Analysis by RNA-seq of transcriptomic changes elicited by heat shock in Leishmania major

Besides their medical relevance, Leishmania is an adequate model for studying post-transcriptional mechanisms of gene expression. In this microorganism, mRNA degradation/stabilization mechanisms together with translational control and post-translational modifications of proteins are the major drivers of gene expression. Leishmania parasites develop as promastigotes in sandflies and as amastigotes in mammalians, and during host transmission, the parasite experiences a sudden temperature increase. Here, changes in the transcriptome of Leishmania major promastigotes after a moderate heat shock were analysed by RNA-seq. Several of the up-regulated transcripts code for heat shock proteins, other for proteins previously reported to be amastigote-specific and many for hypothetical proteins. Many of the transcripts experiencing a decrease in their steady-state levels code for transporters, proteins involved in RNA metabolism or translational factors. In addition, putative long noncoding RNAs were identified among the differentially expressed transcripts. Finally, temperature-dependent changes in the selection of the spliced leader addition sites were inferred from the RNA-seq data, and particular cases were further validated by RT-PCR and Northern blotting. This study provides new insights into the post-transcriptional mechanisms by which Leishmania modulate gene expressionThis work was supported by grants (to B.A. and J.M.R.) from Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, project number SAF2017-86965-R (co-funded with FEDER funds), and by the Network of Tropical Diseases Research RICET (RD16/0027/0008), co-funded with FEDER funds. The CBMSO receives institutional grants from the Fundación Ramón Areces and from the Fundación Banco de Santande

Optimisation of pyrolysis parameters for CF composites with respect to mechanical properties of recovered fibers

The aerospace/aeronautics, energy and automotive industries are the primary users of advanced polymer composites in structural components. Increasing number of those components are reaching End of Life and will be disposed in landfills, which is currently the most common option worldwide. However, environmental concerns and consequent demands from society drives industries to search for ways to repurpose decommissioned composite structures. The most beneficial would be to reuse composites and/or their constituents after the service life. Thermal recycling is a method to recover costly fibers and lower the environmental impact. The objective of this work is to optimize conditions of pyrolysis of carbon fiber (CF) composite aiming to recover reinforcement with highest mechanical properties. The specimens for this study were cut (15x30x3mm) from epoxy/CF laminate with randomly oriented fiber. To identify the best conditions, the pyrolysis is performed at different thermal cycles under various environments with mass loss monitored throughout the experiments. The conditions of the reference experiment are based on data from literature (550C for 30 min under nitrogen atmosphere, with oxidation in air for 60 min, see Fig. 1). Additionally, pyrolysis was performed under different temperatures and environments: variation of temperature on first stage, dipping specimens in hot furnace instead of gradual heating, changing conditions of oxidation. In order to select pyrolysis process with most optimal conditions the surface of the recovered fibres is investigated by means of optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The mechanical properties of fibers are evaluated and compared to virgin fibers

Interactions of human galectins with Trypanosoma cruzi: binding profile correlate with genetic clustering of lineages

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Glycobiology following peer review. The version of record Pineda, M.A. et al. Interactions of human galectins with Trypanosoma cruzi: binding profile correlate with genetic clustering of lineages. Glycobiology 25.2 (2015): 197-210 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/glycob/cwu103We report here the specific interaction between several members of the human galectin family with the three developmental stages of several genetic lineages of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. We provide data of specific and differential binding of human galectins-1, 3, 4, 7 and 8 to 14 strains of T. cruzi that belong to the six genetic lineages representing the genetic diversity of the parasite. It is shown that galectins preferentially bind forms present in the host, trypomastigotes and amastigotes, compared to the non-infective epimastigote present on the intestinal tract of the vector, reflecting the changes on glycosylation that occur during the metacyclogenesis and amastigogenesis process. Also, it is evidenced that galectin binding to the parasites promotes binding to the host cells and higher infection rates. In addition evidence is provided indicating that the intracellular amastigotes may take over the cytosolic pool of some galectins when released to the extracellular medium. Finaly, by applying unweighted pair group method analysis to the galectin binding profile to either cell-derived trypomastigotes or amastigotes we show that the differential binding profile by the host galectins to the six lineages resembles the clustering based in genetic data. Therefore, the differential binding profile for the six lineages could have implications in the immunopathology of Chagas’ disease, affecting the complex network of immune responses on which galectins mediate, thus providing linkage clues to the notion that different lineages may be related to different clnical forms of the disease.This work was supported by grants from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias-Ministerio de Sanidad (FIS-PI11/00033) to PB and (FIS-PI11/0095) to MS, and grant ChagasEpiNet (European VII framework Program) to MF. The financial support Network RICET from the FIS, Ministerio de Sanidad and Fundacion Ramon Areces is acknowledge

A proof-of-concept

Funding Information: C. Costa, T. Casimiro and A. Aguiar-Ricardo are grateful for the financial support of the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry-LAQV, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa , Portugal, which is financed by national funds from FCT/MCTES ( UIDB/50006/2020 and UIDP/50006/2020 ). C. Costa thanks FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) and ESF (European Social Fund) through POCH (Programa Operacional Capital Humano) for her PhD grant ref. PD/BD/142880/2018, COVID/BD/152744/2022 and Project PD/00184/2012-PDQS . C. Costa and A. Aguiar-Ricardo acknowledge also CA18224 GREENERING (“Green Chemical Engineering Network towards upscaling sustainable processes”). COST Actions are funded within the EU Horizon 2020 Programme . M.L. Corvo is grateful for the financial support of the Research Institute for Medicines (iMed.ULisboa), Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa , Lisbon, Portugal, which is supported in part by UID/DTP/04138/2020 and UIDP/04138/2020 from FCT/MCTES , Portugal. The authors are grateful to Prof. M. Dionísio for the DSC facility. Publisher Copyright: © 2023Enzyme-based inhalable therapeutics for lung inflammation are gaining interest as an alternative to long-term corticosteroids treatments. However, enzymes have poor pharmacokinetics. Encapsulating enzymes in liposomes can increase their half-live and modify their biodistribution. But both liposomes and enzymes are susceptible to destabilization during storage. This drawback can be surpassed, by converting liposomal suspension into solid dosage forms for different administration routes, including inhalation. In this study, Cu, Zn- superoxide dismutase (SOD) was encapsulated in liposomes, then dried using supercritical CO2-assisted spray-drying to make SOD-loaded liposomal dry powder formulations (SOD_Lip-DPFs). Upon resuspension in water, liposomes maintained structural integrity, with 99% SOD encapsulation efficiency and preserved enzymatic activity. Stability studies showed that SOD_Lip-DPFs maintained liposomal and enzyme stability for 50 days at 40% relative humidity. This offers a stable and efficient delivery system for enzyme-based inhalable therapeutics.publishersversionpublishe

Many-core applications to online track reconstruction in HEP experiments

Interest in parallel architectures applied to real time selections is growing in High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments. In this paper we describe performance measurements of Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) and Intel Many Integrated Core architecture (MIC) when applied to a typical HEP online task: the selection of events based on the trajectories of charged particles. We use as benchmark a scaled-up version of the algorithm used at CDF experiment at Tevatron for online track reconstruction - the SVT algorithm - as a realistic test-case for low-latency trigger systems using new computing architectures for LHC experiment. We examine the complexity/performance trade-off in porting existing serial algorithms to many-core devices. Measurements of both data processing and data transfer latency are shown, considering different I/O strategies to/from the parallel devices.Comment: Proceedings for the 20th International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP); missing acks adde

CMS Software Distribution on the LCG and OSG Grids

The efficient exploitation of worldwide distributed storage and computing resources available in the grids require a robust, transparent and fast deployment of experiment specific software. The approach followed by the CMS experiment at CERN in order to enable Monte-Carlo simulations, data analysis and software development in an international collaboration is presented. The current status and future improvement plans are described.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, latex with hyperref

Fine mapping of loci on BTA8 associated to antibody response to Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis in cattle

Paratuberculosis (ParaTB) or Johne's disease, caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis commonly known as MAP in cattle, is a chronic gastroenteritis characterized by diarrhoea, decreased milk production and ultimately death. MAP is responsible for huge economic losses, particularly in dairy cattle herds. Susceptibility to MAP infection has been found to be heritable with heritability estimates ranging from 0.06 to 0.102. The definition of an infected animal can be based either on the presence of anti-MAP antibodies in the serum, or by direct demonstration of MAP in tissue or faeces by culture or PCR. Several studies have addressed the identification of genetic loci associated with MAP susceptibility. The objective of this study was to refine a locus associated with antibody response to Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosi (MAP). Using a genome- wide association analysis, a single nucleotide polymorphism on Bos taurus autosome BTA8 namely the SNP rs43161947 at posi- tion 35398490 with a p-value of 7.02 e-05, has previously been identified by the authors as associated with MAP infection. Fine mapping of the region was conducted with 100 single nucleotide polymorphisms spanning a region between BTA8: 34422912 and BTA8: 364553881 covering 2 Mega bases (Mb) designed in to cover 1 Mb ahead and after the SNP identified on BTA8. The 2 Mb region on BTA8 was evaluated within a group of 966 Holstein cows collected from routine ParaTB screening in the province of Lodi in Italy, in an area with a high prevalence of ParaTB. Animals were defined as ParaTB positive based on the detection of serum antibodies produced in response to MAP infection using the ID-screen\uae ELISA test (ID VET Montpellier, France). Of the 966 samples, 483 were MAP antibody positive (cases) and 483 MAP antibody negative (MAP negative controls). All animals were female, and cases and MAP negative controls were from the same farm tested on the same day.Using a single marker associ- ation analysis, conducted within the R statistical environment, we identified 3 different QTLs within the 2 Mega base region, under the main QTL on BTA8 associated with antibody response to MAP, in position 34.700.000, 35.800.000 and 36.400.000 bp. This reveals the complexity of the genetic architecture of thetrait and confirms the need to further explore the genome with fine mapping approaches, or by the use of whole genome sequencing to investigate complex traits, such as disease resistance

Expert system for the assessment of power transformer insulation condition based on type-2 fuzzy logic systems

An efficient expert system for the power transformer condition assessment is presented in this paper. Through the application of Duval's triangle and the method of the gas ratios a first assessment of the transformer condition is obtained in the form of a dissolved gas analysis (DGA) diagnosis according IEC 60599. As a second step, a knowledge mining procedure is performed, by conducting surveys whose results are fed into a first Type-2 Fuzzy Logic System (T2-FLS), in order to initially evaluate the condition of the equipment taking only the results of dissolved gas analysis into account. The output of this first T2-FLS is used as the input of a second T2-FLS, which additionally weighs up the condition of the paper-oil system. The output of this last T2-FLS is given in terms of words easily understandable by the maintenance personnel. The proposed assessing methodology has been validated for several cases of transformers in service. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Fil: Flores, Wilfredo C.. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras; Honduras. Universidad Nacional de San Juan; ArgentinaFil: Mombello, Enrique Esteban. Universidad Nacional de San Juan; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan; ArgentinaFil: Jardini, José. A.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Rattá Gutiérrez, Giuseppe Aníbal. Universidad Nacional de San Juan; ArgentinaFil: Corvo, Antonio M.. Companhia de Transmissão de Energía Elétrica Paulista; Brasi

Genome-Wide DNA Methylation and Gene Expression Profiles in Cows Subjected to Different Stress Level as Assessed by Cortisol in Milk

Dairy cattle health, wellbeing and productivity are deeply affected by stress. Its influence on metabolism and immune response is well known, but the underlying epigenetic mechanisms require further investigation. In this study, we compared DNA methylation and gene expression signatures between two dairy cattle populations falling in the high- and low-variant tails of the distribution of milk cortisol concentration (MC), a neuroendocrine marker of stress in dairy cows. Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing was used to obtain a methylation map from blood samples of these animals. The high and low groups exhibited similar amounts of methylated CpGs, while we found differences among non-CpG sites. Significant methylation changes were detected in 248 genes. We also identified significant fold differences in the expression of 324 genes. KEGG and Gene Ontology (GO) analysis showed that genes of both groups act together in several pathways, such as nervous system activity, immune regulatory functions and glucocorticoid metabolism. These preliminary results suggest that, in livestock, cortisol secretion could act as a trigger for epigenetic regulation and that peripheral changes in methylation can provide an insight into central nervous system functions

Sulfonic Acid-Functionalized (Bio)Materials as Catalysts for Efficient Amide Bond Synthesis

Funding Information: The authors thank Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FC&T) for project PTDC/BII‐BIO/30884/2017 and EXPL/BII‐BIO/0436/2021 and also for the researcher contract 2021.03255.CEECIND (M.C.C) and 2020.01614.CEECIND/CP1596/CT0007 (A.F.P.). Authors also thank the support by the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry – LAQV, which is financed by national funds from FCT/MCTES (UIDB/50006/2020 and UIDP/50006/2020) and i3 N (LA/P/0037/2020, UIDP/50025/2020 and UIDB/50025/2020 . The National NMR Facility is supported by FC&T (ROTEIRO/0031/2013 – PINFRA/22161/2016, co‐financed by FEDER through COMPETE 2020, POCI, and PORL and FC&T through PIDDAC) and CERMAX through project 022162. We thank Prof. Dr. Carlos A. M. Afonso from the Faculty of Pharmacy, ULisboa for the scientific discussions on the experiments carried out with furfuryl alcohol derivatives. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. ChemCatChem published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.Sulfonic acid carbon-(bio)based and natural clays-based catalysts were prepared and investigated for the first time as heterogeneous catalysts for amide bond synthesis by a Ritter reaction. The different SO3H-catalysts were screened using benzyl alcohol and acetonitrile as model substrates, and MWCNT-CSP revealed to be an efficient catalyst, affording the amide in 75 % yield. The practical utility of the catalysts was demonstrated by a diverse range of amides, obtained from alcohols and nitriles, in moderate to good yields. Biomass derived platform alcohols, such as 5-HMF and furfuryl alcohol, were also tested as potential building blocks for the synthesis of biopolymers. The SO3H-catalysts revealed to be a highly efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to the conventional acid catalysts commonly used in the Ritter reaction.publishersversionpublishe