Middle East and North Africa consensus on osteoporosis

With the increasing life expectancy, osteoporosis is becoming a major worldwide health problem. The magnitude of the disease may become larger in developing countries, more particularly in the Middle East region where the prevalence of low bone mass is higher than in western countries. Although several local organizations and countries have developed guidelines for osteoporosis, no previous regional guidelines have been developed encompassing all Middle-Eastern and North African countries. The present document reviews all the regional published data on bone mineral density, risk factors, fracture prevalence and vitamin D status. It also gives simple recommendations applicable to all these countries. This document was endorsed by leading members of all the different regional countries including, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.     

Structural,morphological and steady state photoluminescence spectroscopy studies of red Eu3+‐doped Y2O3 nanophosphors prepared by the sol‐gel method

Europium trivalent (Eu³⁺)‐doped Y₂O₃ nanopowders of different concentrations (0.5, 2.5, 5 or 7 at.%) were synthesized by the sol‐gel method, at different pH values (pH 2, 5 or 8) and annealing temperatures (600°C, 800°C or 1000°C). The nanopowders samples were characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE‐SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR) and steady state photoluminescence spectroscopy. The effect of pH of solution and annealing temperatures on structural, morphological and photoluminescence properties of Eu³⁺‐doped Y₂O₃ were studied and are discussed. It was found that the average crystallite size of the nanopowders increased with increasing pH and annealing temperature values. The Y₂O₃:Eu³⁺ material presented different morphology and its evolution depended on the pH value and the annealing temperature. Activation energies at different pH values were determined and are discussed. Under ultraviolet (UV) light excitation, Y₂O₃:Eu³⁺ showed narrow emission peaks corresponding to the ⁵D_0–⁷F_J (J = 0, 1, 2 and 3) transitions of the Eu³⁺ ion, with the most intense red emission at 611 assigned to forced electric dipole ⁵D₀→⁷F₂. The emission intensity became more intense with increasing annealing temperature and pH values, related to the improvement of crystalline quality. For the 1000°C annealing temperature, the emission intensity presented a maximum at pH 5 related to the uniform cubic‐shaped particles. It was found that for lower annealing temperatures (small crystallite size) the CTB (charge transfer band) position presented a red shift. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Construction of a Plasmodium falciparum Rab-interactome identifies CK1 and PKA as Rab-effector kinases in malaria parasites

Background information

The pathology causing stages of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum reside within red blood cells that are devoid of any regulated transport system. The parasite, therefore, is entirely responsible for mediating vesicular transport within itself and in the infected erythrocyte cytoplasm, and it does so in part via its family of 11 Rab GTPases. Putative functions have been ascribed to Plasmodium Rabs due to their homology with Rabs of yeast, particularly with Saccharomyces that has an equivalent number of rab/ypt genes and where analyses of Ypt function is well characterized.

Results

Rabs are important regulators of vesicular traffic due to their capacity to recruit specific effectors. In order to identify P. falciparum Rab (PfRab) effectors, we first built a Ypt‐interactome by exploiting genetic and physical binding data available at the Saccharomyces genome database (SGD). We then constructed a PfRab‐interactome using putative parasite Rab‐effectors identified by homology to Ypt‐effectors. We demonstrate its potential by wet‐bench testing three predictions; that casein kinase‐1 (PfCK1) is a specific Rab5B interacting protein and that the catalytic subunit of cAMP‐dependent protein kinase A (PfPKA‐C) is a PfRab5A and PfRab7 effector.

Conclusions

The establishment of a shared set of physical Ypt/PfRab‐effector proteins sheds light on a core set Plasmodium Rab‐interactants shared with yeast. The PfRab‐interactome should benefit vesicular trafficking studies in malaria parasites. The recruitment of PfCK1 to PfRab5B+ and PfPKA‐C to PfRab5A+ and PfRab7+ vesicles, respectively, suggests that PfRab‐recruited kinases potentially play a role in early and late endosome function in malaria parasites.     

Medium term planning of biopharmaceutical manufacture with uncertain fermentation titers

The growing trend of employing multiproduct manufacturing facilities along with the randomness inherent in the biopharmaceutical manufacturing environment is creating significant scheduling and planning challenges for the biopharmaceutical industry. This work focuses on capturing the effect of uncertainty in fermentation titers when optimizing the planning of biopharmaceutical manufacturing campaigns. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model based on previous work is derived via chance constrained programming (CCP). The methodology is applied to two illustrative examples, and the results are compared with those from the deterministic model and a multiscenario model accompanied by an iterative construction algorithm. The computational results indicate that the proposed methodology offers significant improvements in solution quality over the compared approaches and presents an opportunity for biopharmaceutical manufacturers to make better medium term planning decisions, particularly under uncertain manufacturing conditions.     

Inactivation and intracellular retention of the human I183N mutated melanocortin 3 receptor associated with obesity

Melanocortins are known to be involved in the regulation of feeding behavior. These hormones mediate their effects through G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) by stimulating adenylate cyclase. The melanocortin 3 receptor (MC3R) in the melanocortin receptor (MCR) family has been identified as a neural receptor subtype mainly expressed in the brain in mammals. Until now, only one heterozygous mutation (I183N) has been identified in the coding region of this receptor in two obese patients of the same family. In this study, we reported the functional characterization of the I183N mutated MC3R compared with that of the wild-type MC3R after transfection in HEK293 cells. Our results showed that the I183N mutation totally abolished the activity of the mutated receptor to generate intracellular cAMP. Furthermore, confocal microscopy observation revealed that the mutation induced an intracellular retention of the mutated receptor. Moreover, we demonstrated for the first time by co-transfection studies that the mutated receptor could reduce the wild-type receptor activity through a dominant negative effect.     

Medium term planning of biopharmaceutical manufacture using mathematical programming

Regulatory pressures and capacity constraints are forcing the biopharmaceutical industry to consider employing multiproduct manufacturing facilities running on a campaign basis. The need for such flexible and cost-effective manufacture poses a significant challenge for planning and scheduling. This paper reviews the problem of planning and scheduling of biopharmaceutical manufacture and presents a methodology for the planning of multiproduct biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear program (MILP) to represent the relevant decisions required within the planning process and is tested on two typical biopharmaceutical industry planning problems. The proposed formulation is compared with an industrial rule based approach, which it outperforms in terms of profitability. The results indicate that the developed formulation offers an effective representation of the planning problem and would be a useful decision tool for manufacturers in the biopharmaceutical industry particularly at times of limited manufacturing capacity.     

EFFECTS OF THE HALOPHYTES TECTICORNIA INDICA AND SUAEDA FRUTICOSA ON SOIL ENZYME ACTIVITIES IN A MEDITERRANEAN SABKHA

In the present work, we studied the effectiveness of the predominant halophytes of Soliman sabkha (Tecticornia indica and Suaeda fruticosa) to promote soil biological activities and ecosystem productivity. Soil Arylsulphatese ARY, β-glucosidase β-GLU, phosphatase PHO, invertase INV, urease URE, and dehydogenase DES activities in Extra- and Intra-tuft halophytes and plant productivity were assessed. Results revealed a high increase of microbial community and ARY, β-GLU, PHO, INV, URE and DES activities (+298%, +400%, +800%, +350%, +320%, +25% and +759%, respectively) in Intra-tuft rhizosphere as compared to Extra-tuft one, which is likely due to the significant decrease of salinity in the rhizosphere of Tecticornia indica and Suaeda fruticosa. Both perennial plants exhibited high productivities (7.4 t dry weight ha^?1 and 2.2 t dry weight ha^?1, respectively) and Na⁺-hyperaccumulating capacities (0.75 t Na⁺ ha^?1 and 0.22 t Na⁺ ha^?1, respectively), reducing salt constraint and favouring soil fertility. This constitutes a promising alternative to enhance productivity in such a salt-affected biotope by offering suitable microhabitat for annual glycophytes.     

Oleuropein Protects Against Cerebral Ischemia Injury in Rats: Molecular Docking,Biochemical and Histological Findings

Neurochemical Research - This study was designed to evaluate the underlying protective mechanisms of oleuropein involved in alleviating brain damage in a rat model of ischemic stroke. Male Wistar...     

A Mediterranean Holocene restricted coastal lagoon under arid climate: Case of the sedimentary record of Sabkha Boujmel (SE Tunisia)

The Holocene sedimentary record of Sabkha Boujmel (SE Tunisia) is expressed by a shallowing-upward carbonate lagoon-tidal flat cycle (2.3 m thick) unconformably overlying continental silt-sandy sediment, Late Würmian in age. The sedimentary package of this cycle starts with transgressive marginal shallow marine (intertidal to subtidal) bioclastic sands grading upwards to black mudstone, rich in organic matter (T.O.C. up to 1.3%) deposited within a lagoon protected from the sea by Upper Pleistocene lithified sand spits.The uppermost part of the cycle is represented by oobioclastic carbonate sands covered with dead biodegraded microbial mats and/or reddish sands of aeolian origin deposited in intertidal to supratidal environments. The facies arrangement, particularly the spatial distribution of the ancient and the more recent microbial mats, records the progressive infilling of the lagoon as well as the progradation of the shoreline during the last 2000 years. The organic-rich facies which provide an age varying between 4130 and 6800 yr B.P. were deposited when the Boujmel lagoon started to be progressively separated from the Mediterranean Sea.The main factors controlling the facies and the thickness variation are the local topographic sea-floor irregularities most likely controlled by the inheritance morphology resulting from an important fluviatile digging that occurred during the last glacial maximum, the relative sea-level fluctuations, the hydro-isostatic rebound and the climate.