Glycine-Stabilized Zinc Gluconate has similar bioavailability than Zinc Sulfate in a zinc fortified probiotic food

Objective: In this study, we evaluated zinc gluconate stabilized with glycine (GZ) and sulfate (SZ) in fermented milk as vehicle. Zinc bioavailability was evaluated in an animal model (Sprague Dawley rats) for both zinc sources in the vehicle with a probiotic (Lactobacillus casei DN114001). Results: For growth parameters, higher weight gain and femur weight values were observed when probiotic and zinc were provided together, independent of the source (weight gain: SZ 81.4g±4.0g; GZ 81.8g±4.0g and 70.2g±12.5g without the probiotic; femur weight: SZ 0.51g ±0.05g; GZ 0.52g±0.05g and 0.42g±0.03g without the probiotic). Femur zinc content was higher for zinc gluconate stabilized with glycine in the presence of the probiotic (97.04ppm±8.40ppm), and the results were similar for zinc sulfate with or without probiotic (84.51ppm±2.44ppm and 84.94ppm±2.28ppm, respectively). Serum antioxidant capacity and immune cellular response were also evaluated by using free radical scavenging assays and a T cell proliferation assay respectively. The free radical scavenging assay showed a tendency to increase with zinc provision, and the highest proliferation index was observed for glycine-stabilized zinc gluconate and the probiotic. Conclusion: The results indicate that the combination of zinc (as glycine-stabilized zinc gluconate) and a probiotic may be beneficial for the evaluated parameters.Fil: Tesan, Fiorella Carla. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Fisicomatemática. Cátedra de Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Hernández, F.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Fisicomatemática. Cátedra de Física; ArgentinaFil: Torti, Horacio Emilio. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Fisicomatemática. Cátedra de Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Massot, Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Fisicomatemática. Cátedra de Física; ArgentinaFil: Huarte, M.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Fisicomatemática. Cátedra de Física; ArgentinaFil: Rubín de Celis, E.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Fisicomatemática. Cátedra de Física; ArgentinaFil: Barreiro Arcos, María Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; ArgentinaFil: Weill, R.. Danone Argentina S,a,; ArgentinaFil: Cremaschi, Graciela Alicia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; ArgentinaFil: Boccio, J.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Fisicomatemática. Cátedra de Física; ArgentinaFil: Salgueiro, María Jimena. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Antiviral bioactivity of resveratrol against Zika virus infection in human retinal pigment epithelial cells

Resveratrol (RES) is a polyphenol with increasing interest for its inhibitory effects on a wide variety of viruses. Zika virus (ZIKV) is an arbovirus which causes a broad spectrum of ophthalmological manifestations in humans. Currently there is no certified therapy or vaccine to treat it, thus it has become a major global health threat. Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is highly permissive and susceptible to ZIKV. This work explored the protective effects of RES on ZIKV-infected human RPE cells. RES treatment resulted in a significant reduction of infectious viral particles in infected male ARPE-19 and female hTERT-RPE1 cells. This protection was positively influenced by the action of RES on mitochondrial dynamics. Also, docking studies predicted that RES has a high affinity for two enzymes of the rate-limiting steps of pyrimidine and purine biosynthesis and viral polymerase. This evidence suggests that RES might be a potential antiviral agent to treat ZIKV-induced ocular abnormalities.Fil: Russo, Constanza A.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica; ArgentinaFil: Torti, María F.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica; ArgentinaFil: Marquez, Agostina Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Sepúlveda, Claudia Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Alaimo, Agustina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Garcia, Cybele. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentin

AHR is a Zika virus host factor and a candidate target for antiviral therapy

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a flavivirus linked to multiple birth defects including microcephaly, known as congenital ZIKV syndrome. The identification of host factors involved in ZIKV replication may guide efficacious therapeutic interventions. In genome-wide transcriptional studies, we found that ZIKV infection triggers aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) activation. Specifically, ZIKV infection induces kynurenine (Kyn) production, which activates AHR, limiting the production of type I interferons (IFN-I) involved in antiviral immunity. Moreover, ZIKV-triggered AHR activation suppresses intrinsic immunity driven by the promyelocytic leukemia (PML) protein, which limits ZIKV replication. AHR inhibition suppressed the replication of multiple ZIKV strains in vitro and also suppressed replication of the related flavivirus dengue. Finally, AHR inhibition with a nanoparticle-delivered AHR antagonist or an inhibitor developed for human use limited ZIKV replication and ameliorated newborn microcephaly in a murine model. In summary, we identified AHR as a host factor for ZIKV replication and PML protein as a driver of anti-ZIKV intrinsic immunity

Old dates do not make a new archaeology:the need to integrate archaeometric and archaeologial methods in the rockart studies.

RESUMEN: Los autores exponen las dificultades por las que hubo de pasar la respuesta a un ar-tículo, publicado en Science en 2018, en el que se afirmaba que el Neandertal era el autor de ciertas pinturas de tres cuevas españolas, según dataciones obtenidas por el método del uranio-torio. En esa respuesta, se explicitaban las distintas fuentes de error que pue-den conducir a fechas anormalmente envejecidas y se recapitulaban los argumentos ar-queológicos que contradicen dataciones tan antiguas. Muchos de los evaluadores de las revistas americanas prefirieron confiar en la arqueometría más que en la Arqueología europea, para ellos desconocida. Así, el artículo circuló por las manos de numerosos re-visores, transcurriendo un año y medio antes de que pudiera, por fin, salir en el Journal of Human Evolution. Este proceso ilustra la opacidad que subyace tras la aparente obje-tividad y neutralidad del procedimiento de evaluación científica de revisión por pares cuando se trata de contradecir a científicos de reconocido prestigioABSTRACT: An international group of archaeologists specializing in cave art explain the difficulties they faced to publish their response to another paper, previously published in Science (Hoffmann et al. 2018), reporting a Neanderthal origin of some Spanish cave paintings according to Uranium-thorium method. In their reply, they underlined the different sources of error that lead to overestimate the dates and summarized the contradictions with archeological arguments. Some American reviewers put more trust in archeometry than in European arqueology, which is unfamiliar to them. Thus, the paper passed through the hands of many reviewers and it took more than one year to finally publish it in Journal of Human Evolution. This whole process illustrates the lack of transparency in peer review procedures -although apparently objective and neutral- when renowned authors are concerned

Clustered variants in the 5' coding region of TRA2B cause a distinctive neurodevelopmental syndrome

PURPOSE: Transformer2 proteins (Tra2α and Tra2β) control splicing patterns in human cells, and no human phenotypes have been associated with germline variants in these genes. The aim of this work was to associate germline variants in the TRA2B gene to a novel neurodevelopmental disorder. METHODS: A total of 12 individuals from 11 unrelated families who harbored predicted loss-of-function monoallelic variants, mostly de novo, were recruited. RNA sequencing and western blot analyses of Tra2β-1 and Tra2β-3 isoforms from patient-derived cells were performed. Tra2β1-GFP, Tra2β3-GFP and CHEK1 exon 3 plasmids were transfected into HEK-293 cells. RESULTS: All variants clustered in the 5' part of TRA2B, upstream of an alternative translation start site responsible for the expression of the noncanonical Tra2β-3 isoform. All affected individuals presented intellectual disability and/or developmental delay, frequently associated with infantile spasms, microcephaly, brain anomalies, autism spectrum disorder, feeding difficulties, and short stature. Experimental studies showed that these variants decreased the expression of the canonical Tra2β-1 isoform, whereas they increased the expression of the Tra2β-3 isoform, which is shorter and lacks the N-terminal RS1 domain. Increased expression of Tra2β-3-GFP were shown to interfere with the incorporation of CHEK1 exon 3 into its mature transcript, normally incorporated by Tra2β-1. CONCLUSION: Predicted loss-of-function variants clustered in the 5' portion of TRA2B cause a new neurodevelopmental syndrome through an apparently dominant negative disease mechanism involving the use of an alternative translation start site and the overexpression of a shorter, repressive Tra2β protein.Accepted version (6 month embargo), submitted versionRD&E staff can access the full-text of this article by clicking on the 'Additional Link' above and logging in with NHS OpenAthens if prompted

L'art préhistorique, une archéologie

Depuis la découverte de la grotte Chauvet, en 1994, les études en art préhistorique ont bénéficié d’un renouvellement profond des connaissances, des outils, mais aussi des approches méthodologiques. Après les découvertes vient la reconnaissance de l’ancienneté de cet art. L’art pariétal s’étudie, à partir des années 1970-1980, dans son contexte archéologique. Les datations, les fouilles éloignent la grotte de l’image de sanctuaire à laquelle elle restait alors le plus souvent associée. Des fonctions sociales plus complexes émergent et nourrissent aussi de nouvelles problématiques. Des territoires graphiques inédits apparaissent et modifient sensiblement la cartographie « pariétale » de l’Europe. Au Brésil, en Australie, les découvertes participent à l’internationalisation des recherches, débouchant sur une dynamique commune, comme le souci d’appréhender les sites dans leur globalité, à la croisée de questionnements autant archéologiques qu’environnementaux, mais aussi conservatoires, qui génèrent de nouvelles approches. La multidisciplinarité fait donc son entrée sur ce terrain. Si l’émerveillement et la fascination restent les mêmes en découvrant Armintxe en 2016 que 150 ans auparavant sous le plafond d’Altamira, les approches scientifiques ont en revanche considérablement évolué pour ancrer fermement l’étude des productions graphiques dans l’archéologie préhistorique

Research priorities for HIV/M. tuberculosis co-infection

Submitted by Éder Freyre ([email protected]) on 2012-05-14T19:29:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Research_priorities_HIV_tuberculosis_coinfection.pdf: 642718 bytes, checksum: a71964f1be150cb7428e7017c5c0418b (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2012-05-14T19:29:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Research_priorities_HIV_tuberculosis_coinfection.pdf: 642718 bytes, checksum: a71964f1be150cb7428e7017c5c0418b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011MS is funded by the EU; AM is funded by the EU and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. The EUCO-Net project leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas - CONICET. Buenos Aires, CABA, Argentina.Universidad de Antioquia. Medellín, Colombia.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto de Comunicação e Informação Científica e Tecnológica em Saúde. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.University of Amsterdam. Academic Medical Center. Amsterdam,The Netherlands.Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research. Chandigarh, India.Russian Academy of Sciences. Institute of Numerical Mathematics. Moscow, Russia.Russian Academy of Sciences. Institute of Immunology and Physiology, Moscow, Russia.Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS - UNAIDS. Geneva, Switzerland.Institute of Immunology and Genetics. Germany.Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Central Research Institute of Tuberculosis. Moscow, Russia.Kuratorium Tuberkulose in der Welt e.V. Germany.European Research & Project Office. Germany.BPS Women University. India.Imperial College London. South Kensington Campus, London, UK.Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. D.I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology. Moscow, Russia.BOTUSA. Botswana.Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation. Moscow, Russia.Istituto Superiore di Sanitá. Roma, Italy.Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Research Center Borstel. Germany.Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Spain.Community Working Group On Health. Zimbabwe.Institute of Tropical Medicine. Belgium.Makerere University. College of Health Sciences. Uganda.London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. UK.Saarland University. Saarbrücken, Germany / Germany & ICREA. Germany / University Pompeu Fabra. Barcelona, Spain.Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri. Pavia, Italy.Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, Maryland, USA.Karonga Prevention Study. Malawi.European AIDS Treatment Groups - EATG. Brussels, Belgium.Medical Research Council Unit - MRC. Fajara, The Gambia.Luzerne General Hospital. Switzerland.Stellenbosch University. South Africa.Corporación para Investigaciones Biológicas - CIB-UPB. Colombia.Hinduja National Hospital. Mahim, Mumbai, India.Argentinean National Reference Center for AIDS. Argentina.Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud - I+CS. Spain.Asociacion Civil Impacta, Salud y Educacion. Peru.Saarland University. Germany.Seth Research Foundation. India.AIDS & RIGHTS Alliance for Southern Africa. South Africa.SRC Institute of Immunology. Russia.L.R.S. Institute of Tuberculosis & Respiratory Diseases. India.University of Brescia. Brescia, Italy.Careggi University Hospital, Italy.Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering - Fraunhofer IBMT. Germany.Indian Council of Medical Research. New Delhi, India.Treatment Action Group. USA.This document summarizes priority areas for joint research and concerted actions to counteract the public health threat of AIDS/TB as identified within the European Support Action “EUCO-Net” funded under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission