Chemical States of Bacterial Spores: Dry-Heat Resistance

Mature bacterial spores can be manipulated by chemical pretreatments between states sensitive and resistant to dry heat. The two chemical forms of the spore differ in dry-heat resistance by about an order of magnitude. Log survivor curves for each chemical state were approximately straight lines. The temperature dependence of dry-heat resistance for each chemical state was similar to that usually found for dry-heat resistance. A method of testing spore resistance to dry heat has been designed to minimize artifacts resulting from (i) change of chemical state during the test, (ii) effects of water vapor activity, (iii) incomplete recovery of spores from the test container and clumping of spores. Implications of the existence of different chemical resistance states for experimental strategy and testing of dry-heat resistance are discussed.     

Exercise training in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus: a controlled randomized trial

Introduction

Exercise training has emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy to counteract physical dysfunction in adult systemic lupus erythematosus. However, no longitudinal studies have evaluated the effects of an exercise training program in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (C-SLE) patients. The objective was to evaluate the safety and the efficacy of a supervised aerobic training program in improving the cardiorespiratory capacity in C-SLE patients.

Methods

Nineteen physically inactive C-SLE patients were randomly assigned into two groups: trained (TR, n = 10, supervised moderate-intensity aerobic exercise program) and non-trained (NT, n = 9). Gender-, body mass index (BMI)- and age-matched healthy children were recruited as controls (C, n = 10) for baseline (PRE) measurements only. C-SLE patients were assessed at PRE and after 12 weeks of training (POST). Main measurements included exercise tolerance and cardiorespiratory measurements in response to a maximal exercise (that is, peak VO₂, chronotropic reserve (CR), and the heart rate recovery (ΔHRR) (that is, the difference between HR at peak exercise and at both the first (ΔHRR1) and second (ΔHRR2) minutes of recovery after exercise).

Results

The C-SLE NT patients did not present changes in any of the cardiorespiratory parameters at POST (P > 0.05). In contrast, the exercise training program was effective in promoting significant increases in time-to-exhaustion (P = 0.01; ES = 1.07), peak speed (P = 0.01; ES = 1.08), peak VO₂ (P = 0.04; ES = 0.86), CR (P = 0.06; ES = 0.83), and in ΔHRR1 and ΔHRR2 (P = 0.003; ES = 1.29 and P = 0.0008; ES = 1.36, respectively) in the C-SLE TR when compared with the NT group. Moreover, cardiorespiratory parameters were comparable between C-SLE TR patients and C subjects after the exercise training intervention, as evidenced by the ANOVA analysis (P > 0.05, TR vs. C). SLEDAI-2K scores remained stable throughout the study.

Conclusion

A 3-month aerobic exercise training was safe and capable of ameliorating the cardiorespiratory capacity and the autonomic function in C-SLE patients.

Trial registration

NCT01515163.     

Automated Entire Thrombus Density Measurements for Robust and Comprehensive Thrombus Characterization in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke

Background and Purpose

In acute ischemic stroke (AIS) management, CT-based thrombus density has been associated with treatment success. However, currently used thrombus measurements are prone to inter-observer variability and oversimplify the heterogeneous thrombus composition. Our aim was first to introduce an automated method to assess the entire thrombus density and then to compare the measured entire thrombus density with respect to current standard manual measurements.

Materials and Method

In 135 AIS patients, the density distribution of the entire thrombus was determined. Density distributions were described using medians, interquartile ranges (IQR), kurtosis, and skewedness. Differences between the median of entire thrombus measurements and commonly applied manual measurements using 3 regions of interest were determined using linear regression.

Results

Density distributions varied considerably with medians ranging from 20.0 to 62.8 HU and IQRs ranging from 9.3 to 55.8 HU. The average median of the thrombus density distributions (43.5 ± 10.2 HU) was lower than the manual assessment (49.6 ± 8.0 HU) (p<0.05). The difference between manual measurements and median density of entire thrombus decreased with increasing density (r = 0.64; p<0.05), revealing relatively higher manual measurements for low density thrombi such that manual density measurement tend overestimates the real thrombus density.

Conclusions

Automatic measurements of the full thrombus expose a wide variety of thrombi density distribution, which is not grasped with currently used manual measurement. Furthermore, discrimination of low and high density thrombi is improved with the automated method.     

Tethering of the platelet-derived growth factor beta receptor to G-protein-coupled receptors. A novel platform for integrative signaling by these receptor classes in mammalian cells

Here we provide evidence to show that the platelet-derived growth factor beta receptor is tethered to endogenous G-protein-coupled receptor(s) in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. The tethered receptor complex provides a platform on which receptor tyrosine kinase and G-protein-coupled receptor signals can be integrated to produce more efficient stimulation of the p42/p44 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. This was based on several lines of evidence. First, we have shown that pertussis toxin (which uncouples G-protein-coupled receptors from inhibitory G-proteins) reduced the platelet-derived growth factor stimulation of p42/p44 mitogen-activated protein kinase. Second, transfection of cells with inhibitory G-protein alpha subunit increased the activation of p42/p44 mitogen-activated protein kinase by platelet-derived growth factor. Third, platelet-derived growth factor stimulated the tyrosine phosphorylation of the inhibitory G-protein alpha subunit, which was blocked by the platelet-derived growth factor kinase inhibitor, tyrphostin AG 1296. We have also shown that the platelet-derived growth factor beta receptor forms a tethered complex with Myc-tagged endothelial differentiation gene 1 (a G-protein-coupled receptor whose agonist is sphingosine 1-phosphate) in cells co-transfected with these receptors. This facilitates platelet-derived growth factor-stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation of the inhibitory G-protein alpha subunit and increases p42/p44 mitogen-activated protein kinase activation. In addition, we found that G-protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 and beta-arrestin I can associate with the platelet-derived growth factor beta receptor. These proteins play an important role in regulating endocytosis of G-protein-coupled receptor signal complexes, which is required for activation of p42/p44 mitogen-activated protein kinase. Thus, platelet-derived growth factor beta receptor signaling may be initiated by G-protein-coupled receptor kinase 2/beta-arrestin I that has been recruited to the platelet-derived growth factor beta receptor by its tethering to a G-protein-coupled receptor(s). These results provide a model that may account for the co-mitogenic effect of certain G-protein-coupled receptor agonists with platelet-derived growth factor on DNA synthesis.     

Towards a framework for the evolutionary genomics of Kinetoplastids: what kind of data and how much?

The current status of kinetoplastids phylogeny and evolution is discussed in view of the recent progresses on genomics. Some ideas on a potential framework for the evolutionary genomics of kinetoplastids are presented.     

The role of intravascular ultrasound imaging in vascular brachytherapy

Intracoronary brachytherapy has recently emerged as a new therapy to prevent restenosis. Initial experimental work was achieved in animal models and the results were assessed by histomorphometry. Initial clinical trials used angiography to guide dosimetry and to assess efficacy. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) permits tomographic examination of the vessel wall, elucidating the true morphology of the lumen and transmural components, which cannot be investigated on the lumenogram obtained by angiography. This paper reviews the use of IVUS in the clinical studies of brachytherapy conducted to date. IVUS allows clinicians to make a thorough assessment of the remodeling of the vessel and appears to have a major role to play in facilitating understanding of the underlying mechanisms of action in this emerging field. The authors propose that state-of-the-art IVUS techniques should be employed to further knowledge of the mechanisms of action of brachytherapy in atherosclerotic human coronary arteries.     

Receptor isoforms mediate opposing proliferative effects through gbetagamma-activated p38 or Akt pathways

The opposing effects on proliferation mediated by G-protein-coupled receptor isoforms differing in their COOH termini could be correlated with the abilities of the receptors to differentially activate p38, implicated in apoptotic events, or phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-K), which provides a source of survival signals. These contrasting growth responses of the somatostatin sst(2) receptor isoforms, which couple to identical Galpha subunit pools (Galpha(i3) > Galpha(i2) > Galpha(0)), were both inhibited following betagamma sequestration. The sst(2(a)) receptor-mediated ATF-2 activation and inhibition of proliferation induced by basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) were dependent on prolonged phosphorylation of p38. In contrast, cell proliferation and the associated transient phosphorylation of Akt and p70(rsk) induced by sst(2(b)) receptors were blocked by the PI 3-K inhibitor LY 294002. Stimulation with bFGF alone had no effect on the activity of either p38 or Akt but markedly enhanced p38 phosphorylation mediated by sst(2(a)) receptors, suggesting that a complex interplay exists between the transduction cascades activated by these distinct receptor types. In addition, although all receptors mediated a sustained activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1 and ERK2), induction of the tumor suppressor p21(cip1) was detected only following amplification of ERK and p38 phosphorylation by concomitant bFGF and sst(2(a)) receptor activation. Expression of constitutively active Akt in the presence of a p38 inhibitor enabled a proliferative response to be detected in sst(2(a)) receptor-expressing cells. These findings demonstrate that the duration of activation and a critical balance between the mitogen-activated protein kinase and PI 3-K pathways are important for controlling cell proliferation and that the COOH termini of the sst(2) receptor isoforms may determine the selection of appropriate betagamma-pairings necessary for interaction with distinct kinase cascades.     

Improving model construction of profile HMMs for remote homology detection through structural alignment

Background  

Remote homology detection is a challenging problem in Bioinformatics. Arguably, profile Hidden Markov Models (pHMMs) are one of the most successful approaches in addressing this important problem. pHMM packages present a relatively small computational cost, and perform particularly well at recognizing remote homologies. This raises the question of whether structural alignments could impact the performance of pHMMs trained from proteins in the Twilight Zone, as structural alignments are often more accurate than sequence alignments at identifying motifs and functional residues. Next, we assess the impact of using structural alignments in pHMM performance.