Coral tumor-like growth anomalies induce an immune response and reduce fecundity

Coral growth anomalies (GAs) are chronic diseases that adversely affect organism health and fitness. We investigated immunity and fecundity within and among GA-affected and visually healthy control colonies of the reef-building coral Acropora hyacinthus. Compared to controls, GAs had higher activity of the key immunity enzyme phenoloxidase (PO), suggesting a localised immune response within the GA. Both GAs and healthy tissue of GA-affected colonies had significantly greater total potential PO (tpPO)-PO activity inclusive of the activated latent PO, prophenoloxidase - than control colonies. Higher tpPO activity in GA-affected corals suggests elevated constitutive immunity compared to visually healthy controls. Additionally, fewer GA-affected colonies produced gametes, fewer polyps had oocytes (p < 0.001) and the number of oocytes per polyp was lower. Therefore, GAs in A. hyacinthus might induce, or represent a shift in resource investment towards immunity and away from reproduction. While the effect on population growth is likely to be small, reduced fecundity in GA-affected colonies does suggest a selective pressure against GAs

Warmer Water Affects Immunity of a Tolerant Reef Coral

Corals are multipartite sedentary organisms, which have evolved complex, physiological networks in order to survive perturbations and environmental fluctuations. However, climate change is warming tropical waters, pushing the limits of coral tolerance and driving global declines. Coral susceptibility to thermal anomalies is variable among species and through time, and directly relates to constituent immunity. Constituent immunity refers to immune activities required to ensure homeostasis, whereas an immune response is acutely heightened immune activity to a perturbation. Understanding the mechanisms behind coral health, and sustained health through adverse conditions, is increasingly important for establishing effective reef conservation and restoration projects. However, most experimental studies of coral health use species that are highly susceptible to thermal events, potentially skewing our understanding. To determine the influence of warmer water on immunity, activities of key coral immune pathways and an antioxidant were compared under ambient (27°C) and warmer water (32°C), and between injured and uninjured (control) branches of the tolerant reef coral Porites cylindrica. Three types of phenoloxidase, mono-phenoloxidase, ortho-diphenoloxidase and para-diphenloxidase, indicative of two melanin synthesis pathways (the tyrosinase and laccase-type), and peroxidase were measured at 0 (control), 1, 6, 24, 48, and 168 h post-injury. All four enzymes demonstrated consistent levels of activity under ambient conditions (27°C), indicating constituent immunity. Upon injury at ambient temperature, all enzyme activities were significantly higher 1 h post-injury as compared to uninjured controls, demonstrating a comprehensive immune response to tissue disruption. Under warmer water, constituent immunity increased through time indicative of immune modulation to maintain homeostasis. However, warmer water, within the non-bleaching summer range, suppressed the immune response to injury, delaying it by 24 h. Therefore, upon the environmental cue of warmer water, the tolerant coral P. cylindrica may divert resources away from immune responses (immunosuppression) while enhancing constituent immunity (immune modulation) so as to maintain health through sub-optimal conditions. These changes in immunity with warmer water demonstrate that temperature affects coral immunity and, for this tolerant coral, triggers immune-modulation that may provide cross-tolerance to perturbations more frequent in summer months, such as bleaching and disease

Corals Use Similar Immune Cells and Wound-Healing Processes as Those of Higher Organisms

Sessile animals, like corals, frequently suffer physical injury from a variety of sources, thus wound-healing mechanisms that restore tissue integrity and prevent infection are vitally important for defence. Despite the ecological importance of reef-building corals, little is known about the cells and processes involved in wound healing in this group or in phylogenetically basal metazoans in general

Modular construction of size-selected multiple-core Pt–TiO2 nanoclusters for electro-catalysis

Modular construction of platinum–titanium dioxide clusters, which exhibit multiple Pt cores with a preferred size of 30 ± 6 atoms.</p

Safetxt: a safer sex intervention delivered by mobile phone messaging on sexually transmitted infections (STI) among young people in the UK - protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: Young people aged 16 to 24 have the highest prevalence of genital chlamydia and gonorrhoea compared with other age groups and re-infection rates following treatment are high. Long-term adverse health effects include subfertility and ectopic pregnancy, particularly among those with repeated infections. We developed the safetxt intervention delivered by text message to reduce sexually transmitted infection (STI) by increasing partner notification, condom use and (STI) testing among young people in the UK. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A single-blind randomised trial to reliably establish the effect of the safetxt intervention on chlamydia and gonorrhoea infection at 1 year. We will recruit 6250 people aged 16 to 24 years who have recently been diagnosed with chlamydia, gonorrhoea or non-specific urethritis from health services in the UK. Participants will be allocated to receive the safetxt intervention (text messages designed to promote safer sexual health behaviours) or to receive the control text messages (monthly messages asking participants about changes in contact details) by an automated remote online randomisation system. The primary outcome will be the cumulative incidence of chlamydia and gonorrhoea infection at 1 year assessed by nucleic acid amplification tests. Secondary outcomes include partner notification, correct treatment of infection, condom use and STI testing prior to sex with new partners. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval was obtained from NHS Health Research Authority - London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee (REC reference: 15/LO/1665) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. We will submit the results of the trial for publication in peer-reviewed journals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials Number: ISRCTN64390461. Registered on 17th March 2016. WHO trial registration data set available at: http://apps.who.int/trialsearch/Trial2.aspx?TrialID=ISRCTN64390461. TRIAL PROTOCOL VERSION: 12, 19th July 2018

Alcohol consumption and cognitive performance: a <scp>M</scp> endelian randomization study

Aims: To use Mendelian randomization to assess whether alcohol intake was causally associated with cognitive function. Design: Mendelian randomization using a genetic variant related to alcohol intake (ADH1B rs1229984) was used to obtain unbiased estimates of the association between alcohol intake and cognitive performance. Setting: Europe. Participants: More than 34000 adults. Measurements: Any versus no alcohol intake and units of intake in the previous week was measured by questionnaire. Cognitive function was assessed in terms of immediate and delayed word recall, verbal fluency and processing speed. Findings: Having consumed any versus no alcohol was associated with higher scores by 0.17 standard deviations (SD) [95% confidence interval (CI)=0.15, 0.20] for immediate recall, 0.17 SD (95% CI=0.14, 0.19) for delayed recall, 0.17 SD (95% CI=0.14, 0.19) for verbal fluency and 0.12 SD (95% CI=0.09, 0.15) for processing speed. The minor allele of rs1229984 was associated with reduced odds of consuming any alcohol (odds ratio=0.87; 95% CI=0.80, 0.95; P=0.001; R2=0.1%; F-statistic=47). In Mendelian randomization analysis, the minor allele was not associated with any cognitive test score, and instrumental variable analysis suggested no causal association between alcohol consumption and cognition: -0.74 SD (95% CI=-1.88, 0.41) for immediate recall, -1.09 SD (95% CI=-2.38, 0.21) for delayed recall, -0.63 SD (95% CI=-1.78, 0.53) for verbal fluency and -0.16 SD (95% CI=-1.29, 0.97) for processing speed. Conclusions: The Mendelian randomization analysis did not provide strong evidence of a causal association between alcohol consumption and cognitive ability

New genetic loci implicated in fasting glucose homeostasis and their impact on type 2 diabetes risk.

Levels of circulating glucose are tightly regulated. To identify new loci influencing glycemic traits, we performed meta-analyses of 21 genome-wide association studies informative for fasting glucose, fasting insulin and indices of beta-cell function (HOMA-B) and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in up to 46,186 nondiabetic participants. Follow-up of 25 loci in up to 76,558 additional subjects identified 16 loci associated with fasting glucose and HOMA-B and two loci associated with fasting insulin and HOMA-IR. These include nine loci newly associated with fasting glucose (in or near ADCY5, MADD, ADRA2A, CRY2, FADS1, GLIS3, SLC2A2, PROX1 and C2CD4B) and one influencing fasting insulin and HOMA-IR (near IGF1). We also demonstrated association of ADCY5, PROX1, GCK, GCKR and DGKB-TMEM195 with type 2 diabetes. Within these loci, likely biological candidate genes influence signal transduction, cell proliferation, development, glucose-sensing and circadian regulation. Our results demonstrate that genetic studies of glycemic traits can identify type 2 diabetes risk loci, as well as loci containing gene variants that are associated with a modest elevation in glucose levels but are not associated with overt diabetes

Genome-wide association study of angioedema induced by angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker treatment

Angioedema in the mouth or upper airways is a feared adverse reaction to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEi) and angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) treatment, which is used for hypertension, heart failure and diabetes complications. This candidate gene and genome-wide association study aimed to identify genetic variants predisposing to angioedema induced by these drugs. The discovery cohort consisted of 173 cases and 4890 controls recruited in Sweden. In the candidate gene analysis, ETV6, BDKRB2, MME, and PRKCQ were nominally associated with angioedema (p < 0.05), but did not pass Bonferroni correction for multiple testing (p < 2.89 × 10−5). In the genome-wide analysis, intronic variants in the calcium-activated potassium channel subunit alpha-1 (KCNMA1) gene on chromosome 10 were significantly associated with angioedema (p < 5 × 10−8). Whilst the top KCNMA1 hit was not significant in the replication cohort (413 cases and 599 ACEi-exposed controls from the US and Northern Europe), a meta-analysis of the replication and discovery cohorts (in total 586 cases and 1944 ACEi-exposed controls) revealed that each variant allele increased the odds of experiencing angioedema 1.62 times (95% confidence interval 1.05–2.50, p = 0.030). Associated KCNMA1 variants are not known to be functional, but are in linkage disequilibrium with variants in transcription factor binding sites active in relevant tissues. In summary, our data suggest that common variation in KCNMA1 is associated with risk of angioedema induced by ACEi or ARB treatment. Future whole exome or genome sequencing studies will show whether rare variants in KCNMA1 or other genes contribute to the risk of ACEi- and ARB-induced angioedema

Listeners feel the beat: Entrainment to English and French speech rhythms

Can listeners entrain to speech rhythms? Monolingual speakers of English and French and balanced English–French bilinguals tapped along with the beat they perceived in sentences spoken in a stress-timed language, English, and a syllable-timed language, French. All groups of participants tapped more regularly to English than to French utterances. Tapping performance was also influenced by the participants’ native language: English-speaking participants and bilinguals tapped more regularly and at higher metrical levels than did French-speaking participants, suggesting that long-term linguistic experience with a stress-timed language can differentiate speakers’ entrainment to speech rhythm