Control of oxidative phosphorylation by Complex I in rat liver mitochondria: implications for aging

AbstractWe compared NAD-dependent state 4 and state 3 respiration, NADH oxidation and Complex I specific activity in liver mitochondria from 4- and 30-month-old rats. All the activities examined were significantly decreased with aging. In both groups of animals, the flux control coefficients measured by rotenone titration indicated that Complex I is largely rate controlling upon NADH aerobic oxidation while, in state 3 respiration, it shares the control with other steps in the pathway. Moreover, we observed a trend wherein flux control coefficients of Complex I became higher with age. This indication was strengthened by examining the rotenone inhibition thresholds showing that Complex I becomes more rate controlling, over all the examined activities, during aging. Our results point out that age-related alterations of the mitochondrial functions are also present in tissues considered less prone to accumulate mitochondrial DNA mutations

Videolaryngoscopy in the Intensive Care Unit: We could Improve ICU Patients Safety

Tracheal intubation is one of the most common and dangerous procedures in the intensive care units (ICU), and is usually done in more difficult conditions than in the operating room. Intubation failure can occur unexpectedly, and is the second most common event reflected in the ICU in the NAP4. Complications associated with airways were more likely to occur in ICU than in the operating room (severe hypoxemia, arrhythmia, hypotension, cardiovascular collapse, etc.), and generates more frequent damage to the patient. The theoretical benefits of videolaryngoscopes, as proper and correct use, offer the potential to reduce the difficulty of intubation in the ICU. In recent years, the role of videolaryngoscopes in ICU has been the subject of debate. Numerous studies have shown increased morbidity when performing multiple attempts at tracheal intubation. Videolaryngoscopes allow a view of the entrance of glottis independent of the line of sight, and have also been shown to improve glottis and intubation success rates in emergency and emergency services, in the prehospital setting, and specifically in patients with known predictors of difficult airway (DA)

The Union is Strength: The Synergic Action of Long Fatty Acids and a Bacteriophage against Xanthomonas campestris Biofilm

Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris is known as the causative agent of black rot disease, which attacks mainly crucifers, severely lowering their global productivity. One of the main virulence factors of this pathogen is its capability to penetrate and form biofilm structures in the xylem vessels. The discovery of novel approaches to crop disease management is urgent and a possible treatment could be aimed at the eradication of biofilm, although anti-biofilm approaches in agricultural microbiology are still rare. Considering the multifactorial nature of biofilm, an effective approach against Xanthomonas campestris implies the use of a multi-targeted or combinatorial strategy. In this paper, an anti-biofilm strategy based on the use of fatty acids and the bacteriophage (Xccφ1)-hydroxyapatite complex was optimized against Xanthomonas campestris mature biofilm. The synergic action of these elements was demonstrated and the efficient removal of Xanthomonas campestris mature biofilm was also proven in a flow cell system, making the proposed approach an effective solution to enhance plant survival in Xanthomonas campestris infections. Moreover, the molecular mechanisms responsible for the efficacy of the proposed treatment were explored

In vitro bioaccessibility of macro and trace elements in biofortified and conventional farmed gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) and common carp (Cyprinus carpio)

Biofortification is a promising strategy to improve the nutrient profile of farmed fish but requires consideration of the nutrient bioaccessible fraction. In this study, the in vitro bioaccessibility of macro and trace elements was investigated in biofortified and conventional farmed gilthead seabream and common carp, also taking into account the effect of cooking (by steaming). Biofortification enhanced iodine and selenium levels in seabream and carp fillets. Steaming increased iodine and selenium contents in biofortified seabream, and increased selenium and decreased copper levels in biofortified carp. Higher iodine bioaccessibilty (> 80%) was observed in biofortified seabream compared to biofortified carp (45%). In both species, selenium, iron, and zinc bioaccessibility was ≥ 70%. Upon steaming iodine and iron bioaccessibility decreased in seabream, while selenium bioaccessibility decreased in carp. The consumption of steamed biofortified seabream and carp contributes to significantly higher daily intakes of iodine (up to 12% and 10%, respectively) and selenium (up to 54% and above 100%, respectively) compared to conventional counterparts. The present study demonstrates the potential of developing innovative biofortified farmed fish using natural sustainable feed ingredients to improve the intake of important nutrients for human health.Highlights: - Iodine bioaccessibility is 80% in seabream and lower than 50% in carp. - Selenium, iron and zinc bioaccessibility were always above 70%. - Overall, bioaccessibility decreased after steaming (e.g., K: lower than 50%). - The availability of I and Se for absorption following the digestive process was higher in biofortified fillets.This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement no. 773400 (SEAFOODTOMORROW).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Efficient mitochondrial biogenesis drives incomplete penetrance in Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy

Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy is a maternally inherited blinding disease caused as a result of homoplasmic point mutations in complex I subunit genes of mitochondrial DNA. It is characterized by incomplete penetrance, as only some mutation carriers become affected. Thus, the mitochondrial DNA mutation is necessary but not sufficient to cause optic neuropathy. Environmental triggers and genetic modifying factors have been considered to explain its variable penetrance. We measured the mitochondrial DNA copy number and mitochondrial mass indicators in blood cells from affected and carrier individuals, screening three large pedigrees and 39 independently collected smaller families with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy, as well as muscle biopsies and cells isolated by laser capturing from post-mortem specimens of retina and optic nerves, the latter being the disease targets. We show that unaffected mutation carriers have a significantly higher mitochondrial DNA copy number and mitochondrial mass compared with their affected relatives and control individuals. Comparative studies of fibroblasts from affected, carriers and controls, under different paradigms of metabolic demand, show that carriers display the highest capacity for activating mitochondrial biogenesis. Therefore we postulate that the increased mitochondrial biogenesis in carriers may overcome some of the pathogenic effect of mitochondrial DNA mutations. Screening of a few selected genetic variants in candidate genes involved in mitochondrial biogenesis failed to reveal any significant association. Our study provides a valuable mechanism to explain variability of penetrance in Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy and clues for high throughput genetic screening to identify the nuclear modifying gene(s), opening an avenue to develop predictive genetic tests on disease risk and therapeutic strategies.TelethonAssociazione Serena Talarico per i giovani nel mondo and Fondazione Giuseppe Tomasello O.N.L.U.S.Mitocon OnlusResearch to Prevent BlindnessInternational Foundation for Optic Nerve Diseases (IFOND)Struggling Within Leber'sPoincenot FamilyEierman FoundationNational Eye InstituteUniv Rome, Dept Radiol Oncol & Pathol, Rome, ItalyUniv Bologna, Dept Biomed & NeuroMotor Sci DIBINEM, Bologna, ItalyUniv Bari, Dept Biosci Biotechnol & Biopharmaceut, Bari, ItalyBellaria Hosp, IRCCS Ist Sci Neurol Bologna, I-40139 Bologna, ItalyUSC, Keck Sch Med, Dept Ophthalmol, Los Angeles, CA USAUSC, Keck Sch Med, Dept Neurosurg, Los Angeles, CA USAUniv Trieste, Dept Reprod Sci Dev & Publ Hlth, Trieste, ItalyUniv Trieste, IRCCS Burlo Garofolo Children Hosp, Trieste, ItalyNewcastle Univ, Inst Med Genet, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, Tyne & Wear, EnglandFdn Ist Neurol Carlo Besta IRCCS, Unit Mol Neurogenet, Milan, ItalyMRC Mitochondrial Biol Unit, Cambridge, EnglandFed Univ São Paulo UNIFESP, Dept Ophthalmol, São Paulo, BrazilUniv São Paulo, Inst Psychol, Dept Expt Psychol, São Paulo, BrazilStudio Oculist dAzeglio, Bologna, ItalyOsped San Giovanni Evangelista, Tivoli, ItalyAzienda Osped San Camillo Forlanini, Rome, ItalyUniv Rome, Dipartimento Metodi & Modelli Econ Finanza & Terr, Rome, ItalyUniv Rome, Dept Mol Med, Rome, ItalyFed Univ São Paulo UNIFESP, Dept Ophthalmol, São Paulo, BrazilTelethon: GGP06233Telethon: GGP11182Telethon: GPP10005National Eye Institute: EY03040Web of Scienc

Diseño de una guía didáctica para la interpretación del paisaje a partir de recursos cartográficos online

El presente proyecto tiene por objetivo diseñar una guía didáctica para la interpretación del paisaje basada en cartografía digital online, adaptable a diferentes niveles académicos, cuyo fin será promover la educación en paisaje, de acuerdo con la necesidad que el Convenio Europeo del Paisaje (CEP) plantea acerca de contribuir a la formación de una sociedad que valore y demande paisajes de calidad, pues estos desempeñan un importante papel de interés general en los campos cultural, ecológico, medioambiental y social. El concepto de paisaje del que partimos es el acordado en el CEP y en las diferentes leyes del paisaje autonómicas españolas, entendiendo por paisaje no sólo aquellos espacios con altos valores naturales y/o estéticos, sino todo territorio tal y como lo percibe la sociedad. La guía supone el fruto de los resultados de numerosos trabajos llevados a cabo por el grupo en relación con la didáctica del paisaje. Entre ellos los PIMCD: 133/2011, 165/2013, 98/2014, 224/2015, 52/2016 y, principalmente del anterior 113/2017, en los que se han diseñado y aplicado recursos didácticos como comentario de imágenes, desarrollo de cartografía digital o diseño de itinerarios didácticos para la interpretación del paisaje en el ámbito de los Parques Nacionales españoles. Así, el proyecto se vertebra en dos líneas preferentes. Por un lado, acercar la diversidad de nuevas tecnologías y la información geográfica o geoinformación a través de una guía que compendia un variado elenco de recursos cartográficos digitales para el profesorado y alumnado, ofreciendo recursos que sirvan para el aprendizaje dentro y fuera del aula y, por otro, mejorar el conocimiento acerca de los valores naturales y culturales de los paisajes, fomentando una conciencia social que contribuya con su puesta en valor y mejora. La guía resultante podrá ser consultada en abierto y en el Atlas Digital Escolar por nuestros alumnos, tanto del Grado de Geografía y Ordenación del Territorio, los Grados de Maestro en Educación Infantil y Primaria así como de los másteres en Formación del Profesorado de ESO y Bachillerato, FP y Enseñanza de Idiomas, de Tecnologías de la Información y de Dinámicas Territoriales

Academic productivity of young people with allergic rhinitis:A MASK-air® study

Peer reviewe

Efficacy of a new technique - INtubate-RECruit-SURfactant-Extubate - "IN-REC-SUR-E" - in preterm neonates with respiratory distress syndrome: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Although beneficial in clinical practice, the INtubate-SURfactant-Extubate (IN-SUR-E) method is not successful in all preterm neonates with respiratory distress syndrome, with a reported failure rate ranging from 19 to 69 %. One of the possible mechanisms responsible for the unsuccessful IN-SUR-E method, requiring subsequent re-intubation and mechanical ventilation, is the inability of the preterm lung to achieve and maintain an "optimal" functional residual capacity. The importance of lung recruitment before surfactant administration has been demonstrated in animal studies showing that recruitment leads to a more homogeneous surfactant distribution within the lungs. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the application of a recruitment maneuver using the high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) modality just before the surfactant administration followed by rapid extubation (INtubate-RECruit-SURfactant-Extubate: IN-REC-SUR-E) with IN-SUR-E alone in spontaneously breathing preterm infants requiring nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) as initial respiratory support and reaching pre-defined CPAP failure criteria. Methods/design: In this study, 206 spontaneously breathing infants born at 24+0-27+6 weeks' gestation and failing nCPAP during the first 24 h of life, will be randomized to receive an HFOV recruitment maneuver (IN-REC-SUR-E) or no recruitment maneuver (IN-SUR-E) just prior to surfactant administration followed by prompt extubation. The primary outcome is the need for mechanical ventilation within the first 3 days of life. Infants in both groups will be considered to have reached the primary outcome when they are not extubated within 30 min after surfactant administration or when they meet the nCPAP failure criteria after extubation. Discussion: From all available data no definitive evidence exists about a positive effect of recruitment before surfactant instillation, but a rationale exists for testing the following hypothesis: a lung recruitment maneuver performed with a step-by-step Continuous Distending Pressure increase during High-Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation (and not with a sustained inflation) could have a positive effects in terms of improved surfactant distribution and consequent its major efficacy in preterm newborns with respiratory distress syndrome. This represents our challenge. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02482766. Registered on 1 June 2015

SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dynamics of the epidemic in Portugal

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide. Methods By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARSCoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal. Results We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed. Conclusions Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.We gratefully acknowledge to Sara Hill and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford) and Joshua Quick and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham) for kindly providing us with the initial sets of Artic Network primers for NGS; Rafael Mamede (MRamirez team, IMM, Lisbon) for developing and sharing a bioinformatics script for sequence curation (https://github.com/rfm-targa/BioinfUtils); Philippe Lemey (KU Leuven) for providing guidance on the implementation of the phylodynamic models; Joshua L. Cherry (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health) for providing guidance with the subsampling strategies; and all authors, originating and submitting laboratories who have contributed genome data on GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org/) on which part of this research is based. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This study is co-funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica (234_596874175) on behalf of the Research 4 COVID-19 call. Some infrastructural resources used in this study come from the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio