Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains are differentially recognized by TLRs with an impact on the immune response

Tuberculosis associates with a wide spectrum of disease outcomes. The Beijing (Bj) lineage of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is suggested to be more virulent than other Mtb lineages and prone to elicit non-protective immune responses. However, highly heterogeneous immune responses were reported upon infection of innate immune cells with Bj strains or stimulation with their glycolipids. Using both in vitro and in vivo mouse models of infection, we here report that the molecular mechanism for this heterogeneity may be related to distinct TLR activations. Among this Mtb lineage, we found strains that preferentially activate TLR2, and others that also activate TLR4. Recognition of Mtb strains by TLR4 resulted in a distinct cytokine profile in vitro and in vivo, with specific production of type I IFN. We also uncover a novel protective role for TLR4 activation in vivo. Thus, our findings contribute to the knowledge of the molecular basis underlying how host innate immune cells handle different Mtb strains, in particular the intricate host-pathogen interaction with strains of the Mtb Bj lineage.This work has been funded by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, Portugal. Project grants: PTDC/SAU-MII/101977/2008 and PTDC/BIA-BCM/102776/2008. Personal grants: SFRH/BD/35981/2007 to JC; SFRH/BPD/3306/2007 to AC; SFRH/BPD/77399/2011 to LMT; SFRH/BI/33456/2008 to CS; and SFRH/BPD/33959/2009 to NSO. MS is a Ciencia 2007 fellow. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Produção de forragem de populações selecionadas de azevém anual na região da Campanha do Rio Grande do Sul.

O azevém anual (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) é uma gramínea com alta produção de matéria seca e de boa qualidade forrageira muito utilizada no Rio Grande do Sul durante a estação fria do ano. Apesar de ser uma espécie muito cultivada no Estado, a população Comum-RS, uma das mais utilizadas, vem apresentando um encurtamento do seu ciclo de crescimento e baixa produção de folhas. Para resolver esse problema, os programas de melhoramento estão buscando selecionar plantas com um ciclo produtivo mais longo e de maior potencial. O trabalho realizado teve como objetivo avaliar a produção de forragem de diferentes populações selecionadas de azevém anual na região da Campanha do Rio Grande do Sul. O experimento foi conduzido na Embrapa Pecuária Sul, em Bagé. Foram avaliadas duas populações selecionadas, comparando-as com cinco cultivares registradas e uma população comercial sem origem definida, denominada de Comum-RS. Não ocorreram diferenças significativas entre os tratamentos para produção de matéria seca total. Porém, com relação à produção de matéria seca de folhas, as duas populações selecionadas e quatro cultivares registradas foram superiores à população Comum-RS. A população selecionada CNPGL 195 apresentou produção de folhas similar ou superior a todas as cultivares registradas, demonstrando bom potencial para lançamento como nova cultivar

From opportunity seeking to gap filling: Reframing Brazil in Lusophone Africa

This chapter inquires whether Brazil’s headways in Africa over recent years were organic in nature and in content or, in fact, were achieved at the expense of other previously established actors. By reframing Brazil’s agenda towards African lusophone countries in juxtaposition to the perceived external downturn of Portugal, the propitious context and consequences of a new player on the continent can be best brought into evidence. The push-and-pull forces enacted by both Brazil and Portugal towards Lusophone Africa are explored through the aftermath of the 2012 military coup in Guinea-Bissau and the adhesion of Equatorial Guinea to the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) in 2014. The chapter offers a reinterpretation of Brazil’s net gains in Africa and argues for its fragility and susceptibility to changing political-economic cycles.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Exposure of Phosphatidylserine on Leishmania amazonensis Isolates Is Associated with Diffuse Cutaneous Leishmaniasis and Parasite Infectivity

Diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis (DCL) is a rare clinical manifestation of leishmaniasis, characterized by an inefficient parasite-specific cellular response and heavily parasitized macrophages. In Brazil, Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis is the main species involved in DCL cases. In the experimental model, recognition of phosphatidylserine (PS) molecules exposed on the surface of amastigotes forms of L. amazonensis inhibits the inflammatory response of infected macrophages as a strategy to evade the host immune surveillance. In this study, we examined whether PS exposure on L. amazonensis isolates from DCL patients operated as a parasite pathogenic factor and as a putative suppression mechanism of immune response during the infection. Peritoneal macrophages from F1 mice (BALB/c×C57BL/6) were infected with different L. amazonensis isolates from patients with localized cutaneous leishmaniasis (LCL) or DCL. DCL isolates showed higher PS exposure than their counterparts from LCL patients. In addition, PS exposure was positively correlated with clinical parameters of the human infection (number of lesions and time of disease) and with characteristics of the experimental infection (macrophage infection and anti-inflammatory cytokine induction). Furthermore, parasites isolated from DCL patients displayed an increased area in parasitophorous vacuoles (PV) when compared to those isolated from LCL patients. Thus, this study shows for the first time that a parasite factor (exposed PS) might be associated with parasite survival/persistence in macrophages and lesion exacerbation during the course of DCL, providing new insights regarding pathogenic mechanism in this rare chronic disease

Cowpea mild mottle virus (CPMMV) seed transmission in common bean cultivars.

In this work we used a more sensitive technique, RT-PCR coupled to Southern Blot, to analyze common bean seed transmission of CPMMV

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Measurement of χ c1 and χ c2 production with s√ = 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

The prompt and non-prompt production cross-sections for the χ c1 and χ c2 charmonium states are measured in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.5 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The χ c states are reconstructed through the radiative decay χ c → J/ψγ (with J/ψ → μ + μ −) where photons are reconstructed from γ → e + e − conversions. The production rate of the χ c2 state relative to the χ c1 state is measured for prompt and non-prompt χ c as a function of J/ψ transverse momentum. The prompt χ c cross-sections are combined with existing measurements of prompt J/ψ production to derive the fraction of prompt J/ψ produced in feed-down from χ c decays. The fractions of χ c1 and χ c2 produced in b-hadron decays are also measured