NGC 6738: not a real open cluster

A photometric, astrometric and spectroscopic investigation of the poorly studied open cluster NGC 6738 has been performed in order to ascertain its real nature. NGC 6738 is definitely not a physical stellar ensemble: photometry does not show a defined mean sequence, proper motions and radial velocities are randomly distributed, spectro-photometric parallaxes range between 10 and 1600 pc, and the apparent luminosity function is identical to that of the surrounding field. NGC 6738 therefore appears to be an apparent concentration of a few bright stars projected on patchy background absorption.Comment: A&A, in press (compared with first submission to astro-ph, now Table 2 and Figure 4 are replaced with corrected versions

Indoor green wall affects health-associated commensal skin microbiota and enhances immune regulation : A randomized trial among urban office workers

Urbanization reduces microbiological abundance and diversity, which has been associated with immune mediated diseases. Urban greening may be used as a prophylactic method to restore microbiological diversity in cities and among urbanites. This study evaluated the impact of air-circulating green walls on bacterial abundance and diversity on human skin, and on immune responses determined by blood cytokine measurements. Human subjects working in offices in two Finnish cities (Lahti and Tampere) participated in a two-week intervention, where green walls were installed in the rooms of the experimental group. Control group worked without green walls. Skin and blood samples were collected before (Day0), during (Day14) and two weeks after (Day28) the intervention. The relative abundance of genus Lactobacillus and the Shannon diversity of phylum Proteobacteria and class Gammaproteobacteria increased in the experimental group. Proteobacterial diversity was connected to the lower proinflammatory cytokine IL-17A level among participants in Lahti. In addition, the change in TGF-beta 1 levels was opposite between the experimental and control group. As skin Lactobacillus and the diversity of Proteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria are considered advantageous for skin health, air-circulating green walls may induce beneficial changes in a human microbiome. The immunomodulatory potential of air-circulating green walls deserves further research attention.Peer reviewe

The abundance of health-associated bacteria is altered in PAH polluted soils - Implications for health in urban areas?

© 2017 Parajuli et al. 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. Long-term exposure to polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has been connected to chronic human health disorders. It is also well-known that i) PAH contamination alters soil bacterial communities, ii) human microbiome is associated with environmental microbiome, and iii) alteration in the abundance of members in several bacterial phyla is associated with adverse or beneficial human health effects. We hypothesized that soil pollution by PAHs altered soil bacterial communities that had known associations with human health. The rationale behind our study was to increase understanding and potentially facilitate reconsidering factors that lead to health disorders in areas characterized by PAH contamination. Large containers filled with either spruce forest soil, pine forest soil, peat, or glacial sand were left to incubate or contaminated with creosote. Biological degradation of PAHs was monitored using GC-MS, and the bacterial community composition was analyzed using 454 pyrosequencing. Proteobacteria had higher and Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes had lower relative abundance in creosote contaminated soils than in non-contaminated soils. Earlier studies have demonstrated that an increase in the abundance of Proteobacteria and decreased abundance of the phyla Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes are particularly associated with adverse health outcomes and immunological disorders. Therefore, we propose that pollution-induced shifts in natural soil bacterial community, like in PAH-polluted areas, can contribute to the prevalence of chronic diseases. We encourage studies that simultaneously address the classic “adverse toxin effect” paradigm and our novel “altered environmental microbiome” hypothesis

Immunological resilience and biodiversity for prevention of allergic diseases and asthma

Increase of allergic conditions has occurred at the same pace with the Great Acceleration, which stands for the rapid growth rate of human activities upon earth from 1950s. Changes of environment and lifestyle along with escalating urbanization are acknowledged as the main underlying causes. Secondary (tertiary) prevention for better disease control has advanced considerably with innovations for oral immunotherapy and effective treatment of inflammation with corticosteroids, calcineurin inhibitors, and biological medications. Patients are less disabled than before. However, primary prevention has remained a dilemma. Factors predicting allergy and asthma risk have proven complex: Risk factors increase the risk, while protective factors counteract them. Interaction of human body with environmental biodiversity with micro-organisms and biogenic compounds as well as the central role of epigenetic adaptation in immune homeostasis have given new insight. Allergic diseases are good indicators of the twisted relation to environment. In various non-communicable diseases, the protective mode of the immune system indicates low-grade inflammation without apparent cause. Giving microbes, pro- and prebiotics, has shown some promise in prevention and treatment. The real-world public health programme in Finland (2008-2018) emphasized nature relatedness and protective factors for immunological resilience, instead of avoidance. The nationwide action mitigated the allergy burden, but in the lack of controls, primary preventive effect remains to be proven. The first results of controlled biodiversity interventions are promising. In the fast urbanizing world, new approaches are called for allergy prevention, which also has a major cost saving potential.Peer reviewe

Exploring Antifungal Drugs Produced by Brewer\u27s Yeasts

Combatting the spread of drug-resistant microbes requires new antifungal compounds with novel mechanisms of inhibition. Our lab investigates natural, proteinaceous toxins that are coded by double stranded RNA satellites found within the brewer’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Commonly known as killer yeasts, toxin-producing strains of S. cerevisiae have been found to inhibit the growth of many fungal pathogens. We have found that Candida glabrata is broadly susceptible to killer toxins, while other Candida species showed little or no susceptibility. Of the 90 strains of S. cerevisiae tested against C. glabrata, seven were capable of inhibiting all clinical strains of drug-resistant C. glabrata available from the CDC as well as the Wayne State Medical Clinic. In our evaluation of these toxins as potential antifungal therapeutics we confirmed their inhibitory capability against C. glabrata under physiological conditions. We have also explored how C. glabrata develops resistance to killer toxins. We developed a protocol for generating and isolating resistant mutants which we then characterized growth rate and levels of resistance. Based on the results of these tests and prior knowledge about killer yeasts, we believe that these toxins show a potential as antifungal therapeutic precursors for drug resistant fungal infections

The design and implementation of restraint devices for the injection of pathogenic microorganisms into Galleria mellonella.

The injection of laboratory animals with pathogenic microorganisms poses a significant safety risk because of the potential for injury by accidental needlestick. This is especially true for researchers using invertebrate models of disease due to the required precision and accuracy of the injection. The restraint of the greater wax moth larvae (Galleria mellonella) is often achieved by grasping a larva firmly between finger and thumb. Needle resistant gloves or forceps can be used to reduce the risk of a needlestick but can result in animal injury, a loss of throughput, and inconsistencies in experimental data. Restraint devices are commonly used for the manipulation of small mammals, and in this manuscript, we describe the construction of two devices that can be used to entrap and restrain G. mellonella larvae prior to injection with pathogenic microbes. These devices reduce the manual handling of larvae and provide an engineering control to protect against accidental needlestick injury while maintaining a high rate of injection

Exploring Antifungal Drugs Produced by Brewer\u27s Yeasts

Combatting the spread of drug-resistant microbes requires new antifungal compounds with novel mechanisms of inhibition. We are investigating natural, proteinaceous toxins that are encoded by double stranded RNA satellites found within Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Commonly known as killer yeasts, toxin-producing strains of S. cerevisiae have been found to inhibit the growth of many fungal pathogens. By testing over 9,000 interactions between killer yeasts and pathogens we determined that Candida glabrata is broadly susceptible to killer toxins, while other Candida species showed little to no susceptibility. Of the 90 killer strains of S. cerevisiae tested against C. glabrata several were capable of inhibiting all drug-resistant, clinical isolates available from the CDC/FDA. In our evaluation of these toxins as potential antifungal therapeutics we confirmed their inhibitory capability against C. glabrata under several key physiological conditions. Then, to proactively investigate the inevitable resistance to these toxins that would arise in a clinical setting we went on to generate toxin resistant mutants of C. glabrata in order to study natural toxin resistance mechanisms. We completed characterization of these mutants based on cell morphology, colony morphology, growth rate, and cross resistance to several classes of killer toxins. These tests gave us a preliminary understanding of the fitness cost of killer toxin resistance. Based on the results of these tests and prior knowledge about killer yeasts, we believe that these toxins show strong potential as antifungal therapeutic precursors