CD4 T Cells Treated with gp120 Acquire a CD45R0+/CD45RA+ Phenotype

HIV-infected patients exhibit quantitative and qualitative defects in CD4 T cells, including having increased numbers of CD4+CD45R0+/CD45RA+ T cells, although it remains unclear how these cells arise. Here we demonstrate that gp120 treatment of activated but not resting primary human CD4 T cells decreases number of cells with single positive CD45R0+/CD45RA- effector memory phenotype while proportionally increasing the subset of cells with double positive CD45R0+/CD45RA+ mixed phenotype. We found that double positive CD45R0+/CD45RA+CD4 T cells preferentially undergo apoptosis while single positive CD45R0+/CD45RA- and CD45R0-/CD45RA+ do not. Blocking gp120-CD4 interaction with sCD4 or inhibition Lck activity reverses gp120 induced increase in double positive CD45R0+/CD45RA+CD4 T cells and subsequently diminishes the apoptosis of double positive CD45R0+/CD45RA+ cells. Altogether these data indicate that gp120 ligation of the CD4 receptor increases the number of double positive CD45R0+/CD45RA+ CD4 T cells which subsequently undergo apoptosis in a CD4 dependent manner

Does the taste matter? Taste and medicinal perceptions associated with five selected herbal drugs among three ethnic groups in West Yorkshire, Northern England

In recent years, diverse scholars have addressed the issue of the chemosensory perceptions associated with traditional medicines, nevertheless there is still a distinct lack of studies grounded in the social sciences and conducted from a cross-cultural, comparative perspective. In this urban ethnobotanical field study, 254 informants belonging to the Gujarati, Kashmiri and English ethnic groups and living in Western Yorkshire in Northern England were interviewed about the relationship between taste and medicinal perceptions of five herbal drugs, which were selected during a preliminary study. The herbal drugs included cinnamon (the dried bark of Cinnamomum verum, Lauraceae), mint (the leaves of Mentha spp., Lamiaceae), garlic (the bulbs of Allium sativum, Alliaceae), ginger (the rhizome of Zingiber officinale, Zingiberaceae), and cloves (the dried flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum, Myrtaceae). The main cross-cultural differences in taste perceptions regarded the perception the perception of the spicy taste of ginger, garlic, and cinnamon, of the bitter taste of ginger, the sweet taste of mint, and of the sour taste of garlic. The part of the study of how the five selected herbal drugs are perceived medicinally showed that TK (Traditional Knowledge) is widespread among Kashmiris, but not so prevalent among the Gujarati and especially the English samples. Among Kashmiris, ginger was frequently considered to be helpful for healing infections and muscular-skeletal and digestive disorders, mint was chosen for healing digestive and respiratory troubles, garlic for blood system disorders, and cinnamon was perceived to be efficacious for infectious diseases. Among the Gujarati and Kashmiri groups there was evidence of a strong link between the bitter and spicy tastes of ginger, garlic, cloves, and cinnamon and their perceived medicinal properties, whereas there was a far less obvious link between the sweet taste of mint and cinnamon and their perceived medicinal properties, although the link did exist among some members of the Gujarati group. Data presented in this study show how that links between taste perceptions and medicinal uses of herbal drugs may be understood as bio-cultural phenomena rooted in human physiology, but also constructed through individual experiences and culture, and that these links can therefore be quite different across diverse cultures

HIV Protease Cleavage of Procaspase 8 is Necessary for Death of HIV-Infected Cells

Numerous host and viral factors are capable of causing death of HIV infected cells, uninfected bystander cells, or both. We assessed the relevance of HIV protease in infected cell killing by mutating its obligate substrate for death, procaspase 8. VSV pseudotyped HIV infection of cells expressing WT caspase 8 resulted in apoptotic cell death and generation of the HIV protease specific cleavage product of procaspase 8, casp8p41. Conversely, both cell death and casp8p41 production were inhibited in cells expressing procaspase 8 engineered to be resistant to HIV protease cleavage. Lymph nodes from HIV-infected patients with ongoing viral replication also selectively expressed casp8p41, which colocalized with both infected and apoptotic cells. HIV protease cleavage of procaspase 8 appears to be a necessary event for infected cell killing, which is responsible for infected cell death within lymphoid tissues from HIV-infected patients

Floristic Composition and Taxonomic Structure of Algae in the Hyperhaline Reservoirs of the Northwestern Azov Sea Coast (Ukraine)

The article represents the results of long-term algological studies of hyperhaline reservoirs of the northwestern coast of the Azov Sea. The features of the floristic composition and taxonomic structure of algae in aquatic (water column and bottom), aquatic-terrestrial (water’s edge, dried up water bodies, drying area) and terrestrial (elevated non-flooding areas) habitats of these objects are displayed. A specificity of the studied algoflora lies in the absence of representatives of certain characteristic phyla for the salt-water and non-saline land and water habitats of the territory of Ukraine. It was established that species composition of the studied reservoirs is depleted in comparison with other non-saline and marine ecosystems. Totally, 123 algae species were identified. They represented 7 divisions, 10 classes, 27 orders, 47 families, 68 genera. The largest number of species included three phyla: Cyanoprokaryota – 65 species (52.9% of the total number of identified species), Bacillariophyta – 26 (21.1%), Chlorophyta – 22 (17.9%). The first places among the six leading orders were taken by cyanoprocaryotes from Oscillatoriales, Nostocales, Chroococcales and diatoms from Naviculales. The most numerous species at the family level are trichomous cyanoprocaryotes from Nostocaceae, Pseudanabaenaceae, and Phormidiaceae. There were found 23 leading genera – their species richness exceeds the average indicator (1.81 species). According to the results of original studies, it was noted that all taxonomic levels of algoflora of the hyperhaline reservoirs shows features of not only saline habitats, but also of the freshwater, marine and terrestrial extreme ecosystems. Such diversity of the algal population indicates an unstable hydrological regime and complex relations of water exchange between the hyperhaline reservoirs and nearby terrestrial and aquatic habitats