Early adaptive chromatin remodeling events precede pathologic phenotypes and are reinforced in the failing heart

The temporal nature of chromatin structural changes underpinning pathologic transcription are poorly understood. We measured chromatin accessibility and DNA methylation to study the contribution of chromatin remodeling at different stages of cardiac hypertrophy and failure. ATAC-seq and reduced representation bisulfite sequencing were performed in cardiac myocytes after transverse aortic constriction (TAC) or depletion of the chromatin structural protein CTCF. Early compensation to pressure overload showed changes in chromatin accessibility and DNA methylation preferentially localized to intergenic and intronic regions. Most methylation and accessibility changes observed in enhancers and promoters at the late phase (3 weeks after TAC) were established at an earlier time point (3 days after TAC), before heart failure manifests. Enhancers were paired with genes based on chromatin conformation capture data: while enhancer accessibility generally correlated with changes in gene expression, this feature, nor DNA methylation, was alone sufficient to predict transcription of all enhancer interacting genes. Enrichment of transcription factors and active histone marks at these regions suggests that enhancer activity coordinates with other epigenetic factors to determine gene transcription. In support of this hypothesis, ChIP-qPCR demonstrated increased enhancer and promoter occupancy of GATA4 and NKX2.5 at Itga9 and Nppa, respectively, concomitant with increased transcription of these genes in the diseased heart. Lastly, we demonstrate that accessibility and DNA methylation are imperfect predictors of chromatin structure at the scale of A/B compartmentalization—rather, accessibility, DNA methylation, transcription factors and other histone marks work within these domains to determine gene expression. These studies establish that chromatin reorganization during early compensation after pathologic stimuli is maintained into the later decompensatory phases of heart failure. The findings reveal the rules for how local chromatin features govern gene expression in the context of global genomic structure and identify chromatin remodeling events for therapeutic targeting in disease

Phenoxazine Based Units- Synthesis, Photophysics and Electrochemistry

A few new phenoxazine-based conjugated monomers were synthesized, characterized, and successfully used as semiconducting materials. The phenoxazine-based oligomers have low ionization potentials or high-lying HOMO levels (~4.7 eV), which were estimated from cyclic voltammetry. Conjugated oligomers offer good film—forming, mechanical and optical properties connected with their wide application. These results demonstrate that phenoxazine-based conjugated mers are a promising type of semiconducting and luminescent structures able to be used as thin films in organic electronics

Prevalence of antibodies against Neospora caninum in dogs from urban areas in Central Poland

Neospora caninum is a protozoan parasite which causes abortion in cattle as well as reproduction problems and neurological disorders in dogs. To assess the prevalence of the parasite in urban dogs in the Mazovian Voivodeship, Central Poland, serum samples from 257 dogs were analyzed for the presence of specific IgG antibodies. The examined dogs visited three private veterinary clinics located in Warsaw due to control tests, vaccinations, or other reasons not directly connected with neosporosis. Using ELISA and Western blot, antibodies against the parasite were detected in 56 out of 257 dogs, giving a prevalence of 21.7%. A greater prevalence was observed in female dogs than in males, 28% and 17.3%, respectively, and the differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in seroprevalence of Neospora infection within the age groups (p > 0.05). This study indicates the presence of N. caninum in the Mazovian Voivodeship, in dogs which live in urban areas and exposure of these dogs to the parasite. The fact that seropositive dogs had no contact with cattle confirms the important role of dogs in the parasite’s epidemiology

Emergence and Spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant in Alberta Communities Revealed by Wastewater Monitoring

Wastewater monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 allows for early detection and monitoring of COVID-19 burden in communities and can track specific variants of concern. Targeted assays enabled relative proportions of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and Delta variants to be determined across 30 municipalities covering >75% of the province of Alberta (pop. 4.5M) in Canada, from November 2021 to January 2022. Larger cities like Calgary and Edmonton exhibited a more rapid emergence of Omicron relative to smaller and more remote municipalities. Notable exceptions were Banff, a small international resort town, and Fort McMurray, a more remote northern city with a large fly-in worker population. The integrated wastewater signal revealed that the Omicron variant represented close to 100% of SARS-CoV-2 burden prior to the observed increase in newly diagnosed clinical cases throughout Alberta, which peaked two weeks later. These findings demonstrate that wastewater monitoring offers early and reliable population-level results for establishing the extent and spread of emerging pathogens including SARS-CoV-2 variants.Alberta Healt

A Scalable and License Free 5G Internet of Radio Light Architecture for Services in Homes & Businesses

In this paper we present a 5G Internet Radio-Light (IoRL) architecture for homes that can be readily deployed because it utilizes unlicensed visible light and millimeter wave part of the spectrum, which does not require Mobile Network Operator (MNO) permission to deploy and which is used to provide inhabitants of houses with accurate location, interaction, access to Internet and Cloud based services such as high resolution video on a Tablet PC. The paper describes the home use cases and the IoRL architecture.EU Horizon 202

The estimation of different ELISA procedures for serodiagnosis of human trichinellosis

Introduction. The most important confirmative diagnostic test for trichinellosis is the presence of the muscle larvae in a tissue biopsy but this direct method has a low sensitivity of light and moderate infections. The aim of presented study was to compare the usefulness of the results obtained by three ELISA procedures for Trichinella spp. diagnosis in human outbreaks. Materials and methods. All sera (cases and controls) were tested for anti-Trichinella antibodies (immunoglobulin G) using commercially available Novatec KIT and two other ELISA procedures based on excretory-secretory (ES) antigens on Trichinella spiralis muscle larvae. The main differences in ELISA procedures were: the protein concentration in antigen, dilution of human serum samples, conjugate and the time of conjugate incubation. Additional differences were noticed in ES antigen preparation procedures as well as in T. spiralis isolates used in these procedures. Serum samples were obtained from 22 symptomatical patients from Poznań region (West Poland), geographic area where human outbreak had occurred. Control serum samples were obtained from 20 patients from an open population from a non endemic trichinellosis area. Results. The results were analyzed in terms of both: statistical and epidemiological point of view. Linear regression analysis and correlations coefficient r between OD values of total 22 patients obtained in three ELISA procedures were positive and high statistically significant. Three ELISA procedures revealed different cut-off values and positivity rates for outbreak. However, the majority of positive samples were found as positive in three procedures, but some of them were positive in two or one procedure only. These individual variability in sera reactivity observed in three ELISA procedures could be very important from epidemiological point of view