Urinary Proteins,Vitamin D and Genetic Polymorphisms as Risk Factors for Febrile Urinary Tract Infection and Relation with Bacteremia: A Case Control Study

Objective/Purpose

Febrile urinary tract infection (UTI) is a common bacterial disease that may lead to substantial morbidity and mortality especially among the elderly. Little is known about biomarkers that predict a complicated course. Our aim was to determine the role of certain urinary cytokines or antimicrobial proteins, plasma vitamin D level, and genetic variation in host defense of febrile UTI and its relation with bacteremia.

Methods

A case-control study. Out of a cohort of consecutive adults with febrile UTI (n = 787) included in a multi-center observational cohort study, 46 cases with bacteremic E.coli UTI and 45 cases with non-bacteremic E.coli UTI were randomly selected and compared to 46 controls. Urinary IL-6, IL-8, LL37, β-defensin 2 and uromodulin as well as plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D were measured. In 440 controls and 707 UTI patients polymorphisms were genotyped in the genes CXCR1, DEFA4, DEFB1, IL6, IL8, MYD88, UMOD, TIRAP, TLR1, TLR2, TLR5 and TNF.

Results

IL-6, IL-8, and LL37 are different between controls and UTI patients, although these proteins do not distinguish between patients with and without bacteremia. While uromodulin did not differ between groups, inability to produce uromodulin is more common in patients with bacteremia. Most participants in the study, including the controls, had insufficient vitamin D and, at least in winter, UTI patients have lower vitamin D than controls. Associations were found between the CC genotype of IL6 SNP rs1800795 and occurrence of bacteremia and between TLR5 SNP rs5744168 and protection from UTI. The rare GG genotype of IL6 SNP rs1800795 was associated with higher β-defensin 2 production.

Conclusion

Although no biomarker was able to distinguish between UTI with or without bacteremia, two risk factors for bacteremia were identified. These were inability to produce uromodulin and an IL6 rs1800795 genotype.     

Increasing cell biomass in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Saccharomyces cerevisiae</Emphasis> increases recombinant protein yield: the use of a respiratory strain as a microbial cell factory

Background  

Recombinant protein production is universally employed as a solution to obtain the milligram to gram quantities of a given protein required for applications as diverse as structural genomics and biopharmaceutical manufacture. Yeast is a well-established recombinant host cell for these purposes. In this study we wanted to investigate whether our respiratory Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain, TM6*, could be used to enhance the productivity of recombinant proteins over that obtained from corresponding wild type, respiro-fermentative strains when cultured under the same laboratory conditions.     

Unusual growth pattern in the Frasnian alveolitids (Tabulata) from the Holy Cross Mountains (Poland)

Abstract: Growth periodicity is a phenomenon occurring in fossil and modern corals. The most apparent feature is growth banding, and environmental changes are broadly accepted as controls on this phenomenon. If environment controls the growth, then all corallites within a colony should repeat the same growth pattern, as individuals are clones and must have shared the same environment. A study on several species of Alveolitidae (Anthozoa, Tabulata) from the Late Devonian (Early Frasnian) of the Holy Cross Mountains (Poland) shows that the growth pattern varies between neighbouring individuals within the same corallum. This contradicts observations of closely related Favositida as demonstrated on Pachyfavosites sp. from the Givetian of Avesnois, France, where neighbouring individuals repeat the same pattern. Therefore, environmental control on growth rhythm in Alveolitidae can be excluded; the causes of differences between individuals remain unknown.