The Productivity Infrastructure of the United States

a Issued as Progress reports no. [1-4], Draft final report, and Final report, Project no. A-3378 (subproject is G-43-605/Rossini/Social Sciences)

Association of a traditional Mediterranean diet and non-Mediterranean dietary scores with all-cause and cause-specific mortality: prospective findings from the Moli-sani Study

Purpose: To evaluate in an Italian general population, the association with mortality of a traditional Mediterranean diet (MD) and non-Mediterranean dietary (non-MD) patterns, and their combined effect, and to test some biomarkers of cardiovascular (CVD) risk as potential mediators of such associations. Methods: Longitudinal analysis on 22,849 men and women aged 65 35 years, recruited in the Moli-sani Study (2005\u20132010), followed up for 8.2 years (median). The MD was assessed by the Mediterranean diet score (MDS). The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), the Palaeolithic diet, and the Nordic diet were chosen as reportedly healthy non-MD patterns. Hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated by multivariable Cox regression. Results: Participants reaching higher MDS or DASH diet score experienced lower risk of both all-cause (HR 0.77; 95% CI 0.66\u20130.90 and 0.81; 0.69\u20130.96, respectively, highest vs lowest quartile) and CVD (0.77; 0.59\u20131.00 and 0.81; 0.69\u20130.96, respectively) death risk; risk reduction associated with the Palaeolithic diet was limited to total and other cause death, whereas the Nordic diet did not alter risk of mortality. Increasing adherence to MD was associated with higher survival in each stratum of non-MD diets. Biomarkers of glucose metabolism accounted for 7% and 21.6% of the association between either MDS or DASH diet, respectively, with total mortality risk. Conclusions: Both the traditional MD and DASH diet may reduce risk of all-cause mortality among Italians, as well as risk of dying from cardiovascular causes. The Palaeolithic diet did not appear to reduce cardiovascular risk, while the Nordic eating pattern was unlikely to be associated with any substantial health advantage

In Vivo Generation and Characterization of a Soluble Form of the Semliki Forest Virus Fusion Protein

During infection of host cells, a number of enveloped animal viruses are known to produce soluble forms of viral membrane glycoproteins lacking the transmembrane domain. The roles of such soluble glycoproteins in viral life cycles are incompletely understood, but in several cases they are believed to modulate host immune response and viral pathogenesis. Semliki Forest virus (SFV) is an enveloped alphavirus that infects cells through low-pH-dependent fusion and buds from the plasma membrane. Fusion is mediated by the E1 subunit of the SFV spike protein. Previous studies described the in vivo generation of E1s, a truncated soluble form of E1, under conditions in which budding is inhibited in mammalian host cells. We have here examined the properties of E1s generation and the biological activity of E1s. E1s cleavage required spike protein transport out of the endoplasmic reticulum and was independent of virus infection. Cell surface E1 efficiently acted as a precursor for E1s. E1s generation was strongly pH dependent in BHK cells, with optimal cleavage at a pH of ≤7.0, conditions that inhibited the budding of SFV but not the budding of the rhabdovirus vesicular stomatitis virus. The pH dependence of E1s production and SFV budding was unaffected by the stability of the spike protein dimer but was a function of the host cell. Similar to the intact virus and in vitro-generated E1 ectodomain, treatment of E1s at low pH in the presence of target membranes triggered specific acid-dependent conformational changes. Thus, under a variety of conditions, SFV-infected cells can produce a soluble form of E1 that is biologically active