Genome Wide Expression Profiling Reveals Suppression of Host Defence Responses during Colonisation by Neisseria meningitides but not N. lactamica

Both Neisseria meningitidis and the closely related bacterium Neisseria lactamica colonise human nasopharyngeal mucosal surface, but only N. meningitidis invades the bloodstream to cause potentially life-threatening meningitis and septicaemia. We have hypothesised that the two neisserial species differentially modulate host respiratory epithelial cell gene expression reflecting their disease potential. Confluent monolayers of 16HBE14 human bronchial epithelial cells were exposed to live and/or dead N. meningitidis (including capsule and pili mutants) and N. lactamica, and their transcriptomes were compared using whole genome microarrays. Changes in expression of selected genes were subsequently validated using Q-RT-PCR and ELISAs. Live N. meningitidis and N. lactamica induced genes involved in host energy production processes suggesting that both bacterial species utilise host resources. N. meningitidis infection was associated with down-regulation of host defence genes. N. lactamica, relative to N. meningitidis, initiates up-regulation of proinflammatory genes. Bacterial secreted proteins alone induced some of the changes observed. The results suggest N. meningitidis and N. lactamica differentially regulate host respiratory epithelial cell gene expression through colonisation and/or protein secretion, and that this may contribute to subsequent clinical outcomes associated with these bacteria

Italian guidelines for primary headaches: 2012 revised version

The first edition of the Italian diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines for primary headaches in adults was published in J Headache Pain 2(Suppl. 1):105–190 (2001). Ten years later, the guideline committee of the Italian Society for the Study of Headaches (SISC) decided it was time to update therapeutic guidelines. A literature search was carried out on Medline database, and all articles on primary headache treatments in English, German, French and Italian published from February 2001 to December 2011 were taken into account. Only randomized controlled trials (RCT) and meta-analyses were analysed for each drug. If RCT were lacking, open studies and case series were also examined. According to the previous edition, four levels of recommendation were defined on the basis of levels of evidence, scientific strength of evidence and clinical effectiveness. Recommendations for symptomatic and prophylactic treatment of migraine and cluster headache were therefore revised with respect to previous 2001 guidelines and a section was dedicated to non-pharmacological treatment. This article reports a summary of the revised version published in extenso in an Italian version

Ocean carbon pumps: analysis of relative strengths and efficiencies in ocean‐driven atmospheric CO2 changes

An ocean carbon pump is defined as a process that depletes the ocean surface of σCO2 relative to the deep‐water σCO2. Three pumps are recognized: a carbonate pump, a soft‐tissue pump, and a solubility pump. The first two result from the biological flux of organic and CaCO3 detritus from the ocean's surface. The third results from the increased CO2 solubility in downwelling cold water and is demonstrated by a one‐dimensional upwelling‐diffusion model of an abiotic ocean. In the soft‐tissue and solubility pumps, working strengths are defined in terms of the ΔσCO2 each creates between surface and deep‐water. Efficiencies of each pump are quantified as a ratio of working strength to potential maximum strength. Using alkalinity, nitrate, and σCO2 to remove the carbonate pump signal from ocean or model data, the individual working strengths of the soft‐tissue and solubility pumps can be calculated by scaling the soft‐tissue's ΔσCO2 to the surface‐to‐deep ΔPO4. This technique is applied to a three‐box ocean model known to demonstrate high‐latitude control of atmospheric CO2 through a variety of circulation and biological changes. Considering each pump separately reveals that the various changes which lower pCO2atm in the model are caused primarily by an increased solubility pump. Analysis of global ocean data indicates a positive solubility pump signal, subject to uncertainties in the C:P Redfield ratio and in the preindustrial pCO2atm. If C:P = 105 and pCO2atm = 270 μatm, the efficiency of the solubility pump is about 0.5. We suggest that this type of analysis of relative carbon pump strengths will be an effective method for inter‐model and intra‐model comparison and diagnosis of underlying oceanic mechanisms for pCO2atm changes

Rethinking wedges

Stabilizing CO2 emissions at current levels for fifty years is not consistent with either an atmospheric CO2 concentration below 500 ppm or global temperature increases below 2 °C. Accepting these targets, solving the climate problem requires that emissions peak and decline in the next few decades, and ultimately fall to near zero. Phasing out emissions over 50 years could be achieved by deploying on the order of 19 'wedges', each of which ramps up linearly over a period of 50 years to ultimately avoid 1 GtC y−1 of CO2 emissions. But this level of mitigation will require affordable carbon-free energy systems to be deployed at the scale of tens of terawatts. Any hope for such fundamental and disruptive transformation of the global energy system depends upon coordinated efforts to innovate, plan, and deploy new transportation and energy systems that can provide affordable energy at this scale without emitting CO2 to the atmosphere