Respiratory Infections by HMPV and RSV Are Clinically Indistinguishable but Induce Different Host Response in Aged Individuals

Background: Human metapneumovirus and respiratory syncytial virus can cause severe respiratory diseases, especially in infants, young children, and the elderly. So far it remains unclear why infections in the elderly become life threatening despite the presence of neutralizing antibodies in the serum, and to which extent double infections worsen the clinical course. Methods: Young and aged BALB/c-mice were infected with RSV or/and HMPV. Appearance of the mice was observed during course of infection. On day 5 p.i. animals were dispatched by cervical dislocation and levels of TNF-a and NF-kB were determined. Results: The observation of activity, weight and appearance of the different mice showed no differences among the tested groups. Despite this, the immunologic response depends on the animals ’ age and the virus they were infected with. In young animals, NF-kB levels were elevated if infected with HMPV and HMPV/RSV but remained low in RSV infections, whereas in aged animals the opposite was observed: solely RSV-infected animals showed elevated levels of NF-kB. TNF-a was slightly elevated in HMPV-infected young and old animals, but only in young animals this elevation was significant. Conclusions: Contrary to other studies, no weight loss or change in activity despite productive lung infection with the different viruses were observed. This may be due to the weaker anaesthesia or the lesser volume of virus solution used

Overexpression of the Endoplasmic Reticulum Chaperone BiP3 Regulates XA21-Mediated Innate Immunity in Rice

Recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) activates the innate immune response. Although PRR-mediated signaling events are critical to the survival of plants and animals, secretion and localization of PRRs have not yet been clearly elucidated. Here we report the in vivo interaction of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperone BiP3 with the rice XA21 PRR, which confers resistance to the Gram negative bacterium, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). We show that XA21 is glycosylated and is primarily localized to the ER and also to the plasma membrane (PM). In BiP3-overexpressing rice plants, XA21-mediated immunity is compromised, XA21 stability is significantly decreased, and XA21 proteolytic cleavage is inhibited. BiP3 overexpression does not affect the general rice defense response, cell death or brassinolide-induced responses. These results indicate that BiP3 regulates XA21 protein stability and processing and that this regulation is critical for resistance to Xoo

Parental Genome Dosage Imbalance Deregulates Imprinting in Arabidopsis

In mammals and in plants, parental genome dosage imbalance deregulates embryo growth and might be involved in reproductive isolation between emerging new species. Increased dosage of maternal genomes represses growth while an increased dosage of paternal genomes has the opposite effect. These observations led to the discovery of imprinted genes, which are expressed by a single parental allele. It was further proposed in the frame of the parental conflict theory that parental genome imbalances are directly mirrored by antagonistic regulations of imprinted genes encoding maternal growth inhibitors and paternal growth enhancers. However these hypotheses were never tested directly. Here, we investigated the effect of parental genome imbalance on the expression of Arabidopsis imprinted genes FERTILIZATION INDEPENDENT SEED2 (FIS2) and FLOWERING WAGENINGEN (FWA) controlled by DNA methylation, and MEDEA (MEA) and PHERES1 (PHE1) controlled by histone methylation. Genome dosage imbalance deregulated the expression of FIS2 and PHE1 in an antagonistic manner. In addition increased dosage of inactive alleles caused a loss of imprinting of FIS2 and MEA. Although FIS2 controls histone methylation, which represses MEA and PHE1 expression, the changes of PHE1 and MEA expression could not be fully accounted for by the corresponding fluctuations of FIS2 expression. Our results show that parental genome dosage imbalance deregulates imprinting using mechanisms, which are independent from known regulators of imprinting. The complexity of the network of regulations between expressed and silenced alleles of imprinted genes activated in response to parental dosage imbalance does not support simple models derived from the parental conflict hypothesis

Inducing Ni Sensitivity in the Ni Hyperaccumulator Plant Alyssum inflatum Nyárády (Brassicaceae) by Transforming with CAX1, a Vacuolar Membrane Calcium Transporter

The importance of calcium in nickel tolerance was studied in the nickel hyperaccumulator plant Alyssum inflatum by gene transformation of CAX1, a vacuolar membrane transporter that reduces cytosolic calcium. CAX1 from Arabidopsis thaliana with a CaMV35S promoter accompanying a kanamycin resistance gene was transferred into A. inflatum using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Transformed calli were subcultured three times on kanamycin-rich media and transformation was confirmed by PCR using a specific primer for CAX1. At least 10 callus lines were used as a pool of transformed material. Both transformed and untransformed calli were treated with varying concentrations of either calcium (1–15 mM) or nickel (0– 500 lM) to compare their responses to those ions. Increased external calcium generally led to increased callus biomass, however, the increase was greater for untransformed callus. Further, increased external calcium led to increased callus calcium concentrations. Transformed callus was less nickel tolerant than untransformed callus: under increasing nickel concentrations callus relative growth rate was significantly less for transformed callus. Transformed callus also contained significantly less nickel than untransformed callus when exposed to the highest external nickel concentration (200 lM). We suggest that transformation with CAX1 decreased cytosolic calcium and resulted in decreased nickel tolerance. This in turn suggests that, at low cytosolic calcium concentrations, other nickel tolerance mechanisms (e.g., complexation and vacuolar sequestration) are insufficient for nickel tolerance. We propose that high cytosolic calcium is an important mechanism that results in nickel tolerance by nickel hyperaccumulator plants

Frequency-selective non-linear blending for the computed tomography diagnosis of acute gangrenous cholecystitis: Pilot retrospective evaluation

Purpose: To compare the diagnostic performance of frequency-selective non-linear blending and conventional linear blending contrast-enhanced CT for the diagnosis of acute (AC) and gangrenous (GC) cholecystitis. Materials and methods: Following local ethics committee approval for retrospective data analysis, a database search derived 39 patients (26 men, mean age 67.8 ± 14.6 years) with clinical signs of acute cholecystitis, contrast enhanced CT (CECT) evaluation, cholecystectomy, and pathological examination of the resected specimen. The interval between CECT and surgery was 4.7 ± 4.1 days. Pathological gross examination was used to categorize the cases into AC and GC. Subsequently, two radiologists categorized the CECT studies in a blinded and independent fashion into AC and GC, during two different reading sessions using linear blending and frequency-selective non-linear blending CECT. Results: Histologic analysis diagnosed 31/39 (79.4%) cases of GC and 8/39 (20.6%) cases of AC. Image interpretation of linear blending CECT resulted in classification of 7/39 (17.9%) patients as GC and 32/39 (82.1%) as AC, whereas image interpretation of frequency-selective non-linear blending CECT resulted in classification of 29/39 (74.3%) patients as GC and 10/39 (25.7%) as AC. Sensitivity/specificity/PPV/NPV for detection of GC were 22.6%/100%/100%/25% with linear blending CECT and 80.6%/50%/86.2%/40% with frequency-selective non-linear blending CECT, respectively. Based on the histopathologic diagnosis frequency-selective non-linear blending had a significant improvement (p > 0.0001) in the diagnostic accuracy of gangrenous cholecystitis compared with linear blending. Conclusion: Frequency-selective non-linear blending post-processing increases the diagnostic accuracy of gangrenous cholecystitis owing to improved visualization of absence of focal enhancement and mural ulcerations. Keywords: Acute cholecystits, Gangrenous cholecystits, Post processing CT imaging, Frequency selective non linear blending, Emergency, C