Lipid status association with 25-hydroxy vitamin D: Cross sectional study of end stage renal disease patients

BackgroundSome observational studies indicate an association of 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) insufficiency and atherogenic cholesterol concentrations. The aim of this study was to investigate relationship between 25(OH)D concentrations and lipid parameters in end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, separately for predialysis, hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients.MethodsWe have adjusted 25(OH)D concentrations for seasonal variability with cosinor analysis, and performed all further analysis using these corrected 25(OH)D concentrations. Concentrations of 25(OH)D and the lipid parameters were determined in 214 ESRD patients and 50 control group participants. The analysis included the measurement of 25(OH)D by HPLC, apolipoprotein (Apo) AI, ApoB and Lp(a) by nephelometry, total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride (TG) by spectrophotometry and manually calculated ApoB/ApoAI and LDL-C/HDL-C ratio.ResultsESRD patients with adjusted 25(OH)D concentrations of 50 nmol/L had significantly higher TC (P = 0.005) and ApoAI (P = 0.049). Significantly higher HDLC (P = 0.011) and ApoAI (P = 0.020) were found in hemodialysis patients with the 25(OH)D concentrations of 50 nmol/L. The other analyzed lipid parameters differed significantly between predialysis, hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients with 25(OH)D concentrations of < 50 nmol/L.ConclusionsOur study indicate the significant relationship between 25(OH)D repletion and optimal concentrations of lipid parameters in ESRD patients. Further research is necessary to explain whether joint evaluation of vitamin D status and lipid abnormalities could improve cardiovascular outcome in ESRD patients.     

小麦族植物的分类现状及主要存在的问题

小麦族(Triticeae)是禾本科、早熟禾亚科中一个有重要经济价值、以多年生植物占优势的族,族内绝大多数种类是重要的粮食作物和畜牧业上的优良牧草,饲用价值极高,有些种类具有耐寒、耐旱、耐碱等特性,是农牧业上良种繁育、牧草利用的重要基因资源。但该族同时又是分类学上的一个疑难族,各学者对族内系统分类意见不一、争议颇大,尤其在族的界限、族下类群划分以及类群演化关系上问题较多,至今尚未解决。查阅了国内外分类学文献,探讨其分类差异以及存在问题,为充分开发利用中国丰富的小麦族植物资源提供理论依据。     

Specific features of the structure of the Z-pinch emitting region formed during the implosion of a foam-wire load at the ANGARA-5-1 facility

Results are presented from experimental studies of the structure of the compressed plasma of a Z-pinch produced during the implosion of a foam-wire load at the current of up to 3 MA. The foam-wire load consisted of two nested cylindrical cascades, one of which was a solid or hollow cylinder made of low-density agar-agar foam, while the other was a wire array. The wall thickness of a hollow foam cylinder was 100–200 μm. The images of the pinch and its spectrum obtained with the help of multiframe X-ray cameras and a grazing incidence spectrograph with a spatial resolution were analyzed. Data on the spatial structure of the emitting regions and the soft X-ray (SXR) spectrum of the Z-pinch in the final stage of compression of a foam-wire load were obtained. The implosion modes characterized by the formation of hot regions during implosion of such loads were revealed. The characteristic scale lengths of the hot regions were determined. It is shown that the energy distribution of SXR photons in the energy range from 80 eV to 1 keV forms the spatial structure of Z-pinch images recorded during the implosion of foam-wire loads. It is revealed that the spectral density of SXR emission in the photon energy range of 300–600 eV from hot Z-pinch regions exceeds the spectral density of radiation from the neighboring Z-pinch regions by more than one order of magnitude. Groups of lines related to the absorption and emission of radiation by atoms and multicharged ions of carbon and oxygen in the outer foam cascade of a foam-wire load were recorded for the first time by analyzing the spatial distribution of the SXR spectra of multicharged ions of the Z-pinch. The groups of absorption lines of ions (C III, O III, O IV, and O VI) corresponding to absorption of SXR photons in the Z-pinch of a tungsten wire array, which served as the inner cascade of a foam-wire load, were identified. The plasma electron temperature measured from the charge composition of carbon and oxygen ions in the outer agar-agar foam cascade was 10–40 eV. During the implosion of foam-wire loads at currents of up to 3 MA, SXR pulses (hν > 100 eV) with a duration of 10 ns and peak power of 3 TW were detected. It is shown that the temporal profile of single-peak and double-peak SXR pulses can be controlled by varying the parameters of the outer and inner cascades of the foam-wire load.     

PURIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A PROTEINASE FROM THE PROBIOTIC Lactobacillus rhamnosus OXY

A proteinase produced by the human gastrointestinal isolate Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain OXY was identified and characterized. The prtR2 gene coding for proteinase activity was detected in the examined strain. The PCR primers used were constructed on the basis of the sequence of the prtR2 proteinase gene from Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. The enzyme was purified by fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) using CM-Sepharose Fast Flow and Sephacryl S-300 columns. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed that the enzyme had a relatively low molecular mass of 60 kD. Protease activity was observed at a pH range from 6.5 to 7.5 with optimum k _cat/K _m values at pH 7.0 and 40°C. Maximum proteolytic activity (59 U mL^?1) was achieved after 48 hr of cultivation. The activity of the enzyme was inhibited only by irreversible inhibitors specific for serine proteinases (PMSF and 3,4-dichloro-isocumarine), suggesting that the enzyme was a serine proteinase. Proteinase activity was increased by Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺, and inhibited by Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cd²⁺, and Fe^2+.     

Magnetic core-shell nanoparticles for drug delivery by nebulization

Background

Aerosolized therapeutics hold great potential for effective treatment of various diseases including lung cancer. In this context, there is an urgent need to develop novel nanocarriers suitable for drug delivery by nebulization. To address this need, we synthesized and characterized a biocompatible drug delivery vehicle following surface coating of Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) with a polymer poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA). The polymeric shell of these engineered nanoparticles was loaded with a potential anti-cancer drug quercetin and their suitability for targeting lung cancer cells via nebulization was evaluated.

Results

Average particle size of the developed MNPs and PLGA-MNPs as measured by electron microscopy was 9.6 and 53.2 nm, whereas their hydrodynamic swelling as determined using dynamic light scattering was 54.3 nm and 293.4 nm respectively. Utilizing a series of standardized biological tests incorporating a cell-based automated image acquisition and analysis procedure in combination with real-time impedance sensing, we confirmed that the developed MNP-based nanocarrier system was biocompatible, as no cytotoxicity was observed when up to 100 μg/ml PLGA-MNP was applied to the cultured human lung epithelial cells. Moreover, the PLGA-MNP preparation was well-tolerated in vivo in mice when applied intranasally as measured by glutathione and IL-6 secretion assays after 1, 4, or 7 days post-treatment. To imitate aerosol formation for drug delivery to the lungs, we applied quercitin loaded PLGA-MNPs to the human lung carcinoma cell line A549 following a single round of nebulization. The drug-loaded PLGA-MNPs significantly reduced the number of viable A549 cells, which was comparable when applied either by nebulization or by direct pipetting.

Conclusion

We have developed a magnetic core-shell nanoparticle-based nanocarrier system and evaluated the feasibility of its drug delivery capability via aerosol administration. This study has implications for targeted delivery of therapeutics and poorly soluble medicinal compounds via inhalation route.     

Phyletic Profiling with Cliques of Orthologs Is Enhanced by Signatures of Paralogy Relationships

New microbial genomes are sequenced at a high pace, allowing insight into the genetics of not only cultured microbes, but a wide range of metagenomic collections such as the human microbiome. To understand the deluge of genomic data we face, computational approaches for gene functional annotation are invaluable. We introduce a novel model for computational annotation that refines two established concepts: annotation based on homology and annotation based on phyletic profiling. The phyletic profiling-based model that includes both inferred orthologs and paralogs—homologs separated by a speciation and a duplication event, respectively—provides more annotations at the same average Precision than the model that includes only inferred orthologs. For experimental validation, we selected 38 poorly annotated Escherichia coli genes for which the model assigned one of three GO terms with high confidence: involvement in DNA repair, protein translation, or cell wall synthesis. Results of antibiotic stress survival assays on E. coli knockout mutants showed high agreement with our model''s estimates of accuracy: out of 38 predictions obtained at the reported Precision of 60%, we confirmed 25 predictions, indicating that our confidence estimates can be used to make informed decisions on experimental validation. Our work will contribute to making experimental validation of computational predictions more approachable, both in cost and time. Our predictions for 998 prokaryotic genomes include ∼400000 specific annotations with the estimated Precision of 90%, ∼19000 of which are highly specific—e.g. “penicillin binding,” “tRNA aminoacylation for protein translation,” or “pathogenesis”—and are freely available at http://gorbi.irb.hr/.     

Climate‐induced changes in the distribution of freshwater fish: observed and predicted trends

1. Climate change could be one of the main threats faced by aquatic ecosystems and freshwater biodiversity. Improved understanding, monitoring and forecasting of its effects are thus crucial for researchers, policy makers and biodiversity managers. 2. Here, we provide a review and some meta‐analyses of the literature reporting both observed and predicted climate‐induced effects on the distribution of freshwater fish. After reviewing three decades of research, we summarise how methods in assessing the effects of climate change have evolved, and whether current knowledge is geographically or taxonomically biased. We conducted multispecies qualitative and quantitative analyses to find out whether the observed responses of freshwater fish to recent changes in climate are consistent with those predicted under future climate scenarios. 3. We highlight the fact that, in recent years, freshwater fish distributions have already been affected by contemporary climate change in ways consistent with anticipated responses under future climate change scenarios: the range of most cold‐water species could be reduced or shift to higher altitude or latitude, whereas that of cool‐ and warm‐water species could expand or contract. 4. Most evidence about the effects of climate change is underpinned by the large number of studies devoted to cold‐water fish species (mainly salmonids). Our knowledge is still incomplete, however, particularly due to taxonomic and geographic biases. 5. Observed and expected responses are well correlated among families, suggesting that model predictions are supported by empirical evidence. The observed effects are of greater magnitude and show higher variability than the predicted effects, however, indicating that other drivers of changes may be interacting with climate and seriously affecting freshwater fish. 6. Finally, we suggest avenues of research required to address current gaps in what we know about the climate‐induced effects on freshwater fish distribution, including (i) the need for more long‐term data analyses, (ii) the assessment of climate‐induced effects at higher levels of organisation (e.g. assemblages), (iii) methodological improvements (e.g. accounting for uncertainty among projections and species’ dispersal abilities, combining both distributional and empirical approaches and including multiple non‐climatic stressors) and (iv) systematic confrontation of observed versus predicted effects across multi‐species assemblages and at several levels of biological organisation (i.e. populations and assemblages).     

Oribatid mites (Acari) from nests of some birds in South Vietnam

The fauna of oribatid mites in nests of the bar-bellied pitta, the blue-rumped pitta, and the whiterumped shama was studied at the Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve (South Vietnam). The data on the taxonomic composition, total number of species, dominant species, and their occurrence in nests are presented.