Correcting Misperceptions about the History of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Castanea</Emphasis> Stands in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Satoyama</Emphasis> in Japan

Correcting Misperceptions about the History of Castanea Stands in Satoyama in Japan. Mistaken ideas about the naturalness of past and present landscapes are widespread in diverse cultures and in the scientific literature, and many of these ideas are only now being seriously challenged by current research (e.g., Erickson 2006; Fairhead and Leach 1996; Hall 1998; Ramankutty and Foley 1999; Willis et al. 2004). For example, the chestnut, Castanea crenata, has long been an important tree in Japanese culture, which has been cultivated, among other things, for its much loved edible nut and its valuable timber. Today, the widely-held view in Japan, which also appears in the scholarly and popular literature, is that in the past Castanea stands covered a large area throughout Japan, and these stands only disappeared because of economic development, especially in association with railway construction. Otaru, Hokkaido, is one of the places where people believe Castanea stands covered a large area and were deforested only recently. Local people in Otaru believe that the stand in Temiya Park has existed since the Jomon Period. For a more accurate historical perspective on Japanese forestation, we have performed pollen analysis to clarify the timing of the introduction of the Castanea tree into Otaru region and to reveal the history of this specific Castanea stand in Temiya Park. The results indicate that Castanea was first found in Otaru region 7100 B.P., but that it was not cultivated extensively until recently. Based on our study, and on data from this area dating to the late 19th century, we concluded instead that the Castanea stand we studied in Temiya Park, Otaru, was established after the mid-20th century. We believe the results of this study are applicable to Castanea stands in other parts of Japan as well.     

Risk Factors for Death from Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, State of S?o Paulo,Brazil, 2009

This case-control study aimed to assess the risk factors for death from influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 in patients with laboratory confirmation, who had severe acute respiratory illness-SARI and were hospitalized between June 28^th and August 29^th 2009, in the metropolitan regions of São Paulo and Campinas, Brazil. Medical charts of all the 193 patients who died (cases) and the 386 randomly selected patients who recovered (controls) were investigated in 177 hospitals. Household interviews were conducted with those who had survived and the closest relative of those who had died. 73.6% of cases and 38.1% of controls were at risk of developing influenza-related complications. The 18-to-59-year age group (OR = 2.31, 95%CI: 1.31–4.10 (reference up to 18 years of age)), presence of risk conditions for severity of influenza (OR = 1.99, 95%CI: 1.11–3.57, if one or OR = 6.05, 95%CI: 2.76–13.28, if more than one), obesity (OR = 2.73, 95%CI: 1.28–5.83), immunosuppression (OR = 3.43, 95%CI: 1.28–9.19), and search for previous care associated with the hospitalization (OR = 3.35, 95%CI: 1.75–6.40) were risk factors for death. Antiviral treatment performed within 72 hours of the onset of symptoms (OR = 0.17, 95%CI: 0.08–0.37, if within 48hours, and OR = 0.30, 95%CI: 0.11–0.81, if between 48 and 72 hours) was protective against death. The identification of high-risk patients and early treatment are important factors for reducing morbi-mortality from influenza.     

Dishevelled,a Wnt signalling component,is involved in mitotic progression in cooperation with Plk1

Wnt signalling is known to promote G1/S progression through the stimulation of gene expression, but whether this signalling regulates mitotic progression is not clear. Here, the function of dishevelled 2 (Dvl2), which transmits the Wnt signal, in mitosis was examined. Dvl2 localized to the spindles and spindle poles during mitosis. When cells were treated with nocodazole, Dvl2 was observed at the kinetochores (KTs). Dvl2 bound to and was phosphorylated at Thr206 by a mitotic kinase, Polo‐like kinase 1 (Plk1), and this phosphorylation was required for spindle orientation and stable microtubule (MT)‐KT attachment. Dvl2 was also found to be involved in the activation of a spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) kinase, Mps1, and the recruitment of other SAC components, Bub1 and BubR1, to the KTs. However, the phosphorylation of Dvl2 by Plk1 was dispensable for SAC. Furthermore, Wnt receptors were involved in spindle orientation, but not in MT‐KT attachment or SAC. These results suggested that Dvl2 is involved in mitotic progression by regulating the dynamics of MT plus‐ends and the SAC in Plk1‐dependent and ‐independent manners.     

Binding of YC-1/BAY 41-2272 to soluble guanylate cyclase: A new perspective to the mechanism of activation

Soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), a heterodimeric heme protein, catalyses the conversion of GTP in to cyclic GMP, which acts as a second messenger in cellular signaling. Nitric oxide activates this enzyme several hundred folds over its basal level. Carbon monoxide, along with some activator molecules like YC-1 and BAY, also synergistically activate sGC. Mechanism of this synergistic activation is a matter of debate. Here we review the existing literature to identify the possible binding site for YC-1 and BAY on bovine lung sGC and its mechanism of activation. These two exogenous compounds bind sGC on α subunit inside a pocket and thus exert allosteric effect via subunit interface, which is relayed to the catalytic site. We used docking studies to further validate this hypothesis. We propose that the binding of YC-1/BAY inside the sensory domain of the α subunit modulates the interactions on the subunit interface resulting in rearrangements in the catalytic site into active conformation and this partly induces the cleavage of Fe-His bond.     

Soybean-derived phosphatidylinositol inhibits in vivo low concentrations of amyloid beta protein-induced degeneration of hippocampal neurons in V337M human tau-expressing mice

In our previous reports using primary cultured rat hippocampal neurons, pathophysiological concentrations (< or =10 nM) of amyloid beta proteins (Abetas) showed neurotoxicity via a phosphatidylinositol metabolism disorder, and soybean-derived phosphatidylinositol protected the neurons against the Abeta's neurotoxicity. In the present study, such a neurotoxic effect of Abeta and a neuroprotective effect of phosphatidylinositol were examined in vivo using transgenic mice expressing V337 M human tau. Intrahippocampal CA1 injection of 1.5 mul of 100 nM or 1 microM Abeta25-35 increased the number of degenerating neurons with an apoptotic feature in bilateral hippocampal CA1, CA2, CA3 and dentate gyrus regions in 1 month, demonstrating an in vivo neurotoxic effect of Abeta at lower concentrations after diffusion. Intrahippocampal co-injection or intracerebroventricular administration of 1.5 microl of 500 nM phosphatidylinositol prevented the Abeta25-35-induced neuronal degeneration in all the hippocampal regions, while co-injection of another acidic phospholipid, phosphatidylserine (1.5 microl, 500 nM) with Abeta25-35 showed no protective effects. Thus, exogenously applied phosphatidylinositol appeared to minimize the toxic effects of Abeta in vivo. These results suggest that soybean-derived phosphatidylinositol may be effective in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.     

4-Pyridone derivatives as new inhibitors of bacterial enoyl-ACP reductase FabI

Bacterial FAS provides essential fatty acids for use in the assembly of key cellular components. Among them, FabI is an enoyl-ACP reductase which catalyzes the final and rate-limiting step of bacterial FAS. It is a potential target for selective antibacterial action, because it shows low overall sequence homology with mammalian enzymes. Until today, various compounds have been reported as inhibitors of bacterial FabI-inhibitory compounds. To discover novel small-molecular FabI inhibitors, we initially screened our compound library for inhibitory activity toward FabI of Escherichia coli. And discovered 4-pyridone derivatives as a lead compound. Structure optimization studies yielded 4-pyridone derivatives 7n having strong FabI-inhibitory and antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus. There have been no reports concerning 4-pyridone derivatives as FabI inhibitor.