Tissue specific promoters from rice and wheat for modifying grain characteristics

Trabalho final do 6º Ano Médico com vista à atribuição do grau de mestre no âmbito do ciclo de estudos de Mestrado Integrado em Medicina, apresentada à Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de CoimbraA tiroidite, inflamação da glândula tiroideia, é, juntamente com o bócio, a afecção endócrina mais frequente, sendo comummente encontrada em medicina ambulatória. Associada a uma função tiroideia normal, aumentada ou diminuída (frequentemente com evolução de uma condição para outra), as circunstâncias da sua descoberta podem ser variadas e a distinção dos seus vários tipos baseia-se, essencialmente, no panorama clínico, rapidez de instalação sintomática, história familiar e presença ou ausência de sintomas prodrómicos e dor no pescoço. Vários critérios podem ser utilizados para a sua classificação, nomeadamente histológicos e clínicos (acompanhada ou não de dor tiroideia), sendo, contudo, a evolução da doença o critério classicamente utilizado. Assim, de acordo com este último, os diferentes subtipos de tiroidite podem ser agrupados em: tiroidite aguda, tiroidite subaguda ou tiroidite crónica. A primeira é uma forma dolorosa de tiroidite extremamente rara causada por uma infecção bacteriana, fúngica ou parasitária da tiróide e surgindo, sobretudo, na criança/adolescente e adulto jovem. Nas tiroidites subagudas, podemos encontrar a tiroidite subaguda granulomatosa ou de De Quervain – causa mais frequente de dor tiroideia, eventualmente, de origem viral – e as tiroidites subagudas linfocíticas – tiroidites esporádica indolor, do pós-parto, iatrogénica (interferão, interleucina-2, lítio), tóxica (amiodarona), por irradiação (iodo 131, irradiação externa) ou traumática (cirurgia, punção, traumatismo externo). Finalmente, nas tiroidites crónicas, caracterizadas, portanto, por um maior tempo de evolução, podemos destacar a tiroidite de Riedel, de natureza fibrótica e fisiopatologia desconhecida, e a tiroidite de Hashimoto, a tiroidite mais frequente e causa mais comum de hipotiroidismo nas regiões com aporte suficiente de iodo e da qual as tiroidites esporádica indolor e do pós-parto se aproximam pelo seu carácter autoimune. O diagnóstico destas afecções é feito pelo contexto e achados clínicos, incluindo a presença ou ausência de dor, textura e autoanticorpos. Adicionalmente, o grau de absorção de iodo radioactivo pela iii glândula é reduzido na maioria dos pacientes com inflamação viral, induzida por radiação, traumática, autoimune ou induzida por drogas. O tratamento é, primeiramente, dirigido ao alívio sintomático da dor tiroideia e restabelecimento do eutiroidismo.Thyroiditis, inflammation of the thyroid gland, is, along with goiter, the most frequent endocrine pathology, being commonly found in ambulatory medicine. Associated with normal, elevated or depressed thyroid function (often with evolution from one condition to another), the circumstances of its discovery are varied and the distinction of its several types is based primarily on the clinical setting, rapidity of symptom onset, family history and presence or absence of prodromal symptoms and neck pain. Different criteria can be used to its classification, namely histological and clinical (with thyroid pain or not). Nevertheless, the evolution of the disease is the classically used criterion. Thus, accordingly with this one, the several subtypes of thyroiditis can be divided into: acute thyroiditis, subacute thyroiditis and chronic thyroiditis. The first one is an extremely rare painful form of thyroiditis cause by a bacterial, fungic or parasitic infection of the thyroid and it in children/adolescents and young adults. In subacute thyroiditis, we can have the subacute granulomatous or de De Quervain thyroiditis – most common cause of thyroid pain, eventually of viral original – and the subacute lymphocytic thyroiditis – sporadic painless, postpartum, iatrogenic (interferon, interleukin-2, lithium), toxic (amiodarone), by irradiation (iodine 131 and external irradiation) or traumatic (surgery, puncture or external traumatism) thyroiditis. Finally, in chronic thyroiditis, characterized, therefore, by a longer time of evolution, we can mention Riedel’s thyroiditis, of fibrotic nature and unknown physiopathology, and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, the most frequent thyroiditis and the most common cause of hypothyroidism in the regions with an adequate iodine supply, from which the sporadic painful and postpartum thyroiditis are close by their autoimune character. Diagnosis is by clinical context and findings, including the presence or absence of pain, tenderness and autoantibodies. In addition, the degree of radioactive iodine uptake by the gland is reduced in most patients with viral, radiation-induced, traumatic, autoimmune, or drug-induced inflammation of the thyroid. Treatment primarily is directed at symptomatic relief of the thyroid pain and restoration of euthyroidism

A glutathione s-transferase confers herbicide tolerance in rice

Plant glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) have been a focus of attention due to their role in herbicide detoxification. OsGSTL2 is a glutathione S-transferase, lambda class gene from rice (Oryza sativa L.). Transgenic rice plants over-expressing OsGSTL2 were generated from rice calli by the use of an Agrobacterium transformation system, and were screened by a combination of hygromycin resistance, PCR and Southern blot analysis. In the vegetative tissues of transgenic rice plants, the over-expression of OsGSTL2 not only increased levels of OsGSTL2 transcripts, but also GST and GPX expression, while reduced superoxide. Transgenic rice plants also showed higher tolerance to glyphosate and chlorsulfuron, which often contaminate agricultural fields. The findings demonstrate the detoxification role of OsGSTL2 in the growth and development of rice plants. It should be possible to apply the present results to crops for developing herbicide tolerance and for limiting herbicide contamination in the food chain

Explorative visual analytics on interval-based genomic data and their metadata

Background: With the wide-spreading of public repositories of NGS processed data, the availability of user-friendly and effective tools for data exploration, analysis and visualization is becoming very relevant. These tools enable interactive analytics, an exploratory approach for the seamless "sense-making" of data through on-the-fly integration of analysis and visualization phases, suggested not only for evaluating processing results, but also for designing and adapting NGS data analysis pipelines. Results: This paper presents abstractions for supporting the early analysis of NGS processed data and their implementation in an associated tool, named GenoMetric Space Explorer (GeMSE). This tool serves the needs of the GenoMetric Query Language, an innovative cloud-based system for computing complex queries over heterogeneous processed data. It can also be used starting from any text files in standard BED, BroadPeak, NarrowPeak, GTF, or general tab-delimited format, containing numerical features of genomic regions; metadata can be provided as text files in tab-delimited attribute-value format. GeMSE allows interactive analytics, consisting of on-the-fly cycling among steps of data exploration, analysis and visualization that help biologists and bioinformaticians in making sense of heterogeneous genomic datasets. By means of an explorative interaction support, users can trace past activities and quickly recover their results, seamlessly going backward and forward in the analysis steps and comparative visualizations of heatmaps. Conclusions: GeMSE effective application and practical usefulness is demonstrated through significant use cases of biological interest. GeMSE is available at http://www.bioinformatics.deib.polimi.it/GeMSE/ , and its source code is available at https://github.com/Genometric/GeMSEunder GPLv3 open-source license

Polyfunctional Hiv-Specific Antibody Responses Are Associated with Spontaneous Hiv Control

Elite controllers (ECs) represent a unique model of a functional cure for HIV-1 infection as these individuals develop HIV-specific immunity able to persistently suppress viremia. Because accumulating evidence suggests that HIV controllers generate antibodies with enhanced capacity to drive antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) that may contribute to viral containment, we profiled an array of extra-neutralizing antibody effector functions across HIV-infected populations with varying degrees of viral control to define the characteristics of antibodies associated with spontaneous control. While neither the overall magnitude of antibody titer nor individual effector functions were increased in ECs, a more functionally coordinated innate immune–recruiting response was observed. Specifically, ECs demonstrated polyfunctional humoral immune responses able to coordinately recruit ADCC, other NK functions, monocyte and neutrophil phagocytosis, and complement. This functionally coordinated response was associated with qualitatively superior IgG3/IgG1 responses, whereas HIV-specific IgG2/IgG4 responses, prevalent among viremic subjects, were associated with poorer overall antibody activity. Rather than linking viral control to any single activity, this study highlights the critical nature of functionally coordinated antibodies in HIV control and associates this polyfunctionality with preferential induction of potent antibody subclasses, supporting coordinated antibody activity as a goal in strategies directed at an HIV-1 functional cure

Selective P2X7 receptor antagonists for chronic inflammation and pain

ATP, acting on P2X7 receptors, stimulates changes in intracellular calcium concentrations, maturation, and release of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and following prolonged agonist exposure, cell death. The functional effects of P2X7 receptor activation facilitate several proinflammatory processes associated with arthritis. Within the nervous system, these proinflammatory processes may also contribute to the development and maintenance of chronic pain. Emerging data from genetic knockout studies have indicated specific roles for P2X7 receptors in inflammatory and neuropathic pain states. The discovery of multiple distinct chemical series of potent and highly selective P2X7 receptor antagonists have enhanced our understanding of P2X7 receptor pharmacology and the diverse array of P2X7 receptor signaling mechanisms. These antagonists have provided mechanistic insight into the role(s) P2X7 receptors play under pathophysiological conditions. In this review, we integrate the recent discoveries of novel P2X7 receptor-selective antagonists with a brief update on P2X7 receptor pharmacology and its therapeutic potential

Path and Ridge Regression Analysis of Seed Yield and Seed Yield Components of Russian Wildrye (Psathyrostachys juncea Nevski) under Field Conditions

The correlations among seed yield components, and their direct and indirect effects on the seed yield (Z) of Russina wildrye (Psathyrostachys juncea Nevski) were investigated. The seed yield components: fertile tillers m-2 (Y1), spikelets per fertile tillers (Y2), florets per spikelet- (Y3), seed numbers per spikelet (Y4) and seed weight (Y5) were counted and the Z were determined in field experiments from 2003 to 2006 via big sample size. Y1 was the most important seed yield component describing the Z and Y2 was the least. The total direct effects of the Y1, Y3 and Y5 to the Z were positive while Y4 and Y2 were weakly negative. The total effects (directs plus indirects) of the components were positively contributed to the Z by path analyses. The seed yield components Y1, Y2, Y4 and Y5 were significantly (P<0.001) correlated with the Z for 4 years totally, while in the individual years, Y2 were not significant correlated with Y3, Y4 and Y5 by Peason correlation analyses in the five components in the plant seed production. Therefore, selection for high seed yield through direct selection for large Y1, Y2 and Y3 would be effective for breeding programs in grasses. Furthermore, it is the most important that, via ridge regression, a steady algorithm model between Z and the five yield components was founded, which can be closely estimated the seed yield via the components

PRALIMAP: study protocol for a high school-based, factorial cluster randomised interventional trial of three overweight and obesity prevention strategies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Given the increase in overweight and obesity prevalence in adolescents in the last decade, effective prevention strategies for these conditions in adolescents are urgently needed. The PRALIMAP (Promotion de l'ALImentation et de l'Activité Physique) trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness for these conditions of 3 health promotion strategies -- educational, screening and environmental -- applied singly or in combination in high schools over a 2-year intervention period.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>PRALIMAP is a stratified 2 × 2 × 2 factorial cluster randomised controlled trial including 24 state high schools in Lorraine, northeastern France, in 2 waves: 8 schools in 2006 (wave 1) and 16 in 2007 (wave 2). Students entering the selected high schools in the 4 academic years from 2006 to 2009 are eligible for data collection. Interventional strategies are organized over 2 academic years. The follow-up consists of 3 visits: at the entry of grade 10 (T0), grade 11 (T1) and grade 12 (T2). At T0, 5,458 (85.7%) adolescents participated. The educational strategy consists of nutritional lessons, working groups and a final party. The screening strategy consists in detecting overweight/obesity and eating disorders in adolescents and proposing, if necessary, an adapted care management program of 7 group educational sessions. The environmental strategy consists in improving dietary and physical activity offerings in high schools and facilities, especially catering. The main outcomes are body size evolution over time, nutritional behaviour and knowledge, health and quality of life. An evaluation process documents how each intervention strategy is implemented in the schools and estimates the dose of the intervention, allowing for a per protocol analysis after the main intention-to-treat analysis.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>PRALIMAP aims at improving the prevention and management of overweight and obesity in adolescents by translating current evidence into public health practice. Particular attention is paid to clustering, multiple factorials and long-term duration to address common pitfalls in health promotion trials. The results should inform how best to implement, in a school environment, effective nutrition prevention programs targeting adolescents who are at a point their lives when they develop responsibilities and empowerment for health attitude behaviours.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under <a href="http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00814554">NCT00814554</a>.</p