monitoring in their own right because they are sensitive to global warming and the increasing frequency and severity of droughts in tropical regions. Our findings suggest that the use of data on surrogate groups with relatively low taxonomic and numerical resolutions can be a reliable shortcut for biodiversity assessments, especially in megadiverse areas with high rates of habitat conversion, where the lack of biodiversity knowledge is pervasive.
Native Amazonian populations managed forest resources in numerous ways, often creating oligarchic forests dominated by useful trees. The scale and spatial distribution of forest modification beyond ...pre-Columbian settlements is still unknown, although recent studies propose that human impact away from rivers was minimal. We tested the hypothesis that past human management of the useful tree community decreases with distance from rivers.
In six sites, we inventoried trees and palms with DBH≥10 cm and collected soil for charcoal analysis; we also mapped archaeological evidence around the sites. To quantify forest manipulation, we measured the relative abundance, richness and basal area of useful trees and palms. We found a strong negative exponential relationship between forest manipulation and distance to large rivers. Plots located from 10 to 20 km from a main river had 20-40% useful arboreal species, plots between 20 and 40 km had 12-23%, plots more than 40 km had less than 15%. Soil charcoal abundance was high in the two sites closest to secondary rivers, suggesting past agricultural practices. The shortest distance between archaeological evidence and plots was found in sites near rivers.
These results strongly suggest that past forest manipulation was not limited to the pre-Columbian settlements along major rivers, but extended over interfluvial areas considered to be primary forest today. The sustainable use of Amazonian forests will be most effective if it considers the degree of past landscape domestication, as human-modified landscapes concentrate useful plants for human sustainable use and management today.
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