Kinetics of local helix formation in poly-L-glutamic acid studied by time-resolved photoacoustics: neutralization reactions of carboxylates in aqueous solutions and their relevance to the problem of protein folding

Photoactivatable caged protons have been used to trigger proton transfer reactions in aqueous solutions of acetate, glutamate, and poly-L-glutamic acid, and the volumetric and enthalpic changes have been detected and characterized by means of time-resolved photoacoustics. Neutralization of carboxylates in aqueous solutions invariably results in an expansion of the solution due to the disappearance of two charges and is accompanied by little enthalpic change. The reactions occur with thermally activated, apparent bimolecular rates on the order of 10(10) M(-1)s(-1). In the case of aqueous solutions of poly-L-glutamic acid at pH around the pK(a) of the coil-to-helix transition, diffusional binding of a proton by carboxylates is followed by a sequential reaction with rate 1.06 (+/- 0.05) x 10(7)s(-1). This step is not thermally activated in the temperature range we have investigated and is likely related to local formation of hydrogen bonds near the protonation site. This structural event may constitute a rate-limiting step in helix propagation.     

Fine mapping of the chromosome 12 late-onset Alzheimer disease locus: potential genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) is the only confirmed susceptibility gene for late-onset Alzheimer disease (AD). In a recent genomic screen of 54 families with late-onset AD, we detected significant evidence for a second late-onset AD locus located on chromosome 12 between D12S373 and D12S390. Linkage to this region was strongest in 27 large families with at least one affected individual without an APOE-4 allele, suggesting that APOE and the chromosome 12 locus might have independent effects. We have since genotyped several additional markers across the region, to refine the linkage results. In analyzing these additional data, we have addressed the issue of heterogeneity in the data set by weighting results by clinical and neuropathologic features, sibship size, and APOE genotype. When considering all possible affected sib pairs (ASPs) per nuclear family, we obtained a peak maximum LOD score between D12S1057 and D12S1042. The magnitude and location of the maximum LOD score changed when different weighting schemes were used to control for the number of ASPs contributed by each nuclear family. Using the affected-relative-pair method implemented in GENEHUNTER-PLUS, we obtained a maximum LOD score between D12S398 and D12S1632, 25 cM from the original maximum LOD score. These results indicate that family size influences the location estimate for the chromosome 12 AD gene. The results of conditional linkage analysis by use of GENEHUNTER-PLUS indicated that evidence for linkage to chromosome 12 was stronger in families with affected individuals lacking an APOE-4 allele; much of this evidence came from families with affected individuals with neuropathologic diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Taken together, these results indicate that the chromosome 12 locus acts independently of APOE to increase the risk of late-onset familial AD and that it may be associated with the DLB variant of AD.     

Absence of sodA Increases the Levels of Oxidation of Key Metabolic Determinants of Borrelia burgdorferi

Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, alters its gene expression in response to environmental signals unique to its tick vector or vertebrate hosts. B. burgdorferi carries one superoxide dismutase gene (sodA) capable of controlling intracellular superoxide levels. Previously, sodA was shown to be essential for infection of B. burgdorferi in the C3H/HeN model of Lyme disease. We employed two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and immunoblot analysis with antibodies specific to carbonylated proteins to identify targets that were differentially oxidized in the soluble fractions of the sodA mutant compared to its isogenic parental control strain following treatment with an endogenous superoxide generator, methyl viologen (MV, paraquat). HPLC-ESI-MS/MS analysis of oxidized proteins revealed that several proteins of the glycolytic pathway (BB0057, BB0020, BB0348) exhibited increased carbonylation in the sodA mutant treated with MV. Levels of ATP and NAD/NADH were reduced in the sodA mutant compared with the parental strain following treatment with MV and could be attributed to increased levels of oxidation of proteins of the glycolytic pathway. In addition, a chaperone, HtpG (BB0560), and outer surface protein A (OspA, BBA15) were also observed to be oxidized in the sodA mutant. Immunoblot analysis revealed reduced levels of Outer surface protein C (OspC), Decorin binding protein A (DbpA), fibronectin binding protein (BBK32), RpoS and BosR in the sodA mutant compared to the control strains. Viable sodA mutant spirochetes could not be recovered from both gp91/phox ^−⁄− and iNOS deficient mice while borrelial DNA was detected in multiple tissues samples from infected mice at significantly lower levels compared to the parental strain. Taken together, these observations indicate that the increased oxidation of select borrelial determinants and reduced levels of critical pathogenesis-associated lipoproteins contribute to the in vivo deficit of the sodA mutant in the mouse model of Lyme disease. This study, utilizing the sodA mutant, has provided insights into adaptive capabilities critical for survival of B. burgdorferi in its hosts.     

Emergency Department Presentations following Tropical Cyclone Yasi

Introduction

Emergency departments see an increase in cases during cyclones. The aim of this study is to describe patient presentations to the Emergency Department (ED) of a tertiary level hospital (Townsville) following a tropical cyclone (Yasi). Specific areas of focus include changes in: patient demographics (age and gender), triage categories, and classification of diseases.

Methods

Data were extracted from the Townsville Hospitals ED information system (EDIS) for three periods in 2009, 2010 and 2011 to coincide with formation of Cyclone Yasi (31 January 2011) to six days after Yasi crossed the coast line (8 February 2012). The analysis explored the changes in ICD10-AM 4-character classification and presented at the Chapter level.

Results

There was a marked increase in the number of patients attending the ED during Yasi, particularly those aged over 65 years with a maximum daily attendance of 372 patients on 4 Feb 2011. The most marked increases were in: Triage categories - 4 and 5; and ICD categories - diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue (L00-L99), and factors influencing health care status (Z00-Z99). The most common diagnostic presentation across all years was injury (S00-T98).

Discussion

There was an increase in presentations to the ED of TTH, which peaked in the first 24 – 48 hours following the cyclone and returned to normal over a five-day period. The changes in presentations were mostly an amplification of normal attendance patterns with some altered areas of activity. Injury patterns are similar to overseas experience.     

High Prevalence of the Liver Fluke Amphimerus sp. in Domestic Cats and Dogs in an Area for Human Amphimeriasis in Ecuador

Background

Amphimerus sp. is a liver fluke which recently has been shown to have a high prevalence of infection among an indigenous group, Chachi, who reside in a tropical rainforest in the northwestern region of Ecuador. Since it is unknown which animals can act as a reservoir and/or definitive hosts for Amphimerus sp. in this endemic area, a study was done to determine the prevalence of infection in domestic cats and dogs. This information is important to understand the epidemiology, life cycle and control of this parasite.

Methodology/Findings

In July 2012, three Chachi communities located on Rio Cayapas, province of Esmeraldas, were surveyed. A total of 89 of the 109 registered households participated in the study. Of the 27 cats and 43 dogs found residing in the communities, stool samples were collected from 14 cats and 31 dogs (total of 45 animals) and examined microscopically for the presence of Amphimerus eggs. The prevalence of infection was 71.4% in cats and 38.7% in dogs, with similar rates of infection in all three communities. Significantly more cats were infected than dogs (p = 0.042).

Conclusions/Significance

The data show a high rate of Amphimerus sp. infection in domestic cats and dogs residing in Chachi communities. It can be concluded that these animals act as definitive and reservoir hosts for this liver fluke and that amphimeriasis is a zoonotic disease. These findings provide important epidemiological data which will aid in the development and implementation of control strategies against the transmission of Amphimerus.     

Comparing land surface phenology derived from satellite and GPS network microwave remote sensing

The land surface phenology (LSP) start of season (SOS) metric signals the seasonal onset of vegetation activity, including canopy growth and associated increases in land-atmosphere water, energy and carbon (CO₂) exchanges influencing weather and climate variability. The vegetation optical depth (VOD) parameter determined from satellite passive microwave remote sensing provides for global LSP monitoring that is sensitive to changes in vegetation canopy water content and biomass, and insensitive to atmosphere and solar illumination constraints. Direct field measures of canopy water content and biomass changes desired for LSP validation are generally lacking due to the prohibitive costs of maintaining regional monitoring networks. Alternatively, a normalized microwave reflectance index (NMRI) derived from GPS base station measurements is sensitive to daily vegetation water content changes and may provide for effective microwave LSP validation. We compared multiyear (2007–2011) NMRI and satellite VOD records at over 300 GPS sites in North America, and their derived SOS metrics for a subset of 24 homogenous land cover sites to investigate VOD and NMRI correspondence, and potential NMRI utility for LSP validation. Significant correlations (P?<?0.05) were found at 276 of 305 sites (90.5 %), with generally favorable correspondence in the resulting SOS metrics (r ²?=?0.73, P?<?0.001, RMSE = 36.8 days). This study is the first attempt to compare satellite microwave LSP metrics to a GPS network derived reflectance index and highlights both the utility and limitations of the NMRI data for LSP validation, including spatial scale discrepancies between local NMRI measurements and relatively coarse satellite VOD retrievals.     

Phylogeography and marine retention

A number of studies now point to the association of patterns of phylogeography with discontinuities in coastal current patterns. If such phylogeographic patterns are indicative of populations that retain local diversity, as has been predicted by recent modelling, such results may be of use in marine reserve planning. Here we show that there is a distributional correlation on the Pacific coast of North America between marine reserve placement and phylogeographic patterns. A number of factors could contribute to this correlation, but its existence suggests the utility of genetic studies in marine conservation planning.     

Interaction of Mycobacterium ulcerans with Mosquito Species: Implications for Transmission and Trophic Relationships

Mycobacterium ulcerans is the causative agent of Buruli ulcer, a severe necrotizing skin disease that causes significant morbidity in Africa and Australia. Person-to-person transmission of Buruli ulcer is rare. Throughout Africa and Australia infection is associated with residence near slow-moving or stagnant water bodies. Although M. ulcerans DNA has been detected in over 30 taxa of invertebrates, fish, water filtrate, and plant materials and one environmental isolate cultured from a water strider (Gerridae), the invertebrate taxa identified are not adapted to feed on humans, and the mode of transmission for Buruli ulcer remains an enigma. Recent epidemiological reports from Australia describing the presence of M. ulcerans DNA in adult mosquitoes have led to the hypothesis that mosquitoes play an important role in the transmission of M. ulcerans. In this study we have investigated the potential of mosquitoes to serve as biological or mechanical vectors or as environmental reservoirs for M. ulcerans. Here we show that Aedes aegypti, A. albopictus, Ochlerotatus triseriatus, and Culex restuans larvae readily ingest wild-type M. ulcerans, isogenic toxin-negative mutants, and Mycobacterium marinum isolates and remain infected throughout larval development. However, the infections are not carried over into the pupae or adult mosquitoes, suggesting an unlikely role for mosquitoes as biological vectors. By following M. ulcerans through a food chain consisting of primary (mosquito larvae), secondary (predatory mosquito larva from Toxorhynchites rutilus septentrionalis), and tertiary (Belostoma species) consumers, we have shown that M. ulcerans can be productively maintained in an aquatic food web.Infection with Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative agent of Buruli ulcer (BU) disease, is associated with residence near stagnant and slow-moving water bodies in areas in which the disease is endemic (5, 36, 40, 45, 50). A plasmid-encoded macrolide toxin, mycolactone, is the primary virulence determinant of M. ulcerans (8, 41). Biting aquatic insects, such as several taxa in the Belostomatidae and Naucoridae families (Hemiptera), have been suggested as possible vectors of M. ulcerans in several laboratory experiments (16, 19, 20, 24, 31, 32); however, there is little empirical evidence from field studies to support the contention that these biting insects vector M. ulcerans to humans (2). In Melbourne, Australia, recent epidemiological evidence suggests that mosquitoes may serve as vectors in the transmission of BU disease (10, 11, 12, 34, 35). In this study, 957 pools consisting of over 11,000 mosquitoes of four different species were collected and tested by quantitative PCR (qPCR) for the presence of M. ulcerans DNA, and positive results were obtained from 48 of 957 pools tested (10). Of the 48 positive pools, 13 were positive for PCR directed against two insertion sequences (IS2404 and IS2606) as well as against sequence based on the ketoreductase domain of the mycolactone toxin genes. Because all of these target sequences are present multiple times in the genome, it was difficult to assign genome equivalents to these results. However, data from laboratory experiments suggested that 10 to 100 M. ulcerans isolates per mosquito were present in the positive pools. Epidemiological work also suggested a seasonal relationship between Buruli ulcer and mosquito-vectored diseases in Australia (12). These studies are extremely provocative and raise a number of questions for further work. What is the prevalence of M. ulcerans in other invertebrate taxa in the same environment? What is the infection rate in equal numbers of mosquitoes collected from areas in which the disease is not endemic? Is it possible to obtain physical evidence for the presence of M. ulcerans through microscopy or culture of mosquitoes in areas in which the disease is endemic, and, finally, what can we learn from laboratory studies concerning the interaction between mosquitoes and M. ulcerans?The recent work from Australia suggesting that M. ulcerans is spread by mosquitoes is particularly significant because adult mosquitoes are the most important group of insects in the spread of human disease. They may serve as biological vectors that provide a major environment for pathogen replication, as in malaria or yellow fever, or as mechanical vectors that carry organisms between hosts without serving as a site of replication (1, 4, 7, 9, 38). Larval mosquitoes are common in habitats associated with BU disease, most notably lentic or standing water habitats, and feed by filtering particles in the water using labral head fans (21). Members of some genera (i.e., Anopheles) aggregate at the air-water interface in microlayers near plant stems and algal mats (27, 28, 46), where they feed on microorganisms such as bacteria and algae (47). Because of their collecting-filtering feeding mode, there is potential for larvae to consume M. ulcerans and concentrate mycobacteria through their feeding activities (22, 23).In Ghana, the occurrence of M. ulcerans among invertebrate communities in lentic habitats has been documented from regions in Ga West and Ga East Districts in which the disease is endemic as well as those in which it is not endemic (2, 49) but not in geographically distinct areas in which the disease is not endemic such as the Volta region (49). M. ulcerans has been identified in a suite of environmental samples such as filtered water, biofilms, and algae as well as among a broad spectrum of invertebrate taxa, including both larval and adult mosquitoes (2, 11, 17, 49). However, the replication and trophic movement of M. ulcerans within these environmental samples and invertebrate communities have not been experimentally investigated. Conceptual models have been proposed that assume that the primary consumers of M. ulcerans (e.g., mosquito larvae, cladocerans, and chironomid larvae) may feed on bacteria and algae in biofilms, filter suspended matter from the water column, and then initiate the passage of M. ulcerans through an aquatic food web (2, 22, 31). This model predicts the movement of M. ulcerans through secondary and tertiary consumers and implies a complex trophic relationship in the ecology of M. ulcerans as well as an important role of aquatic invertebrates in the disease ecology of M. ulcerans.In the studies reported here, we have explored the role of mosquitoes as biological or mechanical vectors of M. ulcerans, as well as the potential of mosquito larvae to play a central role in the movement of M. ulcerans through an aquatic food web. In order to investigate the ability of mosquito larvae to ingest and maintain M. ulcerans within their digestive tract as well as to persist throughout the mosquito development cycle, we took advantage of the fact that mosquito larvae naturally feed upon bacteria. Results presented here show that strains of M. ulcerans from Africa and Australia, as well as Mycobacterium marinum, were maintained at high levels in the larval mosquito gut for 6 days. However, neither M. ulcerans nor M. marinum was detected in adult mosquitoes that were infected in the larval stage. These results suggest that mosquitoes are unlikely to serve as biological vectors of M. ulcerans.We further developed a model for following the passage of M. ulcerans through a series of consumers to determine whether M. ulcerans could be passed up a trophic chain from primary to tertiary consumers. In this model, we conducted similar experiments using four species of nonpredatory mosquito larvae, Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus), Aedes albopictus (Skuse), Ochlerotatus triseriatus (Theobald), and Culex restuans (Theobald), as primary consumers. These larvae were infected with isogenic wild-type (WT) and toxin-negative isolates of M. ulcerans and of M. marinum, the closest relative to M. ulcerans (13, 14, 51). We have shown that M. ulcerans in mosquito larvae survive passage through secondary and tertiary consumers, thus providing the first laboratory evidence that M. ulcerans has the potential to move between and be maintained within different species in an aquatic food web.     

Protein kinase C and rho activated coiled coil protein kinase 2 (ROCK2) modulate Alzheimer's APP metabolism and phosphorylation of the Vps10-domain protein, SorL1

Background

Cultured spinal motor neurons are a valuable tool to study basic mechanisms of development, axon growth and pathfinding, and, importantly, to analyze the pathomechanisms underlying motor neuron diseases. However, the application of this cell culture model is limited by the lack of efficient gene transfer techniques which are available for other neurons. To address this problem, we have established magnetofection as a novel method for the simple and efficient transfection of mouse embryonic motor neurons. This technique allows for the study of the effects of gene expression and silencing on the development and survival of motor neurons.

Results

We found that magnetofection, a novel transfection technology based on the delivery of DNA-coated magnetic nanobeads, can be used to transfect primary motor neurons. Therefore, in order to use this method as a new tool for studying the localization and transport of axonal proteins, we optimized conditions and determined parameters for efficient transfection rates of >45% while minimizing toxic effects on survival and morphology. To demonstrate the potential of this method, we have used transfection with plasmids encoding fluorescent fusion-proteins to show for the first time that the spinal muscular atrophy-disease protein Smn is actively transported along axons of live primary motor neurons, supporting an axon-specific role for Smn that is different from its canonical function in mRNA splicing. We were also able to show the suitability of magnetofection for gene knockdown with shRNA-based constructs by significantly reducing Smn levels in both cell bodies and axons, opening new opportunities for the study of the function of axonal proteins in motor neurons.

Conclusions

In this study we have established an optimized magnetofection protocol as a novel transfection method for primary motor neurons that is simple, efficient and non-toxic. We anticipate that this novel approach will have a broad applicability in the study of motor neuron development, axonal trafficking, and molecular mechanisms of motor neuron diseases.