Identification of a key residue for Oligomerisation and pore-formation of Clostridium perfringens NetB

Necrotic enteritis toxin B (NetB) is a β-pore-forming toxin produced by Clostridium perfringens and has been identified as a key virulence factor in the pathogenesis of avian necrotic enteritis, a disease causing significant economic damage to the poultry industry worldwide. In this study, site-directed mutagenesis was used to identify amino acids that play a role in NetB oligomerisation and pore-formation. NetB K41H showed significantly reduced toxicity towards LMH cells and human red blood cells relative to wild type toxin. NetB K41H was unable to oligomerise and form pores in liposomes. These findings suggest that NetB K41H could be developed as a genetic toxoid vaccine to protect against necrotic enteritis

Influence of personality traits in self-evaluative salience, motivational salience and self-consciousness of appearance

Aim: The aim of this study was to understand the possible influence of personality traits on the importance and significance of perception of body image and self awareness of appearance in individuals.Method: 214 online recruited subjects between the ages of 17 and 64 years answered to a socio-demographic questionnaire, the Portuguese version of the instruments NEO-FFI (NEO-Five Factor Inventory), ASI-R (The Appearance Schemas Inventory – Revised) and DAS-24 (Derriford Appearance Scale – short).Results: It was found that age, Neuroticism and Agreeableness dimensions significantly influence an individual's investment in body image and self-awareness of appearance. Sexual orientations differed with regard to Self-Evaluative Salience and Self-Consciousness of Appearance.Conclusion: The performed analysis showed that neuroticism and agreeableness are related to Self Evaluative Salience and Self-Consciousness of Appearance

LRG1 as a novel therapeutic target in eye disease

Retinal and choroidal diseases are major causes of blindness and visual impairment in the developed world and on the rise due to an ageing population and diabetes epidemic. Standard of care is centred around blockade of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), but despite having halved the number of patients losing sight, a high rate of patient non-response and loss of efficacy over time are key challenges. Dysregulation of vascular homoeostasis, coupled with fibrosis and inflammation, are major culprits driving sight-threatening eye diseases. Improving our knowledge of these pathological processes should inform the development of new drugs to address the current clinical challenges for patients. Leucine-rich α-2 glycoprotein 1 (LRG1) is an emerging key player in vascular dysfunction, inflammation and fibrosis. Under physiological conditions, LRG1 is constitutively expressed by the liver and granulocytes, but little is known about its normal biological function. In pathological scenarios, such as diabetic retinopathy (DR) and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD), its expression is ectopically upregulated and it acquires a much better understood pathogenic role. Context-dependent modulation of the transforming growth-factor β (TGFβ) pathway is one of the main activities of LRG1, but additional roles have recently been emerging. This review aims to highlight the clinical and pre-clinical evidence for the pathogenic contribution of LRG1 to vascular retinopathies, as well as extrapolate from other diseases, functions which may be relevant to eye disease. Finally, we will provide a current update on the development of anti-LRG1 therapies for the treatment of nvAMD

LRG1 as a novel therapeutic target in eye disease (vol 36, pg 328, 2022)

In the first published version of this article, the corresponding author was listed incorrectly. The corresponding author is only Giulia De Rossi, e-mail: [email protected] The original article has been corrected

Wavelength Conversion of QPSK and 16-QAM Coherent Signals in a CMOS Compatible Spiral Waveguide

<p> We characterize a wavelength converter based on a 50-cm long low-loss spiral Hydex waveguide. A 10-nm FWM bandwidth is shown over which low OSNR penalty (&lt; 0.5dB) wavelength conversion of QPSK and 16-QAM is reported. &copy; OSA 2016.</p

Wavelength conversion of QAM signals in a low loss CMOS compatible spiral waveguide

We demonstrate wavelength conversion of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals, including 32-GBd quadrature phase-shift keying and 10-GBd 16-QAM, in a 50-cm long high index doped glass spiral waveguide. The quality of the generated idlers for up to 20 nm of wavelength shift is sufficient to achieve a BER performance below the hard decision forward error correction threshold BER performance (<3.8 × 103), with an optical signal-to-noise ratio penalty of less than 0.3 dB compared to the original signal. Our results confirm that this is a promising platform for nonlinear optical signal processing, as a result of both very low linear propagation loss (<0.07 dB/cm) and a large material bandgap, which in turn ensures negligible nonlinear loss at telecom wavelengths