Viral protein suppresses oxidative burst and salicylic acid-dependent autophagy and facilitates bacterial growth on virus-infected plants

Virus interactions with plant silencing and innate immunity pathways can potentially alter the susceptibility of virus-infected plants to secondary infections with nonviral pathogens. We found that Arabidopsis plants infected with Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) or transgenic for CaMV silencing suppressor P6 exhibit increased susceptibility to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) and allow robust growth of the Pst mutant hrcC-, which cannot deploy effectors to suppress innate immunity. The impaired antibacterial defense correlated with the suppressed oxidative burst, reduced accumulation of the defense hormone salicylic acid (SA) and diminished SA-dependent autophagy. The viral protein domain required for suppression of these plant defense responses is dispensable for silencing suppression but essential for binding and activation of the plant target-of-rapamycin (TOR) kinase which, in its active state, blocks cellular autophagy and promotes CaMV translation. Our findings imply that CaMV P6 is a versatile viral effector suppressing both silencing and innate immunity. P6-mediated suppression of oxidative burst and SA-dependent autophagy may predispose CaMV-infected plants to bacterial infection

A plea for the wider use of CRT-P in candidates for cardiac resynchronisation therapy

International audienceSpectacular developments have taken place, in the last 10 years, in the device-based management of heart failure (HF). Patients presenting with chronic HF may benefit from a device implanted with a view to: (1) resynchronise the pump function of a discoordinated failing heart or (2) prevent sudden arrhythmic death by automatic cardioversion or defibrillation. This "point-of-view" article reviews the large amount of information gathered in the past 10 years on the use of cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT), with or without cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), and puts in perspective the advisability of using one, the other or both treatments in distinct patient subsets. There is currently no strong scientific evidence supporting the systematic implantation of CRT-ICD (CRT-D) instead of CRT pacemakers (CRT-P). Plain common sense should limit the prescription of these costly and complicated devices to patients in need of secondary prevention of ventricular arrhythmias or, for primary prevention, in younger patients without major concomitant illnesses. The preferential choice of CRT-P for the remainder of ambulatory patients in New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class III or IV is currently acceptable. Because of insufficient data regarding the performance of CRT-P in patients presenting in NYHA functional class I or II, CRT-D is currently the device of choice for this sub-population

Guidelines for cardiac pacing and cardiac resynchronization therapy: The Task Force for Cardiac Pacing and Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy of the European Society of Cardiology. Developed in Collaboration with the European Heart Rhythm Association.

Cardiac pacing as an adjunct therapy for heart failure began to be the subject of scientific research at the start of the 1990s. The first pacing modality to be examined was dual-chamber pacing with a short atrioventricular (AV) delay, in patients with heart failure but without the classical bradyarrhythmic indications for pacing. The first studies in this area gave promising results. Acute and short-term improvements resulted from the optimization of left ventricular (LV) filling and a reduction in pre-systolic mitral regurgitation. Unfortunately, the initial results were not confirmed by subsequent studies and the early hopes raised by dual-chamber pacing with a short AV delay for heart failure patients were not fulfilled. In contrast, atrio-biventricular pacing for patients with symptomatic heart failure and intra- or interventricular conduction disturbances has proved beneficial. During the last decade, a number of studies have established a theoretical basis for this new therapy and have drawn related conclusions regarding the importance of resynchronization in terms of improving symptoms, morbidity, and mortality in these patients. This document presents the recommendations of the committee concerning indications for CRT based on the most recent studies

2010 Focused Update of ESC Guidelines on device therapy in heart failure: an update of the 2008 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure and the 2007 ESC Guidelines for cardiac and resynchronization therapy. Developed with the special contribution of the Heart Failure Association and the European Heart Rhythm Association

The Committee for Practice Guidelines (CPG) of the European Society of Cardiology recognizes that new evidence from clinical research trials may impact on current recommendations. The current heart failure (HF) guidelines1 were published in 2008 and the cardiac pacing guidelines in 2007.2 In order to keep these guidelines up to date, it would be appropriate to modify the recommendations and levels of evidence according to the most recent clinical trial evidence. This Focused Update on the use of devices in heart failure 2010 is the first publication of its kind from the CPG. The text accompanying these recommendations explains and justifies the decisions to diverge from a traditional recommendation based strictly on the protocol inclusion criteria. The Task Force hopes that the users of the Guidelines will appreciate that this adjustment provides a more realistic application of the trial evidence to daily clinical practic