Post-Synthesis Strategies to Prepare Mesostructured and Hierarchical Silicates for Liquid Phase Catalytic Epoxidation

Olefin epoxidation is an important transformation for the chemical valorization of olefins, which may derive from renewable sources or domestic/industrial waste. Different post-synthesis strategies were employed to introduce molybdenum species into mesostructured and hierarchical micro-mesoporous catalysts of the type TUD-1 and BEA, respectively, to confer epoxidation activity for the conversion of relatively bulky olefins (e.g., biobased methyl oleate, DL-limonene) to epoxide products, using tert-butyl hydroperoxide as an oxidant. The influences of (i) the type of metal precursor, (ii) type of post-synthesis impregnation method, (iii) type of support and (iv) top-down versus bottom-up synthesis methodologies were studied to achieve superior catalytic performances. Higher epoxidation activity was achieved for a material prepared via (post-synthesis) incipient wetness impregnation of MoO2(acac)2 (acac = acetylacetonate) on (pre-treated) siliceous TUD-1 and calcination; for example, methyl oleate was converted to the corresponding epoxide with 100% selectivity at 89% conversion (70 °C). Catalytic and solid-state characterization studies were conducted to shed light on material stability phenomena.publishe

Gross motor coordination and weight status of Portuguese children aged 6-14 years

Objectives: To construct age- and gender-specific percentiles for gross motor coordination (MC) tests and to explore differences in gross MC in normal-weight, overweight and obese children. Methods: Data are from the "Healthy Growth of Madeira Study", a cross-sectional study carried out in children, aged 6–14 years. All 1,276 participants, 619 boys and 657 girls, were assessed for gross MC (Korperkoordinations Test fur Kinder, KTK), anthropometry (height and body mass), physical activity (Baecke questionnaire) and socioeconomic status (SES). Centile curves for gross MC were obtained for boys and girls separately using generalized additive models for location, scale and shape. Results: A significant main effect for age was found in walking backwards and moving sideways. Boys performed significantly better than girls on moving sideways. At the upper limit of the distributions, interindividual variability was higher in hopping on one leg (girls) and jumping and moving sideways (boys and girls). One-way ANCOVA, controlling for age, physical activity and SES, indicated that normal-weight children scored significantly better than their obese peers in all gross MC tests. Overweight boys and girls also scored significantly better than their obese colleagues in some MC tests. Conclusions: These centile curves can be used as reference data in Portuguese children and youth, aged 6–14 years. Being overweight or obese was a major limitation in MC tests and, therefore, of the children’s health- and performance related physical fitness

Kinship Analysis and Pedigree Reconstruction of a Natural Regenerated Cork Oak (Quercus suber) Population

Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) is a valuable forest species in the western Mediterranean Basin due to its ecological value and the production of cork (a renewable natural material). Cork quality depends on the genetic background and cork oak environment, which has long been recognized. As no cork oak genetic trials with pedigree information were available, the inference of the genetic relatedness between individuals from molecular markers can potentially be applied to natural populations. This work aimed to investigate the potential of performing kinship prediction and pedigree reconstruction by SNP genotyping a natural cork oak population. A total of 494 trees located in Portugal were genotyped with 8K SNPs. The raw SNP set was filtered differently, producing four SNP sets that were further filtered by missing data, genotype frequency, and minor allele frequency. For each set, an identity by descent (IBD) matrix was generated to perform the relationship prediction, revealing from 22,114 to 23,859 relationships. Familial categories from the first to the third degree were able to be assigned. The feasibility of SNP genotyping for future studies on the kinship analysis and pedigree reconstruction of cork oak populations was demonstrated. The information produced may be used in further breeding and conservation programs for cork oakinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A tutorial

PM003/2016. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)The capabilities of bioanalytical mass spectrometry to (i) detect and differentiate viruses at the peptide level whilst maintaining high sample throughput and (ii) to provide diagnosis and prognosis for infected patients are presented as a tutorial in this work to aid analytical chemists and physicians to gain insights into the possibilities offered by current high-resolution mass spectrometry technology and bioinformatics. From (i) sampling to sample treatment; (ii) Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization- to Electrospray Ionization -based mass spectrometry; and (iii) from clustering to peptide sequencing; a detailed step-by-step guide is provided and exemplified using SARS-CoV-2 Spike Y839 variant and the variant of concern SARS-CoV-2 Alpha (B.1.1.7 lineage), Influenza B, and Influenza A subtypes AH1N1pdm09 and AH3N2.publishersversionpublishe

Cysteine as a Multifaceted Player in Kidney, the Cysteine-Related Thiolome and Its Implications for Precision Medicine

Funding Information: This research was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (PTDC/MED-TOX/30418/2017) and iNOVA4Health (UID/Multi/04462/2013). M.J.C., D.G.F.F. and J.M. were supported by FCT (PhD grant SFRH/BD/131331/2017, PhD grant PD/BD/135484/2018 and postdoctoral contract PTDC/MED-TOX/30418/2017, respectively).In this review encouraged by original data, we first provided in vivo evidence that the kidney, comparative to the liver or brain, is an organ particularly rich in cysteine. In the kidney, the total availability of cysteine was higher in cortex tissue than in the medulla and distributed in free reduced, free oxidized and protein-bound fractions (in descending order). Next, we provided a comprehensive integrated review on the evidence that supports the reliance on cysteine of the kidney beyond cysteine antioxidant properties, highlighting the relevance of cysteine and its renal metabolism in the control of cysteine excess in the body as a pivotal source of metabolites to kidney biomass and bioenergetics and a promoter of adaptive responses to stressors. This view might translate into novel perspectives on the mechanisms of kidney function and blood pressure regulation and on clinical implications of the cysteine-related thiolome as a tool in precision medicine.publishersversionpublishe

Genetic variation in PFKFB3 impairs antifungal immunometabolic responses and predisposes to Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis

Copyright © 2021 Gonçalves et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.Activation of immune cells in response to fungal infection involves the reprogramming of their cellular metabolism to support antimicrobial effector functions. Although metabolic pathways such as glycolysis are known to represent critical regulatory nodes in antifungal immunity, it remains undetermined whether these are differentially regulated at the interindividual level. In this study, we identify a key role for 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase 3 (PFKFB3) in the immunometabolic responses to Aspergillus fumigatus. A genetic association study performed in 439 recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and corresponding donors revealed that the donor, but not recipient, rs646564 variant in the PFKFB3 gene increased the risk of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) after transplantation. The risk genotype impaired the expression of PFKFB3 by human macrophages in response to fungal infection, which was correlated with a defective activation of glycolysis and the ensuing antifungal effector functions. In patients with IPA, the risk genotype was associated with lower concentrations of cytokines in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples. Collectively, these findings demonstrate the important contribution of genetic variation in PFKFB3 to the risk of IPA in patients undergoing HSCT and support its inclusion in prognostic tools to predict the risk of fungal infection in this clinical setting. IMPORTANCE The fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus can cause severe and life-threatening forms of infection in immunocompromised patients. Activation of glycolysis is essential for innate immune cells to mount effective antifungal responses. In this study, we report the contribution of genetic variation in the key glycolytic activator 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase 3 (PFKFB3) to the risk of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The PFKFB3 genotype associated with increased risk of infection was correlated with an impairment of the antifungal effector functions of macrophages in vitro and in patients with IPA. This work highlights the clinical relevance of genetic variation in PFKFB3 to the risk of IPA and supports its integration in risk stratification and preemptive measures for patients at high risk of IPA.This work was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) (PTDC/SAU-SER/29635/2017, PTDC/MED-GEN/28778/2017, UIDB/50026/2020, and UIDP/50026/2020), the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Program (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000039), the Institut Mérieux (Mérieux Research Grant 2017), the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID Research Grant 2017), the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 847507, and the “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434) and FCT under the agreement LCF/PR/HR17/52190003. Individual support was provided by FCT (SFRH/BD/136814/2018 to S.M.G., PD/BD/137680/2018 to D.A., CEECIND/04058/2018 to C.C., and CEECIND/03628/2017 to A.C.). M.G.N. was supported by an ERC Advanced Grant and a Spinoza Grant of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Phagosomal removal of fungal melanin reprograms macrophage metabolism to promote antifungal immunity

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (NORTE-01- 0145-FEDER-000013), the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) (SFRH/BD/136814/2018 to S.M.G., SFRH/BD/141127/2018 to C.D.O., PD/BD/137680/2018 to D.A., IF/00474/2014 to N.S.O., IF/01390/2014 to E.T., IF/00959/2014 to S.C., IF/00021/2014 to R.S., PTDC/SAU-SER/29635/2017 and CEECIND/04601/2017 to C.C., and CEECIND/03628/2017 to A.C.), the Institut Mérieux (Mérieux Research Grant 2017 to C.C.), and the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID Research Grant 2017 to A.C.). M.G.N. was supported by a Spinoza grant of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. A.A.B. was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Collaborative Research Center/Transregio TR124 FungiNet (project A1). G.D.B. was funded by the Wellcome Trust (102705), the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology and the University of Aberdeen (MR/N006364/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD