Expression of the G1 epitope of bovine ephemeral fever virus G glycoprotein in eukaryotic cells

The envelope glycoprotein (protein G) of bovine ephemeral fever virus (BEFV) has been identified as a plausible vaccine candidate against the BEF disease. In the present study, G1 epitope of the G gly-coprotein gene was cloned in an eukaryotic expression vector, pcDNA3.1(+), under the control of the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter. The pcDNA3.1-G1 construct was transfected into human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK 293) cell line and the expression efficiency was verified by immunofluorescence staining of transfected cells and Western blot analysis. The results indicated that G1 protein was expressed by the recombinant pcDNA3.1-G1 construct in the transfected cells. The recombinant plasmid constructed in this study can be used as a DNA vaccine to evaluate its potential for immunogenicity and protection against BEF virus in animal models

On the analysis of the contact angle for impacting droplets using a polynomial fitting approach

ractical considerations on the measurement of the dynamic contact angle and the spreading diameter of impacting droplets are discussed in this paper. The contact angle of a liquid is commonly obtained either by a polynomial or a linear fitting to the droplet profile around the triple phase point. Previous works have focused on quasi-static or sessile droplets, or in cases where inertia does not play a major role on the contact angle dynamics. Here, we study the effect of droplet shape, the order of the fitting polynomial, and the fitting domain, on the measurement of the contact angle on various stages following droplet impact where the contact line is moving. Our results, presented in terms of the optical resolution and the droplet size, show that a quadratic fitting provides the most consistent results for a range of various droplet shapes. As expected, our results show that contact angle values are less sensitive to the fitting conditions for the cases where the droplet can be approximated to a spherical cap. Our experimental conditions include impact events with liquid droplets of different sizes and viscosities on various substrates. In addition, validating past works, our results show that the maximum spreading diameter can be parameterised by the Weber number and the rapidly advancing contact angle

The effects of 8 weeks of levothyroxine replacement treatment on metabolic and anthropometric indices of insulin resistance in hypothyroid patients

Background: Insulin resistance (IR) is an independent cardiovascular risk factor. IR predisposes to metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Meanwhile, little evidence exists about the effect of levothyroxine replacement treatment (LRT) on IR in hypothyroid patients. Objective: To investigate metabolic and anthropometric indices of IR in hypothyroid patients before and after 8 weeks of LRT. Methods: This pre-post study evaluated the 8 weeks outcomes of LRT on 66 patients with recently diagnosed hypothyroidism. Outcome measures included body mass index (BMI), waist circumferences (WC), waist to hip ratio (WHR), waist to height ratio (WHtR), body fat percent (BF), free thyroxin (FT4), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL), fasting plasma levels of glucose (FPG) and insulin. Sex- specific cut offs of two metabolic indices i.e. the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) and the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) were used for IR diagnosis. The changes in TyG and HOMA were also compared after LRT. Results: Participants were overt and subclinical hypothyroidism 71 and 29, respectively. After LRT the mean values of the following anthropometric indices significantly decreased: weight (79.61 vs. 78.64), BMI (29.53 vs. 29.2), WC (98.25 vs. 97.39) and BF (35.34 vs. 34.95). After LRT the HOMA and TyG had no significant changes relative to their initial values. Also, IR that was determined on the basis of these metabolic indices more commonly observed in participants. Conclusion: Despite decreasing some anthropometric indices, the diagnosis of IR based on metabolic indices increased following 8 weeks LRT in hypothyroid cases. © 2020 Bentham Science Publishers

Evaluation of cytokine mRNA expression in vaccinated guinea pigs with foot-and-mouth disease type O inactivated vaccine

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a severely contagious viral disease that mainly affects cloven-hoofed livestock and wildlife. This study quantifies the cytokines mRNA expression of vaccinated guinea pigs with FMD type O inactivated vaccine. Blood samples were collected from eight guinea pigs at 7 and 28 days after the first vaccination. Extracted mRNAs were reverse-transcribed into cDNA and analyzed for quantification of IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-10 expression using relative real-time PCR assay. Our results showed that all of the genes were upregulated. The expression of TNF-α and IL-10 genes significantly increased (P<0.05) in day 28th in comparison to the day 7th post the first vaccination. It can be concluded that the vaccine induced immune responses by increasing expression of the cytokines. Therefore, effects of DNA vaccines on immune system also may be evaluated using these genes

Evaluation of IFN-γ and TGFβ1 Genes Expression in Guinea Pigs Vaccinated with Foot-and-Mouth Disease Type O Inactivated Vaccine

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a severely contagious viral disease in cloven-hooved animals that it causes considerable economic losses in livestock productivity. Vaccination is one of the most effective procedures for control of FMD. One of vaccines performances is stimulating expression of some immune system genes, which called cytokines. In this study, expression changes of IFN-γ and TGFβ1 genes were evaluated in vaccinated guinea pigs with FMD type O inactivated vaccine. Blood samples were collected from vaccinated and control (no vaccinated) guinea pigs in three distinct times. After blood sampling, RNA was extracted and converted to cDNA. For measuring IFN-γ and TGFβ1 genes expression, relative Real-time PCR procedure was used. The results showed that expression of IFN-γ and TGFβ1 genes in the second and third blood sampling were significantly increased in comparison to the first blood sampling. Because increasing of cytokines expression is an indicative of the immune system response, these genes can be used as indicators for testing effects of the recombinant vaccines

Investigation of synthesized silica coating Fe3O4 nanoparticles efficiency in removal of NOM from water

Background and Objective: The presence of natural organic materials (NOM) in water resources affects its quality (i.e. color, odor, and taste). In addition, it leads to the fouling of filters and membranes and reduces water treatment efficiency during flocculation/ coagulation. Moreover, NOM reacts with disinfectants and produces byproducts (DBPs), which are harmful to human health. Magnetic nanoparticles have been reported as effective adsorbents for the removal of pollutants from the aqueous media. In this study, we applied SiO2coating on these nanoparticles in order to enhance their stability and dispersion in aqueous media and investigated their capability in NOM adsorption from water. Materials and Methods: Iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles were prepared by co-precipitation. Then, we added Tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) to the solution in order to coat it with SiO2 . The adsorbent characteristics were determined by SEM and XRD. Then, we carried out the adsorption experiments under different pH(3-12) and contact time (5-240 min)performance conditions. The adsorption kinetic was determined with respect to different Humic acid adsorption times. Later, we determined the effect of different concentrations of adsorbent on different concentrations of Humic acid, and Langmuir and Freundlich coefficients based on the optimum conditions. Results: The morphology investigation of adsorbent showed the average size of Fe3O4/SiO2nanoparticles was 30-130 nm. The pH value of 10.5 and the contact time of 90 min at room temperature were determined as optimum conditions for removal of humic acid using Fe3O4/SiO2 nanoparticles. The maximum adsorption capacity of Fe3O4/SiO2 was192.30. The adsorption isotherm was fitted well by Langmuir model (R2>0.90) and the pseudo-second order model (R2>0.98) could better explain humic acid adsorption. Conclusion: Having high number of active surface sites, magnetic properties, easily separation using magnetic field, and its cost-effectiveness, the Fe3O4/SiO2 nanoparticles could be used as an efficient adsorbent in removal of humic acid from water