Plasma membrane calcium ATPase activity is regulated by actin oligomers through direct interaction

As recently described by our group, plasma membrane calcium ATPase (PMCA) activity can be regulated by the actin cytoskeleton. In this study, we characterize the interaction of purified G-actin with isolated PMCA and examine the effect of G-actin during the first polymerization steps. As measured by surface plasmon resonance, G-actin directly interacts with PMCA with an apparent 1:1 stoichiometry in the presence of Ca2+ with an apparent affinity in the micromolar range. As assessed by the photoactivatable probe 1-O-hexadecanoyl-2-O-[9-[[[2-[125I]iodo-4-(trifluoromethyl-3H-diazirin-3-yl)benzyl]oxy]carbonyl]nonanoyl]-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, the association of PMCA to actin produced a shift in the distribution of the conformers of the pump toward a calmodulin-activated conformation. G-actin stimulates Ca2+-ATPase activity of the enzyme when incubated under polymerizing conditions, displaying a cooperative behavior. The increase in the Ca2+-ATPase activity was related to an increase in the apparent affinity for Ca2+ and an increase in the phosphoenzyme levels at steady state. Although surface plasmon resonance experiments revealed only one binding site for G-actin, results clearly indicate that more than one molecule of G-actin was needed for a regulatory effect on the pump. Polymerization studies showed that the experimental conditions are compatible with the presence of actin in the first stages of assembly. Altogether, these observations suggest that the stimulatory effect is exerted by short oligomers of actin. The functional interaction between actin oligomers and PMCA represents a novel regulatory pathway by which the cortical actin cytoskeleton participates in the regulation of cytosolic Ca2+ homeostasis.Fil: Dalghi, Marianela Gisela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Fernández, Marisa Mariel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Ferreira Gomes, Mariela Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Mangialavori, Irene Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Malchiodi, Emilio Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Strehler, Emanuel E.. Mayo Clinic College of Medicine; Estados UnidosFil: Rossi, Juan Pablo Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; Argentin

An improved geometric inequality via vanishing moments, with applications to singular Liouville equations

We consider a class of singular Liouville equations on compact surfaces motivated by the study of Electroweak and Self-Dual Chern-Simons theories, the Gaussian curvature prescription with conical singularities and Onsager's description of turbulence. We analyse the problem of existence variationally, and show how the angular distribution of the conformal volume near the singularities may lead to improvements in the Moser-Trudinger inequality, and in turn to lower bounds on the Euler-Lagrange functional. We then discuss existence and non-existence results.Comment: some references adde

Inhibition of HIV-1 Replication in Human Monocyte-Derived Macrophages by Parasite Trypanosoma cruzi

and HIV-1 to date.0.01). inhibits HIV-1 replication at several replication stages in macrophages, a major cell target for both pathogens

Sign-changing tower of bubbles for a sinh-Poisson equation with asymmetric exponents

Motivated by the statistical mechanics description of stationary 2D-turbulence, for a sinh-Poisson type equation with asymmetric nonlinearity, we construct a concentrating solution sequence in the form of a tower of singular Liouville bubbles, each of which has a different degeneracy exponent. The asymmetry parameter $\gamma\in(0,1]$ corresponds to the ratio between the intensity of the negatively rotating vortices and the intensity of the positively rotating vortices. Our solutions correspond to a superposition of highly concentrated vortex configurations of alternating orientation; they extend in a nontrivial way some known results for $\gamma=1$. Thus, by analyzing the case $\gamma\neq1$ we emphasize specific properties of the physically relevant parameter $\gamma$ in the vortex concentration phenomena

Classification and nondegeneracy of SU(n+1)SU(n+1) Toda system with singular sources

We consider the following Toda system \Delta u_i + \D \sum_{j = 1}^n a_{ij}e^{u_j} = 4\pi\gamma_{i}\delta_{0} \text{in}\mathbb R^2, \int_{\mathbb R^2}e^{u_i} dx -1$,$\delta_0$is Dirac measure at 0, and the coefficients$a_{ij}$form the standard tri-diagonal Cartan matrix. In this paper, (i) we completely classify the solutions and obtain the quantization result:$$\sum_{j=1}^n a_{ij}\int_{\R^2}e^{u_j} dx = 4\pi (2+\gamma_i+\gamma_{n+1-i}), \;\;\forall\; 1\leq i \leq n.$$This generalizes the classification result by Jost and Wang for$\gamma_i=0$,$\forall \;1\leq i\leq n$. (ii) We prove that if$\gamma_i+\gamma_{i+1}+...+\gamma_j \notin \mathbb Z$for all$1\leq i\leq j\leq n$, then any solution$u_i$ is \textit{radially symmetric} w.r.t. 0. (iii) We prove that the linearized equation at any solution is \textit{non-degenerate}. These are fundamental results in order to understand the bubbling behavior of the Toda system.Comment: 28 page

Logarithmic correction to BH entropy as Noether charge

We consider the role of the type-A trace anomaly in static black hole solutions to semiclassical Einstein equation in four dimensions. Via Wald's Noether charge formalism, we compute the contribution to the entropy coming from the anomaly induced effective action and unveil a logarithmic correction to the Bekenstein-Hawking area law. The corrected entropy is given by a seemingly universal formula involving the coefficient of the type-A trace anomaly, the Euler characteristic of the horizon and the value at the horizon of the solution to the uniformization problem for Q-curvature. Two instances are examined in detail: Schwarzschild and a four-dimensional massless topological black hole. We also find agreement with the logarithmic correction due to one-loop contribution of conformal fields in the Schwarzschild background.Comment: 14 pages, JHEP styl

Expressivity in children's drawings of themselves for adult audiences with varied authority and familiarity

This study investigated whether children’s expressive drawings of themselves vary as a function of audience authority and familiarity. One hundred and seventy-five children, 85 boys and 90 girls, aged between 8 years 1 months and 9 years 2 months (M= 8 years 5 months) were allocated into seven groups; a reference group (n=25) where no audience was specified, and six audience groups (n=25 per group) varying by audience type (policeman vs. teacher vs. man) and familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar). They drew baseline then happy and sad drawings of themselves, rated affect towards drawings type, and rated perceived audience authority. Audience familiarity and authority impacted expressive drawing strategy use and this varied by gender. There was higher overall expressive strategy use for happy drawings and for girls, and influences of affect type, familiarity and authority were found. The implications of children’s perceptions of audience type on their expressive drawings are discussed

Is poetry therapy an appropriate intervention for clients recovering from anorexia? A critical review of the literature and client report

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Poetry therapy is an arts-based psychotherapeutic intervention, often delivered in groups. This paper argues that the process and benefits of poetry therapy may be particularly suited to clients recovering from anorexia, as an adjunct to other treatments. Poetry therapy and its history are described briefly, and the relevance of poetry therapy for clients recovering from anorexia is outlined. After one client contributes her experience of this treatment for illustration, the paper offers a review of the evidence base for poetry therapy for eating disorders, and argues that, while research is limited, further research is warranted. Finally, a description of one form of clinical application is offered, to enable replication

Mechanisms of oxygenation responses to proning and recruitment in COVID-19 pneumonia

Purpose: This study aimed at investigating the mechanisms underlying the oxygenation response to proning and recruitment maneuvers in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. Methods: Twenty-five patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, at variable times since admission (from 1 to 3 weeks), underwent computed tomography (CT) lung scans, gas-exchange and lung-mechanics measurement in supine and prone positions at 5 cmH2O and during recruiting maneuver (supine, 35 cmH2O). Within the non-aerated tissue, we differentiated the atelectatic and consolidated tissue (recruitable and non-recruitable at 35 cmH2O of airway pressure). Positive/negative response to proning/recruitment was defined as increase/decrease of PaO2/FiO2. Apparent perfusion ratio was computed as venous admixture/non aerated tissue fraction. Results: The average values of venous admixture and PaO2/FiO2 ratio were similar in supine-5 and prone-5. However, the PaO2/FiO2 changes (increasing in 65% of the patients and decreasing in 35%, from supine to prone) correlated with the balance between resolution of dorsal atelectasis and formation of ventral atelectasis (p = 0.002). Dorsal consolidated tissue determined this balance, being inversely related with dorsal recruitment (p = 0.012). From supine-5 to supine-35, the apparent perfusion ratio increased from 1.38 ± 0.71 to 2.15 ± 1.15 (p = 0.004) while PaO2/FiO2 ratio increased in 52% and decreased in 48% of patients. Non-responders had consolidated tissue fraction of 0.27 ± 0.1 vs. 0.18 ± 0.1 in the responding cohort (p = 0.04). Consolidated tissue, PaCO2 and respiratory system elastance were higher in patients assessed late (all p < 0.05), suggesting, all together, “fibrotic-like” changes of the lung over time. Conclusion: The amount of consolidated tissue was higher in patients assessed during the third week and determined the oxygenation responses following pronation and recruitment maneuvers