Exacerbation of hepatitis C induced subclinical hypoadrenalism by Interferon-alpha2beta: A case report

Adrenal disease is an uncommon manifestation of hepatitis C infection and its related treatment regimen. This is a case of subclinical hypoadrenalism, probably induced by hepatitis C infection and further exacerbated by interferon-α2β and Ribavirin therapy. The adrenal deterioration during the treatment course was observed closely with 24-hour salivary profiles and 250 μg adrenocorticotropin stimulation tests using parallel serum and salivary cortisol concentrations. A number of possible pathogenic mechanisms are discussed, and the controversy over its management is emphasized

Two-Photon Fluorescence Microscopy Imaging of Cellular Oxidative Stress Using Profluorescent Nitroxides

A range of varying chromophore nitroxide free radicals and their nonradical methoxyamine analogues were synthesized and their linear photophysical properties examined. The presence of the proximate free radical masks the chromophore’s usual fluorescence emission, and these species are described as profluorescent. Two nitroxides incorporating anthracene and fluorescein chromophores (compounds 7 and 19, respectively) exhibited two-photon absorption (2PA) cross sections of approximately 400 G.M. when excited at wavelengths greater than 800 nm. Both of these profluorescent nitroxides demonstrated low cytotoxicity toward Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Imaging colocalization experiments with the commercially available CellROX Deep Red oxidative stress monitor demonstrated good cellular uptake of the nitroxide probes. Sensitivity of the nitroxide probes to H2O2-induced damage was also demonstrated by both one- and two-photon fluorescence microscopy. These profluorescent nitroxide probes are potentially powerful tools for imaging oxidative stress in biological systems, and they essentially “light up” in the presence of certain species generated from oxidative stress. The high ratio of the fluorescence quantum yield between the profluorescent nitroxide species and their nonradical adducts provides the sensitivity required for measuring a range of cellular redox environments. Furthermore, their reasonable 2PA cross sections provide for the option of using two-photon fluorescence microscopy, which circumvents commonly encountered disadvantages associated with one-photon imaging such as photobleaching and poor tissue penetration

In situ size sorting in CVD synthesis of Si microspheres

[EN] Silicon microspheres produced in gas-phase by hot-wall CVD offer unique quality in terms of sphericity, surface smoothness, and size. However, the spheres produced are polydisperse in size, which typically range from 0.5 mu m to 5 mu m. In this work we show through experiments and calculations that thermophoretic forces arising from strong temperature gradients inside the reactor volume effectively sort the particles in size along the reactor. These temperature gradients are shown to be produced by a convective gas flow. The results prove that it is possible to select the particle size by collecting them in a particular reactor region, opening new possibilities towards the production by CVD of size-controlled high-quality silicon microspheres.The authors acknowledge financial support from the following projects: ENE2013-49984-EXP, MAT2012-35040, MAT2015-69669-P and ESP2014-54256-C4-2-R of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), and PROMETEOII/2014/026 of the Regional Valencian Government.Garín Escrivá, M.; Fenollosa Esteve, R.; Kowalski, L. (2016). In situ size sorting in CVD synthesis of Si microspheres. Scientific Reports. 6:1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep38719S110

Crustose Coralline Algae and a Cnidarian Neuropeptide Trigger Larval Settlement in Two Coral Reef Sponges

In sessile marine invertebrates, larval settlement is fundamental to population maintenance and persistence. Cues contributing to the settlement choices and metamorphosis of larvae have important implications for the success of individuals and populations, but cues mediating larval settlement for many marine invertebrates are largely unknown. This study assessed larval settlement in two common Great Barrier Reef sponges, Coscinoderma matthewsi and Rhopaloeides odorabile, to cues that enhance settlement and metamorphosis in various species of scleractinian coral larvae. Methanol extracts of the crustose coralline algae (CCA), Porolithon onkodes, corresponding to a range of concentrations, were used to determine the settlement responses of sponge larvae. Cnidarian neuropeptides (GLW-amide neuropeptides) were also tested as a settlement cue. Settlement in both sponge species was approximately two-fold higher in response to live chips of CCA and optimum concentrations of CCA extract compared to 0.2 µm filtered sea water controls. Metamorphosis also increased when larvae were exposed to GLW-amide neuropeptides; R. odorabile mean metamorphosis reached 42.0±5.8% compared to 16.0±2.4% in seawater controls and in C. matthewsi mean metamorphosis reached 68.3±5.4% compared to 36.7±3.3% in seawater controls. These results demonstrate the contributing role chemosensory communication plays in the ability of sponge larvae to identify suitable habitat for successful recruitment. It also raises the possibility that larvae from distinct phyla may share signal transduction pathways involved in metamorphosis

Induction of Larval Metamorphosis of the Coral Acropora millepora by Tetrabromopyrrole Isolated from a Pseudoalteromonas Bacterium

The induction of larval attachment and metamorphosis of benthic marine invertebrates is widely considered to rely on habitat specific cues. While microbial biofilms on marine hard substrates have received considerable attention as specific signals for a wide and phylogenetically diverse array of marine invertebrates, the presumed chemical settlement signals produced by the bacteria have to date not been characterized. Here we isolated and fully characterized the first chemical signal from bacteria that induced larval metamorphosis of acroporid coral larvae (Acropora millepora). The metamorphic cue was identified as tetrabromopyrrole (TBP) in four bacterial Pseudoalteromonas strains among a culture library of 225 isolates obtained from the crustose coralline algae Neogoniolithon fosliei and Hydrolithon onkodes. Coral planulae transformed into fully developed polyps within 6 h, but only a small proportion of these polyps attached to the substratum. The biofilm cell density of the four bacterial strains had no influence on the ratio of attached vs. non-attached polyps. Larval bioassays with ethanolic extracts of the bacterial isolates, as well as synthetic TBP resulted in consistent responses of coral planulae to various doses of TBP. The lowest bacterial density of one of the Pseudoalteromonas strains which induced metamorphosis was 7,000 cells mm−2 in laboratory assays, which is on the order of 0.1 –1% of the total numbers of bacteria typically found on such surfaces. These results, in which an actual cue from bacteria has been characterized for the first time, contribute significantly towards understanding the complex process of acroporid coral larval settlement mediated through epibiotic microbial biofilms on crustose coralline algae

Determination of nutrient salts by automatic methods both in seawater and brackish water: the phosphate blank

9 páginas, 2 tablas, 2 figurasThe main inconvenience in determining nutrients in seawater by automatic methods is simply solved: the preparation of a suitable blank which corrects the effect of the refractive index change on the recorded signal. Two procedures are proposed, one physical (a simple equation to estimate the effect) and the other chemical (removal of the dissolved phosphorus with ferric hydroxide).Support for this work came from CICYT (MAR88-0245 project) and Conselleria de Pesca de la Xunta de GaliciaPeer reviewe

Secondary Metabolites of Marine Microbes: From Natural Products Chemistry to Chemical Ecology

Marine natural products (MNPs) exhibit a wide range of pharmaceutically relevant bioactivities, including antibiotic, antiviral, anticancer, or anti-inflammatory properties. Besides marine macroorganisms such as sponges, algae, or corals, specifically marine bacteria and fungi have shown to produce novel secondary metabolites (SMs) with unique and diverse chemical structures that may hold the key for the development of novel drugs or drug leads. Apart from highlighting their potential benefit to humankind, this review is focusing on the manifold functions of SMs in the marine ecosystem. For example, potent MNPs have the ability to exile predators and competing organisms, act as attractants for mating purposes, or serve as dye for the expulsion or attraction of other organisms. A large compilation of literature on the role of MNPs in marine ecology is available, and several reviews evaluated the function of MNPs for the aforementioned topics. Therefore, we focused the second part of this review on the importance of bioactive compounds from crustose coralline algae (CCA) and their role during coral settlement, a topic that has received less attention. It has been shown that certain SMs derived from CCA and their associated bacteria are able to induce attachment and/or metamorphosis of many benthic invertebrate larvae, including globally threatened reef-building scleractinian corals. This review provides an overview on bioactivities of MNPs from marine microbes and their potential use in medicine as well as on the latest findings of the chemical ecology and settlement process of scleractinian corals and other invertebrate larvae

A horizontal alignment tool for numerical trend discovery in sequence data: application to protein hydropathy.

PMC3794901An algorithm is presented that returns the optimal pairwise gapped alignment of two sets of signed numerical sequence values. One distinguishing feature of this algorithm is a flexible comparison engine (based on both relative shape and absolute similarity measures) that does not rely on explicit gap penalties. Additionally, an empirical probability model is developed to estimate the significance of the returned alignment with respect to randomized data. The algorithm's utility for biological hypothesis formulation is demonstrated with test cases including database search and pairwise alignment of protein hydropathy. However, the algorithm and probability model could possibly be extended to accommodate other diverse types of protein or nucleic acid data, including positional thermodynamic stability and mRNA translation efficiency. The algorithm requires only numerical values as input and will readily compare data other than protein hydropathy. The tool is therefore expected to complement, rather than replace, existing sequence and structure based tools and may inform medical discovery, as exemplified by proposed similarity between a chlamydial ORFan protein and bacterial colicin pore-forming domain. The source code, documentation, and a basic web-server application are available.JH Libraries Open Access Fun