Adverse environmental conditions influence age-related innate immune responsiveness

Background-  

The innate immune system plays an important role in the recognition and induction of protective responses against infectious pathogens, whilst there is increasing evidence for a role in mediating chronic inflammatory diseases at older age. Despite indications that environmental conditions can influence the senescence process of the adaptive immune system, it is not known whether the same holds true for the innate immune system. Therefore we studied whether age-related innate immune responses are similar or differ between populations living under very diverse environmental conditions.     

Exercise prevents leptin-induced increase in blood pressure in Sprague–Dawley rats

Although leptin has been shown to increase blood pressure (BP), it is however unclear if this increase can be prevented by exercise. This study therefore investigated the effect of leptin treatment with concurrent exercise on blood pressure (BP), sodium output, and endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels in normotensive rats. Male Sprague–Dawley rats weighing 250–270 g were divided into four groups consisting of a control group (n?=?6), leptin-treated (n?=?8), non-leptin-treated exercise group (n?=?8), and a leptin-treated exercise group (n?=?8). Leptin was given subcutaneously daily for 14 days (60 μg/kg/day). Animals were exercised on a treadmill for 30 min at a speed of 0.5 m/s and at 5° incline four times per week. Measurement of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and collection of urine samples for estimation of sodium and creatinine was done once a week. Serum samples were collected at the end of the experiment for determination of sodium, creatinine and ET-1. At day 14, mean SBP and serum ET-1 level in the leptin-treated group was significantly higher than that in the control group whereas mean SBP and serum ET-1 level was significantly lower in the leptin-treated exercise group than those in leptin-treated and control groups. Creatinine clearance, urinary sodium excretion, and urine output were not different between the four groups. Regular treadmill exercise prevents leptin-induced increases in SBP in rats, which might in part result from increased urinary sodium excretion and preventing the leptin-induced increases in serum ET-1 concentration.     

Bestimmung von deoxynivalenol mittels LC - MS/MS (Tandem Massenspektrometrie)

A sensitive and selective method using high-performance liquid chromatography in combination with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization tandem mass spetrometry (LC-APCI-MS/MS) has been developed for the determination of Deoxynivalenol (DON) in trace levels. The extract was purified with a MultiSep? column followed by the Vicam? DON immunoaffinity column. Quantification is based on an external standard method using positive Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM). The limit of detection was 5 μg/kg with a signal to noise ratio of 3:1.     

Aziridine-2-carboxylic acid. A reactive amino acid unit for a new class of cysteine proteinase inhibitors.

The three-membered ring of aziridine-2-carboxylic acid, which is susceptible to opening by nucleophiles, has been analyzed as a potential useful handle for the design of specific irreversible inhibitors of cysteine proteinases. For this thiol-reactive amino acid, an imino analogue of proline, a second-order rate constant of 17.07 M-1.s-1 for inactivation of papain was determined. Thus, the aziridine moiety proved to be remarkably more reactive than activated double bonds, e.g. N-ethylmaleimide, or halides such as alpha-iodopropionic acid or chloroacetic acid. Since it does not alkylate histidine under conditions in which quantitative alkylation occurs with N-ethyl-maleimide, it could represent an interesting reactive amino acid unit for the synthesis of a new class of irreversible inhibitors, at least in terms of specificity of the chemical reaction involved in the inactivation process.     

Computing approximate standard errors for genetic parameters derived from random regression models fitted by average information REML

Approximate standard errors (ASE) of variance components for random regression coefficients are calculated from the average information matrix obtained in a residual maximum likelihood procedure. Linear combinations of those coefficients define variance components for the additive genetic variance at given points of the trajectory. Therefore, ASE of these components and heritabilities derived from them can be calculated. In our example, the ASE were larger near the ends of the trajectory.     

Accelerating the reconstruction of genome-scale metabolic networks

Background  

The genomic information of a species allows for the genome-scale reconstruction of its metabolic capacity. Such a metabolic reconstruction gives support to metabolic engineering, but also to integrative bioinformatics and visualization. Sequence-based automatic reconstructions require extensive manual curation, which can be very time-consuming. Therefore, we present a method to accelerate the time-consuming process of network reconstruction for a query species. The method exploits the availability of well-curated metabolic networks and uses high-resolution predictions of gene equivalency between species, allowing the transfer of gene-reaction associations from curated networks.     

Intermolecular interactions in the crystal structures of potential HIV-1 integrase inhibitors

2-[(2,5-dichloro-4-nitro-phenylamino)-methoxy-methyl]-8-hydroxy-quinoline 1 and 2-methyl-quinoline-5,8-dione-5-oxime 2 were obtained as potential HIV-1 integrase inhibitors and analyzed by X-ray crystallography. Semiempirical theoretical calculations of energy preferred conformations were also carried out. The crystal structures of both compounds are stabilized via hydrogen bonds and pi-pi stacking interactions. The planarity of compound 1 is caused by intramolecular hydrogen bonds.