Characterization of envelope-transmembrane Gene of Jembrana Disease Virus Tabanan 1995 Isolate

The availability of specific and rapid detection methods is essential for monitoring the health status of farmed species, particularly in viral disease as in this case early diagnosis is a critical factor in containing disease outbreaks. Jembrana Disease Virus (JDV) is a lentivirus that causes an acute, severe disease syndrome in infected Bali cattle in Indonesia, resulting in heavy economic losses because of the high mortalities. The virus-host interaction and the modes of transmission are still unknown. The goal of the research was to designa probe candidate of Jembrana Disease Virus based on envelope-transmembrane (env-tm) gene to optimize Jembrana disease detection method. The DNA fragment derived from env-tm of JDV was used, cloned in pGEX-TM and expressed in E.coli DH 5α. Sequence analysis was conducted with BLAST programs from NCBI. Sequence analyses of the fragments of env-tm clone, indicated that it has a very closed genetic relation with 97,68% homology identity. Probe was designed based on the conserved region of env-tm using Geneious resulted in JT2 252 bp long. BLAST analyses showed that probes had high specifity to other strains of JDV in Indonesia.Key words : probe, env-tm, JDV, specifity, sensitivity

Besnoitia besnoiti infection alters both endogenous cholesterol de novo synthesis and exogenous LDL uptake in host endothelial cells

Besnoitia besnoiti, an apicomplexan parasite of cattle being considered as emergent in Europe, replicates fast in host endothelial cells during acute infection and is in considerable need for energy, lipids and other building blocks for offspring formation. Apicomplexa are generally considered as defective in cholesterol synthesis and have to scavenge cholesterol from their host cells for successful replication. Therefore, we here analysed the influence of B. besnoiti on host cellular endogenous cholesterol synthesis and on sterol uptake from exogenous sources. GC-MS-based profiling of cholesterol-related sterols revealed enhanced cholesterol synthesis rates in B. besnoiti-infected cells. Accordingly, lovastatin and zaragozic acid treatments diminished tachyzoite production. Moreover, increased lipid droplet contents and enhanced cholesterol esterification was detected and inhibition of the latter significantly blocked parasite proliferation. Furthermore, artificial increase of host cellular lipid droplet disposability boosted parasite proliferation. Interestingly, lectin-like oxidized low density lipoprotein receptor 1 expression was upregulated in infected endothelial hostcells, whilst low density lipoproteins (LDL) receptor was not affected by parasite infection. However, exogenous supplementations with non-modified and acetylated LDL both boosted B. besnoiti proliferation. Overall, current data show that B. besnoiti simultaneously exploits both, endogenous cholesterol biosynthesis and cholesterol uptake from exogenous sources, during asexual replication

Pre-mineralisation effect of nanobiocomposite bone scaffold towards bone marrow-derived stem cells growth and differentiation

Apatite layers formed by simulated body fluid (SBF) on the surface of calcium-based scaffolds have been proven to enhance the osteoblastic activity of pre-osteoblasts and osteogenic activity of bone marrow-derived stem cell (BM-SCs). Previously developed Alginate/Cockle shell powder nanobiocomposite bone scaffold (Alg/nCP) has been shown to possess excellent osteoconductive properties. The effect of pre-mineralization of the scaffold surface towards the growth and differentiation of BM-SCs’ were evaluated using microscopic and biochemical methods in scaffolds divided into SBF pre-treated and control groups at two time points. MTT proliferation assay showed statistically significant decrease in cell proliferation in SBF group for both culture periods. SEM observation revealed growth of BM-SCs and scaffold surface mineralisation and calcium deposition in both groups with higher intensity observable in the control group. Supporting biochemical studies showed a significant decrease in alkaline phosphatase (ALP) level indicating a lesser osteogenic differentiation in the SBF group as compared to control. Pre-mineralisation of scaffolds in SBF produced a contradicting result in which it did not provide a better environment for growth and proliferation of BM-SCs. However, the Alg/nCP scaffold did show potentials in supporting the osteogenic differentiation of the stem cells

Variable extractions using principal component analysis and multiple correspondence analysis for large number of mixed variables classification problems

Non-parametric smoothed location model is another powerful approach which can be used to discriminate the objects that contain both continuous and binary variables.However, the smoothed location model is infeasible in estimating parameters when a large number of binary variables involved in the study.To handle this issue, the combination of two variable extraction techniques namely principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) are carried out before the construction of the smoothed location model. In fact, there are four types of MCA but only Indicator MCA and joint correspondence analysis (JCA) will be discussed in this article.Thus, the performance of the smoothed location model together with combination of PCA and two types of MCA, i.e. Indicator MCA and JCA, will be compared and evaluated.The overall results from simulation study show that the smoothed location model performed better when the binary extraction is done by JCA rather than the Indicator MCA in terms of misclassification rate and computational efficiency

Adulticide Efficacy of Artemisia vulgaris L. against Aedes aegypti L.

Aedes aegypti is the vector of various arthropod-borne diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya and currently, zika. This study aimed to evaluate Artemisia vulgarisas other adulticides for controlling Ae. aegypti. Indonesian ministry of health hasbeen reported that more than 70.000 dengue fever human cases have occurred in 2015 covering 34 provinces which mean that dengue fever has spread now into all national territories. Eradication of Aedes still largely depends on insecticides, which is the most cost-effective strategy, and often inefficient due to resistance development in exposed Aedes population This study was designed to use of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bioassay standard. CDC bottles were coated with the ethanolic solution of extract with a concentration of 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000, 10000, 50000, and 100000 g per bottle. F0 mosquitoes were used for all experiments. Death and surviving mosquitoes were evaluated based on CDC standard assay. The test was performed with 10-25 adult mosquitoes every bottle and each concentration was repeated in triplicates. The results showed that LC50 and LC90 were 5790 g and 52110 g respectively after 120 minutes exposure to the extract. There was no mortality in ethanol control group. A. vulgaris significantly (P < 0.05) have adulticidal activity against Ae. aegypti. However, A. vulgaris have been reported to have larvacidal activity against Ae. Aegypti. These results indicated clearly that A. Vulgaris might act as the candidate of bioinsecticides for controlling Ae. aegypti. Keywords: Aedes aegypti, Artemisia vulgaris, adulticide,bio insecticide

A short review on cockle shells as biomaterials in the context of bone scaffold fabrication

Cockle shells contribute to a large amount of waste product in South East Asia due to the extensive culturing of the mollusc for consumption. These nacreous materials in the recent years have been gaining wider popularity due to its potential use as biomaterials. As shown in various studies, cockle shell powder consists of 95-98% aragonite form of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). The calcium carbonate obtained from cockle shells are easily converted into nanoparticles, which have shown encouraging results in bone tissue grafting. With the recent advancement in bone tissue engineering and development of a newer generation of biomaterial based bone scaffolds, the cockle shell powder has promising applications in the near future to be used in the formulation of bone grafting materials. In this review, the use of biomaterials in bone tissue grafting and nacreous materials as potential biomaterials with a focus on the cockle shell and its recent advancement as the main component in the formulation of a nanobiocomposite bone scaffold is discussed

Perception of Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases Worldwide

In this comprehensive review study, we addressed the challenge posed by ticks and tick-borne diseases (TBDs) with growing incidence affecting human and animal health worldwide. Data and perspectives were collected from different countries and regions worldwide, including America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The results updated the current situation with ticks and TBD and how it is perceived by society with information bias and gaps. The study reinforces the importance of multidisciplinary and international collaborations to advance in the surveillance, communication and proposed future directions to address these challenges

MEG Can Map Short and Long-Term Changes in Brain Activity following Deep Brain Stimulation for Chronic Pain

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been shown to be clinically effective for some forms of treatment-resistant chronic pain, but the precise mechanisms of action are not well understood. Here, we present an analysis of magnetoencephalography (MEG) data from a patient with whole-body chronic pain, in order to investigate changes in neural activity induced by DBS for pain relief over both short- and long-term. This patient is one of the few cases treated using DBS of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). We demonstrate that a novel method, null-beamforming, can be used to localise accurately brain activity despite the artefacts caused by the presence of DBS electrodes and stimulus pulses. The accuracy of our source localisation was verified by correlating the predicted DBS electrode positions with their actual positions. Using this beamforming method, we examined changes in whole-brain activity comparing pain relief achieved with deep brain stimulation (DBS ON) and compared with pain experienced with no stimulation (DBS OFF). We found significant changes in activity in pain-related regions including the pre-supplementary motor area, brainstem (periaqueductal gray) and dissociable parts of caudal and rostral ACC. In particular, when the patient reported experiencing pain, there was increased activity in different regions of ACC compared to when he experienced pain relief. We were also able to demonstrate long-term functional brain changes as a result of continuous DBS over one year, leading to specific changes in the activity in dissociable regions of caudal and rostral ACC. These results broaden our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of DBS in the human brain

Annexin A1 expression in a pooled breast cancer series: Association with tumor subtypes and prognosis

Background: Annexin A1 (ANXA1) is a protein related with the carcinogenesis process and metastasis formation in many tumors. However, little is known about the prognostic value of ANXA1 in breast cancer. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association between ANXA1 expression, BRCA1/2 germline carriership, specific tumor subtypes and survival in breast cancer patients. Methods: Clinical-pathological information and follow-up data were collected from nine breast cancer studies from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC) (n = 5,752) and from one study of familial breast cancer patients with BRCA1/2 mutations (n = 107). ANXA1 expression was scored based on the percentage of immunohistochemical staining in tumor cells. Survival analyses were performed using a multivariable Cox model. Results: The frequency of ANXA1 positive tumors was higher in familial breast cancer patients with BRCA1/2 mutations than in BCAC patients, with 48.6 % versus 12.4 %, respectively; P adj = 1.35; 95 % CI = 1.05-1.73), but the association weakened after 10 years (HRadj = 1.13; 95 % CI = 0.91-1.40). ANXA1 was a significant independent predictor of survival in HER2+ patients (10-years BCSS: HRadj = 1.70; 95 % CI = 1.17-2.45). Conclusions: ANXA1 is overexpressed in familial breast cancer patients with BRCA1/2 mutations and correlated with poor prognosis features: triple negative and poorly differentiated tumors. ANXA1 might be a biomarker candidate for breast cancer survival prediction in high risk groups such as HER2+ cases