A comparison of disease burden and symptoms with age among CoVid-19 patients from data in a Florida clinic

Our knowledge of the disease burden and symptoms with age in COVID-19 patients is limited. Therefore, it is of interest to document the clinical aspect of this association with respect to the disease. We used the data of 3363 patients enrolled with an urgent care clinic in Volusia county, Florida for this study. Data shows difference in age among COVID-19 antibody (Ab) - positive patients (48.3 years, 95% CI = 46.9,49.7 years) and Ab-negative patients (46.1 years, 95% CI = 45.4, 46.8 years). However, disease burden by age is not significant on average. Nonetheless, COVID-19 positive patients between 40-69-years of age experienced the highest burden of disease and highest average number of symptoms. Thus, COVID-19 disease burden and number of symptoms experienced were highest among the 40-69-year-old patients. Those above the populations mean age of 46.4 years old were more likely to test positive for COVID-19.     

The effect of standard chow and reduced hexokinase II on growth, cardiac and skeletal muscle hexokinase and low-flow cardiac ischaemia-reperfusion injury

In the present study, we examined whether standard chow (SDS versus Purina 5001; both low fat, high carbohydrate) and reductions in hexokinase (HK) II (wild-type versus HKII(+/-) mice) affect (1) growth parameters, (2) HK levels in cardiac and skeletal muscle and (3) low-flow cardiac ischaemia-reperfusion (IR) injury. Total HK activity and HKI and HKII expressions were determined, and low-flow IR injury was examined in isolated hearts subjected to 40 min 5% low-flow ischaemia and 120 min reperfusion. Standard chow, but not HKII reductions, significantly affected body weight, heart weight and cardiac hypertrophy. Both standard chow and reduced HKII diminished total cardiac and skeletal muscle HK activity. For the heart, the Purina chow-induced decrease in total HK activity was through decreases in HKI expression, whereas for skeletal muscle post-translational mechanisms are suggested. Both standard chow and reduced HKII demonstrated a non-significant trend for affecting cardiac IR damage. However, the low-flow ischaemia model was associated with mild sublethal injury only (～1% cell death). In conclusion, standard chow affects body weight, heart weight and HK activity and HKI expression in the heart, without altering HKII expression. This implicates standard chow as an important factor in genomic, physiological research models and demonstrates that large differences in fat or carbohydrates in the diet are not necessary to affect growth. In a cardiac low-flow IR model, resulting in only mild injury, standard chow or reduced HKII does not significantly affect IR damage.     

Conservation of gene function in the solanaceae as revealed by comparative mapping of domestication traits in eggplant

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) for domestication-related traits were identified in an interspecific F(2) population of eggplant (Solanum linnaeanum x S. melongena). Although 62 quantitative trait loci (QTL) were identified in two locations, most of the dramatic phenotypic differences in fruit weight, shape, color, and plant prickliness that distinguish cultivated eggplant from its wild relative could be attributed to six loci with major effects. Comparison of the genomic locations of the eggplant fruit weight, fruit shape, and color QTL with the positions of similar loci in tomato, potato, and pepper revealed that 40% of the different loci have putative orthologous counterparts in at least one of these other crop species. Overall, the results suggest that domestication of the Solanaceae has been driven by mutations in a very limited number of target loci with major phenotypic effects, that selection pressures were exerted on the same loci despite the crops' independent domestications on different continents, and that the morphological diversity of these four crops can be explained by divergent mutations at these loci.     

Production of N-sulfated polysaccharides using yeast-expressed N-deacetylase/N-sulfotransferase-1 (NDST-1)

Heparan sulfate/heparin N-deacetylase/N-sulfotransferase-1 (NDST-1) is a critical enzyme involved in heparan sulfate/heparin biosynthesis. This dual-function enzyme modifies the GlcNAc-GlcA disaccharide repeating sugar backbone to make N-sulfated heparosan. N-sulfation is an absolute requirement for the subsequent epimerization and O-sulfation steps in heparan sulfate/heparin biosynthesis. We have expressed rat liver (r) NDST-1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a soluble protein. The yeast-expressed enzyme has both N-deacetylase and N-sulfotransferase activities. N-acetyl heparosan, isolated from Escherichia coli K5 polysaccharide, de-N-sulfated heparin (DNSH) and completely desulfated N-acetylated heparan sulfate (CDSNAcHS) are all good substrates for the rNDST-1. However, N-desulfated, N-acetylated heparin (NDSNAcH) is a poor substrate. The rNDST-1 was partially purified on heparin Sepharose CL-6B. Purified rNDST-1 requires Mn(2+) for its enzymatic activity, can utilize PAPS regenerated in vitro by the PAPS cycle (PAP plus para-nitrophenylsulfate in the presence of arylsulfotransferase IV), and with the addition of exogenous PAPS is capable of producing 60-65% N-sulfated heparosan from E. coli K5 polysaccharide or Pasteurella multocida polysaccharide.     

Perception of Graphical Virtual Environments by Blind Users via Sensory Substitution

Graphical virtual environments are currently far from accessible to blind users as their content is mostly visual. This is especially unfortunate as these environments hold great potential for this population for purposes such as safe orientation, education, and entertainment. Previous tools have increased accessibility but there is still a long way to go. Visual-to-audio Sensory-Substitution-Devices (SSDs) can increase accessibility generically by sonifying on-screen content regardless of the specific environment and offer increased accessibility without the use of expensive dedicated peripherals like electrode/vibrator arrays. Using SSDs virtually utilizes similar skills as when using them in the real world, enabling both training on the device and training on environments virtually before real-world visits. This could enable more complex, standardized and autonomous SSD training and new insights into multisensory interaction and the visually-deprived brain. However, whether congenitally blind users, who have never experienced virtual environments, will be able to use this information for successful perception and interaction within them is currently unclear.We tested this using the EyeMusic SSD, which conveys whole-scene visual information, to perform virtual tasks otherwise impossible without vision. Congenitally blind users had to navigate virtual environments and find doors, differentiate between them based on their features (Experiment1:task1) and surroundings (Experiment1:task2) and walk through them; these tasks were accomplished with a 95% and 97% success rate, respectively. We further explored the reactions of congenitally blind users during their first interaction with a more complex virtual environment than in the previous tasks–walking down a virtual street, recognizing different features of houses and trees, navigating to cross-walks, etc. Users reacted enthusiastically and reported feeling immersed within the environment. They highlighted the potential usefulness of such environments for understanding what visual scenes are supposed to look like and their potential for complex training and suggested many future environments they wished to experience.     

Distribution of the enantiomers of hydroxychloroquine and its metabolites in ocular tissues of the rabbit after oral administration of racemic-hydroxychloroquine

The disposition of the enantiomers of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and its major metabolites in ocular tissues of rabbits has been studied. Both albino, New Zealand White (NZW), and pigmented animals were administered daily oral doses of rac-HCQ, (S)-HCQ or (R)-HCQ (20 mg/kg) over 1, 6, or 8 day periods or for 8 days followed by a 7-day washout period. At the end of the study periods, plasma and whole blood samples were collected and the rabbits were sacrificed. The eyes were collected, the aqueous humor removed with a syringe, and the eyes separated into the cornea, lens, vitreous body, iris, choroid-retina, sclera, and conjunctiva. The concentrations of (R)-HCQ, (S)-HCQ, and their respective metabolites were determined using a validated enantioselective liquid chromatographic assay. The data from these studies indicate that HCQ accumulated in both pigmented and nonpigmented ocular tissues. In the pigmented tissues, HCQ and its metabolites were bound to melanin and the binding was not enantiospecific. In the nonpigmented tissues and in the iris and retina-choroid of the NZW rabbits, the accumulation appeared to be the result of a reversible and enantioselective binding of HCQ and its metabolites to an unidentified biopolymer present in these ocular tissues. © 1994 Wiley-liss, Inc.     

ZmMYB31 directly represses maize lignin genes and redirects the phenylpropanoid metabolic flux

Few regulators of phenylpropanoids have been identified in monocots having potential as biofuel crops. Here we demonstrate the role of the maize (Zea mays) R2R3-MYB factor ZmMYB31 in the control of the phenylpropanoid pathway. We determined its in vitro consensus DNA-binding sequence as ACC(T)/(A) ACC, and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) established that it interacts with two lignin gene promoters in vivo. To explore the potential of ZmMYB31 as a regulator of phenylpropanoids in other plants, its role in the regulation of the phenylpropanoid pathway was further investigated in Arabidopsis thaliana. ZmMYB31 downregulates several genes involved in the synthesis of monolignols and transgenic plants are dwarf and show a significantly reduced lignin content with unaltered polymer composition. We demonstrate that these changes increase cell wall degradability of the transgenic plants. In addition, ZmMYB31 represses the synthesis of sinapoylmalate, resulting in plants that are more sensitive to UV irradiation, and induces several stress-related proteins. Our results suggest that, as an indirect effect of repression of lignin biosynthesis, transgenic plants redirect carbon flux towards the biosynthesis of anthocyanins. Thus, ZmMYB31 can be considered a good candidate for the manipulation of lignin biosynthesis in biotechnological applications.     

Specific characteristics of CK2β regulatory subunits in plants

In all eukaryotes, the typical CK2 holoenzyme is an heterotetramer composed of two catalytic (CK2α and CK2α') and two regulatory (CK2β) subunits. One of the distinctive traits of plant CK2 is that they present a greater number of genes encoding for CK2α/β subunits than animals or yeasts, for instance, in Arabidopsis and maize both CK2α/β subunits belong to multigenic families composed by up to four genes. Here, we conducted a genome-wide survey examining 34 different plant genomes in order to investigate if the multigenic property of CK2β genes is a common feature through the entire plant kingdom. Also, at the level of structure, the plant CK2β regulatory subunits present distinctive features as (i) they lack about 20 aminoacids in the C-terminal domain, (ii) they present a specific N-terminal extension of about 90 aminoacids that shares no homology with any previously characterized functional domain, and (iii) the acidic loop region is poorly conserved at the aminoacid level. Since there is no data about CK2β or holoenzyme structure in plants, in this study, we use human CK2β as a template to predict a structure for Zea mays CK2β1 by homology modeling and we discuss about possible structural changes in the acidic loop region that could affect the enzyme regulation.     

The potential of novel African isolates of Phthorimaea operculella granulovirus for the control of Tuta absoluta

Phthorimaea operculella granulovirus (PhopGV) is infectious for larvae of different Gelechiidae insect species, including Tuta absoluta and Phthorimaea operculella. As these are major economic pests in North and sub‐Saharan Africa as well as in the Mediterranean area, the development of locally suitable biocontrol agents is essential. We have studied five isolates of PhopGV from Tunisia (Tns16, Tu1.11 and Tu2.11), Kenya (Ken13) and Yemen (Ym14) for their biological activity and the sequence polymorphism of their granulin and ecdysteroid UDP‐glucosyltransferase (egt) genes and allocated the isolates to two different egt types. Infection experiments with neonate larvae of T. absoluta and P. operculella demonstrated their pathogenicity to both host species. The isolate PhopGV Tu1.11 was the most virulent one for T. absoluta but had a relatively low infectivity to two P. operculella populations originating from Italy and Tunisia.     

Respiratory burst activity of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) blood phagocytes differs markedly from that of rainbow trout

In the present study we investigated the respiratory burst (RB) activity of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) blood phagocytes and we evaluated how the RB activity of cod blood cells differ from that of trout. The RB activities were measured directly from highly diluted whole blood as luminol-amplified chemiluminescence (CL) under various conditions. Studies regarding the blood dilutions for cod whole blood chemiluminescence measurements (WBCL) revealed that at a final blood dilution of 1.5 microl ml(-1) or less the CL response was strictly proportional to the number of phagocytes. This range of blood dilution did not markedly differ from that of trout. However, the opsonisation capacity of cod plasma was markedly poorer. The RB activity of phagocytes was most active at 15 degrees C when heterologous cod serum was used as a source of opsonin, whereas at final blood dilution of 8.0 microl ml(-1) (when homologous cod plasma was at a higher concentration) the highest RB activity was observed at 10 degrees C. Aeromonas salmonicida strain MT004 (As MT004) induced higher RB activity than the two known pathogens for cod, atypical A. salmonicida and Vibrio anguillarum. Cod blood phagocytes were more responsive to plastic surfaces and the adhesion response of phagocytes was partly inhibited but did not totally vanish even at a final gelatin concentration of 0.4%. Moreover, cod serum enhanced the adherence of phagocytes and cod blood phagocytes also showed slow spontaneous degranulation. Finally, within the tested anticoagulants (heparin, Na-citrate, EDTA) heparin treated blood phagocytes generated the highest RB activity.