Overweight and Obese Pet Owners: Respondent and Pet Characteristics in the Rural Midwestern United States

The obesity epidemic has impacted both people and pets in the rural Midwestern United States (MWUS). Tailoring health advice to the socio-demographic characteristics and dietary patterns of owners and their pets can help promote adherence to health behavior changes for owners and foster health improvements for both owners and pets. The authors completed this cross-sectional study in the rural MWUS with the objective of describing health-related characteristics of non-over-weight/obese versus overweight/obese [NOO vs. OO] cat and dog owners and their pets. The primary aim was to detect differences that could inform health recommendations. For both cat and dog owners, dietary and lifestyle profiles differed between those who were non-overweight/obese and those who were overweight/obese. NOO dog owners trended toward fewer health problems, took fewer medications (p < 0.02), took more supplements (p < 0.03), and ate less fast food (p < 0.03) and more fish (p < 0.001) than OO owners. Dogs owned by NOO owners had more owner-initiated activity (M ± SD: 44.6 ± 63.0 vs. 27.2 ± 26.4 min/d) and were on more supplements (p < 0.003). NOO cat owners were younger (p < 0.03), had fewer health problems (p < 0.04), took fewer medications (p < 0.04), engaged in more exercise (p < 0.02), and ate less fast food (p < 0.03) than OO cat owners. The only significant difference between cats of NOO vs. OO owners was their predominant gender: 57% vs. 74% female (p < 0.01). These findings have implications for marketing, education, and health care for both owners and pets. Further investigation of the relationship between pet ownership and health is warranted.     

Surface glycoprotein of Borna disease virus mediates virus spread from cell to cell

Borna disease virus (BDV) is a non‐segmented negative‐stranded RNA virus that maintains a strictly neurotropic and persistent infection in affected end hosts. The primary target cells for BDV infection are brain cells, e.g. neurons and astrocytes. The exact mechanism of how infection is propagated between these cells and especially the role of the viral glycoprotein (GP) for cell–cell transmission, however, are still incompletely understood. Here, we use different cell culture systems, including rat primary astrocytes and mixed cultures of rat brain cells, to show that BDV primarily spreads through cell–cell contacts. We employ a highly stable and efficient peptidomimetic inhibitor to inhibit the furin‐mediated processing of GP and demonstrate that cleaved and fusion‐active GP is strictly necessary for the cell‐to‐cell spread of BDV. Together, our quantitative observations clarify the role of Borna disease virus‐glycoprotein for viral dissemination and highlight the regulation of GP expression as a potential mechanism to limit viral spread and maintain persistence. These findings furthermore indicate that targeting host cell proteases might be a promising approach to inhibit viral GP activation and spread of infection.     

Using maximum entropy to predict the potential distribution of an invasive freshwater snail

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Space‐time tradeoffs in the development of precipitation‐based isoscape models for determining migratory origin

Precipitation stable isotope patterns over continental scales provide a fundamental tool for tracking origins of migratory species. Hydrogen isotopes from rain and environmental waters are assimilated into animal tissues and may thereby reveal the location where tissues were synthesized. Predictive isotopic maps (or isoscapes) of stable hydrogen isotope values in precipitation (δ²H_p) are typically generated by time‐averaging observations from a global network of stations that have been sampled irregularly in space and time. We previously demonstrated that restricting the temporal range in δ²H_p isoscapes to biologically relevant time frames did not improve predictions of geographic origin for two migratory species in North America and Europe; rather, it decreased the accuracy of assignment. Here, we examined whether the reduction in assignment accuracy stemmed from a decrease in the number of sampling stations available to support isoscape development for shorter time periods. Multiple regression models were used to predict the hydrogen isotope composition in precipitation using isotopic measurements from each station along with a suite of independent variables. The reduction in the number of stations with δ²H_p measurements used to estimate isoscape model parameters did not alter the accuracy and precision of assignments consistently. We also examined accuracy across a range of reduced station numbers and found that mean accuracy was affected only at very low numbers of stations, indicating that the spatial isotopic patterns in precipitation that are useful for assignment applications can be characterized with data from relatively limited data stations. The number and spatial distribution of stations may have more influence when geostatistical models are used to generate isoscapes, as they incorporate spatial correlation in the dataset. The results can be used to guide future research in understanding how data availability and constraints in creating δ²H_p isoscapes may affect predictions of geographic origins.     

Control of mRNA translation preserves endoplasmic reticulum function in beta cells and maintains glucose homeostasis

Type 2 diabetes is a disorder of hyperglycemia resulting from failure of beta cells to produce adequate insulin to accommodate an increased metabolic demand. Here we show that regulation of mRNA translation through phosphorylation of eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2alpha) is essential to preserve the integrity of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and to increase insulin production to meet the demand imposed by a high-fat diet. Accumulation of unfolded proteins in the ER activates phosphorylation of eIF2alpha at Ser51 and inhibits translation. To elucidate the role of this pathway in beta-cell function we studied glucose homeostasis in Eif2s1(tm1Rjk) mutant mice, which have an alanine substitution at Ser51. Heterozygous (Eif2s1(+/tm1Rjk)) mice became obese and diabetic on a high-fat diet. Profound glucose intolerance resulted from reduced insulin secretion accompanied by abnormal distension of the ER lumen, defective trafficking of proinsulin, and a reduced number of insulin granules in beta cells. We propose that translational control couples insulin synthesis with folding capacity to maintain ER integrity and that this signal is essential to prevent diet-induced type 2 diabetes.     

N2-Succinylornithine in ornithine catabolism of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Most Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO mutants which were unable to utilize l-arginine as the sole carbon and nitrogen source (aru mutants) under aerobic conditions were also affected in l-ornithine utilization. These aru mutants were impaired in one or several enzymes involved in the conversion of N²-succinylornithine to glutamate and succinate, indicating that the latter steps of the arginine succinyltransferase pathway can be used for ornithine catabolism. Addition of aminooxyacetate, an inhibitor of the N²-succinylornithine 5-aminotransferase, to resting cells of P. aeruginosa in ornithine medium led to the accumulation of N²-succinylornithine. In crude extracts of P. aeruginosa an ornithine succinyltransferase (l-ornithine:succinyl-CoA N²-succinyltransferase) activity could be detected. An aru mutant having reduced arginine succinyltransferase activity also had correspondingly low levels of ornithine succinyltransferase. Thus, in P. aeruginosa, these two activities might be due to the same enzyme, which initiates aerobic arginine and ornithine catabolism.Abbreviations OAT ornithine 5-aminotransferase - SOAT N²-succinylornithine 5-aminotransferase - Oru ornithine utilization - Aru arginine utilization     

A Longitudinal Study of Disability,Cognition and Gray Matter Atrophy in Early Multiple Sclerosis Patients According to Evidence of Disease Activity

New treatment options may make “no evidence of disease activity” (NEDA: no relapses or disability progression and no new/enlarging MRI lesions, as opposed to “evidence of disease activity” (EDA) with at least one of the former), an achievable goal in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The objective of the present study was to determine whether early RRMS patients with EDA at one-year follow-up had different disability, cognition, treatment and gray matter (GM) atrophy rates from NEDA patients and healthy controls (HC). RRMS patients (mean age 34 years, mean disease duration 2.2 years) were examined at baseline and one-year follow-up with neurological (n = 72), neuropsychological (n = 56) and structural MRI (n = 57) examinations. Matched HC (n = 61) were retested after three years. EDA was found in 46% of RRMS patients at follow-up. EDA patients used more first line and less second line disease modifying treatment than NEDA (p = 0.004). While the patients groups had similar disability levels at baseline, they differed in disability at follow-up (p = 0.010); EDA patients progressed (EDSS: 1.8–2.2, p = 0.010), while NEDA patients improved (EDSS: 2.0–1.7, p<0.001). Cognitive function was stable in both patient groups. Subcortical GM atrophy rates were higher in EDA patients than HC (p<0.001). These results support the relevance of NEDA as outcome in RRMS and indicate that pathological neurodegeneration in RRMS mainly occur in patients with evidence of disease activity.     

Fecal Shedding of Zoonotic Food-Borne Pathogens by Wild Rodents in a Major Agricultural Region of the Central California Coast

Recent outbreaks of food-borne illness associated with the consumption of produce have increased concern over wildlife reservoirs of food-borne pathogens. Wild rodents are ubiquitous, and those living close to agricultural farms may pose a food safety risk should they shed zoonotic microorganisms in their feces near or on agricultural commodities. Fecal samples from wild rodents trapped on 13 agricultural farms (9 produce, 3 cow-calf operations, and 1 beef cattle feedlot) in Monterey and San Benito Counties, CA, were screened to determine the prevalence and risk factors for shedding of several food-borne pathogens. Deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) were the most abundant rodent species trapped (72.5%). Cryptosporidium species (26.0%) and Giardia species (24.2%) were the predominant isolates from rodent feces, followed by Salmonella enterica serovars (2.9%) and Escherichia coli O157:H7 (0.2%). Rodent trap success was significantly associated with detection of Salmonella in rodent feces, while farm type was associated with fecal shedding of Cryptosporidium and Giardia. Seasonal shedding patterns were evident, with rodents trapped during the spring and summer months being significantly less likely to be shedding Cryptosporidium oocysts than those trapped during autumn. Higher rodent species diversity tended to correlate with lower fecal microbial prevalence, and most spatiotemporal pathogen clusters involved deer mice. Rodents in the study area posed a minimal risk as environmental reservoirs of E. coli O157:H7, but they may play a role in environmental dissemination of Salmonella and protozoa. Rodent control efforts that potentially reduce biodiversity may increase pathogen shedding, possibly through promotion of intraspecific microbial transmission.     

The Prp19 U-box crystal structure suggests a common dimeric architecture for a class of oligomeric E3 ubiquitin ligases

Prp19 is an essential splicing factor and a member of the U-box family of E3 ubiquitin ligases. Prp19 forms a tetramer via a central coiled-coil domain. Here, we show the U-box domain of Prp19 exists as a dimer within the context of the Prp19 tetramer. A high-resolution structure of the homodimeric state of the Prp19 U-box was determined by X-ray crystallography. Mutation of the U-box dimer interface abrogates U-box dimer formation and is lethal in vivo. The structure of the U-box dimer enables construction of a complete model of Prp19 providing insights into how the tetrameric protein functions as an E3 ligase. Finally, comparison of the Prp19 U-box homodimer with the heterodimeric complex of BRCA1/BARD1 RING-finger domains uncovers a common architecture for a family of oligomeric U-box and RING-finger E3 ubiquitin ligases, which has mechanistic implications for E3 ligase-mediated polyubiquitination and E4 polyubiquitin ligases.     

Prediction and interpretation of the antioxidant capacity of green tea from dissimilar chromatographic fingerprints

Previously, multivariate calibration techniques have been successfully applied to model and predict the antioxidant activity of green tea from its chromatographic fingerprint. Since the selectivity differences between dissimilar chromatographic systems have already been valuably used in several applications, in this paper it is studied whether combining the complementary information contained in two dissimilar fingerprints can improve the predictive capacity of the multivariate calibration model. The simplest way of combining the data is concatenating both fingerprints for each sample. The resulting matrix can then be subjected to Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures (O-PLS). Unfortunately, this approach resulted in a more complex model with a prediction error of about the average of the errors obtained with the individual fingerprints. Secondly, only the peaks with high loading and low orthogonal loading from both chromatograms were included in the O-PLS model. This resulted in a reduced complexity, but not in better predictions, probably due to a lack of complementarity of the information concerning the antioxidant capacity. Finally, the concatenated fingerprints were subjected to stepwise multiple linear regression (MLR) in order to build a model based on the variables most correlated with the antioxidant capacity. The obtained prediction error was lower than those of both previous approaches, but still higher than the error of the model based on a single analysis. This is probably again caused by a lack of complementarity in the variables. Nevertheless, it was advantageous to develop fingerprints on dissimilar system, because it enables to choose the most suited chromatographic profile to build a multivariate calibration model for the considered purpose. In contrast to what was expected, the study showed that the most simple (so the worst separated) fingerprints resulted in the best predictions. On the other hand, a more complex fingerprint in which more compounds are separated is still important to improve the interpretability of the model.