Mechanisms towards compensation of long-term haemopoietic injury in mice after 5 Gy irradiation:In vivo andin vitro enhancement of superoxide anion production by granulocytes

This paper analyzes the long-term (6 and 12 months) function of mouse granulocytes after total body irradiation with a single dose (5 Gy) of X-rays. Superoxide anion production has been investigated in granulocytes from peripheral blood, and also in those harvested from long term bone marrow cultures, with the aim of correlating the environmental damage induced by radiation with the functional properties of granulocytes. Anin vivo andin vitro enhancement of superoxide anion production and protein levels in granulocytes from irradiated mice is described. The presence of some colony stimulating factor in the supernatant of cultures from irradiated mice could play an important role in the priming of granulocytes.     

A study on the minimum number of loci required for genetic evaluation using a finite locus model

For a finite locus model, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods can be used to estimate the conditional mean of genotypic values given phenotypes, which is also known as the best predictor (BP). When computationally feasible, this type of genetic prediction provides an elegant solution to the problem of genetic evaluation under non-additive inheritance, especially for crossbred data. Successful application of MCMC methods for genetic evaluation using finite locus models depends, among other factors, on the number of loci assumed in the model. The effect of the assumed number of loci on evaluations obtained by BP was investigated using data simulated with about 100 loci. For several small pedigrees, genetic evaluations obtained by best linear prediction (BLP) were compared to genetic evaluations obtained by BP. For BLP evaluation, used here as the standard of comparison, only the first and second moments of the joint distribution of the genotypic and phenotypic values must be known. These moments were calculated from the gene frequencies and genotypic effects used in the simulation model. BP evaluation requires the complete distribution to be known. For each model used for BP evaluation, the gene frequencies and genotypic effects, which completely specify the required distribution, were derived such that the genotypic mean, the additive variance, and the dominance variance were the same as in the simulation model. For lowly heritable traits, evaluations obtained by BP under models with up to three loci closely matched the evaluations obtained by BLP for both purebred and crossbred data. For highly heritable traits, models with up to six loci were needed to match the evaluations obtained by BLP.     

Synthetic Aurones: New Features for Schistosoma mansoni Therapy

In this work, two synthetic aurones revealed moderate schistosomicidal potential in in vitro and in vivo assays. Aurones ( 1 ) and ( 2 ) promoted changes in tegument integrity and motor activity, leading to death of adult Schistosoma mansoni worms in in vitro assays. When administered orally (two doses of 50 mg/kg) in experimentally infected animals, synthetic aurones ( 1 ) and ( 2 ) promoted reductions of 56.20 % and 57.61 % of the parasite load and stimulated the displacement towards the liver of the remaining adult worms. The oogram analysis revealed that the treatment with both aurones interferes with the egg development kinetics in the intestinal tissue. Seeking an action target for compounds ( 1 ) and ( 2 ), the connection with NTPDases enzymes, recognized as important therapeutic targets for S. mansoni, was evaluated. Molecular docking studies have shown promising results. The dataset reveals the anthelmintic character of these compounds, which can be used in the development of new therapies for schistosomiasis.     

Assessment of Environmental Hazards to Public Health in Temperate Urban Argentina

EcoHealth - Human health risk in urban areas depends on multiple environmental features. We performed a year-round survey in a highly urbanized district located in temperate Argentina (General San...     

Genital microsporidiosis in women with AIDS: A post-mortem study

BackgroundMicrosporidiosis is a life threatening opportunistic infection of AIDS patients. The infection is usually restricted to specific anatomical areas, but could become systemic depending on the involved species. Genital microsporidiosis in female patients is rare.ObjectiveTo report genital microsporidiosis in female AIDS patients.MethodsTissues samples from the genital tract (ovary, fallopian tubes and uterus) of eight deceased women who died of wasting syndrome associated to AIDS and disseminated microsporidiosis at the Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí were collected between 1997 and 2005. Using an indirect immunohistochemistry assay the microsporidia species involved in those cases were identified.ResultsWe report several cases of microsporidial infection of the female genital tract. Six out of eight women with the disseminated form of the disease showed the presence of microsporidia in the genital tract. Encephalitozoon cuniculi and Encephalitozoon hellem were identified in the internal lining epithelium of the fallopian tubes and endometrium.ConclusionsMicrosporidia species could disseminate to other organs and become systemic in severe immunocompromised cases. To our knowledge this is the greatest number of female genital tract microsporidiosis cases so far reported in humans.     

High Sensitive Detection of Carbohydrate Binding Proteins in an ELISA-Solid Phase Assay Based on Multivalent Glyconanoparticles

Improved detection of anti-carbohydrate antibodies is a need in clinical identification of biomarkers for cancer cells or pathogens. Here, we report a new ELISA approach for the detection of specific immunoglobulins (IgGs) against carbohydrates. Two nanometer gold glyconanoparticles bearing oligosaccharide epitopes of HIV or Streptococcus pneumoniae were used as antigens to coat ELISA-plates. A ~3,000-fold improved detection of specific IgGs in mice immunized against S. pneumoniae respect to the well known BSA-glycoconjugate ELISA was achieved. Moreover, these multivalent glyconanoparticles have been employed in solid phase assays to detect the carbohydrate-dependent binding of human dendritic cells and the lectin DC-SIGN. Multivalent glyconanoparticles in ELISA provide a versatile, easy and highly sensitive method to detect and quantify the binding of glycan to proteins and to facilitate the identification of biomarkers.     

Diverse cellulolytic bacteria isolated from the high humus, alkaline-saline chinampa soils

Aiming at learning the functional bacterial community in the high humus content, saline-alkaline soils of chinampas, the cellulolytic bacteria were quantified and 100 bacterial isolates were isolated and characterized in the present study. Analysis of 16S-23S IGS (intergenic spacer) RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) grouped the isolates into 48 IGS types and phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA genes identified them into 42 phylospecies within 29 genera and higher taxa belonging to the phyla Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, dominated by the genera Arthrobacter, Streptomyces, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Pseudoxanthomonas and Stenotrophomonas. Among these bacteria, 63 isolates represent 26 novel putative species or higher taxa, while 37 were members of 17 defined species according to the phylogenetic relationships of 16S rRNA gene. Except for the novel species, the cellulolytic activity was not reported previously in 9 of the 17 species. They degraded cellulose in medium at pH?4.5–10.0 or supplied with NaCl up to 9 %. In addition, 84.8 and 71.7 % of them degraded xylan and Avicel, respectively. These results greatly improved the knowledge about the diversity of cellulolytic bacteria and demonstrated that the chinampa soils contain diverse and novel cellulolytic bacteria functioning at a wide range of pH and salinity levels, which might be a valuable biotechnological resource for biotransformation of cellulose.     

The effects of pesticides on bacterial nitrogen fixers in peanut-growing area

In the peanut production, the applications of herbicides and fungicides are a common practice. In this work, studies done under field conditions demonstrated that pesticides affected negatively the number and nitrogenase activity of diazotrophic populations of soil. Agrochemical effects were not transient, since these parameters were not recovered to pre-treatment levels even 1 year after pesticides application. Results obtained from greenhouse experiments revealed that the addition of herbicide or fungicides diminished the free-living diazotrophs number reaching levels found in soil amended with the pesticides and that the number of symbiotic diazotrophs was not affected by the insecticide assayed. The soil nitrogenase activity was not affected by fungicides and glyphosate. The effect of pesticides on the nitrogen-fixing bacteria diversity was evaluated both in field and greenhouse experiments. Analysis of clone libraries generated from the amplification of soil nifH gene showed a diminution in the genetic diversity of this bacterial community.