Immunotoxicity and Sensitizing Capacity of Metal Compounds Depend on Speciation

Immunotoxicity of metal compounds is an issue of great importance due to the recent industrial application of metals with unknown toxicity on the immune system and the discovery of metal intermediary compounds not sufficiently studied yet. In this report we show results of our study on the immunotoxicity of the following metals: the Platinum group elements (Platinum, Palladium, Rhodium), Titanium and Arsenic. We applied functional and non functional assays and investigated both innate and adaptive immune systems, in particular, cell proliferation, cytokine production by PBMCs and O−2 production by neutrophils. We obtained the following results: only some Ti compounds (Titanocene, Ti ascorbate and Ti oxalate) show immunotoxicity. Trivalent As compounds (Sodium arsenite and tetraphenyl arsonium chloride) are more immunotoxic than the other investigated As compounds. Genotoxicity of Pt group compounds is in the following order: Pt < Rh < Pd. Immunotoxicity of Pt group compounds is in the following order: Pd < Pt < Rh. Lymphocytes and macrophages show a different reaction of neutrophils to metal toxicity. We can conclude that these studies show that metal immunotoxicity depends on speciation. In general speciation provides additional and often essential information in evaluating metal toxicity. However, there are many difficulties in applying speciation in investigating toxico-kinetic aspects to many metals, mainly due to the lack of information about the existence and significance of species and to the lack of analytical methods for measuring species in biological samples

Oral hyposensitization to nickel induces clinical improvement and a decrease in TH1 and TH2 cytokines in patients with systemic nickel allergy syndrome.

Some patients with nickel (Ni) allergic contact dermatitis suffer from systemic (intestinal or cutaneous) symptoms after ingestion of Ni-rich foods and experience symptoms reduction with low-Ni diet, a condition termed "systemic Ni allergy syndrome" (SNAS). We aimed at evaluating whether oral administration of low nickel doses improved clinical conditions and modulated immunological aspects of SNAS, without significant side effects. Thirty-six SNAS patients were enrolled. Treatment started after 1-month of low-Ni diet and consisted in an incremental oral NiOH dose phase (0.3ng to 1.5 μg/week) followed by a 12-months maintenance phase (1.5 μg/week). Randomly, twenty-four patients added Ni therapy to low-Ni diet and 12 remained with diet alone. All patients were allowed rescue medications (antihistamines and topical steroids). After 4 months, Ni-rich foods were gradually reintroduced. In vitro allergen-driven IL13, IL5 and IFNγ release by peripheral blood mononuclear cells was evaluated before and after treatment. Twenty-three patients receiving NiOH and the 12 control patients completed the study. Evaluation of SNAS clinical severity (by VAS and drug consumption) showed a significant difference in favor of NiOH-treated patients compared to controls. Twenty of 23 patients in the NiOH group and none in the control group tolerated Ni-rich food reintroduction. Release of all studied cytokines in culture supernatants was significantly lower after NiOH treatment. In conclusion NiOH is effective in reducing symptoms and drug consumption in SNAS and is able to modulate inflammatory parameters

NUP98 is fused to HOXA9 in a variant complex t(7;11;13;17) in a patient with AML-M2

The t(7;11)(p15;p15.4) has been reported to fuse the NUP98 gene (11p15), a component of the nuclear pore complex, with the class-1 homeobox gene HOXA9 at 7p15. This translocation has been associated with myeloid leukemias, predominantly acute myeloid leukemia (AML) M2 subtype with trilineage myelodysplastic features, and with a poor prognosis. The derived fusion protein retains the FG repeat motif of NUP98 N-terminus and the homeodomain shared by the HOX genes, acting as an oncogenic transcription factor critical for leukemogenesis. We report here a new complex t(7;11)-variant, i.e., t(7;11;13;17)(p15;p15;p?;p1?2) in a patient with AML-M2 and poor prognosis. The NUP98-HOXA9 fusion transcript was detected by RT-PCR, suggesting its role in the malignant transformation as it has been postulated for other t(7;11)-associated leukemias. No other fusion transcripts involving the NUP98 or HOXA9 genes were present, although other mechanisms involving several genes on chromosomes 13 and 17 may also be involved. To our knowledge, this is the first t(7;11) variant involving NUP98 described in hematological malignancies

A First Search for coincident Gravitational Waves and High Energy Neutrinos using LIGO, Virgo and ANTARES data from 2007

We present the results of the first search for gravitational wave bursts associated with high energy neutrinos. Together, these messengers could reveal new, hidden sources that are not observed by conventional photon astronomy, particularly at high energy. Our search uses neutrinos detected by the underwater neutrino telescope ANTARES in its 5 line configuration during the period January - September 2007, which coincided with the fifth and first science runs of LIGO and Virgo, respectively. The LIGO-Virgo data were analysed for candidate gravitational-wave signals coincident in time and direction with the neutrino events. No significant coincident events were observed. We place limits on the density of joint high energy neutrino - gravitational wave emission events in the local universe, and compare them with densities of merger and core-collapse events.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, science summary page at http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S5LV_ANTARES/index.php. Public access area to figures, tables at https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=p120000

A História da Alimentação: balizas historiográficas

Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da História da Alimentação, não como um novo ramo epistemológico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de práticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicações, associações, encontros acadêmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condições em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biológica, a econômica, a social, a cultural e a filosófica!, assim como da identificação das contribuições mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histórica, foi ela organizada segundo critérios morfológicos. A seguir, alguns tópicos importantes mereceram tratamento à parte: a fome, o alimento e o domínio religioso, as descobertas européias e a difusão mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rápido balanço crítico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema

Oral Hyposensitization to Nickel Induces Clinical Improvement and a Decrease in TH1 and TH2 Cytokines in Patients with Systemic Nickel Allergy Syndrome

Some patients with nickel (Ni) allergic contact dermatitis suffer from systemic (intestinal or cutaneous) symptoms after ingestion of Ni-rich foods and experience symptoms reduction with low-Ni diet, a condition termed "systemic Ni allergy syndrome" (SNAS). We aimed at evaluating whether oral administration of low nickel doses improved clinical conditions and modulated immunological aspects of SNAS, without significant side effects. Thirty-six SNAS patients were enrolled. Treatment started after 1-month of low-Ni diet and consisted in an incremental oral NiOH dose phase (0.3ng to 1.5 μg/week) followed by a 12-months maintenance phase (1.5 μg/week). Randomly, twenty-four patients added Ni therapy to low-Ni diet and 12 remained with diet alone. All patients were allowed rescue medications (antihistamines and topical steroids). After 4 months, Ni-rich foods were gradually reintroduced. In vitro allergen-driven IL13, IL5 and IFNγ release by peripheral blood mononuclear cells was evaluated before and after treatment. Twenty-three patients receiving NiOH and the 12 control patients completed the study. Evaluation of SNAS clinical severity (by VAS and drug consumption) showed a significant difference in favor of NiOH-treated patients compared to controls. Twenty of 23 patients in the NiOH group and none in the control group tolerated Ni-rich food reintroduction. Release of all studied cytokines in culture supernatants was significantly lower after NiOH treatment. In conclusion NiOH is effective in reducing symptoms and drug consumption in SNAS and is able to modulate inflammatory parameters