Borrelia recurrentis employs a novel multifunctional surface protein with anti-complement, anti-opsonic and invasive potential to escape innate immunity

Borrelia recurrentis, the etiologic agent of louse-borne relapsing fever in humans, has evolved strategies, including antigenic variation, to evade immune defence, thereby causing severe diseases with high mortality rates. Here we identify for the first time a multifunctional surface lipoprotein of B. recurrentis, termed HcpA, and demonstrate that it binds human complement regulators, Factor H, CFHR-1, and simultaneously, the host protease plasminogen. Cell surface bound factor H was found to retain its activity and to confer resistance to complement attack. Moreover, ectopic expression of HcpA in a B. burgdorferi B313 strain, deficient in Factor H binding proteins, protected the transformed spirochetes from complement-mediated killing. Furthermore, HcpA-bound plasminogen/plasmin endows B. recurrentis with the potential to resist opsonization and to degrade extracellular matrix components. Together, the present study underscores the high virulence potential of B. recurrentis. The elucidation of the molecular basis underlying the versatile strategies of B. recurrentis to escape innate immunity and to persist in human tissues, including the brain, may help to understand the pathological processes underlying louse-borne relapsing fever

Risk perceptions starting to shift? U.S. citizens are forming opinions about nanotechnology

This article presents early results from an opinion formation study based on a 76-member panel of U.S. citizens, with comparison data from a group of 177 nanotechnology experts. While initially similar to the expert group in terms of their perceptions of the risks, benefits, and need for regulation characterizing several forms of nanotechnology, the first follow-up survey indicates that the panel is beginning to diverge from the experts, particularly with respect to perceptions of the levels of various “societal” risks that nanotechnology might present. The data suggest that responding to public concerns may involve more than attention to physical risks in areas such as health and environment; concerns about other forms of risk actually appear more salient

Genetic variability of the P120' surface protein gene of Mycoplasma hominis isolates recovered from Tunisian patients with uro-genital and infertility disorders

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Among the surface antigens of <it>Mycoplasma hominis</it>, the P120' protein was previously shown to elicit a subtle antibody response and appears to be relatively conserved. To get better insight into the evolution of this protein, we analysed the genetic variability of its surface exposed region in 27 <it>M. hominis </it>isolates recovered from the genital tract of Tunisian patients with infertility disorders.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>All specimens were processed for culture and PCR amplification of the N-terminal surface exposed region of p120' gene. PCR products were sequenced to evaluate the genetic variability, to test for adaptive selection, and to infer the phylogenetic relationship of the <it>M. hominis </it>isolates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sequence analysis showed a total of 25 single nucleotide polymorphisms distributed through 23 polymorphic sites, yielding 13 haplotypes. All but one mutation were confined within three distinct regions. Analysis of the amino acid-based phylogenetic tree showed a predominant group of 17 closely related isolates while the remaining appear to have significantly diverged.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>By analysing a larger sample of <it>M. hominis </it>recovered from patients with urogenital infections, we show here that the P120' protein undergoes substantial level of genetic variability at its surface exposed region.</p

The Socio-economic Impacts of Social Media Privacy and Security Challenges

© 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. Privacy and Security are two major challenges faced by users on social media today. These challenges are experienced in diverse ways and forms by different types of users across the web. While technological solutions are usually implemented to address them, the effects have proven to be limited so far. Despite continuous deployment of technological solutions, the need to evaluate socio-economic impacts of these challenges have also become more imperative. Hence, this paper provides a critical review and analysis of socio-economic impacts of these social media challenges. The research findings reveal significant levels of negative socio-economic impacts and provides an evaluation framework towards defining the scope, thereby identifying appropriate measures for both addressing the challenges and curbing the socio-economic impacts. The findings also demonstrate the need for solutions beyond the use of technology, to employing and deploying solutions from social sciences which deals with behavioral issues and how to address them

LEGO-II. A 3 mm molecular line study covering 100 pc of one of the most actively star-forming portions within the Milky Way disc

The current generation of (sub)mm-telescopes has allowed molecular line emission to become a major tool for studying the physical, kinematic, and chemical properties of extragalactic systems, yet exploiting these observations requires a detailed understanding of where emission lines originate within the Milky Way. In this paper, we present 60 arcsec (∼3 pc) resolution observations of many 3 mm band molecular lines across a large map of the W49 massive star-forming region (∼100 pc × 100 pc at 11 kpc), which were taken as part of the ‘LEGO’ IRAM-30m large project. We find that the spatial extent or brightness of the molecular line transitions are not well correlated with their critical densities, highlighting abundance and optical depth must be considered when estimating line emission characteristics. We explore how the total emission and emission efficiency (i.e. line brightness per H2 column density) of the line emission vary as a function of molecular hydrogen column density and dust temperature. We find that there is not a single region of this parameter space responsible for the brightest and most efficiently emitting gas for all species. For example, we find that the HCN transition shows high emission efficiency at high column density (1022 cm−2) and moderate temperatures (35 K), whilst e.g. N2H+ emits most efficiently towards lower temperatures (1022 cm−2; <20 K). We determine XCO(1−0) ∼ 0.3 × 1020 cm−2 (K km s−1) −1, and αHCN(1−0) ∼ 30 M (K km s−1 pc2) −1, which both differ significantly from the commonly adopted values. In all, these results suggest caution should be taken when interpreting molecular line emission

Efficacy and Safety of Technosphere Inhaled Insulin Compared With Technosphere Powder Placebo in Insulin-Naive Type 2 Diabetes Suboptimally Controlled With Oral Agents

OBJECTIVE—This double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, multicenter, parallel-group study compared the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of Technosphere insulin with Technosphere powder as placebo in insulin-naive type 2 diabetic patients whose diabetes was suboptimally controlled with oral antidiabetic agents

Prenatal ultrasound and postmortem histologic evaluation of tooth germs: an observational, transversal study

Introduction: Hypodontia is the most frequent developmental anomaly of the orofacial complex, and its detection in prenatal ultrasound may indicate the presence of congenital malformations, genetic syndromes and chromosomal abnormalities.To date, only a few studies have evaluated the histological relationship of human tooth germs identified by two-dimensional (2D) ultrasonography. In order to analyze whether two-dimensional ultrasonography of tooth germs may be successfully used for identifying genetic syndromes, prenatal ultrasound images of fetal tooth germs obtained from a Portuguese population sample were compared with histological images obtained from fetal autopsies.Methods: Observational, descriptive, transversal study. The study protocol followed the ethical principles outlined by the Helsinki Declaration and was approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Dental Medicine, University of Porto (FMDUP, Porto, Portugal) and of the Centro Hospitalar de Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho (CHVNG/EPE, Porto, Portugal) as well as by the CGC Genetics Embryofetal Pathology Laboratory. Eighty-five fetuses examined by prenatal ultrasound screening from May 2011 to August 2012 had an indication for autopsy following spontaneous fetal death or medical termination of pregnancy. Of the 85 fetuses, 37 (43.5%) were randomly selected for tooth germ evaluation by routine histopathological analysis. Fetuses who were up to 30 weeks of gestation, and whose histological pieces were not representative of all maxillary tooth germs was excluded. Twenty four fetus between the 13th and 30th weeks of gestation fulfilled the parameters to autopsy.Results: Twenty four fetuses were submitted to histological evaluation and were determined the exact number, morphology, and mineralization of their tooth germs. All tooth germs were identifiable with ultrasonography as early as the 13th week of gestation. Of the fetuses autopsied, 41.7% had hypodontia (29.1% maxillary hypodontia and 20.9% mandibular hypodontia).Conclusions: This results indicateinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Common Genetic Variants of the Human Steroid 21-Hydroxylase Gene (CYP21A2) Are Related to Differences in Circulating Hormone Levels

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA, PD100648 (AP)) Technology Innovation Fund, National Developmental Agency (KTIA-AIK-2012-12-1-0010). AP is the recipient of a “Lendület” grant from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences