The comparison of immunomodulatory effects of peripheral mononuclear cells against proliferation in U937 in junior elderly habitual morning swimming in Taiwan cohort

The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the effect of greater immunomodulatory effects of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells against proliferation in human leukemia cells. To achieve this, cells U937 in junior elderly (with cool environmental physical activities) subjects with habitual morning swimming and sedentary lifestyle were recruited in relatively cool season in Taiwan; the isolated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells were stimulated by phytohemagglutinin to obtain the conditioned medium which contains various cytokines. However, the differential effects of the conditioned medium on growth inhibition in U937 leukemia cells were observed. The cytokines, including interferon-gamma, tumor necrosis factors-alpha and interleukine-2 secreted into conditioned medium were higher in the morning-swimming subjects than in the sedentary-lifestyle ones. Similarly, serum white blood cell, creatine phosphokinase, immunoglobulin G and immunoglobulin A in the morning-swimming and sedentary-lifestyle groups indicated that no further inflammatory status existed in the morning-swimming group. In summary, greater immunomodulatory effects of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells against proliferation in human leukemia cells U937 in junior elderly subjects came from the effects of regular moderate exercise in cool temperature rather than of inflammatory effects.Keywords: Immunomodulatory, junior elderly, morning swimming, leukemia, U937, human peripheral blood mononuclear cell

Parasite-mediated predation determines infection in a complex predator-prey-parasite system.

The interplay of host-parasite and predator-prey interactions is critical in ecological dynamics because both predators and parasites can regulate communities. But what is the prevalence of infected prey and predators when a parasite is transmitted through trophic interactions considering stochastic demographic changes? Here, we modelled and analysed a complex predator-prey-parasite system, where parasites are transmitted from prey to predators. We varied parasite virulence and infection probabilities to investigate how those evolutionary factors determine species' coexistence and populations' composition. Our results show that parasite species go extinct when the infection probabilities of either host are small and that success in infecting the final host is more critical for the survival of the parasite. While our stochastic simulations are consistent with deterministic predictions, stochasticity plays an important role in the border regions between coexistence and extinction. As expected, the proportion of infected individuals increases with the infection probabilities. Interestingly, the relative abundances of infected and uninfected individuals can have opposite orders in the intermediate and final host populations. This counterintuitive observation shows that the interplay of direct and indirect parasite effects is a common driver of the prevalence of infection in a complex system

Reliability Evaluation for Clustered WSNs under Malware Propagation.

We consider a clustered wireless sensor network (WSN) under epidemic-malware propagation conditions and solve the problem of how to evaluate its reliability so as to ensure efficient, continuous, and dependable transmission of sensed data from sensor nodes to the sink. Facing the contradiction between malware intention and continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) randomness, we introduce a strategic game that can predict malware infection in order to model a successful infection as a CTMC state transition. Next, we devise a novel measure to compute the Mean Time to Failure (MTTF) of a sensor node, which represents the reliability of a sensor node continuously performing tasks such as sensing, transmitting, and fusing data. Since clustered WSNs can be regarded as parallel-serial-parallel systems, the reliability of a clustered WSN can be evaluated via classical reliability theory. Numerical results show the influence of parameters such as the true positive rate and the false positive rate on a sensor node's MTTF. Furthermore, we validate the method of reliability evaluation for a clustered WSN according to the number of sensor nodes in a cluster, the number of clusters in a route, and the number of routes in the WSN

Effects of Curcumin on N-bis(2-Hydroxypropyl) nitrosamine (DHPN)-induced Lung and Liver Tumorigenesis in BALB/c Mice In Vivo

[[abstract]]Curcumin (diferuloylmethane), a phenolic compound front the plant Curcuma longa (Linn.) has been shown to exhibit antitumor activity and apoptosis in many human cancer cell lines including that of lung and liver cancer. In this study, curcumin was evaluated in BALB/c mice for its ability to inhibit pulmonary and liver adenoma formation and growth after they were orally treated with N-bis(2-hydroxypropyl)nitrosamine (DHPN). Animals were treated with DHPN in water for approximately 14 days before multiple doses of curcumin were given intraperitoneally. It was found that 200 mu M curcumin reduced lung and liver tumor multiplicity by 37% (p<0.05) and 30% (p<0.05) respectively. The results indicated that curcumin significantly inhibited pulmonary and liver adenoma formation and growth in BALB/c mice. The precise mechanism by which curcumin inhibits lung and liver tumorigenesis remains to be elucidated. Thus, curcumin appears to be a promising new chemotherapeutic and preventive agent for lung and liver cancer induced by DHPN

Involvement of Matrix Metalloproteinases in the Inhibition of Cell Invasion and Migration Through the Inhibition of NF-kappa B by the New Synthesized Ethyl 2-[N-p-chlorobenzyl-(2'-methyl)]anilino-4-oxo-4,5-dihydrofuran-3-carboxylate (JOTO1007) in Human Cervical Cancer Ca Ski Cells

[[abstract]]JOTO1007 (ethyl 2-[N-p-chlorobenzyl-(2'-methyl)] anilino-4-oxo-4,5-dihydrofuran-3-carboxylate) has anticancer effects in human cervical cancer Ca Ski cells. However, its mechanism of action on the cell migration and invasion of human cervical cancer Ca Ski cells is not fully understood. In this study, firstly, the effects of JOTO1007 on the migration and invasion of Ca Ski cells were examined by using matrigel counting. The results showed that JOT01007 suppressed the migration and invasion of the Ca Ski cells. Secondly, the effect of JOTO1007 on the levels of proteins associated with cell metastasis was examined using Western blotting. The results indicated that JOTO1007 inhibited the levels of son of sevenless homolog 1 (SOS-1), growth factor receptor-bound protein 2 (GRB2), Ras homolog gene family, member A (RhoA), Rho-associated, coiled-coil containing protein kinase 1 (ROCK-1), focal adhesion kinase (FAK), phosphorylated-c-jun (p-c-jun), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappa B) p65, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2), matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), MMP-7 and MMP-9, but promoted the levels of protein kinase C (PKC), phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3K), MAP kinase kinase kinase 3 (MEKK-3), mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 7 (MKK7), c-jun and inducible nitric oxide synthases (iNOS), while not affecting Ras, phosphorylated-ERK (p-ERK), p38 and c-jun N-terminal kinase 1/2 (JNK1/2), which finally led to the inhibition of migration and invasion of the Ca Ski cells in vitro. Overall, JOTO1007 inhibited NF-kappa B which then led to the inhibition of the MMP-2, -7 and -9 expression followed by the inhibition of migration and invasion in the Ca Ski cells

Ensemble of Hankel Matrices for Face Emotion Recognition

In this paper, a face emotion is considered as the result of the composition of multiple concurrent signals, each corresponding to the movements of a specific facial muscle. These concurrent signals are represented by means of a set of multi-scale appearance features that might be correlated with one or more concurrent signals. The extraction of these appearance features from a sequence of face images yields to a set of time series. This paper proposes to use the dynamics regulating each appearance feature time series to recognize among different face emotions. To this purpose, an ensemble of Hankel matrices corresponding to the extracted time series is used for emotion classification within a framework that combines nearest neighbor and a majority vote schema. Experimental results on a public available dataset shows that the adopted representation is promising and yields state-of-the-art accuracy in emotion classification.Comment: Paper to appear in Proc. of ICIAP 2015. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1506.0500

New approaches to genetic therapies for cystic fibrosis

Gene therapy offers great promise for cystic fibrosis which has never been quite fulfilled due to the challenges of delivering sufficient amounts of the CFTR gene and expression persistence for a sufficient period of time in the lungs to have any effect. Initial trials explored both viral and non-viral vectors but failed to achieve a significant breakthrough. However, in recent years, new opportunities have emerged that exploit our increased knowledge and understanding of the biology of CF and the airway epithelium. New technologies include new viral and non-viral vector approaches to delivery, but also alternative nucleic acid technologies including oligonucleotides and siRNA approaches for gene silencing and gene splicing, described in this review, as presented at the 2019 annual European CF Society Basic Science meeting (Dubrovnik, Croatia). We also briefly discuss other emerging technologies including mRNA and CRISPR gene editing that are advancing rapidly. The future prospects for genetic therapies for CF are now diverse and more promising probably than any time since the discovery of the CF gene

Genome-wide analysis of alternative promoters of human genes using a custom promoter tiling array

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Independent lines of evidence suggested that a large fraction of human genes possess multiple promoters driving gene expression from distinct transcription start sites. Understanding which promoter is employed in which cellular context is required to unravel gene regulatory networks within the cell.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have developed a custom microarray platform that tiles roughly 35,000 alternative putative promoters from nearly 7,000 genes in the human genome. To demonstrate the utility of this array platform, we have analyzed the patterns of promoter usage in 17β-estradiol (E2)-treated and untreated MCF7 cells and show widespread usage of alternative promoters. Most intriguingly, we show that the downstream promoter in E2-sensitive multiple promoter genes tends to be very close to the 3'-terminus of the gene, suggesting exotic mechanisms of expression regulation in these genes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The usage of alternative promoters greatly multiplies the transcriptional complexity available within the human genome. The fact that many of these promoters are incapable of driving the synthesis of a meaningful protein-encoding transcript further complicates the story.</p

Mechanical Stress Inference for Two Dimensional Cell Arrays

Many morphogenetic processes involve mechanical rearrangement of epithelial tissues that is driven by precisely regulated cytoskeletal forces and cell adhesion. The mechanical state of the cell and intercellular adhesion are not only the targets of regulation, but are themselves likely signals that coordinate developmental process. Yet, because it is difficult to directly measure mechanical stress {\it in vivo} on sub-cellular scale, little is understood about the role of mechanics of development. Here we present an alternative approach which takes advantage of the recent progress in live imaging of morphogenetic processes and uses computational analysis of high resolution images of epithelial tissues to infer relative magnitude of forces acting within and between cells. We model intracellular stress in terms of bulk pressure and interfacial tension, allowing these parameters to vary from cell to cell and from interface to interface. Assuming that epithelial cell layers are close to mechanical equilibrium, we use the observed geometry of the two dimensional cell array to infer interfacial tensions and intracellular pressures. Here we present the mathematical formulation of the proposed Mechanical Inverse method and apply it to the analysis of epithelial cell layers observed at the onset of ventral furrow formation in the {\it Drosophila} embryo and in the process of hair-cell determination in the avian cochlea. The analysis reveals mechanical anisotropy in the former process and mechanical heterogeneity, correlated with cell differentiation, in the latter process. The method opens a way for quantitative and detailed experimental tests of models of cell and tissue mechanics

Simultaneous determination of natural and synthetic steroid estrogens and their conjugates in aqueous matrices by liquid chromatography / mass spectrometry

An analytical method for the simultaneous determination of nine free and conjugated steroid estrogens was developed with application to environmental aqueous matrices. Solid phase extraction (SPE) was employed for isolation and concentration, with detection by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) using electrospray ionisation (ESI) in the negative mode. Method recoveries for various aqueous matrices (wastewater, lake and drinking water) were determined, recoveries proving to be sample dependent. When spiked at 50 ng/l concentrations in sewage influent, recoveries ranged from 62-89 % with relative standard deviations (RSD) < 8.1 %. In comparison, drinking water spiked at the same concentrations had recoveries between 82-100 % with an RSD < 5%. Ion suppression is a known phenomenon when using ESI; hence its impact on method recovery was elucidated for raw sewage. Both ion suppression from matrix interferences and the extraction procedure has bearing on the overall method recovery. Analysis of municipal raw sewage identified several of the analytes of interest at ng/l concentrations, estriol (E3) being the most abundant. Only one conjugate, estrone 3-sulphate (E1-3S) was observe