Nutrient sensing modulates malaria parasite virulence

The lifestyle of intracellular pathogens, such as malaria parasites, is intimately connected to that of their host, primarily for nutrient supply. Nutrients act not only as primary sources of energy but also as regulators of gene expression, metabolism and growth, through various signalling networks that enable cells to sense and adapt to varying environmental conditions. Canonical nutrient-sensing pathways are presumed to be absent from the causative agent of malaria, Plasmodium, thus raising the question of whether these parasites can sense and cope with fluctuations in host nutrient levels. Here we show that Plasmodium blood-stage parasites actively respond to host dietary calorie alterations through rearrangement of their transcriptome accompanied by substantial adjustment of their multiplication rate. A kinome analysis combined with chemical and genetic approaches identified KIN as a critical regulator that mediates sensing of nutrients and controls a transcriptional response to the host nutritional status. KIN shares homology with SNF1/AMPKα, and yeast complementation studies suggest that it is part of a functionally conserved cellular energy-sensing pathway. Overall, these findings reveal a key parasite nutrient-sensing mechanism that is critical for modulating parasite replication and virulence

Search for single production of a heavy vector-like T quark decaying to a Higgs boson and a top quark with a lepton and jets in the final state

Peer reviewe

Mejora en el nivel de conocimiento, después de una intervención educativa, en resucitación cardiopulmonar básica en estudiantes de medicina en Piura.

Introduction: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a set of maneuvers that must be performed systematically and simultaneously, to save lives. The person who performs them must have a solid theoretical and practical knowledge of the technique to be used. Objective: To determine the difference in theoretical-practical knowledge of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation according to the type of educational intervention in medical students in Peru. Methods: Study of educational intervention, conducted in students from two Peruvian universities. The main variable was to measure the change in the level of theoretical-practical knowledge according to the type of instruction (theoretical, theoretical-practical or practical), measured with a previously validated questionnaire 1. We used the statistical chi-square test for categorical variables and ANOVA for the analysis of numerical variables versus categorical variables, adjusted by the Bartlett test. Results: According to the type of intervention received, the difference between theoretical final averages was not significant (p>0.05), but practical final averages did show differences between groups (p0,05), pero los promedios finales prácticos sí mostraron diferencias entre los grupos (p<0,001). En el análisis multivariado se encontró diferencias en el conocimiento práctico del grupo de instrucción práctica (p=0,020) y teórico-práctica (p=0,001) respecto al grupo de instrucción teórica exclusiva. Conclusión: La instrucción tipo práctica y teórico-práctica genera un cambio significativo en el nivel de conocimientos. Esto debe tomarse en cuenta para la generación de programas de instrucción, ya que, muchas veces los conocimientos solo teóricos resultan insuficientes para este tipo de aprendizaje