Human Synaptic Plasticity Gene Expression Profile and Dendritic Spine Density Changes in HIV-Infected Human CNS Cells: Role in HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders (HAND)

HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) is characterized by development of cognitive, behavioral and motor abnormalities, and occur in approximately 50% of HIV infected individuals. Our current understanding of HAND emanates mainly from HIV-1 subtype B (clade B), which is prevalent in USA and Western countries. However very little information is available on neuropathogenesis of HIV-1 subtype C (clade C) that exists in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Therefore, studies to identify specific neuropathogenic mechanisms associated with HAND are worth pursuing to dissect the mechanisms underlying this modulation and to prevent HAND particularly in clade B infection. In this study, we have investigated 84 key human synaptic plasticity genes differential expression profile in clade B and clade C infected primary human astrocytes by using RT2 Profile PCR Array human Synaptic Plasticity kit. Among these, 31 and 21 synaptic genes were significantly (≥3 fold) down-regulated and 5 genes were significantly (≥3 fold) up-regulated in clade B and clade C infected cells, respectively compared to the uninfected control astrocytes. In flow-cytometry analysis, down-regulation of postsynaptic density and dendrite spine morphology regulatory proteins (ARC, NMDAR1 and GRM1) was confirmed in both clade B and C infected primary human astrocytes and SK-N-MC neuroblastoma cells. Further, spine density and dendrite morphology changes by confocal microscopic analysis indicates significantly decreased spine density, loss of spines and decreased dendrite diameter, total dendrite and spine area in clade B infected SK-N-MC neuroblastoma cells compared to uninfected and clade C infected cells. We have also observed that, in clade B infected astrocytes, induction of apoptosis was significantly higher than in the clade C infected astrocytes. In conclusion, this study suggests that down-regulation of synaptic plasticity genes, decreased dendritic spine density and induction of apoptosis in astrocytes may contribute to the severe neuropathogenesis in clade B infection

Inspection of the residual stress on welds using laser ultrasonic supported with finite element analysis

Ultrasonic evaluation for residual stress measurement has been an effective method owing to its easy implementation, low cost and intrinsically being nondestructive. The velocity variations of acoustic waves in materials can be related to the stress state in the deformed medium by the acoustoelastic effects. In this study, a laser/EMAT ultrasonic method is proposed to evaluate the surface/subsurface longitudinal residual stress distribution generated by gas metal arc welding (GMAW). The velocity variation ΔV/V of Rayleigh wave, which is a surface wave, will be experimentally measured. Q-Switched Nd:YAG laser is used to generate a broadband ultrasonic wave. An electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) is attached to the welding plate for Rayleigh wave pick up. As the ultrasound receiver, the EMAT is used to measure time of flight (ToF) of the Rayleigh waves traveling along a specific path parallel to the direction of the welding seam. ToF measurements are obtained by changing Rayleigh wave path to welding zone center distance from 0 to 45 mm. A 3D thermomechanical-coupled finite element model is then developed to validate the capability of the proposed technique for welding-induced residual stress evaluation. The distributions of the normalized velocity variations from ToF experiments are compared with the distribution of the normalized longitudinal residual stresses from finite element analysis (FEA). It has been shown that there is a good correlation between these two distributions. The proposed technique provides a potential nondestructive avenue for surface/subsurface residual stress evaluation for welding parts

Non-local rheology in dense granular flows -- Revisiting the concept of fluidity

Granular materials belong to the class of amorphous athermal systems, like foams, emulsion or suspension they can resist shear like a solid, but flow like a liquid under a sufficiently large applied shear stress. They exhibit a dynamical phase transition between static and flowing states, as for phase transitions of thermodynamic systems, this rigidity transition exhibits a diverging length scales quantifying the degree of cooperatively. Several experiments have shown that the rheology of granular materials and emulsion is non-local, namely that the stress at a given location does not depend only on the shear rate at this location but also on the degree of mobility in the surrounding region. Several constitutive relations have recently been proposed and tested successfully against numerical and experimental results. Here we use discrete elements simulation of 2D shear flows to shed light on the dynamical mechanism underlying non-locality in dense granular flows

Viral nanomotors for packaging of dsDNA and dsRNA

While capsid proteins are assembled around single-stranded genomic DNA or RNA in rod-shaped viruses, the lengthy double-stranded genome of other viruses is packaged forcefully within a preformed protein shell. This entropically unfavourable DNA or RNA packaging is accomplished by an ATP-driven viral nanomotor, which is mainly composed of two components, the oligomerized channel and the packaging enzymes. This intriguing DNA or RNA packaging process has provoked interest among virologists, bacteriologists, biochemists, biophysicists, chemists, structural biologists and computational scientists alike, especially those interested in nanotechnology, nanomedicine, AAA+ family proteins, energy conversion, cell membrane transport, DNA or RNA replication and antiviral therapy. This review mainly focuses on the motors of double-stranded DNA viruses, but double-stranded RNA viral motors are also discussed due to interesting similarities. The novel and ingenious configuration of these nanomotors has inspired the development of biomimetics for nanodevices. Advances in structural and functional studies have increased our understanding of the molecular basis of biological movement to the point where we can begin thinking about possible applications of the viral DNA packaging motor in nanotechnology and medical applications

Computational chemical imaging for cardiovascular pathology: Chemical microscopic imaging accurately determines cardiac transplant rejection

10.1371/journal.pone.0125183PLoS ONE105e012518

Edge elastic properties of defect-free single-layer graphene sheets

10.1063/1.3094878Applied Physics Letters9410-APPL