Experimental and computational analyses reveal that environmental restrictions shape HIV-1 spread in 3D cultures

Here, using an integrative experimental and computational approach, Imle et al. show how cell motility and density affect HIV cell-associated transmission in a three-dimensional tissue-like culture system of CD4+ T cells and collagen, and how different collagen matrices restrict infection by cell-free virions

New Optimization Methods for Converging Perturbative Series with a Field Cutoff

We take advantage of the fact that in lambda phi ^4 problems a large field cutoff phi_max makes perturbative series converge toward values exponentially close to the exact values, to make optimal choices of phi_max. For perturbative series terminated at even order, it is in principle possible to adjust phi_max in order to obtain the exact result. For perturbative series terminated at odd order, the error can only be minimized. It is however possible to introduce a mass shift in order to obtain the exact result. We discuss weak and strong coupling methods to determine the unknown parameters. The numerical calculations in this article have been performed with a simple integral with one variable. We give arguments indicating that the qualitative features observed should extend to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. We found that optimization at even order is more efficient that at odd order. We compare our methods with the linear delta-expansion (LDE) (combined with the principle of minimal sensitivity) which provides an upper envelope of for the accuracy curves of various Pade and Pade-Borel approximants. Our optimization method performs better than the LDE at strong and intermediate coupling, but not at weak coupling where it appears less robust and subject to further improvements. We also show that it is possible to fix the arbitrary parameter appearing in the LDE using the strong coupling expansion, in order to get accuracies comparable to ours.Comment: 10 pages, 16 figures, uses revtex; minor typos corrected, refs. adde

Computational protein profile similarity screening for quantitative mass spectrometry experiments

Motivation: The qualitative and quantitative characterization of protein abundance profiles over a series of time points or a set of environmental conditions is becoming increasingly important. Using isobaric mass tagging experiments, mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics deliver accurate peptide abundance profiles for relative quantitation. Associated data analysis workflows need to provide tailored statistical treatment that (i) takes the correlation structure of the normalized peptide abundance profiles into account and (ii) allows inference of protein-level similarity. We introduce a suitable distance measure for relative abundance profiles, derive a statistical test for equality and propose a protein-level representation of peptide-level measurements. This yields a workflow that delivers a similarity ranking of protein abundance profiles with respect to a defined reference. All procedures have in common that they operate based on the true correlation structure that underlies the measurements. This optimizes power and delivers more intuitive and efficient results than existing methods that do not take these circumstances into account. Results: We use protein profile similarity screening to identify candidate proteins whose abundances are post-transcriptionally controlled by the Anaphase Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C), a specific E3 ubiquitin ligase that is a master regulator of the cell cycle. Results are compared with an established protein correlation profiling method. The proposed procedure yields a 50.9-fold enrichment of co-regulated protein candidates and a 2.5-fold improvement over the previous method

Limits and patterns of cytomegalovirus genomic diversity in humans

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) exhibits surprisingly high genomic diversity during natural infection although little is known about the limits or patterns of HCMV diversity among humans. To address this deficiency, we analyzed genomic diversity among congenitally infected infants. We show that there is an upper limit to HCMV genomic diversity in these patient samples, with approximately 25% of the genome being devoid of polymorphisms. These low diversity regions were distributed across 26 loci that were preferentially located in DNA-processing genes. Furthermore, by developing, to our knowledge, the first genome-wide mutation and recombination rate maps for HCMV, we show that genomic diversity is positively correlated with these two rates. In contrast, median levels of viral genomic diversity did not vary between putatively single or mixed strain infections. We also provide evidence that HCMV populations isolated from vascular compartments of hosts from different continents are genetically similar and that polymorphisms in glycoproteins and regulatory proteins are enriched in these viral populations. This analysis provides the most highly detailed map of HCMV genomic diversity in human hosts to date and informs our understanding of the distribution of HCMV genomic diversity within human hosts

Tension Dynamics and Linear Viscoelastic Behavior of a Single Semiflexible Polymer Chain

We study the dynamical response of a single semiflexible polymer chain based on the theory developed by Hallatschek et al. for the wormlike-chain model. The linear viscoelastic response under oscillatory forces acting at the two chain ends is derived analytically as a function of the oscillation frequency . We shall show that the real part of the complex compliance in the low frequency limit is consistent with the static result of Marko and Siggia whereas the imaginary part exhibits the power-law dependence +1/2. On the other hand, these compliances decrease as the power law -7/8 for the high frequency limit. These are different from those of the Rouse dynamics. A scaling argument is developed to understand these novel results.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figure

Performance of ab initio and density functional methods for conformational equilibria of CnH2n+2 alkane isomers (n=2-8)

Conformational energies of n-butane, n-pentane, and n-hexane have been calculated at the CCSD(T) level and at or near the basis set limit. Post-CCSD(T) contribution were considered and found to be unimportant. The data thus obtained were used to assess the performance of a variety of density functional methods. Double-hybrid functionals like B2GP-PLYP and B2K-PLYP, especially with a small Grimme-type empirical dispersion correction, are capable of rendering conformational energies of CCSD(T) quality. These were then used as a `secondary standard' for a larger sample of alkanes, including isopentane and the branched hexanes as well as key isomers of heptane and octane. Popular DFT functionals like B3LYP, B3PW91, BLYP, PBE, and PBE0 tend to overestimate conformer energies without dispersion correction, while the M06 family severely underestimates GG interaction energies. Grimme-type dispersion corrections for these overcorrect and lead to qualitatively wrong conformer orderings. All of these functionals also exhibit deficiencies in the conformer geometries, particularly the backbone torsion angles. The PW6B95 and, to a lesser extent, BMK functionals are relatively free of these deficiencies. Performance of these methods is further investigated to derive conformer ensemble corrections to the enthalpy function, $H_{298}-H_0$, and the Gibbs energy function, ${\rm gef}(T)\equiv - [G(T)-H_0]/T$, of these alkanes. While $H_{298}-H_0$ is only moderately sensitive to the level of theory, ${\rm gef}(T)$ exhibits more pronounced sensitivity. Once again, double hybrids acquit themselves very well.Comment: J. Phys. Chem. A, revised [Walter Thiel festschrift

Peripheral blood T-cell signatures from high-resolution immune phenotyping of γδ and αβ T-cells in younger and older subjects in the Berlin Aging Study II

Background Aging and latent infection with Cytomegalovirus (CMV) are thought to be major factors driving the immune system towards immunosenescence, primarily characterized by reduced amounts of naïve T-cells and increased memory T-cells, potentially associated with higher morbidity and mortality. The composition of both major compartments, γδ as well as αβ T-cells, is altered by age and CMV, but detailed knowledge of changes to the γδ subset is currently limited. Results Here, we have surveyed a population of 73 younger (23–35 years) and 144 older (62–85 years) individuals drawn from the Berlin Aging Study II, investigating the distribution of detailed differentiation phenotypes of both γδ and αβ T-cells. Correlation of frequencies and absolute counts of the identified phenotypes with age and the presence of CMV revealed a lower abundance of Vδ2-positive and a higher amount of Vδ1-positive cells. We found higher frequencies of late-differentiated and lower frequencies of early-differentiated cells in the Vδ1+ and Vδ1-Vδ2-, but not in the Vδ2+ populations in elderly CMV-seropositive individuals confirming the association of these Vδ2-negative cells with CMV-immunosurveillance. We identified the highest Vδ1:Vδ2 ratios in the CMV-seropositive elderly. The observed increased CD4:CD8 ratios in the elderly were significantly lower in CMV-seropositive individuals, who also possessed a lower naïve and a larger late-differentiated compartment of CD8+ αβ T-cells, reflecting the consensus in the literature. Conclusions Our findings illustrate in detail the strong influence of CMV on the abundance and differentiation pattern of γδ T-cells as well as αβ T-cells in older and younger people. Mechanisms responsible for the phenotypic alterations in the γδ T-cell compartment, associated both with the presence of CMV and with age require further clarification

Prognostic factors in 264 adults with invasive Scedosporium spp. and Lomentospora prolificans infection reported in the literature and FungiScope

Invasive Scedosporium spp. and Lomentospora prolificans infections are an emerging threat in immunocompromised and occasionally in healthy hosts. Scedosporium spp. is intrinsically resistant to most, L. prolificans to all the antifungal drugs currently approved, raising concerns about appropriate treatment decisions. High mortality rates of up to 90% underline the need for comprehensive diagnostic workup and even more for new, effective antifungal drugs to improve patient outcome. For a comprehensive analysis, we identified cases of severe Scedosporium spp. and L. prolificans infections from the literature diagnosed in 2000 or later and the FungiScopeVR registry. For 208 Scedosporium spp. infections solid organ transplantation (n¼58, 27.9%) and for 56 L. prolificans infection underlying malignancy (n¼28, 50.0%) were the most prevalent risk factors. L. prolificans infections frequently presented as fungemia (n¼26, 46.4% versus n¼12, 5.8% for Scedosporium spp.). Malignancy, fungemia, CNS and lung involvement predicted worse outcome for scedosporiosis and lomentosporiosis. Patients treated with voriconazole had a better overall outcome in both groups compared to treatment with amphotericin B formulations. This review discusses the epidemiology, prognostic factors, pathogen susceptibility to approved and investigational antifungals, and treatment strategies of severe infections caused by Scedosporium spp. and L. prolificans

Theoretical study of the electronic spectra of small molecules that incorporate analogues of the copper-cysteine bond

The copper-sulphur bond which binds cysteinate to the metal centre is a key factor in the spectroscopy of blue copper proteins. We present theoretical calculations describing the electronically excited states of small molecules, including CuSH, CuSCH_3, (CH_3)_2SCuSH, (imidazole)-CuSH and (imidazole)_2-CuSH, derived from the active site of blue copper proteins that contain the copper-sulphur bond in order to identify small molecular systems that have electronic structure that is analogous to the active site of the proteins. Both neutral and cationic forms are studied, since these represent the reduced and oxidised forms of the protein, respectively. For CuSH and CuSH^+, excitation energies from time-dependent density functional theory with the B97-1 exchange-correlation functional agree well with the available experimental data and multireference configuration interaction calculations. For the positive ions, the singly occupied molecular orbital is formed from an antibonding combination of a 3d orbital on copper and a 3pπ orbital on sulphur, which is analogous to the protein. This leads several of the molecules to have qualitatively similar electronic spectra to the proteins. For the neutral molecules, changes in the nature of the low lying virtual orbitals leads the predicted electronic spectra to vary substantially between the different molecules. In particular, addition of a ligand bonded directly to copper results in the low-lying excited states observed in CuSH and CuSCH_33 to be absent or shifted to higher energies

Prognostic factors in 264 adults with invasive Scedosporium spp. and Lomentospora prolificans infection reported in the literature and FungiScope

Invasive Scedosporium spp. and Lomentospora prolificans infections are an emerging threat in immunocompromised and occasionally in healthy hosts. Scedosporium spp. is intrinsically resistant to most, L. prolificans to all the antifungal drugs currently approved, raising concerns about appropriate treatment decisions. High mortality rates of up to 90% underline the need for comprehensive diagnostic workup and even more for new, effective antifungal drugs to improve patient outcome. For a comprehensive analysis, we identified cases of severe Scedosporium spp. and L. prolificans infections from the literature diagnosed in 2000 or later and the FungiScopeVR registry. For 208 Scedosporium spp. infections solid organ transplantation (n¼58, 27.9%) and for 56 L. prolificans infection underlying malignancy (n¼28, 50.0%) were the most prevalent risk factors. L. prolificans infections frequently presented as fungemia (n¼26, 46.4% versus n¼12, 5.8% for Scedosporium spp.). Malignancy, fungemia, CNS and lung involvement predicted worse outcome for scedosporiosis and lomentosporiosis. Patients treated with voriconazole had a better overall outcome in both groups compared to treatment with amphotericin B formulations. This review discusses the epidemiology, prognostic factors, pathogen susceptibility to approved and investigational antifungals, and treatment strategies of severe infections caused by Scedosporium spp. and L. prolificansWe thank Sabine Wrackmeyer for her private donation to support the projec