Detection and characterization of Wolbachia infections in laboratory and natural populations of different species of tsetse flies (genus Glossina)

Background

Wolbachia is a genus of endosymbiotic α-Proteobacteria infecting a wide range of arthropods and filarial nematodes. Wolbachia is able to induce reproductive abnormalities such as cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), thelytokous parthenogenesis, feminization and male killing, thus affecting biology, ecology and evolution of its hosts. The bacterial group has prompted research regarding its potential for the control of agricultural and medical disease vectors, including Glossina spp., which transmits African trypanosomes, the causative agents of sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in animals.

Results

In the present study, we employed a Wolbachia specific 16S rRNA PCR assay to investigate the presence of Wolbachia in six different laboratory stocks as well as in natural populations of nine different Glossina species originating from 10 African countries. Wolbachia was prevalent in Glossina morsitans morsitans, G. morsitans centralis and G. austeni populations. It was also detected in G. brevipalpis, and, for the first time, in G. pallidipes and G. palpalis gambiensis. On the other hand, Wolbachia was not found in G. p. palpalis, G. fuscipes fuscipes and G. tachinoides. Wolbachia infections of different laboratory and natural populations of Glossina species were characterized using 16S rRNA, the wsp (Wolbachia Surface Protein) gene and MLST (Multi Locus Sequence Typing) gene markers. This analysis led to the detection of horizontal gene transfer events, in which Wobachia genes were inserted into the tsetse flies fly nuclear genome.

Conclusions

Wolbachia infections were detected in both laboratory and natural populations of several different Glossina species. The characterization of these Wolbachia strains promises to lead to a deeper insight in tsetse flies-Wolbachia interactions, which is essential for the development and use of Wolbachia-based biological control methods.

     

Recent advances in elucidating the biological properties of Withania somnifera and its potential role in health benefits

Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal (Solanaceae), also known as ashwagandha, is an important medicinal plant that is widely used as a home remedy for several diseases in the Indian subcontinent and other parts of the world. W. somnifera is a dietary supplement composed of various nutrients, polyphenols and alkaloids that have free radical scavenging capacity, as well as other chemical constituents that possess anti-inflammatory, antitumor, anti-stress, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, and rejuvenating properties. The mechanism of action for these properties are not fully understood. W. somnifera also appears to influence the endocrine, cardiopulmonary and central nervous systems. Toxicity studies reveal that W. somnifera can be used without side effects. The findings presented in this review are very encouraging and indicate that this herb should be studied more extensively to confirm these results and to reveal other potential therapeutic effects.     

Design and Synthesis of a Peptidyl-FRET Substrate for Tumor Marker Enzyme human Matrix Metalloprotease-2 (hMMP-2)

Matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) in particular MMP-2, have been associated with several pathological conditions such as ovarian, urothelial, cutaneous, gastric, breast, and cervical cancers, etc. Successful treatment of these pathological conditions requires sensitive, reliable, quick and effective diagnostic tools such as fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) based assays in early stage of the disease. A peptidyl-FRET substrate having seven amino acid residues (PLGLKAR) with methoxycoumarin (Mca)/dinitrophenyl (Dnp) as fluorophore/quencher group has been synthesized using solid-phase fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc) peptide chemistry. The newly designed substrate is stable and shows a K _m value of 15???M for hMMP-2. This K _m value is the lowest compared with all other known hMMP-2 substrates having Mca/Dnp. Validation of the new FRET substrate in presence/absence of scorpion venom chlorotoxin, a known hMMP-2 inhibitor, shows an increase in detection efficiency of 6,250 times as compared to commonly used gelatin zymography. The new FRET substrate is much more cost effective and can be used for high throughput screening of hMMP-2 inhibitors in the laboratory for research and diagnostic purposes.     

Urinary metabolomic phenotyping of nickel induced acute toxicity in rat: an NMR spectroscopy approach

The metabolomic approach has been widely used in toxicology to investigate mechanisms of toxicity. To understand the mammalian system??s response to nickel exposure, we analysed the NiCl₂ induced metabolomic changes in urine of rats using ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectroscopy together with clinically relevant biochemical parameters. Male Sprague?CDawley rats were administered intraperitoneally with NiCl₂ at doses of 4, 10 and 20?mg/kg body weight. Urine samples were collected at 8, 16, 24, 72, 96 and 120?h post treatment. The metabolomic profile of rat urine showed prominent changes in citrate, dimethylamine, creatinine, choline, trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), phenyl alanine and hippurate at all doses. Principal component analysis of urine ¹H NMR spectra demonstrated the dose and time dependent development of toxicity. The metabolomic time trajectory, based on pattern recognition analysis of ¹H NMR spectra of urine, illustrated clear separation of pre and post treatments (temporal). Only animals treated with a low dose of NiCl₂ returned to normal physiology. The ¹H NMR spectral data correlated well with the clinically relevant nephrotoxic biomarkers. The urinary metabolomic phenotyping for NiCl₂ induced nephrotoxicity was defined according to the predictive ability of the known metabolite biomarkers, creatinine, citrate and TMAO. The current approach demonstrates that metabolomics, one of the most important platform in system biology, may be a promising tool for identifying and characterizing biochemical responses to toxicity.     

An overview of the different approaches used in the development of meniscal tissue engineering

The menisci are important fibrocartilaginous structures which give lubrication, shock absorption, nutrition and stabilisation to the knee joint, and also help transfer load. The meniscus' extracellular matrix possesses a complex architecture which is not uniform throughout the tissue. The inner third of the meniscus is composed of hyaline cartilage and the outer meniscus is composed of fibrocartilage. In a mature meniscus only the outer 10-25% is vascularised. There are various types of pathology associated with the meniscus. Previously, surgical techniques used to be considered as conventional treatment for meniscal lesions. However lesions in the avascular regions of the meniscus would rarely heal appropriately. It has been found that total menisectomies in patients may increase their chance of suffering from osteoarthritis in the future. Meniscal tissue engineering has been developed in an attempt to help improve the healing potential of avascular meniscal regions. Many different concepts and approaches have been tried and tested, such as the application of natural and synthetic scaffolds, mesenchymal stem cells, growth factors, fibrin glue and more. The objective of this review is to summarise the different approaches that have been used in the development of meniscal tissue engineering. The focus of this review is to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the studies that have been carried out, and from there determine what we have learnt from them in order to further the development in meniscal tissue engineering.     

The potential therapeutic use of stem cells in cartilage repair

As our population demographics change, osteoarthritis and cartilage defects are becoming more prevalent. The discovery of stems cells and their ability for indefinite regeneration has revolutionised the way cartilage problems are viewed. Tissue engineering has been shown to be the ideal way of repairing articular cartilage lesions, i.e. back to native tissue. Cartilage is an ideal tissue engineering target as it is avascular, aneural and alymphatic. The two main types of stem cells being investigated in chondrogenesis are embryological and mesenchymal stem cells. Research into embryological stem cells has been surrounded by controversy because of ethical, religious and social concerns. We discuss the use of embryological and mesenchymal stem cells in cartilage repair and the various factors involved in the differentiation into chondrocytes. We also discuss commonly used mesenchymal stem cell markers and their limitations.     

Mesenchymal stem cells conditioned with glucose depletion augments their ability to repair-infarcted myocardium

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are an attractive candidate for autologous cell therapy, but their ability to repair damaged myocardium is severely compromised with advanced age. Development of viable autologous cell therapy for treatment of heart failure in the elderly requires the need to address MSC ageing. In this study, MSCs from young (2 months) and aged (24 months) C57BL/6 mice were characterized for gene expression of IGF‐1, FGF‐2, VEGF, SIRT‐1, AKT, p16^INK4a, p21 and p53 along with measurements of population doubling (PD), superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and apoptosis. Aged MSCs displayed senescent features compared with cells isolated from young animals and therefore were pre‐conditioned with glucose depletion to enhance age affected function. Pre‐conditioning of aged MSCs led to an increase in expression of IGF‐1, AKT and SIRT‐1 concomitant with enhanced viability, proliferation and delayed senescence. To determine the myocardial repair capability of pre‐conditioned aged MSCs, myocardial infarction (MI) was induced in 24 months old C57BL/6 wild type mice and GFP expressing untreated and pre‐conditioned aged MSCs were transplanted. Hearts transplanted with pre‐conditioned aged MSCs showed increased expression of paracrine factors, such as IGF‐1, FGF‐2, VEGF and SDF‐1α. This was associated with significantly improved cardiac performance as measured by dp/dt_max, dp/dt_min, LVEDP and LVDP, declined left ventricle (LV) fibrosis and apoptosis as measured by Masson's Trichrome and TUNEL assays, respectively, after 30 days of transplantation. In conclusion, pre‐conditioning of aged MSCs with glucose depletion can enhance proliferation, delay senescence and restore the ability of aged cells to repair senescent infarcted myocardium.     

Studies on the characteristics of drug-loaded gelatin nanoparticles prepared by nanoprecipitation

The morphology of gelatin nanoparticles loaded with three different drugs (Tizanidine hydrochloride, Gatifloxacin and Fluconazole) and their characteristics of entrapment and release from gelatin nanoparticles were investigated by the analysis on nanoparticle size distribution, SEM and FT-IR in this study. The particles were prepared by nanoprecipitation using water and ethanol as a solvent and a nonsolvent, respectively. The exclusion of a crosslinking agent from the procedure led the system to have an irregularly-shaped morphology. Nonetheless, the uncrosslinked case of Gatifloxacin loading generally led to a more homogeneous population of nanoparticles than the uncrosslinked case of Tizanidine hydrochloride loading. No loading was achieved in the case of Fluconazole, whereas both Tizanidine hydrochloride and Gatifloxacin are observed of being capable of being loaded by nanoprecipitation. Tizanidine hydrochloride-loaded, blank and Gatifloxacin-loaded nanoparticles yielded, under crosslinked condition, 59.3, 23.1 and 10.6% of the used dried mass. The crosslinked Tizanidine hydrochloride-loaded particles showed the loading efficiency of 13.8%, which was decreased to 1.1% without crosslinking. A crosslinker such as glutaraldehyde is indispensable to enhance the Tizanidine hydrochloride-loading efficiency. To the contrary, the Gatifloxacin-loading efficiency for crosslinked ones was lower by a factor of 2-3 times than that for uncrosslinked ones. This is due to the carboxylic groups of Gatifloxacin and the aldehyde groups of glutaraldehyde competing with each other during the crosslinking process, to react with the amino groups of gelatin molecules. The loading efficiency of gelatin nanoparticles reported by other investigators greatly varies. Nevertheless, the loading efficiency reported by us is in good agreement with the drug-loading data of gelatin nanoparticles reported by other investigators. The 80% of loaded Tizanidine hydrochloride was released around 15 h after start-up of the release experiment, while the 20% of loaded Gatifloxacin was released more rapidly, as free Gatifloxacin, than the loaded Tizanidine hydrochloride and it showed the trend of sustained slow release during the remaining period of its release experiment. Furthermore, the result of comparative FT-IR analysis is consistent to that of the corresponding drug release study.     

Synthesis and antiviral activity of certain second generation methylenecyclopropane nucleosides

A second-generation series of substituted methylenecyclopropane nucleosides (MCPNs) has been synthesized and evaluated for antiviral activity against a panel of human herpesviruses, and for cytotoxicity. Although alkylated 2,6-diaminopurine analogs showed little antiviral activity, the compounds containing ether and thioether substituents at the 6-position of the purine did demonstrate potent and selective antiviral activity against several different human herpesviruses. In the 6-alkoxy series, antiviral activity depended on the length of the ether carbon chain, with the optimum chain length being about four carbon units long. For the corresponding thioethers, compounds containing secondary thioethers were more potent than those with primary thioethers.