Cutaneous nociception and neurogenic inflammation evoked by PACAP38 and VIP

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide-38 (PACAP38) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) belong to the same secretin–glucagon superfamily and are present in nerve fibers in dura and skin. Using a model of acute cutaneous pain we explored differences in pain perception and vasomotor responses between PACAP38 and VIP in 16 healthy volunteers in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. All participants received intradermal injections of 200 pmol PACAP38, 200 pmol VIP and placebo into the volar forearm. Measurements included pain intensity on a visual analog scale (VAS), blood flow by laser Doppler flowmetry, visual flare and wheal. Pain intensities after PACAP38 and VIP were mild and limited to a short time of about 100 s after injection. The area under the VAS-time curve was larger following PACAP38 (P = 0.004) and VIP (P = 0.01) compared to placebo. We found no statistical difference in pain perception between PACAP38 and VIP. Skin blood flow increase, flare and wheal were larger after both PACAP38 (P = 0.011) and VIP (P = 0.001) compared to placebo. VIP induced a considerably larger increase in skin blood flow, flare and wheal than PACAP38 (P = 0.002). In conclusion, we found that peripheral nociceptive cutaneous responses elicited by PACAP38 and VIP are similar in healthy volunteers. This suggests that acute pain and vasomotor responses following intradermal injections of PACAP38 and VIP are primarily mediated by VPAC receptors

Exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying the potentiation of exogenous growth hormone on alcohol-induced fatty liver diseases in mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Growth hormone (GH) is an essential regulator of intrahepatic lipid metabolism by activating multiple complex hepatic signaling cascades. Here, we examined whether chronic exogenous GH administration (via gene therapy) could ameliorate liver steatosis in animal models of alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD) and explored the underlying molecular mechanisms.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Male C57BL/6J mice were fed either an alcohol or a control liquid diet with or without GH therapy for 6 weeks. Biochemical parameters, liver histology, oxidative stress markers, and serum high molecular weight (HMW) adiponectin were measured. Quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting were also conducted to determine the underlying molecular mechanism.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Serum HMW adiponectin levels were significantly higher in the GH1-treated control group than in the control group (3.98 ± 0.71 μg/mL vs. 3.07 ± 0.55 μg/mL; <it>P </it>< 0.001). GH1 therapy reversed HMW adiponectin levels to the normal levels in the alcohol-fed group. Alcohol feeding significantly reduced hepatic adipoR2 mRNA expression compared with that in the control group (0.71 ± 0.17 vs. 1.03 ± 0.19; <it>P </it>< 0.001), which was reversed by GH therapy. GH1 therapy also significantly increased the relative mRNA (1.98 ± 0.15 vs. 0.98 ± 0.15) and protein levels of SIRT1 (2.18 ± 0.37 vs. 0.99 ± 0.17) in the alcohol-fed group compared with those in the control group (both, <it>P </it>< 0.001). The alcohol diet decreased the phosphorylated and total protein levels of hepatic AMP-activated kinase-α (AMPKα) (phosphorylated protein: 0.40 ± 0.14 vs. 1.00 ± 0.12; total protein: 0.32 ± 0.12 vs. 1.00 ± 0.14; both, <it>P </it>< 0.001) and peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-α (PPARα) (phosphorylated protein: 0.30 ± 0.09 vs. 1.00 ± 0.09; total protein: 0.27 ± 0.10 vs. 1.00 ± 0.13; both, <it>P </it>< 0.001), which were restored by GH1 therapy. GH therapy also decreased the severity of fatty liver in alcohol-fed mice.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>GH therapy had positive effects on AFLD and may offer a promising approach to prevent or treat AFLD. These beneficial effects of GH on AFLD were achieved through the activation of the hepatic adiponectin-SIRT1-AMPK and PPARα-AMPK signaling systems.</p

Integrating an MQTT Proxy in a LoRa-Based Messaging System for Generic Sensor Data Collection

[EN] In this paper we use a frugal innovation approach to propose an efficient and generic solution to provide support to the deployment of IoT system in rural areas. Our proposal includes an MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) proxy to integrate generic lowcost and low-power sensor devices in a messaging system based on LoRa (Long Range) technology. MQTT allows these data to be provided to external ¿data lakes¿ so that they can be used for tasks such as reporting, visualization, advanced analytic, and machine learning. LoRa technology provides long wireless links that can be used to connect villages and towns. Through a REST-based interface and using JSON as a lightweight data-interchange format, we show how our platform can be used to distribute generic sensor information from rural communities. Finally, we demonstrate through experimental evaluation that this solution provides stable data transfers over links of various kilometers with a minimal utilization of resources.This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, Programa Estatal de Investigacion, Desarrollo e Innovacion Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad, Proyectos I+D+I 2018, Spain, under Grant RTI2018-096384-B-I00.Nakamura, K.; Manzoni, P.; Zennaro, M.; Cano, J.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM. (2020). Integrating an MQTT Proxy in a LoRa-Based Messaging System for Generic Sensor Data Collection. Springer Nature. 282-294. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61746-2_21S282294ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development: The state of broadband 2019. On-line, ITU/UNESCO, Report, September 2019. https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/opb/pol/S-POL-BROADBAND.20-2019-PDF-E.pdfCrowcroft, J., Wolisz, A., Sathiaseelan, A.: Towards an Affordable Internet Access for Everyone: The Quest for Enabling Universal Service Commitment (Dagstuhl Seminar 14471). Dagstuhl Reports, vol. 4, no. 11, pp. 78–137 (2015). http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2015/4971Micholia, P., et al.: Community networks and sustainability: a survey of perceptions, practices, and proposed solutions. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 20(4), 3581–3606 (Fourthquarter 2018)Cardenas, A.M., Pinto, M.K.N., Pietrosemoli, E., Zennaro, M., Rainone, M., Manzoni, P.: A low-cost and low-power messaging system based on the LoRa wireless technology. Mobile Netw. Appl. 25, 961–968 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-019-01235-5Agarwal, N., Brem, A.: Frugal innovation-past, present, and future. IEEE Eng. Manag. Rev. 45(3), 37–41 (Third 2017)Rao, B.C.: Advances in science and technology through frugality. IEEE Eng. Manag. Rev. 45(1), 32–38 (First 2017)Ottosson, S., Moldavska, A., Ogorodnyk, O., Skogsrød, T.: What is and how to develop sustainable innovation? In: Benlamri, R., Sparer, M. (eds.) Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship as Driving Forces of the Global Economy. SPBE, pp. 191–209. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43434-6_16Chaudhari, B.S., Zennaro, M.: LPWAN technologies: emerging application characteristics, requirements, and design considerations. Future Internet 12(3), 46 (2020)Banks, A., Briggs, E., Borgendale, K.,Gupta, R.: MQTT Version 5.0. On-line, OASIS Standard, Technical report, March 2019. https://docs.oasis-open.org/mqtt/mqtt/v5.0/mqtt-v5.0.htmlSaldana, J., Arcia-Moret, A., Braem, B., Pietrosemoli, E., Sathiaseelan, A., Zennaro, M.: Alternative Network Deployments: Taxonomy, Characterization, Technologies, and Architectures. Internet Requests for Comments, RFC Editor, RFC 7962, August 2016. https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/pdfrfc/rfc7962.txt.pdfAhmad, T., Afutu, A., Adjaho, K., Nyarko, Y., Subramanian, L.: Technical report: design, implementation and deployment of intermittency-aware cellular edge services for rural areas. arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.05355 (2016)Martinez, A., Villarroel, V., Seoane, J., del Pozo, F.: Analysis of information and communication needs in rural primary health care in developing countries. IEEE Trans. Inf. Technol. Biomed. 9(1), 66–72 (2005)Bharadwaj, A.S., Rego, R., Chowdhury, A.: IoT based solid waste management system: a conceptual approach with an architectural solution as a smart city application. In: IEEE Annual India Conference, INDICON 2016, pp. 1–6 (2016)Spinsante, S., Ciattaglia, G., Del Campo, A., Perla, D., Pigini, D., Cancellieri, G., Gambi, E.: A LoRa enabled building automation architecture based on MQTT. In: AEIT International Annual Conference 2017, pp. 1–5 (2017)Penkov, S., Taneva, A., Kalkov, V., Ahmed, S.: Industrial network design using low-power wide-area network. In: 2017 4th International Conference on Systems and Informatics (ICSAI), pp. 40–44 (2017)Niswar, M., et al.: IoT-based water quality monitoring system for soft-shell crab farming. In: IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things and Intelligence System, IOTAIS 2018, pp. 6–9 (2018)Huang, A., Huang, M., Shao, Z., Zhang, X., Wu, D., Cao, C.: A practical marine wireless sensor network monitoring system based on LoRa and MQTT. In: 2019 IEEE 2nd International Conference on Electronics Technology (ICET), pp. 330–334 (2019)Paolini, C., Adigal, H., Sarkar, M.: Upper bound on LoRa smart metering uplink rate. In: 2020 IEEE 17th Annual Consumer Communications Networking Conference (CCNC), pp. 1–4 (2020)Lachtar, A., Val, T., Kachouri, A.: Elderly monitoring system in a smart city environment using LoRa and MQTT. IET Wirel. Sens. Syst. 10(2), 70–77 (2020)Nunes, M., Alves, R., Casaca, A., Póvoa, P., Botelho, J.: An internet of things based platform for real-time management of energy consumption in water resource recovery facilities. In: Strous, L., Cerf, V.G. (eds.) IFIPIoT 2018. IAICT, vol. 548, pp. 121–132. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15651-0_11Bhawiyuga, A., Amron, K., Primanandha, R., Kartikasari, D.P., Arijudin, H., Prabandari, D.A.: LoRa-MQTT gateway device for supporting sensor-to-cloud data transmission in smart aquaculture IoT application. In: International Conference on Sustainable Information Engineering and Technology, SIET 2019, pp. 187–190 (2019)Angrisani, L., et al.: An innovative air quality monitoring system based on drone and IoT enabling technologies. In: IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for Agriculture and Forestry, MetroAgriFor 2019, pp. 207–211 (2019)Boccadoro, P., Montaruli, B., Grieco, L.A.: Quakesense, a LoRa-compliant earthquake monitoring open system. In: 2019 IEEE/ACM 23rd International Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real Time Applications (DS-RT), pp. 1–8 (2019)Ciuffoletti, A.: Low-cost IoT: a holistic approach. J. Sens. Actuator Netw. 7(2), 19 (2018