The potential use of cuticular hydrocarbons and multivariate analysis to age empty puparial cases of Calliphora vicina and Lucilia sericata

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseCuticular hydrocarbons (CHC) have been successfully used in the field of forensic entomology for identifying and ageing forensically important blowfly species, primarily in the larval stages. However in older scenes where all other entomological evidence is no longer present, Calliphoridae puparial cases can often be all that remains and therefore being able to establish the age could give an indication of the PMI. This paper examined the CHCs present in the lipid wax layer of insects, to determine the age of the cases over a period of nine months. The two forensically important species examined were Calliphora vicina and Lucilia sericata. The hydrocarbons were chemically extracted and analysed using Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry. Statistical analysis was then applied in the form of nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis (NMDS), permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) and random forest models. This study was successful in determining age differences within the empty cases, which to date, has not been establish by any other technique

Isolation, identification and anti-cancer activity of minor alkaloids from Triclisia subcordata

No abstrac

Convenient fluorometric assay for matrix metalloproteinase activity and its application in biological media

AbstractMatrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are involved in physiological tissue remodeling and pathological conditions like tumour metastasis and joint destruction. Until now, no convenient and sensitive MMP-activity assay in crude media like synovial fluid has been available. Therefore, the highly soluble fluorogenic substrate TNO211 (Dabcyl-Gaba-Pro-Gln-Gly-Leu-Glu(EDANS)-Ala-Lys-NH2), containing the MMP cleavable Gly-Leu bond and EDANS/Dabcyl as fluorophore/quencer combination, was synthesized and characterized as an MMP specific substrate. We show that the fluorogenic assay using TNO211 is sensitive and can detect MMP activity in culture medium from endothelial cells and untreated synovial fluid (SF) from RA and OA patients, and control subjects. MMP activity in SF significantly increased in the order C < OA < RA, thus the frequent use of OA samples as control in studies on RA is debatable

Non-contact induction heating and SAAP-148 eliminate persisters within MRSA biofilms mimicking a metal implant infection

Implant-associated infections are the primary cause of complications following orthopaedic surgery. Due to biofilm and persister formation, current treatments, i.e. surgical debridement followed by antibiotics, often fail. There is an urgent need for alternative strategies to combat such infections. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of non-contact induction heating (NCIH), the antimicrobial peptide SAAP-148 and combinations thereof on bacterial counts in 7 d mature biofilms and in persister-enriched biofilms of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) on titanium-aluminium-niobium (TAN) discs. Enrichment of persisters was achieved by daily exposure of mature biofilms to high doses of rifampicin and ciprofloxacin for 3 consecutive days. To heat up the TAN discs, a miniaturised induction heater was built and successfully validated. Using this apparatus, NCIH resulting in surface temperatures up to 85 degrees C eradicated all the bacteria in immature biofilms but not in mature biofilms, whereas persisters were already eliminated at surface temperatures >= 70 degrees C. SAAP-148 at concentrations > 25.6 mu mol/L reduced the persister counts in antibiotics-exposed, mature biofilms. As surface temperatures > 60 degrees C can have detrimental effects on the surrounding tissues, the maximum temperature of NCIH used in combination with SAAP-148 on persisters was set to 60 degrees C. Results revealed that this combination was slightly more effective than the peptide or NCIH alone in eliminating biofilm-embedded persisters. NCIH and SAAP-148 can be applied both invasively and non-invasively in various treatment scenarios. Together, combinations of NCIH and SAAP-148 might be a promising treatment strategy to combat metal-implant-associated infections.Orthopaedics, Trauma Surgery and Rehabilitatio

Sensitivity of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation to South Atlantic freshwater anomalies

The sensitivity of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) to changes in basin integrated net evaporation is highly dependent on the zonal salinity contrast at the southern border of the Atlantic. Biases in the freshwater budget strongly affect the stability of the AMOC in numerical models. The impact of these biases is investigated, by adding local anomaly patterns in the South Atlantic to the freshwater fluxes at the surface. These anomalies impact the freshwater and salt transport by the different components of the ocean circulation, in particular the basin-scale salt-advection feedback, completely changing the response of the AMOC to arbitrary perturbations. It is found that an appropriate dipole anomaly pattern at the southern border of the Atlantic Ocean can collapse the AMOC entirely even without a further hosing. The results suggest a new view on the stability of the AMOC, controlled by processes in the South Atlantic. <br/

The fine specificity of IgM anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) is different from that of IgG ACPA

Pathophysiology and treatment of rheumatic disease

Ocean and atmosphere influence on the 2015 European heatwave

During the summer of 2015, central Europe experienced a major heatwave that was preceded by anomalously cold sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the northern North Atlantic. Recent observation-based studies found a correlation between North Atlantic SST in spring and European summer temperatures, suggesting potential for predictability. Here we show, by using a high-resolution climate model, that ocean temperature anomalies, in combination with matching atmospheric and sea-ice initial conditions were key to the development of the 2015 European heatwave. In a series of 30-member ensemble simulations we test different combinations of ocean temperature and salinity initial states versus non-initialised climatology, mediated in both ensembles by different atmospheric/sea-ice initial conditions, using a non-standard initialisation method without data-assimilation. With the best combination of the initial ocean, and matching atmosphere/sea-ice initial conditions, the ensemble mean temperature response over central Europe in this set-up equals 60% of the observed anomaly, with 6 out of 30 ensemble-members showing similar, or even larger surface air temperature anomalies than observed

A linear 19-Mer plant defensin-derived peptide acts synergistically with caspofungin against Candida albicans biofilms.

Transplantation and autoimmunit

Specificity of Tissue Transglutaminase Explains Cereal Toxicity in Celiac Disease

Celiac disease is caused by a selective lack of T cell tolerance for gluten. It is known that the enzyme tissue transglutaminase (tTG) is involved in the generation of T cell stimulatory gluten peptides through deamidation of glutamine, the most abundant amino acid in gluten. Only particular glutamine residues, however, are modified by tTG. Here we provide evidence that the spacing between glutamine and proline, the second most abundant amino acid in gluten, plays an essential role in the specificity of deamidation. On the basis of this, algorithms were designed and used to successfully predict novel T cell stimulatory peptides in gluten. Strikingly, these algorithms identified many similar peptides in the gluten-like hordeins from barley and secalins from rye but not in the avenins from oats. The avenins contain significantly lower percentages of proline residues, which offers a likely explanation for the lack of toxicity of oats. Thus, the unique amino acid composition of gluten and related proteins in barley and rye favors the generation of toxic T cell stimulatory gluten peptides by tTG. This provides a rationale for the observation that celiac disease patients are intolerant to these cereal proteins but not to other common food proteins