Complement activation predicts negative outcomes in COVID-19: The experience from Northen Italian patients

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) may present as a multi-organ disease with a hyperinflammatory and prothrombotic response (immunothrombosis) in addition to upper and lower airway involvement. Previous data showed that complement activation plays a role in immunothrombosis mainly in severe forms. The study aimed to investigate whether complement involvement is present in the early phases of the disease and can be predictive of a negative outcome. We enrolled 97 symptomatic patients with a positive RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 presenting to the emergency room. The patients with mild symptoms/lung involvement at CT-scan were discharged and the remaining were hospitalized. All the patients were evaluated after a 4-week follow-up and classified as mild (n. 54), moderate (n. 17) or severe COVID-19 (n. 26). Blood samples collected before starting any anti-inflammatory/immunosuppressive therapy were assessed for soluble C5b-9 (sC5b-9) and C5a plasma levels by ELISA, and for the following serum mediators by ELLA: IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNFα, IL-4, IL-10, IL-12p70, IFNγ, IFNα, VEGF-A, VEGF-B, GM-CSF, IL-2, IL-17A, VEGFR2, BLyS. Additional routine laboratory parameters were measured (fibrin fragment D-dimer, C-reactive protein, ferritin, white blood cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, platelets, prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, and fibrinogen). Fifty age and sex-matched healthy controls were also evaluated. SC5b-9 and C5a plasma levels were significantly increased in the hospitalized patients (moderate and severe) in comparison with the non-hospitalized mild group. SC5b9 and C5a plasma levels were predictive of the disease severity evaluated one month later. IL-6, IL-8, TNFα, IL-10 and complement split products were higher in moderate/severe versus non-hospitalized mild COVID-19 patients and healthy controls but with a huge heterogeneity. SC5b-9 and C5a plasma levels correlated positively with CRP, ferritin values and the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio. Complement can be activated in the very early phases of the disease, even in mild non-hospitalized patients. Complement activation can be observed even when pro-inflammatory cytokines are not increased, and predicts a negative outcome

Triose Phosphate Isomerase Deficiency Is Caused by Altered Dimerization–Not Catalytic Inactivity–of the Mutant Enzymes

Triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) deficiency is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by various mutations in the gene encoding the key glycolytic enzyme TPI. A drastic decrease in TPI activity and an increased level of its substrate, dihydroxyacetone phosphate, have been measured in unpurified cell extracts of affected individuals. These observations allowed concluding that the different mutations in the TPI alleles result in catalytically inactive enzymes. However, despite a high occurrence of TPI null alleles within several human populations, the frequency of this disorder is exceptionally rare. In order to address this apparent discrepancy, we generated a yeast model allowing us to perform comparative in vivo analyses of the enzymatic and functional properties of the different enzyme variants. We discovered that the majority of these variants exhibit no reduced catalytic activity per se. Instead, we observed, the dimerization behavior of TPI is influenced by the particular mutations investigated, and by the use of a potential alternative translation initiation site in the TPI gene. Additionally, we demonstrated that the overexpression of the most frequent TPI variant, Glu104Asp, which displays altered dimerization features, results in diminished endogenous TPI levels in mammalian cells. Thus, our results reveal that enzyme deregulation attributable to aberrant dimerization of TPI, rather than direct catalytic inactivation of the enzyme, underlies the pathogenesis of TPI deficiency. Finally, we discovered that yeast cells expressing a TPI variant exhibiting reduced catalytic activity are more resistant against oxidative stress caused by the thiol-oxidizing reagent diamide. This observed advantage might serve to explain the high allelic frequency of TPI null alleles detected among human populations

Towards ‘Onlife’ Education. How Technology is Forcing Us to Rethink Pedagogy

[EN] The objective of this chapter is twofold: on the one hand, to provide an explanation for the need we have today to rethink pedagogy based on new realities and the scenarios in which we live, also in education, generated by the technology of our time and, on the other hand, to point out the direction in which we can find a path that leads us to that reflection in the face of the inevitable convergence between technology and pedagogy in which we are today

Kiyang-yang, a West-African Postwar Idiom of Distress

In 1984, a healing cult for young barren women in southern Guinea Bissau developed into a movement, Kiyang-yang, that shook society to its foundations and had national repercussions. “Idiom of distress” is used here as a heuristic tool to understand how Kiyang-yang was able to link war and post-war-related traumatic stress and suffering on both individual and group levels. An individual experience born from a traumatic origin may be generalized into an idiom that diverse sectors of society could embrace for a range of related reasons. We argue that, for an idiom to be understood and appropriated by others, there has to be resonance at the level of symbolic language and shared experiences as well as at the level of the culturally mediated contingent emotions it communicates. We also argue that through its symbolic references to structural causes of suffering, an idiom of distress entails a danger for those in power. It can continue to exist only if its etiology is not exposed or the social suffering it articulates is not eliminated. We finally argue that idioms of distress are not to be understood as discrete diagnostic categories or as monodimensional expressions of “trauma” that can be addressed

Rolled-Up Nanotech: Illumination-Controlled Hydrofluoric Acid Etching of AlAs Sacrificial Layers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>The effect of illumination on the hydrofluoric acid etching of AlAs sacrificial layers with systematically varied thicknesses in order to release and roll up InGaAs/GaAs bilayers was studied. For thicknesses of AlAs below 10 nm, there were two etching regimes for the area under illumination: one at low illumination intensities, in which the etching and releasing proceeds as expected and one at higher intensities in which the etching and any releasing are completely suppressed. The &#8220;etch suppression&#8221; area is well defined by the illumination spot, a feature that can be used to create heterogeneously etched regions with a high degree of control, shown here on patterned samples. Together with the studied self-limitation effect, the technique offers a way to determine the position of rolled-up micro- and nanotubes independently from the predefined lithographic pattern.</p

Lack of the Long Pentraxin PTX3 Promotes Autoimmune Lung Disease but not Glomerulonephritis in Murine Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

The long pentraxin PTX3 has multiple roles in innate immunity. For example, PTX3 regulates C1q binding to pathogens and dead cells and regulates their uptake by phagocytes. It also inhibits P-selectin-mediated recruitment of leukocytes. Both of these mechanisms are known to be involved in autoimmunity and autoimmune tissue injury, e.g. in systemic lupus erythematosus, but a contribution of PTX3 is hypothetical. To evaluate a potential immunoregulatory role of PTX3 in autoimmunity we crossed Ptx3-deficient mice with Fas-deficient (lpr) C57BL/6 (B6) mice with mild lupus-like autoimmunity. PTX3 was found to be increasingly expressed in kidneys and lungs of B6lpr along disease progression. Lack of PTX3 impaired the phagocytic uptake of apoptotic T cells into peritoneal macrophages and selectively expanded CD4/CD8 double negative T cells while other immune cell subsets and lupus autoantibody production remained unaffected. Lack of PTX3 also aggravated autoimmune lung disease, i.e. peribronchial and perivascular CD3+ T cell and macrophage infiltrates of B6lpr mice. In contrast, histomorphological and functional parameters of lupus nephritis remained unaffected by the Ptx3 genotype. Together, PTX3 specifically suppresses autoimmune lung disease that is associated with systemic lupus erythematosus. Vice versa, loss-of-function mutations in the Ptx3 gene might represent a genetic risk factor for pulmonary (but not renal) manifestations of systemic lupus or other autoimmune diseases

Collective consciousness and its pathologies: Understanding the failure of AIDS control and treatment in the United States

We address themes of distributed cognition by extending recent formal developments in the theory of individual consciousness. While single minds appear biologically limited to one dynamic structure of linked cognitive submodules instantiating consciousness, organizations, by contrast, can support several, sometimes many, such constructs simultaneously, although these usually operate relatively slowly. System behavior remains, however, constrained not only by culture, but by a developmental path dependence generated by organizational history, in the context of market selection pressures. Such highly parallel multitasking – essentially an institutional collective consciousness – while capable of reducing inattentional blindness and the consequences of failures within individual workspaces, does not eliminate them, and introduces new characteristic malfunctions involving the distortion of information sent between workspaces and the possibility of pathological resilience – dysfunctional institutional lock-in. Consequently, organizations remain subject to canonical and idiosyncratic failures analogous to, but more complicated than, those afflicting individuals. Remediation is made difficult by the manner in which pathological externalities can write images of themselves onto both institutional function and corrective intervention. The perspective is applied to the failure of AIDS control and treatment in the United States

Prenatal Arsenic Exposure Alters Gene Expression in the Adult Liver to a Proinflammatory State Contributing to Accelerated Atherosclerosis

The mechanisms by which environmental toxicants alter developmental processes predisposing individuals to adult onset chronic disease are not well-understood. Transplacental arsenic exposure promotes atherogenesis in apolipoprotein E-knockout (ApoE−/−) mice. Because the liver plays a central role in atherosclerosis, diabetes and metabolic syndrome, we hypothesized that accelerated atherosclerosis may be linked to altered hepatic development. This hypothesis was tested in ApoE−/− mice exposed to 49 ppm arsenic in utero from gestational day (GD) 8 to term. GD18 hepatic arsenic was 1.2 µg/g in dams and 350 ng/g in fetuses. The hepatic transcriptome was evaluated by microarray analysis to assess mRNA and microRNA abundance in control and exposed pups at postnatal day (PND) 1 and PND70. Arsenic exposure altered postnatal developmental trajectory of mRNA and microRNA profiles. We identified an arsenic exposure related 51-gene signature at PND1 and PND70 with several hubs of interaction (Hspa8, IgM and Hnf4a). Gene ontology (GO) annotation analyses indicated that pathways for gluconeogenesis and glycolysis were suppressed in exposed pups at PND1, and pathways for protein export, ribosome, antigen processing and presentation, and complement and coagulation cascades were induced by PND70. Promoter analysis of differentially-expressed transcripts identified enriched transcription factor binding sites and clustering to common regulatory sites. SREBP1 binding sites were identified in about 16% of PND70 differentially-expressed genes. Western blot analysis confirmed changes in the liver at PND70 that included increases of heat shock protein 70 (Hspa8) and active SREBP1. Plasma AST and ALT levels were increased at PND70. These results suggest that transplacental arsenic exposure alters developmental programming in fetal liver, leading to an enduring stress and proinflammatory response postnatally that may contribute to early onset of atherosclerosis. Genes containing SREBP1 binding sites also suggest pathways for diabetes mellitus and rheumatoid arthritis, both diseases that contribute to increased cardiovascular disease in humans