Environmental adaptability and stress tolerance of Laribacter hongkongensis: a genome-wide analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Laribacter hongkongensis </it>is associated with community-acquired gastroenteritis and traveler's diarrhea and it can reside in human, fish, frogs and water. In this study, we performed an in-depth annotation of the genes in its genome related to adaptation to the various environmental niches.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>L. hongkongensis </it>possessed genes for DNA repair and recombination, basal transcription, alternative σ-factors and 109 putative transcription factors, allowing DNA repair and global changes in gene expression in response to different environmental stresses. For acid stress, it possessed a urease gene cassette and two <it>arc </it>gene clusters. For alkaline stress, it possessed six CDSs for transporters of the monovalent cation/proton antiporter-2 and NhaC Na⁺:H⁺antiporter families. For heavy metals acquisition and tolerance, it possessed CDSs for iron and nickel transport and efflux pumps for other metals. For temperature stress, it possessed genes related to chaperones and chaperonins, heat shock proteins and cold shock proteins. For osmotic stress, 25 CDSs were observed, mostly related to regulators for potassium ion, proline and glutamate transport. For oxidative and UV light stress, genes for oxidant-resistant dehydratase, superoxide scavenging, hydrogen peroxide scavenging, exclusion and export of redox-cycling antibiotics, redox balancing, DNA repair, reduction of disulfide bonds, limitation of iron availability and reduction of iron-sulfur clusters are present. For starvation, it possessed phosphorus and, despite being asaccharolytic, carbon starvation-related CDSs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The <it>L. hongkongensis </it>genome possessed a high variety of genes for adaptation to acid, alkaline, temperature, osmotic, oxidative, UV light and starvation stresses and acquisition of and tolerance to heavy metals.</p

Environmental adaptability and stress tolerance of Laribacter hongkongensis: a genome-wide analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Laribacter hongkongensis </it>is associated with community-acquired gastroenteritis and traveler's diarrhea and it can reside in human, fish, frogs and water. In this study, we performed an in-depth annotation of the genes in its genome related to adaptation to the various environmental niches.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>L. hongkongensis </it>possessed genes for DNA repair and recombination, basal transcription, alternative σ-factors and 109 putative transcription factors, allowing DNA repair and global changes in gene expression in response to different environmental stresses. For acid stress, it possessed a urease gene cassette and two <it>arc </it>gene clusters. For alkaline stress, it possessed six CDSs for transporters of the monovalent cation/proton antiporter-2 and NhaC Na⁺:H⁺antiporter families. For heavy metals acquisition and tolerance, it possessed CDSs for iron and nickel transport and efflux pumps for other metals. For temperature stress, it possessed genes related to chaperones and chaperonins, heat shock proteins and cold shock proteins. For osmotic stress, 25 CDSs were observed, mostly related to regulators for potassium ion, proline and glutamate transport. For oxidative and UV light stress, genes for oxidant-resistant dehydratase, superoxide scavenging, hydrogen peroxide scavenging, exclusion and export of redox-cycling antibiotics, redox balancing, DNA repair, reduction of disulfide bonds, limitation of iron availability and reduction of iron-sulfur clusters are present. For starvation, it possessed phosphorus and, despite being asaccharolytic, carbon starvation-related CDSs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The <it>L. hongkongensis </it>genome possessed a high variety of genes for adaptation to acid, alkaline, temperature, osmotic, oxidative, UV light and starvation stresses and acquisition of and tolerance to heavy metals.</p

Understanding acute ankle ligamentous sprain injury in sports

This paper summarizes the current understanding on acute ankle sprain injury, which is the most common acute sport trauma, accounting for about 14% of all sport-related injuries. Among, 80% are ligamentous sprains caused by explosive inversion or supination. The injury motion often happens at the subtalar joint and tears the anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) which possesses the lowest ultimate load among the lateral ligaments at the ankle. For extrinsic risk factors to ankle sprain injury, prescribing orthosis decreases the risk while increased exercise intensity in soccer raises the risk. For intrinsic factors, a foot size with increased width, an increased ankle eversion to inversion strength, plantarflexion strength and ratio between dorsiflexion and plantarflexion strength, and limb dominance could increase the ankle sprain injury risk. Players with a previous sprain history, players wearing shoes with air cells, players who do not stretch before exercising, players with inferior single leg balance, and overweight players are 4.9, 4.3, 2.6, 2.4 and 3.9 times more likely to sustain an ankle sprain injury. The aetiology of most ankle sprain injuries is incorrect foot positioning at landing – a medially-deviated vertical ground reaction force causes an explosive supination or inversion moment at the subtalar joint in a short time (about 50 ms). Another aetiology is the delayed reaction time of the peroneal muscles at the lateral aspect of the ankle (60–90 ms). The failure supination or inversion torque is about 41–45 Nm to cause ligamentous rupture in simulated spraining tests on cadaver. A previous case report revealed that the ankle joint reached 48 degrees inversion and 10 degrees internal rotation during an accidental grade I ankle ligamentous sprain injury during a dynamic cutting trial in laboratory. Diagnosis techniques and grading systems vary, but the management of ankle ligamentous sprain injury is mainly conservative. Immobilization should not be used as it results in joint stiffness, muscle atrophy and loss of proprioception. Traditional Chinese medicine such as herbs, massage and acupuncture were well applied in China in managing sports injuries, and was reported to be effective in relieving pain, reducing swelling and edema, and restoring normal ankle function. Finally, the best practice of sports medicine would be to prevent the injury. Different previous approaches, including designing prophylactice devices, introducing functional interventions, as well as change of games rules were highlighted. This paper allows the readers to catch up with the previous researches on ankle sprain injury, and facilitate the future research idea on sport-related ankle sprain injury

Canagliflozin and Renal Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes and Nephropathy

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to 300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of <15 ml per minute per 1.73 m 2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P<0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years

Search for heavy resonances decaying into a W or Z boson and a Higgs boson in final states with leptons and b-jets in 36 fb(-1) of root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search is conducted for new resonances decaying into a W or Z boson and a 125 GeV Higgs boson in the νν¯¯¯bb¯¯, ℓ±νbb¯¯, and ℓ+ℓ−bb¯¯ final states, where ℓ± = e± or μ±, in pp collisions at s√=13 TeV. The data used correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1 collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during the 2015 and 2016 data-taking periods. The search is conducted by examining the reconstructed invariant or transverse mass distributions of W h and Zh candidates for evidence of a localised excess in the mass range of 220 GeV up to 5 TeV. No significant excess is observed and the results are interpreted in terms of constraints on the production cross-section times branching fraction of heavy W ′ and Z′ resonances in heavy-vector-triplet models and the CP-odd scalar boson A in two-Higgs-doublet models. Upper limits are placed at the 95% confidence level and range between 9.0 × 10−4 pb and 7.3 × 10−1 pb depending on the model and mass of the resonance

Fe3O4-in-silica super crystal of defined interstices for single protein molecules entrapment under magnetic flux.

Confocal fluorescence demonstrates that single molecules of dye-labelled Cytochrome C or B5 containing paramagnetic Fe(III) can be magnetically placed into the interstices of super-crystal which is composed of three dimensional regular arrays of Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles

The natural viral load profile of patients with pandemic 2009 influenza A(H1N1) and the effect of oseltamivir treatment

Background; The natural history of viral shedding from the upper respiratory tract of the new pandemic 2009 influenza A(H1N1) and the effect of oseltamivir treatment were uncertain. Methods: A retrospective cohort study involving 145 consecutive palienls with specimens positive by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction for the matrix and new III genes was conducted. Results: The nonlrealed and osellamivir-trcalcd palienls were comparable in their viral load al presentation, demography, and the presenting symptoms. No correlation was observed between viral load with age and number of symptoms. Viral load of nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA) was significantly lower in treated than in nonlrealed palienls al day 5 after symptom onset. When oseltamivir was initiated ≤2 days after symptom onset, a greater rate of viral load reduction in NPA of treated patients than that of nontreated patients was observed (-0.838 [95% Cl, -0.809 to -0.466] vs -0.409 [95% CI, -0.863 to -0.1851 log 10 copies/mL/d post-symptom onset), and the viral load was undetectable at day 8 after oseltamivir initiation, which was I day earlier than that of those whose treatment was initiated > 2 days of symptom onset. The viral load was inversely correlated with concomitant absolute lymphocyte count in nontreated patients (Pearson correlation coefficient [r] = -0.687, P = .001) and lrealed palienls (Pearson r = -0.365, P< .001). Resolution of fever was 1.4 days later in nontreated lhan treated palienls (F=.012) Conclusions: The natural viral load profile was described. Oral oseltamivir suppresses viral load more effectively when given early in mild cases of pandemic 2009 influenza A(HlNl) infections. © 2010 American College of Chest Physicians.link_to_OA_fulltex