Different Predictors of Right and Left Ventricular Metabolism in Healthy Middle-Aged Men

Dysfunction of the right ventricle (RV) plays a crucial role in the outcome of various cardiovascular diseases. Previous studies on RV metabolism are sparse although evidence implies it may differ from left ventricular (LV) metabolism. Therefore, the aims of this study were (1) to determine predictors of RV glucose uptake (GU) and free fatty acid uptake (FFAU) and (2) to compare them to predictors of LV metabolism in healthy middle-aged men. Altogether 28 healthy, sedentary, middle-aged (40-55 years) men were studied. Insulin-stimulated GU and fasting FFAU were measured by positron emission tomography and RV and LV structural and functional parameters by cardiac magnetic resonance. Several parameters related to whole-body health were also measured. Predictors of RV and LV metabolism were determined by pairwise correlation analysis, lasso regression models, and variable clustering using heatmap. RVGU was most strongly predicted by age and moderately by RV ejection fraction (EF). The strongest determinants of RVFFAU were exercise capacity (peak oxygen uptake), resting heart rate, LVEF, and whole body insulin stimulated glucose uptake rate. When considering LV metabolism, age and RVEF were associated also with LVGU. In addition, LVGU was strongly, and negatively, influenced by whole-body insulin-stimulated glucose uptake rate. LVFFAU was predicted only by LVEF. This study shows that while RV and LV metabolism have shared characteristics, they also have unique properties. Age of the subject should be taken into account when measuring myocardial glucose utilization. Ejection fraction is related to myocardial metabolism, and even so that RVEF may be more closely related to GU of both ventricles and LVEF to FFAU of both ventricles, a finding supporting the ventricular interdependence. However, only RV fatty acid utilization associates with exercise capacity so that better physical fitness in a relatively sedentary population is related with decreased RV fat metabolism. To conclude, this study highlights the need for further study designed specifically on less known RV as the results on LV metabolism and physiology may not be directly applicable to the RV.</p

Quantitative PCR of ear discharge from Indigenous Australian children with acute otitis media with perforation supports a role for Alloiococcus otitidis as a secondary pathogen

Otitis media is endemic in remote Indigenous communities of Australia’s Northern Territory. Alloiococcus otitidis is an outer ear commensal and putative middle ear pathogen that has not previously been described in acute otitis media (AOM) in this population. The aims of this study were to determine the presence, antibiotic susceptibility and bacterial load of A. otitidis in nasopharyngeal and ear discharge swabs collected from Indigenous Australian children with AOM with perforation.Financial support for this study was provided by the Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation; The Trust Foundation; and the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia)

Low-intensity continuous ultrasound triggers effective bisphosphonate anticancer activity in breast cancer

Ultrasound (US) is a non-ionizing pressure wave that can produce mechanical and thermal effects. Bisphosphonates have demonstrated clinical utility in bone metastases treatment. Preclinical studies suggest that bisphosphonates have anticancer activity. However, bisphosphonates exhibit a high affinity for bone mineral, which reduces their bioavailability for tumor cells. Ultrasound has been shown to be effective for drug delivery but in interaction with gas bubbles or encapsulated drugs. We examined the effects of a clinically relevant dose of bisphosphonate zoledronate (ZOL) in combination with US. In a bone metastasis model, mice treated with ZOL+US had osteolytic lesions that were 58% smaller than those of ZOL-treated animals as well as a reduced skeletal tumor burden. In a model of primary tumors, ZOL+US treatment reduced by 42% the tumor volume, compared with ZOL-treated animals. Using a fluorescent bisphosphonate, we demonstrated that US forced the release of bisphosphonate from the bone surface, enabling a continuous impregnation of the bone marrow. Additionally, US forced the penetration of ZOL within tumors, as demonstrated by the intratumoral accumulation of unprenylated Rap1A, a surrogate marker of ZOL antitumor activity. Our findings made US a promising modality to trigger bisphosphonate anticancer activity in bone metastases and in primary tumors

Innovative Visualizations Shed Light on Avian Nocturnal Migration

We acknowledge the support provided by COST–European Cooperation in Science and Technology through the Action ES1305 ‘European Network for the Radar Surveillance of Animal Movement’ (ENRAM) in facilitating this collaboration. We thank ENRAM members and researchers attending the EOU round table discussion ‘Radar aeroecology: unravelling population scale patterns of avian movement’ for feedback on the visualizations. We thank Arie Dekker for his feedback as jury member of the bird migration visualization challenge & hackathon hosted at the University of Amsterdam, 25–27 March 2015. We thank Willem Bouten and Kevin Winner for discussion of methodological design. We thank Kevin Webb and Jed Irvine for assistance with downloading, managing, and reviewing US radar data. We thank the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium for providing weather radar data.Globally, billions of flying animals undergo seasonal migrations, many of which occur at night. The temporal and spatial scales at which migrations occur and our inability to directly observe these nocturnal movements makes monitoring and characterizing this critical period in migratory animals’ life cycles difficult. Remote sensing, therefore, has played an important role in our understanding of large-scale nocturnal bird migrations. Weather surveillance radar networks in Europe and North America have great potential for long-term low-cost monitoring of bird migration at scales that have previously been impossible to achieve. Such long-term monitoring, however, poses a number of challenges for the ornithological and ecological communities: how does one take advantage of this vast data resource, integrate information across multiple sensors and large spatial and temporal scales, and visually represent the data for interpretation and dissemination, considering the dynamic nature of migration? We assembled an interdisciplinary team of ecologists, meteorologists, computer scientists, and graphic designers to develop two different flow visualizations, which are interactive and open source, in order to create novel representations of broad-front nocturnal bird migration to address a primary impediment to long-term, large-scale nocturnal migration monitoring. We have applied these visualization techniques to mass bird migration events recorded by two different weather surveillance radar networks covering regions in Europe and North America. These applications show the flexibility and portability of such an approach. The visualizations provide an intuitive representation of the scale and dynamics of these complex systems, are easily accessible for a broad interest group, and are biologically insightful. Additionally, they facilitate fundamental ecological research, conservation, mitigation of human–wildlife conflicts, improvement of meteorological products, and public outreach, education, and engagement.Yeshttp://www.plosone.org/static/editorial#pee