Oxidative stress,nitric oxide,endothelial dysfunction and tinnitus

To assess whether pathogenic endothelial dysfunction is involved in acute idiopathic tinnitus we enrolled 44 patients and 25 healthy volunteers. In blood from the internal jugular vein and brachial vein we determined malonaldehyde, 4-hydroxynonenal, mieloperoxidase, glutathione peroxidase, nitric oxide, l-arginine and l-ornitine, thrombomodulin (TM) and von Willebrand factor (vWF) activity during tinnitus and asymptomatic period.

Higher plasma concentrations of oxidative markers and l-arginine, and lower nitric oxide and l-ornitine levels were observed in jugular blood of patients with tinnitus, there being a significant difference between brachial and jugular veins. TM and vWF activity were significantly higher in patients' jugular blood than in brachial blood.

Our results suggest oxidant, TM, vWF activity production are increased and nitric oxide production reduced in brain circulation reflux blood of patients with acute tinnitus. These conditions are able to cause a general cerebro-vascular endothelial dysfunction, which in turn induce a dysfunction of microcirculation in the inner ear.     

Emotion recognition in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are impaired in social adaptation and display deficits in social competence. Deficient emotion recognition has been discussed to underlie these social problems. However, comorbid conduct problems have not been considered in the majority of studies conducted so far, and the influence of medication on emotion recognition has rarely been studied. Here, emotion recognition performance was assessed in children with ADHD without medication compared with children with ADHD under stimulant medication and a matched control group. In order to rule out confounding by externalizing symptoms, children with comorbid conduct problems were excluded. Video clips with neutral faces developing a basic emotion (happiness, sadness, disgust, fear and anger) were presented in order to assess emotion recognition. Results indicated between-group differences neither concerning the number of correctly identified emotions nor concerning reaction times and their standard deviations. Thus, we suggest that ADHD per se is not associated with deficits in emotion recognition.     

Saccharomyces uvarum, a proper species within Saccharomyces sensu stricto

Saccharomyces uvarum is proposed as a proper species within the complex Saccharomyces sensu stricto. Molecular characteristics including the similarity of the restriction profile of the non-transcribed spacer 2 (NTS2) and of the D1/D2 sequences of the rDNA, as well as other genotypic and phenotypic characteristics confirm that this group of strains is highly homogeneous and distinguishable from other species of the Saccharomyces sensu stricto group.     

Karyotyping of Saccharomyces strains with different temperature profiles

This study examined the karyotype, the fermentation performance and the optimum growth temperature (Topt) of 28 yeast strains all identified as species belonging to Saccharomyces sensu stricto . The strains were isolated from fermented musts, which had not been inoculated, at two temperature ranges: 20–40 °C and approximately 0–6 °C. The results demonstrated a correlation between the Topt and the chromosome organization. In particular, strains with Topt of less than 30 °C showed only two bands in the region between 365 and 225 kb, while those with a Topt greater than 30 °C had three bands in this size range. From a taxonomic viewpoint, the Topt is a better indicator for the Saccharomyces sp. than the ceiling temperature of 37 °C currently used to differentiate cryotolerant Saccharomyces bayanus and S. pastorianus from non-cryotolerant S. cerevisiae and S. paradoxus strains.     

Annual Acoustic Presence of Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus) Offshore Eastern Sicily,Central Mediterranean Sea

In recent years, an increasing number of surveys have definitively confirmed the seasonal presence of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) in highly productive regions of the Mediterranean Sea. Despite this, very little is yet known about the routes that the species seasonally follows within the Mediterranean basin and, particularly, in the Ionian area. The present study assesses for the first time fin whale acoustic presence offshore Eastern Sicily (Ionian Sea), throughout the processing of about 10 months of continuous acoustic monitoring. The recording of fin whale vocalizations was made possible by the cabled deep-sea multidisciplinary observatory, “NEMO-SN1”, deployed 25 km off the Catania harbor at a depth of about 2,100 meters. NEMO-SN1 is an operational node of the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory (EMSO) Research Infrastructure. The observatory was equipped with a low-frequency hydrophone (bandwidth: 0.05 Hz–1 kHz, sampling rate: 2 kHz) which continuously acquired data from July 2012 to May 2013. About 7,200 hours of acoustic data were analyzed by means of spectrogram display. Calls with the typical structure and patterns associated to the Mediterranean fin whale population were identified and monitored in the area for the first time. Furthermore, a background noise analysis within the fin whale communication frequency band (17.9–22.5 Hz) was conducted to investigate possible detection-masking effects. The study confirms the hypothesis that fin whales are present in the Ionian Sea throughout all seasons, with peaks in call detection rate during spring and summer months. The analysis also demonstrates that calls were more frequently detected in low background noise conditions. Further analysis will be performed to understand whether observed levels of noise limit the acoustic detection of the fin whales vocalizations, or whether the animals vocalize less in the presence of high background noise.     

Active gamma-secretase complexes contain only one of each component

Gamma-secretase is an intramembrane aspartyl protease complex that cleaves type I integral membrane proteins, including the amyloid beta-protein precursor and the Notch receptor, and is composed of presenilin, Pen-2, nicastrin, and Aph-1. Although all four of these membrane proteins are essential for assembly and activity, the stoichiometry of the complex is unknown, with the number of presenilin molecules present being especially controversial. Here we analyze functional gamma-secretase complexes, isolated by immunoprecipitation from solubilized membrane fractions and able to produce amyloid beta-peptides and amyloid beta-protein precursor intracellular domain. We show that the active isolated protease contains only one presenilin per complex, which excludes certain models of the active site that require aspartate dyads formed between two presenilin molecules. We also quantified components in the isolated complexes by Western blot using protein standards and found that the amounts of Pen-2 and nicastrin were the same as that of presenilin. Moreover, we found that one Aph-1 was not co-immunoprecipitated with another in active complexes, evidence that Aph-1 is likewise present as a monomer. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the stoichiometry of gamma-components presenilin:Pen-2:nicastrin:Aph-1 is 1:1:1:1.     

In vitro and in silico cloning of Xenopus laevis SOD2 cDNA and its phylogenetic analysis

By using the methodology of both wet and dry biology (i.e., RT-PCR and cycle sequencing, and biocomputational technology, respectively) and the data obtained through the Genome Projects, we have cloned Xenopus laevis SOD2 (MnSOD) cDNA and determined its nucleotide sequence. These data and the deduced protein primary structure were compared with all the other SOD2 nucleotide and amino acid sequences from eukaryotes and prokaryotes, published in public databases. The analysis was performed by using both Clustal W, a well known and widely used program for sequence analysis, and AntiClustAl, a new algorithm recently created and implemented by our group. Our results demonstrate a very high conservation of the enzyme amino acid sequence during evolution, which proves a close structure-function relationship. This is to be expected for very ancient molecules endowed with critical biological functions, performed through a specific structural organization. The nucleotide sequence conservation is less pronounced: this too was foreseeable, due to neutral mutations and to the species-specific codon usage. The data obtained by using AntiClustAl are comparable with those produced with Clustal W, which validates this algorithm as an important new tool for biocomputational analysis. Finally, it is noteworthy that evolutionary trees, drawn by using all the available data on SOD2 nucleotide sequences and amino acid and either Clustal W or AntiClustAl, are comparable to those obtained through phylogenetic analysis based on fossil records.     

CtBP3/BARS drives membrane fission in dynamin-independent transport pathways

Membrane fission is a fundamental step in membrane transport. So far, the only fission protein machinery that has been implicated in in vivo transport involves dynamin, and functions in several, but not all, transport pathways. Thus, other fission machineries may exist. Here, we report that carboxy-terminal binding protein 3/brefeldin A-ribosylated substrate (CtBP3/BARS) controls fission in basolateral transport from the Golgi to the plasma membrane and in fluid-phase endocytosis, whereas dynamin is not involved in these steps. Conversely, CtBP3/BARS protein is inactive in apical transport to the plasma membrane and in receptor-mediated endocytosis, both steps being controlled by dynamin. This indicates that CtBP3/BARS controls membrane fission in endocytic and exocytic transport pathways, distinct from those that require dynamin.     

Analysis of antibiotics in urine and wipe samples from environmental and biological monitoring--comparison of HPLC with UV-, single MS- and tandem MS-detection

Results of the simultaneous determination of the structurally different antibiotics cefazoline, cefotiame, cefuroxime, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim from environmental and biological monitoring using high-performance liquid chromatography with UV, single mass and tandem mass spectrometry were compared. For sample enrichment and clean-up a SPE method using bakerbond C18 cartridges was developed. Mean recovery rates were above 70%. Because of the complex urine matrix, only the wipe samples could be analyzed by UV-detection. However, UV-detection and single MS-detection are useful for control measurements after spillage, e.g. (LOD=1-2 ng/cm(2)). Samples from biological monitoring of occupational uptake should be analyzed by LC-MS/MS. The limits of detection (LOD) in urine ranged from 0.4 to 70 microg/L for LC-MS and 0.01 to 0.9 microg/L for LC-MS/MS detection. The limits of detection in wipe samples ranged from 0.003 to 0.13 ng/cm(2).