Assessment of the Effects of Extremely Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields on Toxoplasma gondii

Background: The effects of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) on Toxoplasma gondii have not been explained yet. The aim of this study was to assess the possible effects of ELF-EMF on growth, survival time and viability of Toxoplasma gondii. In addition, the life span of Toxoplasma infected animals was investigated. Methods: Sixty adult male BALB/c mice were used for in vivo and in vivo experiments in Laboratory of Biopyhsics and Parasitology of Medical Faculty, Adnan Menderes University, Turkey, in 2010. During in vivo experiments, pulsed and continuous EMFs were applied for 5 d to the infected mice. During in vivo experiments, pulsed and continuous EMF was applied to the tachyzoites within peritoneal exudates for 8 h/d at 4 °C and the tachyzoites were then injected to mice. In both experiments, the number of T. gondii in peritoneal exudates was counted and T. gondii protein bands patterns were investigated with polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western Blotting. Results: Pulsed and continuous EMF exposure reduced the number of T. gondii tachyzoites in comparison to controls. However, no statistically significant differences were observed at the patterns of protein bands among the samples. Conclusion: EMF exposure induces a decrease in the number of T. gondii. Further studies are required to understand the mechanism of EMF on intracellular parasites

Anthropometric Methods in Evaluation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is mainly expressed by weight loss with especially fat-free mass (FFM) depletion and a low body weight correlates with increased mortality and a poor prognosis. We investigated whether anthropometric body composition equations could be used for evaluation of the body composition in COPD. Thirty clinically stable patients with COPD and 13 healthy age matched control subjects underwent the skinfolds and circumference measurements in addition to body mass index (BMI) calculations. Body fat mass (BFM) and FFM were determined by using anthropometric equations. The percent BFM, predicted from body density either using Siri’sor Brozek’sequations was determined lower than that of calculated with equations by using BMI, age and gender. The values of BFM and body weight were reduced in patients with FEV1<50%predicted compared to other participants. The FFM values also dropped depending on the severity of COPD. BMI was not statistically different among the participants while FFM index (FFMI) reflected the nutritional status of the disorders. Anthropometric equations easily and cost effectively applied for prediction of %BFM, FFM, and FFMI in patients with COPD. In addition, the FFMI can be possibly used for expressing COPD severity

Transfection of Leishmania tropica with Green Fluorescent Protein (gfp) Gene and Investigation of the In Vitro Drug Effect

WOS: 000465377600009PubMed ID: 31130125Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a parasitic disease transmitted by vector sand flies Phlebotomus and Lutzomyia. This disease is characterized by long time non-healing skin lesions, and caused by Leishmania species. CL is the most common infection in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia in Turkey and L. tropica is known as the main agent of the disease. Number of cases is increasing in our country in time because of malnutrition, migration, travel, low socioeconomic level and ecological changes. For the treatment, the pentavalent antimonials are often used as intralesionally for many years, and it was reported that resistant cases have increased in recent years. New treatment methods and anti-Leishmanial activity of new agents have been investigated because of side effects, resistance development and toxic reactions of the present drugs. These studies are first carried out in vitro and afterwards with in vivo experimental animal models. Reporter gene technology has been used to investigate a variety of purposes like biological events in microorganisms and the efficacy and resistance of drugs in recent years. The major areas that green fluorescent protein (gfp) used are that they can be incorporated into different genes to determine the amount of expression of these genes in different organisms and can be used as markers in living cells. Especially gfp gene, which encodes the green fluorescent protein, is widely used nowadays. Gene-based assays have several advantages like being easy to follow-up, inexpensive and have improved biosecurity. The aim of the present study was to perform the transfection of L. tropica with "enhanced gfp (egfp)" and in vitro usefulness of gfp-transfectants as a drug screening model in comparison to the conventional methods. Promastigotes of L. tropica were transfected with p6.5/egfp by electroporation and selected for tunicamycin-resistance as previously described. L. tropica promastigotes transfected with gfp and in vitro effect of meglumine animoniate was assessed using different methods such as fluorescence microscopy, fluorometer and XTT (2,3-bis-(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium-5-carboxyanilide) assay. The use of gfp-transfected Leishmania strains was found more rapid and more sensitive by fluorescent microscopy and fluorometry than conventional assays for the evaluation of potential anti-leishmanial agents. Consequently, stable gfp-transfected Leishmania species will be used in vitro and in vivo for screening of anti-leishmanial drugs and vaccine development as well as for understanding the biology of the host-parasite interactions at the cellular level. As a result ot this study, gfp transfected model using a Turkish L. tropica isolate was established to be used in further studies

Urine soluble TLR4 levels may contribute to predict urinary tract infection in children: the UTILISE Study.

Background: One of the most common bacterial infections in childhood is urinary tract infection (UTI). Toll-like receptors (TLRs) contribute to immune response against UTI recognizing specific pathogenic agents. Our aim was to determine whether soluble TLR4 (sTLR4), soluble TLR5 (sTLR5) and interleukin 8 (IL-8) can be used as biomarkers to diagnose UTI. We also aimed to reveal the relationship between urine Heat Shock Protein 70 (uHSP70) and those biomarkers investigated in this study. Methods: A total of 802 children from 37 centers participated in the study. The participants (n = 282) who did not meet the inclusion criteria were excluded from the study. The remaining 520 children, including 191 patients with UTI, 178 patients with non-UTI infections, 50 children with contaminated urine samples, 26 participants with asymptomatic bacteriuria and 75 healthy controls were included in the study. Urine and serum levels of sTLR4, sTLR5 and IL-8 were measured at presentation in all patients and after antibiotic treatment in patients with UTI. Results: Urine sTLR4 was higher in the UTI group than in the other groups. UTI may be predicted using 1.28 ng/mL as cut-off for urine sTLR4 with 68% sensitivity and 65% specificity (AUC = 0.682). In the UTI group, urine sTLR4 levels were significantly higher in pyelonephritis than in cystitis (p < 0.0001). Post-treatment urine sTLR4 levels in the UTI group were significantly lower than pre-treatment values (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Urine sTLR4 may be used as a useful biomarker in predicting UTI and subsequent pyelonephritis in children with UTI. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.

The relationship between urine heat shock protein 70 and congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract: UTILISE study

BackgroundCongenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) are defined as structural malformations of the kidney and/or urinary tract. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are expressed in the kidney in response to cellular changes, such as thermal, hemodynamic, osmotic, inflammatory, and mechanical stresses. This study aimed to assess uHSP70 levels during acute urinary tract infections (UTI) and non-infection periods in patients with CAKUT, and to evaluate whether uHSP70 is elevated in CAKUT subtypes.MethodsAmong patients with CAKUT, 89 patients with UTI (CAKUT-A), 111 without UTI (CAKUT-B), and 74 healthy children were included in the study. uHSP70 levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).ResultsuHSP70 level was significantly higher in the CAKUT-A group than in the CAKUT-B and healthy control groups (p &lt; 0.0001). Moreover, the level of uHSP70 was significantly higher in the CAKUT-B group than in the control group (p &lt; 0.0001), but was not different between the CAKUT subtypes (p &gt; 0.05).ConclusionUrine HSP70 can also be used to predict UTI in patients with CAKUT. Moreover, uHSP70 levels were higher in children with CAKUT during the non-infectious period than in healthy controls. This suggests that children with CAKUT are at risk of chronic non-infectious damage