Alterations in Cortical Morphology after Neonatal Stroke: Compensation in the Contralesional Hemisphere?

Although neonatal arterial ischemic stroke is now well‐studied, its complex consequences on long‐term cortical brain development has not yet been solved. In order to understand the brain development after focal early brain lesion, brain morphometry needs to be evaluated using structural parameters. In this work, our aim was to study and analyze the changes in morphometry of ipsi‐ and contralesional hemispheres in seven‐year‐old children following neonatal stroke. Therefore, we used surface‐based morphometry in order to examine the cortical thickness, surface area, cortical volume, and local gyrification index in two groups of children that suffered from neonatal stroke in the left (n = 19) and right hemispheres (n = 15) and a group of healthy controls (n = 30). Reduced cortical thickness, surface area, and cortical volumes were observed in the ipsilesional hemispheres for both groups in comparison with controls. For the group with left‐sided lesions, higher gyrification of the contralesional hemisphere was observed primarily in the occipital region along with higher surface area and cortical volume. As for the group with right‐sided lesions, higher gyrification was detected in two separate clusters also in the occipital lobe of the contralesional hemisphere, without a significant change in cortical thickness, surface area, or cortical volume. This is the first time that alterations of structural parameters are detected in the “healthy” hemisphere after unilateral neonatal stroke indicative of a compensatory phenomenon. Moreover, findings presented in this work suggest that lesion lateralization might have an influence on brain development and maturation.     

Features of Membrane Receptors in Bacterial Multiplication Process and Necessary Conditions for Phage Infection of Bacteria

According to the obtained experimental results, the thermal shock (from 37 to 53 °C) not only stops the multiplication process of Escherichia coli bacteria, but also causes bacterial titer to decrease gradually. After this period lasting up to 1 hour, the bacterial cells continue to grow. A similar type of response was observed when bacteria were subjected to acid shock. Increasing acidity of media leads to decrease of bacterial growth process, and finally, their titer curve sharply falls over time. Also, interesting results were obtained about necessary conditions for infecting the bacteria by phages. Particularly, DNA injection from phages into bacterial cells requires most of corresponding bacterial membrane receptors to be occupied by phages. We suppose that this occurs due to autocrine phenomenon when the signaling molecules block the DNA ejection from phage particles. This effect lasts until a certain number of phage particles are attached to the membrane. After that, DNA injection from phage head into the cytoplasm takes place and the process of bacterial infection begins. The real number of phages in a stock is by several orders higher than the number of plaque-forming units in a given stock, which is determined by a classical double-layer agar method.     

Smoothelin-like 2 Inhibits Coronin-1B to Stabilize the Apical Actin Cortex during Epithelial Morphogenesis

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T4 bacteriophage as a phage display platform

Analysis of molecular events in T4-infected Escherichia coli has revealed some of the most important principles of biology, including relationships between structures of genes and their products, virus-induced acquisition of metabolic function, and morphogenesis of complex structures through sequential gene product interaction rather than sequential gene activation. T4 bacteriophages and related strains were applied in the first formulations of many fundamental biological concepts. These include the unambiguous recognition of nucleic acids as the genetic material, the definition of the gene by fine-structure mutation, recombinational and functional analyses, the demonstration that the genetic code is triplet, the discovery of mRNA, the importance of recombination and DNA replications, light-dependent and light-independent DNA repair mechanisms, restriction and modification of DNA, self-splicing of intron/exon arrangement in prokaryotes, translation bypassing and others. Bacteriophage T4 possesses unique features that make it a good tool for a multicomponent vaccine platform. Hoc/Soc-fused antigens can be assembled on the T4 capsid in vitro and in vivo. T4-based phage display combined with affinity chromatography can be applied as a new method for bacteriophage purification. The T4 phage display system can also be used as an attractive approach for cancer therapy. The data show the efficient display of both single and multiple HIV antigens on the phage T4 capsid and offer insights for designing novel particulate HIV or other vaccines that have not been demonstrated by other vector systems.