Evolution of Influenza B Virus in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia, between 1995 and 2008

Influenza B virus causes significant disease but remains understudied in tropical regions. We sequenced 72 influenza B viruses collected in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 1995 to 2008. The predominant circulating lineage (Victoria or Yamagata) changed every 1 to 3 years, and these shifts were associated with increased incidence of influenza B. We also found poor lineage matches with recommended influenza virus vaccine strains. While most influenza B virus lineages in Malaysia were short-lived, one circulated for 3 to 4 years.     

What Do Eye Gaze Metrics Tell Us about Motor Imagery?

Many of the brain structures involved in performing real movements also have increased activity during imagined movements or during motor observation, and this could be the neural substrate underlying the effects of motor imagery in motor learning or motor rehabilitation. In the absence of any objective physiological method of measurement, it is currently impossible to be sure that the patient is indeed performing the task as instructed. Eye gaze recording during a motor imagery task could be a possible way to “spy” on the activity an individual is really engaged in. The aim of the present study was to compare the pattern of eye movement metrics during motor observation, visual and kinesthetic motor imagery (VI, KI), target fixation, and mental calculation. Twenty-two healthy subjects (16 females and 6 males), were required to perform tests in five conditions using imagery in the Box and Block Test tasks following the procedure described by Liepert et al. Eye movements were analysed by a non-invasive oculometric measure (SMI RED250 system). Two parameters describing gaze pattern were calculated: the index of ocular mobility (saccade duration over saccade + fixation duration) and the number of midline crossings (i.e. the number of times the subjects gaze crossed the midline of the screen when performing the different tasks). Both parameters were significantly different between visual imagery and kinesthesic imagery, visual imagery and mental calculation, and visual imagery and target fixation. For the first time we were able to show that eye movement patterns are different during VI and KI tasks. Our results suggest gaze metric parameters could be used as an objective unobtrusive approach to assess engagement in a motor imagery task. Further studies should define how oculomotor parameters could be used as an indicator of the rehabilitation task a patient is engaged in.     

Deliberate Attenuation of Chikungunya Virus by Adaptation to Heparan Sulfate-Dependent Infectivity: A Model for Rational Arboviral Vaccine Design

Mosquito-borne chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus from the genus Alphavirus, family Togaviridae, which causes fever, rash and severe persistent polyarthralgia in humans. Since there are currently no FDA licensed vaccines or antiviral therapies for CHIKV, the development of vaccine candidates is of critical importance. Historically, live-attenuated vaccines (LAVs) for protection against arthropod-borne viruses have been created by blind cell culture passage leading to attenuation of disease, while maintaining immunogenicity. Attenuation may occur via multiple mechanisms. However, all examined arbovirus LAVs have in common the acquisition of positively charged amino acid substitutions in cell-surface attachment proteins that render virus infection partially dependent upon heparan sulfate (HS), a ubiquitously expressed sulfated polysaccharide, and appear to attenuate by retarding dissemination of virus particles in vivo. We previously reported that, like other wild-type Old World alphaviruses, CHIKV strain, La Réunion, (CHIKV-LR), does not depend upon HS for infectivity. To deliberately identify CHIKV attachment protein mutations that could be combined with other attenuating processes in a LAV candidate, we passaged CHIKV-LR on evolutionarily divergent cell-types. A panel of single amino acid substitutions was identified in the E2 glycoprotein of passaged virus populations that were predicted to increase electrostatic potential. Each of these substitutions was made in the CHIKV-LR cDNA clone and comparisons of the mutant viruses revealed surface exposure of the mutated residue on the spike and sensitivity to competition with the HS analog, heparin, to be primary correlates of attenuation in vivo. Furthermore, we have identified a mutation at E2 position 79 as a promising candidate for inclusion in a CHIKV LAV.     

Silibinin inhibits hepatitis C virus entry into hepatocytes by hindering clathrin‐dependent trafficking

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a global health concern infecting 170 million people worldwide. Previous studies indicate that the extract from milk thistle known as silymarin and its main component silibinin inhibit HCV infection. Here we investigated the mechanism of anti‐HCV action ofsilymarin‐derived compounds at the molecular level. By using live‐cell confocal imaging, single particle tracking, transmission electron microscopy and biochemical approaches on HCV‐infected human hepatoma cells and primary hepatocytes, we show that silibinin potently inhibits HCV infection and hinders HCV entry by slowing down trafficking through clathrin‐coated pits and vesicles. Detailed analyses revealed that silibinin altered the formation of both clathrin‐coated pits and vesicles in cells and caused abnormal uptake and trafficking of transferrin, a well‐known cargo of the clathrin endocytic pathway. Silibinin also inhibited infection by other viruses that enter cells by clathrin‐mediated endocytosis including reovirus, vesicular stomatitis and influenza viruses. Our study demonstrates that silibinin inhibits HCV early steps of infection by affecting endosomal trafficking of virions. It provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms of action of silibinin against HCV entry and also suggests that silibinin is a potential broad‐spectrum antiviral therapy.     

Purification and properties of the H2-oxidizing (uptake) hydrogenase of the N2-fixing anaerobe Clostridium pasteurianum W5

Clostridium pasteurianum has two distinct hydrogenases, the bidirectional hydrogenase and the H₂-oxidizing (uptake) hydrogenase. The H₂-oxidizing hydrogenase has been purified (up to 970-fold) to a specific activity of 17,600 μmol H₂ oxidized/min·mg protein (5 mM methylene blue) or 3.5 μmol H₂ produced/min·mg protein (1 mM methyl viologen). The uptake hydrogenase has a M_r of 53,000 (one polypeptide chain). Depending upon how protein was measured, the Fe and S⁼ contents (gatom/mol) were 4.7 and 5.2 (by the dye-binding assay) or 7.2 and 8.0 (by the Lowry method). Both reduced and oxidized forms of the enzyme gave electron paramagnetic resonance signals. The activation energy for H₂-production and H₂-oxidation by the uptake hydrogenase was 59.1 and 31.2 kJ/mol, respectively. In the exponential phase of growth, the ratio of uptake hydrogenase/bidirectional hydrogenase in NH₃-grown cells was much lower than that in N₂-fixing cells.     

Circuit-Host Coupling Induces Multifaceted Behavioral Modulations of a Gene Switch

Quantitative modeling of gene circuits is fundamentally important to synthetic biology, as it offers the potential to transform circuit engineering from trial-and-error construction to rational design and, hence, facilitates the advance of the field. Currently, typical models regard gene circuits as isolated entities and focus only on the biochemical processes within the circuits. However, such a standard paradigm is getting challenged by increasing experimental evidence suggesting that circuits and their host are intimately connected, and their interactions can potentially impact circuit behaviors. Here we systematically examined the roles of circuit-host coupling in shaping circuit dynamics by using a self-activating gene switch as a model circuit. Through a combination of deterministic modeling, stochastic simulation, and Fokker-Planck equation formalism, we found that circuit-host coupling alters switch behaviors across multiple scales. At the single-cell level, it slows the switch dynamics in the high protein production regime and enlarges the difference between stable steady-state values. At the population level, it favors cells with low protein production through differential growth amplification. Together, the two-level coupling effects induce both quantitative and qualitative modulations of the switch, with the primary component of the effects determined by the circuit’s architectural parameters. This study illustrates the complexity and importance of circuit-host coupling in modulating circuit behaviors, demonstrating the need for a new paradigm—integrated modeling of the circuit-host system—for quantitative understanding of engineered gene networks.     

mTORC1 stimulates cell growth through SAM synthesis and m6A mRNA-dependent control of protein synthesis

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