7 research outputs found
Effects of recent minimum temperature and water deficit increases on Pinus pinaster radial growth and wood density in southern Portugal
Western Iberia has recently shown increasing frequency of drought conditions coupled
with heatwave events, leading to exacerbated limiting climatic conditions for plant
growth. It is not clear to what extent wood growth and density of agroforestry species
have suffered from such changes or recent extreme climate events. To address this
question, tree-ring width and density chronologies were built for a Pinus pinaster stand
in southern Portugal and correlated with climate variables, including the minimum, mean
and maximum temperatures and the number of cold days. Monthly and maximum
daily precipitations were also analyzed as well as dry spells. The drought effect was
assessed using the standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration (SPEI) multi-scalar
drought index, between 1 to 24-months. The climate-growth/density relationships
were evaluated for the period 1958-2011. We show that both wood radial growth
and density highly benefit from the strong decay of cold days and the increase of
minimum temperature. Yet the benefits are hindered by long-term water deficit, which
results in different levels of impact on wood radial growth and density. Despite of the
intensification of long-term water deficit, tree-ring width appears to benefit from the
minimum temperature increase, whereas the effects of long-term droughts significantly
prevail on tree-ring density. Our results further highlight the dependency of the species
on deep water sources after the juvenile stage. The impact of climate changes on longterm
droughts and their repercussion on the shallow groundwater table and P. pinaster’s
vulnerability are also discussed. This work provides relevant information for forest
management in the semi-arid area of the Alentejo region of Portugal. It should ease
the elaboration of mitigation strategies to assure P. pinaster’s production capacity and
quality in response to more arid conditions in the near future in the regioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Intranasal vaccination with messenger RNA as a new approach in gene therapy: Use against tuberculosis
Abstract Background mRNAs are highly versatile, non-toxic molecules that are easy to produce and store, which can allow transient protein expression in all cell types. The safety aspects of mRNA-based treatments in gene therapy make this molecule one of the most promising active components of therapeutic or prophylactic methods. The use of mRNA as strategy for the stimulation of the immune system has been used mainly in current strategies for the cancer treatment but until now no one tested this molecule as vaccine for infectious disease. Results We produce messenger RNA of Hsp65 protein from Mycobacterium leprae and show that vaccination of mice with a single dose of 10 μg of naked mRNA-Hsp65 through intranasal route was able to induce protection against subsequent challenge with virulent strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Moreover it was shown that this immunization was associated with specific production of IL-10 and TNF-alpha in spleen. In order to determine if antigen presenting cells (APCs) present in the lung are capable of capture the mRNA, labeled mRNA-Hsp65 was administered by intranasal route and lung APCs were analyzed by flow cytometry. These experiments showed that after 30 minutes until 8 hours the populations of CD11c+, CD11b+ and CD19+ cells were able to capture the mRNA. We also demonstrated in vitro that mRNA-Hsp65 leads nitric oxide (NO) production through Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7). Conclusions Taken together, our results showed a novel and efficient strategy to control experimental tuberculosis, besides opening novel perspectives for the use of mRNA in vaccines against infectious diseases and clarifying the mechanisms involved in the disease protection we noticed as well.</p
Intranasal vaccination with messenger RNA as a new approach in gene therapy: Use against tuberculosis
Background: mRNAs are highly versatile, non-toxic molecules that are easy to produce and store, which can allow transient protein expression in all cell types. The safety aspects of mRNA-based treatments in gene therapy make this molecule one of the most promising active components of therapeutic or prophylactic methods. The use of mRNA as strategy for the stimulation of the immune system has been used mainly in current strategies for the cancer treatment but until now no one tested this molecule as vaccine for infectious disease. Results: We produce messenger RNA of Hsp65 protein from Mycobacterium leprae and show that vaccination of mice with a single dose of 10 mu g of naked mRNA-Hsp65 through intranasal route was able to induce protection against subsequent challenge with virulent strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Moreover it was shown that this immunization was associated with specific production of IL-10 and TNF-alpha in spleen. In order to determine if antigen presenting cells (APCs) present in the lung are capable of capture the mRNA, labeled mRNA-Hsp65 was administered by intranasal route and lung APCs were analyzed by flow cytometry. These experiments showed that after 30 minutes until 8 hours the populations of CD11c(+), CD11b(+) and CD19(+) cells were able to capture the mRNA. We also demonstrated in vitro that mRNA-Hsp65 leads nitric oxide (NO) production through Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7). Conclusions: Taken together, our results showed a novel and efficient strategy to control experimental tuberculosis, besides opening novel perspectives for the use of mRNA in vaccines against infectious diseases and clarifying the mechanisms involved in the disease protection we noticed as well.This work was supported by FAPESP (06/03987-7) grant. We thank Ana P.\ud
Masson and Izaíra T. Brandão for technical support
Intranasal vaccination with messenger RNA as a new approach in gene therapy: Use against tuberculosis
Abstract
Background
mRNAs are highly versatile, non-toxic molecules that are easy to produce and store, which can allow transient protein expression in all cell types. The safety aspects of mRNA-based treatments in gene therapy make this molecule one of the most promising active components of therapeutic or prophylactic methods. The use of mRNA as strategy for the stimulation of the immune system has been used mainly in current strategies for the cancer treatment but until now no one tested this molecule as vaccine for infectious disease.
Results
We produce messenger RNA of Hsp65 protein from Mycobacterium leprae and show that vaccination of mice with a single dose of 10 μg of naked mRNA-Hsp65 through intranasal route was able to induce protection against subsequent challenge with virulent strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Moreover it was shown that this immunization was associated with specific production of IL-10 and TNF-alpha in spleen. In order to determine if antigen presenting cells (APCs) present in the lung are capable of capture the mRNA, labeled mRNA-Hsp65 was administered by intranasal route and lung APCs were analyzed by flow cytometry. These experiments showed that after 30 minutes until 8 hours the populations of CD11c+, CD11b+ and CD19+ cells were able to capture the mRNA. We also demonstrated in vitro that mRNA-Hsp65 leads nitric oxide (NO) production through Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7).
Conclusions
Taken together, our results showed a novel and efficient strategy to control experimental tuberculosis, besides opening novel perspectives for the use of mRNA in vaccines against infectious diseases and clarifying the mechanisms involved in the disease protection we noticed as well
Intranasal vaccination with messenger RNA as a new approach in gene therapy: Use against tuberculosis
Abstract\ud
\ud
Background\ud
mRNAs are highly versatile, non-toxic molecules that are easy to produce and store, which can allow transient protein expression in all cell types. The safety aspects of mRNA-based treatments in gene therapy make this molecule one of the most promising active components of therapeutic or prophylactic methods. The use of mRNA as strategy for the stimulation of the immune system has been used mainly in current strategies for the cancer treatment but until now no one tested this molecule as vaccine for infectious disease.\ud
\ud
\ud
Results\ud
We produce messenger RNA of Hsp65 protein from Mycobacterium leprae and show that vaccination of mice with a single dose of 10 μg of naked mRNA-Hsp65 through intranasal route was able to induce protection against subsequent challenge with virulent strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Moreover it was shown that this immunization was associated with specific production of IL-10 and TNF-alpha in spleen. In order to determine if antigen presenting cells (APCs) present in the lung are capable of capture the mRNA, labeled mRNA-Hsp65 was administered by intranasal route and lung APCs were analyzed by flow cytometry. These experiments showed that after 30 minutes until 8 hours the populations of CD11c+, CD11b+ and CD19+ cells were able to capture the mRNA. We also demonstrated in vitro that mRNA-Hsp65 leads nitric oxide (NO) production through Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7).\ud
\ud
\ud
Conclusions\ud
Taken together, our results showed a novel and efficient strategy to control experimental tuberculosis, besides opening novel perspectives for the use of mRNA in vaccines against infectious diseases and clarifying the mechanisms involved in the disease protection we noticed as well
Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone
As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved