Development and characterisation of a novel three-dimensional inter-kingdom wound biofilm model

Chronic diabetic foot ulcers are frequently colonised and infected by polymicrobial biofilms that ultimately prevent healing. This study aimed to create a novel in vitro inter-kingdom wound biofilm model on complex hydrogel-based cellulose substrata to test commonly used topical wound treatments. Inter-kingdom triadic biofilms composed of Candida albicans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus were shown to be quantitatively greater in this model compared to a simple substratum when assessed by conventional culture, metabolic dye and live dead qPCR. These biofilms were both structurally complex and compositionally dynamic in response to topical therapy, so when treated with either chlorhexidine or povidone iodine, principal component analysis revealed that the 3-D cellulose model was minimally impacted compared to the simple substratum model. This study highlights the importance of biofilm substratum and inclusion of relevant polymicrobial and inter-kingdom components, as these impact penetration and efficacy of topical antiseptics

Les perles d’émail: aspects ultrastructuraux et hypothèses de morphogenèse

Five enamel pearls were examined by Scanning Electron Microscope. Some external pearls presented a bare enamel surface, others were covered by a thin layer of cementum.The enamel pearls showed irregular dystrofic enamel surface or a thin layer without structure, rows of irregular Tome’s processes pits, enamel caps and focal holes. Some enamel pearls revealed little areas of enamel surface resorption like-resorbing lacunae with, in some cases, areas of tissue repair.La perle d’émail est une masse circulaire de matériel calcifié qui apparait le plus souvent dans la bifurcation des molaires et est attachée à la surface externe de la dent. Elle peut aussi être interne mais nous en savons très peu à ce sujet à cause du manque de publications. Cinq perles externes ont été observées au microscope électronique à balayage.Tandis que certaines perles externes présentent une surface à nu, d’autres sont recouvertes d’une fine couche de cément qui les protège. La surface de la perle d’émail présente des zones irrégulières d’hypominéralisation ou une fine couche sans structure, des rangées de petits trous irréguliers des processus de Tome et des trous focaux et des cratères

Detecting depression in dyadic conversations with multimodal narratives and visualizations

Conversations contain a wide spectrum of multimodal information that gives us hints about the emotions and moods of the speaker. In this paper, we developed a system that supports humans to analyze conversations. Our main contribution is the identification of appropriate multimodal features and the integration of such features into verbatim conversation transcripts. We demonstrate the ability of our system to take in a wide range of multimodal information and automatically generated a prediction score for the depression state of the individual. Our experiments showed that this approach yielded better performance than the baseline model. Furthermore, the multimodal narrative approach makes it easy to integrate learnings from other disciplines, such as conversational analysis and psychology. Lastly, this interdisciplinary and automated approach is a step towards emulating how practitioners record the course of treatment as well as emulating how conversational analysts have been analyzing conversations by hand.Comment: 12 page

Recognition and blocking of innate immunity cells by Candida albicans chitin

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Fungal iron availability during deep seated candidiasis is defined by a complex interplay involving systemic and local events

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The disruption of JEN1 from Candida albicans impairs the transport of lactate

A lactate permease was biochemically identified in Candida albicans RM1000 presenting the following kinetic parameters at pH 5.0: Km 0.33 ± 0.09 mM and Vmax 0.85± 0.06 nmol s-1 mg dry wt-1. Lactate uptake was competitively inhibited by pyruvic and propionic acids; acetic acid behaved as a non-competitive substrate. An ORF homologous to Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene JEN1 was identified (CaJEN1). Deletions of both CaJEN1 alleles of C. albicans (resulting strain CPK2) resulted in the loss of all measurable lactate permease activity. No CaJEN1 mRNA was detectable in glucose-grown cells neither activity for the lactate transporter. In a medium containing lactic acid, CaJEN1 mRNA was detected in the RM1000 strain, and no expression was found in cells of CPK2 strain. In a strain deleted in the CaCAT8 genes the expression of CaJEN1 was significantly reduced, suggesting the role of this gene as an activator for CaJEN1 expression. Both in C. albicans and in S. cerevisiae cells CaJEN1-GFP fusion was expressed and targeted to the plasma membrane. The native CaJEN1 was not functional in a S. cerevisiae jen1Δ strain. Changing ser217-CTG codon (encoding leucine in S. cerevisiae) to a TCC codon restored the permease activity in S. cerevisiae, proving that the CaJEN1 gene codes for a monocarboxylate transporter.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 579).Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Programa Operacional “Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação” (POCTI) - POCTI/1999/BME/36625 (Eixo 2, Medida 2.3, QCAIII-FEDER) , SFRH/BD/4699/2001 , PRAXIS XXI/BD/18198/98

Hsp90 orchestrates transcriptional regulation by Hsf1 and cell wall remodelling by MAPK signalling during thermal adaptation in a pathogenic yeast

Acknowledgments We thank Rebecca Shapiro for creating CaLC1819, CaLC1855 and CaLC1875, Gillian Milne for help with EM, Aaron Mitchell for generously providing the transposon insertion mutant library, Jesus Pla for generously providing the hog1 hst7 mutant, and Cathy Collins for technical assistance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD