Flexible Usage and Interconnectivity of Diverse Cell Death Pathways Protect against Intracellular Infection.

Programmed cell death contributes to host defense against pathogens. To investigate the relative importance of pyroptosis, necroptosis, and apoptosis during Salmonella infection, we infected mice and macrophages deficient for diverse combinations of caspases-1, -11, -12, and -8 and receptor interacting serine/threonine kinase 3 (RIPK3). Loss of pyroptosis, caspase-8-driven apoptosis, or necroptosis had minor impact on Salmonella control. However, combined deficiency of these cell death pathways caused loss of bacterial control in mice and their macrophages, demonstrating that host defense can employ varying components of several cell death pathways to limit intracellular infections. This flexible use of distinct cell death pathways involved extensive cross-talk between initiators and effectors of pyroptosis and apoptosis, where initiator caspases-1 and -8 also functioned as executioners when all known effectors of cell death were absent. These findings uncover a highly coordinated and flexible cell death system with in-built fail-safe processes that protect the host from intracellular infections.Wellcome Trus

Radon exhalation from soil and its dependence from environmental parameters.

An automatic measuring apparatus called exhalometer for measurement of the radon exhalation rate from soil is introduced. It consists of a pneumatic driven accumulation chamber with an open bottom, a PC-based control system, six Lucas cells for radon measurement and sensors for environmental parameters. It allows moving the accumulation chamber and hereby opening or closing it. The exhalation rate is determined through the increase of radon in the accumulation chamber. For studying exhalation and the affecting factors, the exhalometer was placed at an undisturbed meadow for the entire year of 2015. The daily radon exhalation rate ranges from 2.5 to 50.7 Bq m-2 h-1 with an average of 25.3 Bq m-2 h-1. The exhalation rate shows daily and seasonal variations with its maximum in the afternoon and in spring. The dependence on several environmental parameters is discussed. The stable performance indicates the system's fitness for long-term measurements

Pre-treatment with the NMDA receptor glycine-binding site antagonist L-701, 324 improves pharmacosensitivity in a mouse kindling model

The glycine co-agonist binding site of the N-methyl-d-aspartat (NMDA) receptor is discussed as an interesting target for different central nervous system diseases. Antagonism at this co-agonist site has been suggested as an alternative to the use of non-competitive or competitive NMDA receptor antagonists, which are associated with a pronounced adverse effect profile in chronic epilepsy models and epilepsy patients. In the present study, we addressed the hypothesis that sub-chronic administration of the glycine-binding site antagonist L-701,324 might exert disease-modifying effects in fully kindled mice during a period with frequent seizure elicitation (massive kindling). Moreover, we analyzed whether L-701,324 exposure during this phase affects the subsequent response to an antiepileptic drug. L-701,324 treatment during the massive kindling phase did not affect ictogenesis. Mean seizure severity and cumulative seizure duration proved to be comparable between vehicle- and L-701,324-treated mice. Following withdrawal of L-701,324 seizure thresholds did not differ in a significant manner from those in animals that received vehicle injections. A low dosage of phenobarbital caused a significant increase of the generalized seizure threshold in the L-701,324 pre-treated group, whereas it did not exert a comparable effect in animals that received vehicle during the massive kindling phase. Analysis of P-glycoprotein in the hilus of the hippocampus revealed lower expression rates in L-701,324 pre-treated kindled mice. In conclusion, the data indicate that targeting of the NMDA receptor glycine-binding site does not result in anticonvulsant or disease-modifying effects. However, it might improve antiepileptic drug responses. The findings might be linked to an impact on P-glycoprotein expression. However, future studies are necessary to further evaluate the mechanisms and assess the potential of respective add-on approaches

Proteomic profiling of epileptogenesis in a rat model: Focus on inflammation.

Detailed knowledge about the patterns of molecular alterations during epileptogenesis is a presupposition for identifying targets for preventive or disease-modifying approaches, as well as biomarkers of the disease. Large-scale differential proteome analysis can provide unique and novel perspectives based on comprehensive data sets informing about the complex regulation patterns in the disease proteome. Thus, we have completed an elaborate differential proteome analysis based on label-free LC-MS/MS in a rat model of epileptogenesis. Hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex tissues were sampled and analyzed separately at three key time points chosen for monitoring disease development following electrically-induced status epilepticus, namely, the early post-insult phase, the latency phase, and the chronic phase with spontaneous recurrent seizures. We focused the bioinformatics analysis on proteins linked to immune and inflammatory responses, because of the emerging evidence of the specific pathogenic role of inflammatory signalings during epileptogenesis. In the early post-insult and the latency phases, pathway enrichment analysis revealed an extensive over-representation of Toll-like receptor signaling, pro-inflammatory cytokines, heat shock protein regulation, and transforming growth factor beta signaling and leukocyte transendothelial migration. The inflammatory response in the chronic phase proved to be more moderate with differential expression in the parahippocampal cortex exceeding that in the hippocampus. The data sets provide novel information about numerous differentially expressed proteins, which serve as interaction partners or modulators in key disease-associated inflammatory signaling events. Noteworthy, a set of proteins which act as modulators of the ictogenic Toll-like receptor signaling proved to be differentially expressed. In addition, we report novel data demonstrating the regulation of different Toll-like receptor ligands during epileptogenesis. Taken together, the findings deepen our understanding of modulation of inflammatory signaling during epileptogenesis providing an excellent and comprehensive basis for the identification of target and biomarker candidates