An Unusually Colored Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinerus) From Northern Virginia

We describe an orange-pink, patternless, translucent morph of the Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) found in northern Virginia on 27 September 2001. This is the first description of this unusual phenotype in this terrestrial salamander

Use of in vivo imaging to monitor the progression of experimental mouse cytomegalovirus infection in neonates.

Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV or HHV-5) is a life-threatening pathogen in immune-compromised individuals. Upon congenital or neonatal infection, the virus can infect and replicate in the developing brain, which may induce severe neurological damage, including deafness and mental retardation. Despite the potential severity of the symptoms, the therapeutic options are limited by the unavailability of a vaccine and the absence of a specific antiviral therapy. Furthermore, a precise description of the molecular events occurring during infection of the central nervous system (CNS) is still lacking since observations mostly derive from the autopsy of infected children. Several animal models, such as rhesus macaque CMV, have been developed and provided important insights into CMV pathogenesis in the CNS. However, despite its evolutionary proximity with humans, this model was limited by the intracranial inoculation procedure used to infect the animals and consistently induce CNS infection. Furthermore, ethical considerations have promoted the development of alternative models, among which neonatal infection of newborn mice with mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV) has recently led to significant advances. For instance, it was reported that intraperitoneal injection of MCMV to Balb/c neonates leads to infection of neurons and glial cells in specific areas of the brain. These findings suggested that experimental inoculation of mice might recapitulate the deficits induced by HCMV infection in children. Nevertheless, a dynamic analysis of MCMV infection of neonates is difficult to perform because classical methodology requires the sacrifice of a significant number of animals at different time points to analyze the viral burden and/or immune-related parameters. To circumvent this bottleneck and to enable future investigations of rare mutant animals, we applied in vivo imaging technology to perform a time-course analysis of the viral dissemination in the brain upon peripheral injection of a recombinant MCMV expressing luciferase to C57Bl/6 neonates.journal articleresearch support, non-u.s. gov'tvideo-audio media2013 Jul 062013 07 06importe

Expression and nuclear translocation of the rel/NF-kappa B-related morphogen dorsal during the immune response of Drosophila

The rel/NF-kappa B-related morphogen dorsal is a maternally expressed gene which is involved in the control of the dorso-ventral axis during early embryogenesis of Drosophila. We show that this gene is also expressed in the fat body of larvae and adults of Drosophila as well as in a tumorous blood cell line: its expression is noticeably enhanced upon bacterial (or lipopolysaccharide) challenge. This challenge also induces within 15-30 min a nuclear translocation of the dorsal protein. The genes encoding inducible antibacterial peptides in Drosophila contain kappa B-related nucleotide sequences and we show that the dorsal protein can bind to such motifs and sequence-specifically transactivate a reporter gene in co-transfection experiments with a Drosophila cell line. However, in dl1 mutants, in the absence of dorsal protein, the genes encoding antibacterial peptides retain their inducibility, suggesting a multifactorial control. The results indicate that in addition to its role in embryogenesis, dorsal is involved in the immune response of Drosophila. They also strengthen the analogy between the mammalian acute phase response and the insect immune response

Insect immunity: the diptericin promoter contains multiple functional regulatory sequences homologous to mammalian acute-phase response elements

We are using the diptericin gene as a model system to study the control of expression of the genes encoding antibacterial peptides during the Drosophila immune reaction. In order to investigate the putative regulatory regions in the diptericin promoter, we performed DNaseI footprinting experiments combined with gel-shift assays in two inducible systems: the larval fat body and a tumorous Drosophila blood cell line. Our results confirm the importance of kappa B-like elements previously described in the immune response of insects and reveal for the first time the involvement of other regions containing sequences homologous to mammalian acute-phase response elements

Activation of Human Stearoyl-Coenzyme A Desaturase 1 Contributes to the Lipogenic Effect of PXR in HepG2 Cells

The pregnane X receptor (PXR) was previously known as a xenobiotic receptor. Several recent studies suggested that PXR also played an important role in lipid homeostasis but the underlying mechanism remains to be clearly defined. In this study, we found that rifampicin, an agonist of human PXR, induced lipid accumulation in HepG2 cells. Lipid analysis showed the total cholesterol level increased. However, the free cholesterol and triglyceride levels were not changed. Treatment of HepG2 cells with rifampicin induced the expression of the free fatty acid transporter CD36 and ABCG1, as well as several lipogenic enzymes, including stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD1), long chain free fatty acid elongase (FAE), and lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT), while the expression of acyl:cholesterol acetyltransferase(ACAT1) was not affected. Moreover, in PXR over-expressing HepG2 cells (HepG2-PXR), the SCD1 expression was significantly higher than in HepG2-Vector cells, even in the absence of rifampicin. Down-regulation of PXR by shRNA abolished the rifampicin-induced SCD1 gene expression in HepG2 cells. Promoter analysis showed that the human SCD1 gene promoter is activated by PXR and a novel DR-7 type PXR response element (PXRE) response element was located at -338 bp of the SCD1 gene promoter. Taken together, these results indicated that PXR activation promoted lipid synthesis in HepG2 cells and SCD1 is a novel PXR target gene. © 2013 Zhang et al

Illness perceptions and explanatory models of viral hepatitis B & C among immigrants and refugees: a narrative systematic review.

© 2015 Owiti et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B and C (HBV, HCV) infections are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Many countries with traditionally low prevalence (such as UK) are now planning interventions (screening, vaccination, and treatment) of high-risk immigrants from countries with high prevalence. This review aimed to synthesise the evidence on immigrants' knowledge of HBV and HCV that might influence the uptake of clinical interventions. The review was also used to inform the design and successful delivery of a randomised controlled trial of targeted screening and treatment. METHODS: Five databases (PubMed, CINHAL, SOCIOFILE, PsycINFO & Web of Science) were systematically searched, supplemented by reference tracking, searches of selected journals, and of relevant websites. We aimed to identify qualitative and quantitative studies that investigated knowledge of HBV and HCV among immigrants from high endemic areas to low endemic areas. Evidence, extracted according to a conceptual framework of Kleinman's explanatory model, was subjected to narrative synthesis. We adapted the PEN-3 model to categorise and analyse themes, and recommend strategies for interventions to influence help-seeking behaviour. RESULTS: We identified 51 publications including quantitative (n = 39), qualitative (n = 11), and mixed methods (n = 1) designs. Most of the quantitative studies included small samples and had heterogeneous methods and outcomes. The studies mainly concentrated on hepatitis B and ethnic groups of South East Asian immigrants residing in USA, Canada, and Australia. Many immigrants lacked adequate knowledge of aetiology, symptoms, transmission risk factors, prevention strategies, and treatment, of hepatitis HBV and HCV. Ethnicity, gender, better education, higher income, and English proficiency influenced variations in levels and forms of knowledge. CONCLUSION: Immigrants are vulnerable to HBV and HCV, and risk life-threatening complications from these infections because of poor knowledge and help-seeking behaviour. Primary studies in this area are extremely diverse and of variable quality precluding meta-analysis. Further research is needed outside North America and Australia

ICM Web: the interactive chromatin modeling web server

The interactive chromatin modeling web server (ICM Web) is an interactive tool that allows users to rapidly assess nucleosome stability and fold sequences of DNA into putative chromatin templates. ICM Web takes a sequence composed of As, Cs, Gs, and Ts as input and generates (i) a nucleosome energy level diagram, (ii) coarse-grained representations of free DNA and chromatin and (iii) plots of the helical parameters (Tilt, Roll, Twist, Shift, Slide and Rise) as a function of position. The user can select from several different energy models, nucleosome structures and methods for placing nucleosomes in the energy landscape. Alternatively, if nucleosome footprints are known from experiment, ICM Web can use these positions to create a nucleosome array. The default energy model achieves a correlation coefficient of 0.7 with 100 experimentally determined values of stability and properly predicts the location of six positioned nucleosomes in the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) promoter. ICM Web is suitable for interactively investigating nucleosome stability and chromatin folding for sequences up to tens of kilobases in length. No login is required to use ICM Web