MODULATION OF TYPE-I INTERFERON MEDIATED IMMUNE RESPONSE: A NOVEL INNATE IMMUNE EVASION STRATEGY OF EQUINE HERPESVIRUS 1

Equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) is one of the major viral pathogens causing respiratory disease, abortion, perinatal mortality and neurologic disease among horses resulting in significant economic losses to the equine industry. The virus can also remain latent in the horses and recrudesce at any time. Type-I interferons (IFNs) act as a first line of defense against many viral infections. In this study we investigated the type-I IFN response against the neuropathogenic T953 strain of EHV-1 in equine endothelial cells (EECs). The results showed that after a transient induction of IFN-β mRNA as well as protein at an early time (3h) post infection (p.i.), T953 strain of EHV-1 suppressed further induction of IFN-β at later times (12h onwards). Studies were done to confirm that the suppression of type-I IFN induction at later time points was not due to the normal IFN-β induction kinetics, it was rather because of the active interference by the virus. Investigation of the mechanisms by which T953 interferes with IFN-β production revealed that the virus degraded the endogenous level of the transcription factor, interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF-3) and also down-regulated the activation of IRF-3 followed by its accumulation in the nucleus. However, T953 infection caused degradation of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) inhibitory protein IκBα and also induced p50 subunit to translocate into nucleus from cytoplasm suggesting activation of NF-κB signaling. This also indicated that inhibition in the type-I IFN production was probably not due to the inhibition of NF-κB. The results of these studies also indicated that T953 virus was resistant to the biological effect of the recombinant equine IFN-α in vitro. Investigation of the reason of this resistance showed that T953 virus interfered with the cellular JAK-STAT signaling mechanism by which type-I IFN exerts its antiviral effect. Moreover, the studies revealed that downstream of the JAK-STAT signaling, T953 virus also inhibited the expression of cellular antiviral proteins including interferon stimulated gene 56 (ISG56) and viperin. Altogether, these data indicate that the T953 strain of EHV-1 interfered with the host cell innate immune responses by modulating type-I IFN mediated immune responses at multiple levels in vitro

On Using Proportional Representation Methods as Alternatives to Pro-Rata Based Order Matching Algorithms in Stock Exchanges

The main observation of this short note is that methods for determining proportional representation in electoral systems may be suitable as alternatives to the pro-rata order matching algorithm used in stock exchanges. Our simulation studies provide strong evidence that the Jefferson/D'Hondt and the Webster/Saint-Lagu\"{e} proportional representation methods provide order allocations which are closer to proportionality than the order allocations obtained from the pro-rata algorithm

Mouse Models as Resources for Studying Infectious Diseases

Mouse models are important tools both for studying the pathogenesis of infectious diseases and for the preclinical evaluation of vaccines and therapies against a wide variety of human pathogens. The use of genetically defined inbred mouse strains, humanized mice, and gene knockout mice has allowed the research community to explore how pathogens cause disease, define the role of specific host genes in either controlling or promoting disease, and identify potential targets for the prevention or treatment of a wide range of infectious agents. This review discusses several of the most commonly used mouse model systems, as well as new resources such as the Collaborative Cross as models for studying infectious diseases

Abundance study of fish species from Hel River of Kokrajhar, Assam, India

Hel River is an important river of Kokrajhar district of Assam, India, which is a great source of freshwater fish. Considering the availability of indigenous fish species in Hel River and consumption of these species by the local people, the prime objective of this study was to study the fishes in the river. The relative abundance of fishes along with the species richness and species evenness were calculated based on fish samplings from August 2014 to July 2015. A total of 1313 individuals belonging to 25 species were recorded, dominated by family Cyprinidae with nine species. The highest relative abundance was recorded for Barilius bendelisis (15.31%) followed by Garra gotyla (14.09%) and Barilius barna (13.78%). This study may serve as an important baseline for sustainable management of Hel River

Intrinsic Third Order Nonlinear Transport Responses

Nonlinear transport phenomena offer an exciting probe into the topology and band geometry of the system. Here, we investigate the intrinsic third-order nonlinear responses, independent of the scattering time, using the density matrix-based quantum kinetic formalism. We predict a new intrinsic third-order response that is dissipative and identify a novel intrinsic contribution to the dissipationless Hall response. We demonstrate that these previously unexplored contributions originate from the band geometric quantities such as the Berry curvature and symplectic connection, which are finite in systems that break time-reversal symmetry. We prescribe the symmetry dictionary for these fundamental transport coefficients and unify our quantum kinetic results with results from semiclassical wave-packet formalism. We illustrate our results in antiferromagnetic monolayer SrMnBi$_2$. Our study significantly advances the fundamental understanding of third-order responses.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, Comments are welcom