High content live cell imaging for the discovery of new antimalarial marine natural products

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The human malaria parasite remains a burden in developing nations. It is responsible for up to one million deaths a year, a number that could rise due to increasing multi-drug resistance to all antimalarial drugs currently available. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the discovery of new drug therapies. Recently, our laboratory developed a simple one-step fluorescence-based live cell-imaging assay to integrate the complex biology of the human malaria parasite into drug discovery. Here we used our newly developed live cell-imaging platform to discover novel marine natural products and their cellular phenotypic effects against the most lethal malaria parasite, <it>Plasmodium falciparum</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A high content live cell imaging platform was used to screen marine extracts effects on malaria. Parasites were grown <it>in vitro </it>in the presence of extracts, stained with RNA sensitive dye, and imaged at timed intervals with the BD Pathway HT automated confocal microscope.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Image analysis validated our new methodology at a larger scale level and revealed potential antimalarial activity of selected extracts with a minimal cytotoxic effect on host red blood cells. To further validate our assay, we investigated parasite's phenotypes when incubated with the purified bioactive natural product bromophycolide A. We show that bromophycolide A has a strong and specific morphological effect on parasites, similar to the ones observed from the initial extracts.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Collectively, our results show that high-content live cell-imaging (HCLCI) can be used to screen chemical libraries and identify parasite specific inhibitors with limited host cytotoxic effects. All together we provide new leads for the discovery of novel antimalarials.</p

Parallel computing in information retrieval - An updated review

The progress of parallel computing in Information Retrieval (IR) is reviewed. In particular we stress the importance of the motivation in using parallel computing for Text Retrieval. We analyse parallel IR systems using a classification due to Rasmussen [1] and describe some parallel IR systems. We give a description of the retrieval models used in parallel Information Processing.. We describe areas of research which we believe are needed

Innovar en nutrició saludable

La recerca en nutrició està relativament abandonada. Les possibilitats d'innovació en el camp de la nutrició són enormes. Cal, però, molta educació i assessorament professional

Ecosystem profile: east melanesian islands biodiversity hotspot

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is designed to safeguard the world’s biologically richest and most threatened regions, known as biodiversity hotspots. It is a joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International (CI), the European Commission, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the World Bank. A fundamental purpose of CEPF is to engage civil society, such as community groups, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), academic institutions and private enterprises, in biodiversity conservation in the hotspots. To guarantee their success, these efforts must complement existing strategies and programs of national governments and other conservation funders. To this end, CEPF promotes working alliances among diverse groups, combining unique capacities and reducing duplication of efforts for a comprehensive, coordinated approach to conservation. One way in which CEPF does this is through preparation of “ecosystem profiles”—shared strategies, developed in consultation with local stakeholders, which articulate a five-year investment strategy informed by a detailed situational analysis. This document is the ecosystem profile for the East Melanesian Islands Hotspot, which includes the island nations of Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands and the islands region of Papua New Guinea (PNG), which includes the provinces of Manus, New Ireland, East New Britain and West New Britain plus the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. The East Melanesian Islands qualify as a hotspot due to their high levels of plant and animal endemism and accelerating levels of habitat loss, caused chiefly by widespread commercial logging and mining, expansion of subsistence and plantation agriculture, population increase, and the impacts of climate change and variability. The East Melanesian Islands Hotspot holds exceptional cultural and linguistic diversity. Vanuatu, for example, has 108 living languages: more per unit area than any other country. Because many languages are spoken by only a few hundred people, they are disappearing, leading to a rapid erosion of traditional knowledge and practice. This is highly significant in a region where most land and resources are under customary ownership, and local people are true stewards of biodiversity