Analysis of phenolic compounds from different morphological parts of Helichrysum devium by liquid chromatography with on-line UV and electrospray ionization mass spectrometric detection

A simple and rapid method has been used for the screening and identification of the main phenolic compounds from Helichrysum devium using high-performance liquid chromatography with on-line UV and electrospray ionization mass spectrometric detection (LC-DAD/ESI-MS(n)). The total aerial parts and different morphological parts of the plant, namely leaves, flowers and stems, were analyzed separately. A total of 34 compounds present in the methanolic extract from Helichrysum devium were identified or tentatively characterized based on their UV and mass spectra and retention times. Three of these compounds were positively identified by comparison with reference standards. The phenolic compounds included derivatives of quinic acid, O-glycosylated flavonoids, a caffeic acid derivative and a protocatechuic acid derivative. The characteristic loss of 206 Da from malonylcaffeoyl quinic acid was used to confirm the malonyl linkage to the caffeoyl group. This contribution presents one of the first reports on the analysis of phenolic compounds from Helichrysum devium using LC-DAD/ESI-MS(n) and highlights the prominence of quinic acid derivatives as the main group of phenolic compounds present in these extracts. We also provide evidence that the methanolic extract from the flowers was significantly more complex when compared to that of other morphological parts.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Trichinella inflammatory myopathy: host or parasite strategy?

The parasitic nematode Trichinella has a special relation with muscle, because of its unique intracellular localization in the skeletal muscle cell, completely devoted in morphology and biochemistry to become the parasite protective niche, otherwise called the nurse cell. The long-lasting muscle infection of Trichinella exhibits a strong interplay with the host immune response, mainly characterized by a Th2 phenotype

Phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 controls migration and malignant transformation but not cell growth and proliferation in PTEN-null lymphocytes

In normal T cell progenitors, phosphoinositide-dependent kinase l (PDK1)–mediated phosphorylation and activation of protein kinase B (PKB) is essential for the phosphorylation and inactivation of Foxo family transcription factors, and also controls T cell growth and proliferation. The current study has characterized the role of PDK1 in the pathology caused by deletion of the tumor suppressor phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN). PDK1 is shown to be essential for lymphomagenesis caused by deletion of PTEN in T cell progenitors. However, PTEN deletion bypasses the normal PDK1-controlled signaling pathways that determine thymocyte growth and proliferation. PDK1 does have important functions in PTEN-null thymocytes, notably to control the PKB–Foxo signaling axis and to direct the repertoire of adhesion and chemokine receptors expressed by PTEN-null T cells. The results thus provide two novel insights concerning pathological signaling caused by PTEN loss in lymphocytes. First, PTEN deletion bypasses the normal PDK1-controlled metabolic checkpoints that determine cell growth and proliferation. Second, PDK1 determines the cohort of chemokine and adhesion receptors expressed by PTEN-null cells, thereby controlling their migratory capacity

High Cyclin E Staining Index in Blastemal, Stromal or Epithelial Cells Is Correlated with Tumor Aggressiveness in Patients with Nephroblastoma

PURPOSE: Identifying among nephroblastoma those with a high propensity for distant metastases using cell cycle markers: cyclin E as a regulator of progression through the cell cycle and Ki-67 as a tumor proliferation marker, since both are often deregulated in many human malignancies. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A staining index (SI) was obtained by immunohistochemistry using anti-cyclin E and anti-Ki-67 antibodies in paraffin sections of 54 postchemotherapy nephroblastoma including 42 nephroblastoma without metastasis and 12 with metastases. Median cyclin E and Ki-67 SI were 46% and 33% in blastemal cells, 30% and 10% in stromal cells, 37% and 29.5% in epithelial cells. The highest values were found for anaplastic nephroblastoma. A correlation between cyclin E and Ki-67 SI was found for the blastemal component and for the epithelial component. Univariate analysis showed prognostic significance for metastases with cyclin E SI in stromal cells, epithelial cells and blastemal cells (p = 0.03, p = 0.01 and p = 0.002, respectively) as well as with Ki-67 SI in blastema (p<10(-4)). The most striking data were that both cyclin E SI and blastemal Ki-67 SI discriminated between patients with metastases and patients without metastasis among intermediate-risk nephroblastoma. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show that a high cyclin E SI in all components of nephroblastoma is correlated with tumor aggressiveness and metastases, and that assessment of its expression may have prognostic value in the categorization of nephroblastoma

Noninvasive Diagnosis of Portal Hypertension in Patients With Compensated Advanced Chronic Liver Disease

INTRODUCTION: We aimed to explore the prevalence of portal hypertension in the most common etiologies of patients with compensated advanced chronic liver disease (cACLD) and develop classification rules, based on liver stiffness measurement (LSM), that could be readily used to diagnose or exclude clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH) in clinical practice. METHODS: This is an international cohort study including patients with paired LSM/hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG), LSM ≥10 kPa, and no previous decompensation. Portal hypertension was defined by an HVPG >5 mm Hg. A positive predictive value ≥90% was considered to validate LSM cutoffs for CSPH (HVPG ≥10 mm Hg), whereas a negative predictive value ≥90% ruled out CSPH. RESULTS: A total of 836 patients with hepatitis C (n = 358), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH, n = 248), alcohol use (n = 203), and hepatitis B (n = 27) were evaluated. Portal hypertension prevalence was >90% in all cACLD etiologies, except for patients with NASH (60.9%), being even lower in obese patients with NASH (53.3%); these lower prevalences of portal hypertension in patients with NASH were maintained across different strata of LSM values. LSM ≥25 kPa was the best cutoff to rule in CSPH in alcoholic liver disease, chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, and nonobese patients with NASH, whereas in obese NASH patients, the positive predictive value was only 62.8%. A new model for patients with NASH (ANTICIPATE-NASH model) to predict CSPH considering body mass index, LSM, and platelet count was developed, and a nomogram was constructed. LSM ≤15 kPa plus platelets ≥150 × 10/L ruled out CSPH in most etiologies. DISCUSSION: Patients with cACLD of NASH etiology, especially obese patients with NASH, present lower prevalences of portal hypertension compared with other cACLD etiologies. LSM ≥25 kPa is sufficient to rule in CSPH in most etiologies, including nonobese patients with NASH, but not in obese patients with NASH

Physical activity to improve cognition in older adults: can physical activity programs enriched with cognitive challenges enhance the effects? A systematic review and meta-analysis

: EPHPP quality rating scores (DOCX 38 kb

Ultra-Rapid Categorization of Fourier-Spectrum Equalized Natural Images: Macaques and Humans Perform Similarly

BACKGROUND: Comparative studies of cognitive processes find similarities between humans and apes but also monkeys. Even high-level processes, like the ability to categorize classes of object from any natural scene under ultra-rapid time constraints, seem to be present in rhesus macaque monkeys (despite a smaller brain and the lack of language and a cultural background). An interesting and still open question concerns the degree to which the same images are treated with the same efficacy by humans and monkeys when a low level cue, the spatial frequency content, is controlled. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used a set of natural images equalized in Fourier spectrum and asked whether it is still possible to categorize them as containing an animal and at what speed. One rhesus macaque monkey performed a forced-choice saccadic task with a good accuracy (67.5% and 76% for new and familiar images respectively) although performance was lower than with non-equalized images. Importantly, the minimum reaction time was still very fast (100 ms). We compared the performances of human subjects with the same setup and the same set of (new) images. Overall mean performance of humans was also lower than with original images (64% correct) but the minimum reaction time was still short (140 ms). CONCLUSION: Performances on individual images (% correct but not reaction times) for both humans and the monkey were significantly correlated suggesting that both species use similar features to perform the task. A similar advantage for full-face images was seen for both species. The results also suggest that local low spatial frequency information could be important, a finding that fits the theory that fast categorization relies on a rapid feedforward magnocellular signal

A Fine-Structure Map of Spontaneous Mitotic Crossovers in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Homologous recombination is an important mechanism for the repair of DNA damage in mitotically dividing cells. Mitotic crossovers between homologues with heterozygous alleles can produce two homozygous daughter cells (loss of heterozygosity), whereas crossovers between repeated genes on non-homologous chromosomes can result in translocations. Using a genetic system that allows selection of daughter cells that contain the reciprocal products of mitotic crossing over, we mapped crossovers and gene conversion events at a resolution of about 4 kb in a 120-kb region of chromosome V of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The gene conversion tracts associated with mitotic crossovers are much longer (averaging about 12 kb) than the conversion tracts associated with meiotic recombination and are non-randomly distributed along the chromosome. In addition, about 40% of the conversion events have patterns of marker segregation that are most simply explained as reflecting the repair of a chromosome that was broken in G1 of the cell cycle