Synthesis of Bio-Compatible SPION–based Aqueous Ferrofluids and Evaluation of RadioFrequency Power Loss for Magnetic Hyperthermia

Bio-compatible magnetic fluids having high saturation magnetization find immense applications in various biomedical fields. Aqueous ferrofluids of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with narrow size distribution, high shelf life and good stability is realized by controlled chemical co-precipitation process. The crystal structure is verified by X-ray diffraction technique. Particle sizes are evaluated by employing Transmission electron microscopy. Room temperature and low-temperature magnetic measurements were carried out with Superconducting Quantum Interference Device. The fluid exhibits good magnetic response even at very high dilution (6.28 mg/cc). This is an advantage for biomedical applications, since only a small amount of iron is to be metabolised by body organs. Magnetic field induced transmission measurements carried out at photon energy of diode laser (670 nm) exhibited excellent linear dichroism. Based on the structural and magnetic measurements, the power loss for the magnetic nanoparticles under study is evaluated over a range of radiofrequencies

Теневой человек как социокультурный феномен

Background: Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is a physical condition that is now well established as a predictor of numerous adverse health outcomes, independent of physical activity levels. In order to be able to improve CRF at the population level and to develop effective interventions and public health programmes, it is important to understand why some people are more fit than others. Therefore, the primary aim of the systematic review described in this protocol is to examine individual and interpersonal factors that are correlated with or determine CRF among adults. Methods: The review will focus on quantitative studies that investigate any personal and interpersonal correlates and/or determinants of objectively measured CRF among the general, non-symptomatic, non-institutionalized adult population (aged 18–65 years) worldwide. The databases MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Library will be searched to identify all relevant published journal articles, and Google Scholar and Scopus will be searched for grey literature. Studies where CRF is not an outcome variable and experimental studies where participants specifically receive a fitness intervention that increases CRF will be excluded. For each study, data extracted will include, among other variables, study characteristics, methodology for selecting participants into the study as well as the participants’ demographic characteristics, types of correlates and determinants of CRF investigated and their measurement methods, the objective measure of CRF used and its measurement method and validity, and the main reported results on the association between the correlates or determinants and CRF. In addition, observational studies will be assessed for methodological quality and risk of bias using a customized version of the Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Experimental studies will be assessed using the 27-item Downs and Black “Checklist for Measuring Study Quality”. The final results will be presented as a narrative synthesis of the main findings of all included studies. Discussion: By consolidating and synthesizing the current research on possible individual and interpersonal correlates and determinants of CRF among adults worldwide, we aim to aid future public health actions, as well as identify gaps in our full understanding of what influences CRF

The Use of Genus-Specific Amplicon Pyrosequencing to Assess Phytophthora Species Diversity Using eDNA from Soil and Water in Northern Spain

[EN] Phytophthora is one of the most important and aggressive plant pathogenic genera in agriculture and forestry. Early detection and identification of its pathways of infection and spread are of high importance to minimize the threat they pose to natural ecosystems. eDNA was extracted from soil and water from forests and plantations in the north of Spain. Phytophthora-specific primers were adapted for use in high-throughput Sequencing (HTS). Primers were tested in a control reaction containing eight Phytophthora species and applied to water and soil eDNA samples from northern Spain. Different score coverage threshold values were tested for optimal Phytophthora species separation in a custom-curated database and in the control reaction. Clustering at 99% was the optimal criteria to separate most of the Phytophthora species. Multiple Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) corresponding to 36 distinct Phytophthora species were amplified in the environmental samples. Pyrosequencing of amplicons from soil samples revealed low Phytophthora diversity (13 species) in comparison with the 35 species detected in water samples. Thirteen of the MOTUs detected in rivers and streams showed no close match to sequences in international sequence databases, revealing that eDNA pyrosequencing is a useful strategy to assess Phytophthora species diversity in natural ecosystems.This project has been supported by the Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Tecnologia Agraria y Alimentaria (EUPHRESCO-CEP: "Current and Emerging Phytophthoras: Research Supporting Risk Assessment And Risk Management"). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Català, S.; Pérez Sierra, AM.; Abad Campos, P. (2015). The Use of Genus-Specific Amplicon Pyrosequencing to Assess Phytophthora Species Diversity Using eDNA from Soil and Water in Northern Spain. 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Pyrosequencing enumerates and contrasts soil microbial diversity. The ISME Journal, 1(4), 283-290. doi:10.1038/ismej.2007.53Acosta-Martínez, V., Dowd, S., Sun, Y., & Allen, V. (2008). Tag-encoded pyrosequencing analysis of bacterial diversity in a single soil type as affected by management and land use. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 40(11), 2762-2770. doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2008.07.022Jumpponen, A., & Jones, K. L. (2009). Massively parallel 454 sequencing indicates hyperdiverse fungal communities in temperateQuercus macrocarpaphyllosphere. New Phytologist, 184(2), 438-448. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02990.xNilsson, R. H., Ryberg, M., Abarenkov, K., Sjökvist, E., & Kristiansson, E. (2009). The ITS region as a target for characterization of fungal communities using emerging sequencing technologies. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 296(1), 97-101. doi:10.1111/j.1574-6968.2009.01618.xCoince, A., Caël, O., Bach, C., Lengellé, J., Cruaud, C., Gavory, F., … Buée, M. (2013). Below-ground fine-scale distribution and soil versus fine root detection of fungal and soil oomycete communities in a French beech forest. Fungal Ecology, 6(3), 223-235. doi:10.1016/j.funeco.2013.01.002Vannini, A., Bruni, N., Tomassini, A., Franceschini, S., & Vettraino, A. M. (2013). Pyrosequencing of environmental soil samples reveals biodiversity of thePhytophthoraresident community in chestnut forests. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 85(3), 433-442. doi:10.1111/1574-6941.12132Jerde, C. L., Mahon, A. R., Chadderton, W. L., & Lodge, D. M. (2011). «Sight-unseen» detection of rare aquatic species using environmental DNA. Conservation Letters, 4(2), 150-157. doi:10.1111/j.1755-263x.2010.00158.xMonchy, S., Sanciu, G., Jobard, M., Rasconi, S., Gerphagnon, M., Chabé, M., … Sime-Ngando, T. (2011). Exploring and quantifying fungal diversity in freshwater lake ecosystems using rDNA cloning/sequencing and SSU tag pyrosequencing. Environmental Microbiology, 13(6), 1433-1453. doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2011.02444.xJobard, M., Rasconi, S., Solinhac, L., Cauchie, H.-M., & Sime-Ngando, T. (2012). Molecular and morphological diversity of fungi and the associated functions in three European nearby lakes. Environmental Microbiology, 14(9), 2480-2494. doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2012.02771.xLivermore, J. A., & Mattes, T. E. (2013). Phylogenetic detection of novel Cryptomycota in an Iowa (United States) aquifer and from previously collected marine and freshwater targeted high-throughput sequencing sets. Environmental Microbiology, 15(8), 2333-2341. doi:10.1111/1462-2920.12106NAKAYAMA, J., JIANG, J., WATANABE, K., CHEN, K., NINXIN, H., MATSUDA, K., … LEE, Y.-K. (2013). Up to Species-level Community Analysis of Human Gut Microbiota by 16S rRNA Amplicon Pyrosequencing. Bioscience of Microbiota, Food and Health, 32(2), 69-76. doi:10.12938/bmfh.32.69CREER, S., & SINNIGER, F. (2012). Cosmopolitanism of microbial eukaryotes in the global deep seas. Molecular Ecology, 21(5), 1033-1035. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294x.2012.05437.xDavey, M. L., Heegaard, E., Halvorsen, R., Kauserud, H., & Ohlson, M. (2012). Amplicon-pyrosequencing-based detection of compositional shifts in bryophyte-associated fungal communities along an elevation gradient. Molecular Ecology, 22(2), 368-383. doi:10.1111/mec.12122Weber, C. F., Vilgalys, R., & Kuske, C. R. (2013). Changes in Fungal Community Composition in Response to Elevated Atmospheric CO2 and Nitrogen Fertilization Varies with Soil Horizon. Frontiers in Microbiology, 4. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2013.00078Bergmark, L., Poulsen, P. H. B., Al-Soud, W. A., Norman, A., Hansen, L. H., & Sørensen, S. J. (2012). Assessment of the specificity of Burkholderia and Pseudomonas qPCR assays for detection of these genera in soil using 454 pyrosequencing. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 333(1), 77-84. doi:10.1111/j.1574-6968.2012.02601.xLi, L., Abu Al-Soud, W., Bergmark, L., Riber, L., Hansen, L. H., Magid, J., & Sørensen, S. J. (2013). Investigating the Diversity of Pseudomonas spp. in Soil Using Culture Dependent and Independent Techniques. Current Microbiology, 67(4), 423-430. doi:10.1007/s00284-013-0382-xSCHENA, L., HUGHES, K. J. D., & COOKE, D. E. L. (2006). Detection and quantification ofPhytophthora ramorum,P. kernoviae,P. citricolaandP. quercinain symptomatic leaves by multiplex real-time PCR. Molecular Plant Pathology, 7(5), 365-379. doi:10.1111/j.1364-3703.2006.00345.xTooley, P. W., Martin, F. N., Carras, M. M., & Frederick, R. D. (2006). Real-Time Fluorescent Polymerase Chain Reaction Detection ofPhytophthora ramorumandPhytophthora pseudosyringaeUsing Mitochondrial Gene Regions. Phytopathology, 96(4), 336-345. doi:10.1094/phyto-96-0336Pavón, C. F., Babadoost, M., & Lambert, K. N. (2008). Quantification of Phytophthora capsici Oospores in Soil by Sieving-Centrifugation and Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction. Plant Disease, 92(1), 143-149. doi:10.1094/pdis-92-1-0143Than, D. J., Hughes, K. J. D., Boonhan, N., Tomlinson, J. A., Woodhall, J. W., & Bellgard, S. E. (2013). A TaqMan real-time PCR assay for the detection ofPhytophthora‘taxon Agathis’ in soil, pathogen of Kauri in New Zealand. Forest Pathology, 43(4), 324-330. doi:10.1111/efp.12034Chen, W., Djama, Z. R., Coffey, M. D., Martin, F. N., Bilodeau, G. J., Radmer, L., … Lévesque, C. A. (2013). Membrane-Based Oligonucleotide Array Developed from Multiple Markers for the Detection of Many Phytophthora Species. Phytopathology, 103(1), 43-54. doi:10.1094/phyto-04-12-0092-rScibetta, S., Schena, L., Chimento, A., Cacciola, S. O., & Cooke, D. E. L. (2012). A molecular method to assess Phytophthora diversity in environmental samples. Journal of Microbiological Methods, 88(3), 356-368. doi:10.1016/j.mimet.2011.12.012Català S, Pérez-Sierra A, Berbegal M, Abad-Campos P. First approach into the knowledge of the Phytophthora species diversity in Mediterranean holm oak forests based on 454 parallel amplicon pyrosequencing of soil samples. Phytophthora in Forest and Natural Ecosystems 6th International IUFRO Working Party 7.02.09 Meeting, Córdoba, Spain, pp 34; 2012.Català S, Pérez-Sierra A, Beltrán A, Abad-Campos P. Next Generation Sequencing shows Phytophthora species diversity in soil samples of Macaronesian laurel forests from the Canary Islands. Phytophthora in Forest and Natural Ecosystems 6th International IUFRO Working Party 7.02.09 Meeting, Córdoba, Spain, pp. 86; 2012.Cooke, D. E. L., Drenth, A., Duncan, J. M., Wagels, G., & Brasier, C. M. (2000). A Molecular Phylogeny of Phytophthora and Related Oomycetes. Fungal Genetics and Biology, 30(1), 17-32. doi:10.1006/fgbi.2000.1202Andrews S. FastQC: a quality control tool for high throughput sequence data. Available: http://www.bioinformatics.bbsrc.ac.uk/projects/fastqc/Chou, H.-H., & Holmes, M. H. (2001). DNA sequence quality trimming and vector removal. Bioinformatics, 17(12), 1093-1104. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/17.12.1093Altschul, S. (1997). Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST: a new generation of protein database search programs. Nucleic Acids Research, 25(17), 3389-3402. doi:10.1093/nar/25.17.3389Edgar, R. C. (2004). MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughput. Nucleic Acids Research, 32(5), 1792-1797. doi:10.1093/nar/gkh340Gouy, M., Guindon, S., & Gascuel, O. (2009). SeaView Version 4: A Multiplatform Graphical User Interface for Sequence Alignment and Phylogenetic Tree Building. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 27(2), 221-224. doi:10.1093/molbev/msp259Park, J., Park, B., Veeraraghavan, N., Jung, K., Lee, Y.-H., Blair, J. E., … Kang, S. (2008). Phytophthora Database: A Forensic Database Supporting the Identification and Monitoring of Phytophthora. Plant Disease, 92(6), 966-972. doi:10.1094/pdis-92-6-0966Vettraino, A. M., Bonants, P., Tomassini, A., Bruni, N., & Vannini, A. (2012). Pyrosequencing as a tool for the detection ofPhytophthoraspecies: error rate and risk of false Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units. Letters in Applied Microbiology, 55(5), 390-396. doi:10.1111/j.1472-765x.2012.03310.xJung, T., & Burgess, T. I. (2009). Re-evaluation of Phytophthora citricola isolates from multiple woody hosts in Europe and North America reveals a new species, Phytophthora plurivora sp. nov. Persoonia - Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi, 22(1), 95-110. doi:10.3767/003158509x442612Deagle, B. E., Eveson, J. P., & Jarman, S. N. (2006). Quantification of damage in DNA recovered from highly degraded samples – a case study on DNA in faeces. 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Canagliflozin and Renal Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes and Nephropathy

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to 300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of <15 ml per minute per 1.73 m 2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P<0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years

Application of hyperthermia induced by superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in glioma treatment

Andr&amp;eacute; C Silva1, Tiago R Oliveira1,2, Javier B Mamani1, Suzana MF Malheiros3,4, Luciana Malavolta1, Lorena F Pavon1, Tatiana T Sibov1, Edson Amaro Jr1,5, Alberto Tann&amp;uacute;s6, Edson LG Vidoto6, Mateus J Martins6, Ricardo S Santos6, Lionel F Gamarra11Instituto Israelita de Ensino e Pesquisa Albert Einstein, IIEPAE, S&amp;atilde;o Paulo, Brazil; 2Instituto de F&amp;iacute;sica, Universidade de S&amp;atilde;o Paulo, S&amp;atilde;o Paulo, Brazil; 3Departament of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Universidade Federal de S&amp;atilde;o Paulo, S&amp;atilde;o Paulo, Brazil; 4Neuro-Oncology Program of Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, S&amp;atilde;o Paulo, Brazil; 5Instituto de Radiologia, Faculdade de Medicina; 6CIERMag-Instituto de F&amp;iacute;sica de S&amp;atilde;o Carlos, Universidade de S&amp;atilde;o Paulo, S&amp;atilde;o Paulo, BrazilAbstract: Gliomas are a group of heterogeneous primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors arising from the glial cells. Malignant gliomas account for a majority of malignant primary CNS tumors and are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Glioblastoma is the most frequent and malignant glioma, and despite the recent advances in diagnosis and new treatment options, its prognosis remains dismal. New opportunities for the development of effective therapies for malignant gliomas are urgently needed. Magnetic hyperthermia (MHT), which consists of heat generation in the region of the tumor through the application of magnetic nanoparticles subjected to an alternating magnetic field (AMF), has shown positive results in both preclinical and clinical assays. The aim of this review is to assess the relevance of hyperthermia induced by magnetic nanoparticles in the treatment of gliomas and to note the possible variations of the technique and its implication on the effectiveness of the treatment. We performed an electronic search in the literature from January 1990 to October 2010, in various databases, and after application of the inclusion criteria we obtained a total of 15 articles. In vitro studies and studies using animal models showed that MHT was effective in the promotion of tumor cell death and reduction of tumor mass or increase in survival. Two clinical studies showed that MHT could be applied safely and with few side effects. Some studies suggested that mechanisms of cell death, such as apoptosis, necrosis, and antitumor immune response were triggered by MHT. Based on these data, we could conclude that MHT proved to be efficient in most of the experiments, and that the improvement of the nanocomposites as well as the AMF equipment might contribute toward establishing MHT as a promising tool in the treatment of malignant gliomas.Keywords: brain tumor, magnetic hyperthermia, magnetic nanoparticl