Justinian II and Carmagnola: a Byzantine rhinoplasty?

The Carmagnola statue, although undoubtedly a Byzantine Emperor, still holds its secret as to who it actually represents, and how his nose got that way. Our tentative conclusions concerning the possibility of Justinian's Indian nasal reconstruction only raise other questions. If Justinian Rhinometos did have a nasal reconstruction, how was the knowledge of the technique transmitted from northern India to the Byzantine Empire by the end of the 7th century? And if Justinian did have his "rhinokopia" surgically corrected, would this represent the first case of nasal reconstruction in the western world, 900 years before the triumphs of Tagliacozzi?     

Phosphorylation-dependent changes in the spatial relationship between Ca-ATPase polypeptide chains in sarcoplasmic reticulum membranes.

In order to investigate possible structural changes associated with the coupling mechanisms of the Ca-ATPase in sarcoplasmic reticulum membranes, we have utilized fluorescence resonance energy transfer between spectroscopic probes covalently bound to different domains of the ATPase. Using time-correlated single photon counting, we have directly measured the energy transfer efficiency between 5-[2-[(iodoacetyl)amino]ethyl]aminonaphthalene-1-sulfonic acid (IAEDANS), that is specifically bound to the B trypic fragment at cysteines 670 and 674 and acceptors covalently bound either near the nucleotide binding site, i.e. fluorescein 5-isothiocyanate at lysine 515, also on the B fragment, or maleimide-directed probes specifically located on the A1, tryptic fragment, i.e. 4-dimethylaminoazobenzene-4'-maleimide (DABmal) or fluorescein-5-maleimide (Fmal), probably at cysteines 344 and 364. All of these donor-acceptor pairs exhibit energy transfer both within and between Ca-ATPase molecules allowing us to investigate spatial relationships between the A1 and B domains and between different ATPase polypeptide chains. Differentiation between the intra- and intermolecular components of energy transfer was accomplished in two ways: 1) by comparing the transfer efficiencies in native membranes before and after detergent solubilization and 2) by reconstituting ATPase chains that have already been labeled with either the donor or acceptor chromophores. Using this approach, we find no significant change in the intramolecular transfer efficiency between any of these donor-acceptor pairs either upon binding of calcium to the high affinity sites or upon stabilization of the phosphoenzyme intermediate, indicating that there are no large structural changes within the B tryptic fragment or, alternatively, between the A1 and B fragments. With respect to intermolecular energy transfer, we observe no effect of calcium binding on the unliganded enzyme with either donor-acceptor pair. However, formation of the phosphoenzyme intermediate results in a measurable increase in the transfer efficiency between IAEDANS and DABmal (or Fmal); this increase is reversible upon phosphoenzyme destabilization by subsequent addition of calcium. There is no corresponding change in the intermolecular component of fluorescence resonance energy transfer between IAEDANS and fluorescein 5-isothiocyanate, indicating that the change in fluorescence resonance energy transfer probably occurs as a result of reorientation of associated ATPase polypeptide chains with respect to one another.     

207-nm UV Light - A Promising Tool for Safe Low-Cost Reduction of Surgical Site Infections. I: In Vitro Studies

Background

0.5% to 10% of clean surgeries result in surgical-site infections, and attempts to reduce this rate have had limited success. Germicidal UV lamps, with a broad wavelength spectrum from 200 to 400 nm are an effective bactericidal option against drug-resistant and drug-sensitive bacteria, but represent a health hazard to patient and staff. By contrast, because of its limited penetration, ∼200 nm far-UVC light is predicted to be effective in killing bacteria, but without the human health hazards to skin and eyes associated with conventional germicidal UV exposure.

Aims

The aim of this work was to test the biophysically-based hypothesis that ∼200 nm UV light is significantly cytotoxic to bacteria, but minimally cytotoxic or mutagenic to human cells either isolated or within tissues.

Methods

A Kr-Br excimer lamp was used, which produces 207-nm UV light, with a filter to remove higher-wavelength components. Comparisons were made with results from a conventional broad spectrum 254-nm UV germicidal lamp. First, cell inactivation vs. UV fluence data were generated for methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) bacteria and also for normal human fibroblasts. Second, yields of the main UV-associated pre-mutagenic DNA lesions (cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and 6-4 photoproducts) were measured, for both UV radiations incident on 3-D human skin tissue.

Results

We found that 207-nm UV light kills MRSA efficiently but, unlike conventional germicidal UV lamps, produces little cell killing in human cells. In a 3-D human skin model, 207-nm UV light produced almost no pre-mutagenic UV-associated DNA lesions, in contrast to significant yields induced by a conventional germicidal UV lamp.

Conclusions

As predicted based on biophysical considerations, 207-nm light kills bacteria efficiently but does not appear to be significantly cytotoxic or mutagenic to human cells. Used appropriately, 207-nm light may have the potential for safely and inexpensively reducing surgical-site infection rates, including those of drug-resistant origin.     

Predicting transmembrane beta-barrels in proteomes

Very few methods address the problem of predicting beta-barrel membrane proteins directly from sequence. One reason is that only very few high-resolution structures for transmembrane beta-barrel (TMB) proteins have been determined thus far. Here we introduced the design, statistics and results of a novel profile-based hidden Markov model for the prediction and discrimination of TMBs. The method carefully attempts to avoid over-fitting the sparse experimental data. While our model training and scoring procedures were very similar to a recently published work, the architecture and structure-based labelling were significantly different. In particular, we introduced a new definition of beta- hairpin motifs, explicit state modelling of transmembrane strands, and a log-odds whole-protein discrimination score. The resulting method reached an overall four-state (up-, down-strand, periplasmic-, outer-loop) accuracy as high as 86%. Furthermore, accurately discriminated TMB from non-TMB proteins (45% coverage at 100% accuracy). This high precision enabled the application to 72 entirely sequenced Gram-negative bacteria. We found over 164 previously uncharacterized TMB proteins at high confidence. Database searches did not implicate any of these proteins with membranes. We challenge that the vast majority of our 164 predictions will eventually be verified experimentally. All proteome predictions and the PROFtmb prediction method are available at http://www.rostlab.org/ services/PROFtmb/.     

Evaluation of hyaluronan from different sources: Streptococcus zooepidemicus, rooster comb, bovine vitreous, and human umbilical cord

Sodium hyaluronate (HA) is widely distributed in extracellular matrixes and can play a role in orchestrating cell function. Consequently, many investigators have looked at the effect of exogenous HA on cell behavior in vitro. HA can be isolated from several sources (e.g., bacterial, rooster comb, umbilical cord) and therefore can possess diverse impurities. This current study compares the measured impurities and the differences in biological activity between HA preparations from these sources. It was demonstrated that nucleic acid and protein content was highest in human umbilical cord and bovine vitreous HA and was low in bacterial and rooster comb HA. Macrophages exposed to human umbilical cord HA produced significantly higher amounts of TNF-alpha relative to control or bacterial-derived HA. These results indicate that the source of HA should be considered due to differences in the amounts and types of contaminants that could lead to widely different behaviors in vitro and in vivo.     

Molecular characterization of Embellisia and Nimbya species and their relationship to Alternaria, Ulocladium and Stemphylium

DNA sequences from rDNA and protein-coding regions were determined for six Embellisia and two Nimbya spp. and were compared to those from Alternaria, Ulocladium and Stemphylium spp. Sequences determined included rDNA from the nuclear internal transcribed-spacer region (ITS1/5.8S/ITS2) and the mitochondrial small-subunit (mt SSU) and a portion of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gpd) gene. Phylogenetic analyses were performed on each dataset separately and then combined for total evidence analysis using methods of maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood. Results revealed that Embellisia and Nimbya clustered within a large monophyletic Alternaria-Nimbya-Embellisia-Ulocladium clade with Stemphylium as the sister taxon. Members of the infectoria species-group were the most basal group in this large polygeneric clade. Embellisia and Nimbya were sister taxa of the remaining Alternaria and Ulocladium spp. and were related more closely to Alternaria than was Stemphylium. Four Embellisia spp. formed a monophyletic clade. However, E. allii clustered with the two Nimbya spp. and E. indefessa clustered with Alternaria and Ulocladium spp., revealing that Embellisia, as currently circumscribed, is polyphyletic. Potential revisions of taxonomy for all genera are discussed.