123 research outputs found

    Bilateral multiple coronary artery fistulae with angina pectoris and syncope

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    AbstractCoronary artery fistulae (CAF) are rare cardiac anomalies. They frequently arise from the right coronary artery (RCA) with fistulae originating from the left anterior descending artery (LAD) or from multiple arteries being less common. They do not usually cause symptoms and are incidentally diagnosed on routine cardiac imaging. We report a 70years old male patient presenting with chest pain and syncope during physical activity. Diagnostic coronary angiography revealed bilateral multiple CAF originating from both the LAD and RCA. As high blood flow output was recognized in these large vascular anomalies contributing to ‘steal phenomenon’ surgical intervention was planned. This manuscript aimed to present the case and review the current literature for the management and treatment of these coronary anomalies

    Metabolic characterization of the natural progression of chronic hepatitis B

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    Background: Worldwide, over 350 million people are chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and are at increased risk of developing progressive liver diseases. The confinement of HBV replication to the liver, which also acts as the central hub for metabolic and nutritional regulation, emphasizes the interlinked nature of host metabolism and the disease. Still, the metabolic processes operational during the distinct clinical phases of a chronic HBV infection-immune tolerant, immune active, inactive carrier, and HBeAg-negative hepatitis phases-remains unexplored. Methods: To investigate this, we conducted a targeted metabolomics approach on serum to determine the metabolic progression over the clinical phases of chronic HBV infection, using patient samples grouped based on their HBV DNA, alanine aminotransferase, and HBeAg serum levels. Results: Our data illustrate the strength of metabolomics to provide insight into the metabolic dysregulation experienced during chronic HBV. The immune tolerant phase is characterized by the speculated viral hijacking of the glycerol-3-phosphate-NADH shuttle, explaining the reduced glycerophospholipid and increased plasmalogen species, indicating a strong link to HBV replication. The persisting impairment of the choline glycerophospholipids, even during the inactive carrier phase with minimal HBV activity, alludes to possible metabolic imprinting effects. The progression of chronic HBV is associated with increased concentrations of very long chain triglycerides together with citrulline and ornithine, reflective of a dysregulated urea cycle peaking in the HBV envelope antigen-negative phase. Conclusions: The work presented here will aid in future studies to (i) validate and understand the implication of these metabolic changes using a thorough systems biology approach, (ii) monitor and predict disease severity, as well as (iii) determine the therapeutic value of the glycerol-3-phosphate-NADH shuttle

    Особливості формування етнічного складу селянської верстви Степового Побужжя

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    In this short paper we sketch a brief introduction to our Krimp algorithm. Moreover, we briefly discuss some of the large body of follow up research. Pointers to the relevant papers are provided in the bibliography

    Metabolic characterization of the natural progression of chronic hepatitis B

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    BACKGROUND\nWorldwide, over 350 million people are chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and are at increased risk of developing progressive liver diseases. The confinement of HBV replication to the liver, which also acts as the central hub for metabolic and nutritional regulation, emphasizes the interlinked nature of host metabolism and the disease. Still, the metabolic processes operational during the distinct clinical phases of a chronic HBV infection-immune tolerant, immune active, inactive carrier, and HBeAg-negative hepatitis phases-remains unexplored.\nMETHODS\nTo investigate this, we conducted a targeted metabolomics approach on serum to determine the metabolic progression over the clinical phases of chronic HBV infection, using patient samples grouped based on their HBV DNA, alanine aminotransferase, and HBeAg serum levels.\nRESULTS\nOur data illustrate the strength of metabolomics to provide insight into the metabolic dysregulation experienced during chronic HBV. The immune tolerant phase is characterized by the speculated viral hijacking of the glycerol-3-phosphate-NADH shuttle, explaining the reduced glycerophospholipid and increased plasmalogen species, indicating a strong link to HBV replication. The persisting impairment of the choline glycerophospholipids, even during the inactive carrier phase with minimal HBV activity, alludes to possible metabolic imprinting effects. The progression of chronic HBV is associated with increased concentrations of very long chain triglycerides together with citrulline and ornithine, reflective of a dysregulated urea cycle peaking in the HBV envelope antigen-negative phase.\nCONCLUSIONS\nThe work presented here will aid in future studies to (i) validate and understand the implication of these metabolic changes using a thorough systems biology approach, (ii) monitor and predict disease severity, as well as (iii) determine the therapeutic value of the glycerol-3-phosphate-NADH shuttle.Analytical BioScience

    Tropical peatland biogeochemistry along an ecological transect: the enigmatic fate of organic matter

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    This is the final version. Available from the European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers via the DOI in this record. Peatlands play a pivotal role in the global carbon cycle. Despite only covering 3% of the world’s surface, peatlands hold 500–700 Gt of carbon (Page & Baird, 2016). These dense carbon stocks are sensitive to direct and/or indirect human intervention and can quickly turn from carbon sink to carbon source when perturbed. Additionally, peat deposits are crucial for our understanding of terrestrial environmental change by recording environmental parameters such as temperature and biogeochemical cycling through geological time (Naafs et al., 2019). Constraining the magnitude and rate of change during past periods of climatic change in the terrestrial realm is essential for accurately predicting the effects of anthropogenic global warming. Most peatland studies have focussed on reconstructing environmental parameters such as water table depth, temperature, vegetation, and pH, because those are readily available through quick observation or meteorological data. However, changes in the nature of the organic matter (OM) is often harder to characterize but is imperative to the tight balance between accumulation and degradation of peat. Especially in tropical peatlands, the nature of OM is largely understudied. Tropical peats are more carbon-dense compared to boreal peatlands, have a more active methane cycle, and can have a wider range of vegetation, which makes understanding their biogeochemistry vitally important. We investigated the biogeochemistry of a tropical peat along an ecological transect consisting of 5 sites: mangrove, mixed tropical forest, hardwood tropical forest, stunted forest with sawgrass and ombrotrophic (i.e., rain-fed) sawgrass bog. From each site, a 1–2 meter core was collected and analysed by pyrolysis-GC/MS, GC/MS (of apolar and polar fractions), 16S rRNA genomic profiling and, UPLC-QToF-MS. Our unique dataset allows for a direct comparison of the biogeochemistry of tropical peats under different vegetation and nutrient concentrations, but constant temperature

    2-Methyl-pentanoyl-carnitine (2-MPC) : a urine biomarker for patent Ascaris lumbricoides infection

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    Infections with intestinal worms, such as Ascaris lumbricoides, affect hundreds of millions of people in all tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Through large-scale deworming programs, World Health Organization aims to reduce moderate-to-heavy intensity infections below 1%. Current diagnosis and monitoring of these control programs are solely based on the detection of worm eggs in stool. Here we describe how metabolome analysis was used to identify the A. lumbricoides-specific urine biomarker 2-methyl pentanoyl carnitine (2-MPC). This biomarker was found to be 85.7% accurate in determining infection and 90.5% accurate in determining a moderate-to-heavy infection. Our results also demonstrate that there is a correlation between 2-MPC levels in urine and A. lumbricoides DNA detected in stool. Furthermore, the levels of 2-MPC in urine were shown to rapidly and strongly decrease upon administration of a standard treatment (single oral dose of 400 mg albendazole). In an Ascaris suum infection model in pigs, it was found that, although 2-MPC levels were much lower compared to humans, there was a significant association between urinary 2-MPC levels and both worm counts (p=0.023) and the number of eggs per gram (epg) counts (p<0.001). This report demonstrates that urinary 2-MPC can be considered an A. lumbricoides-specific biomarker that can be used to monitor infection intensity

    Generalized Matrix Factorizations as a Unifying Framework for Pattern Set Mining: Complexity Beyond Blocks

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    Abstract. Matrix factorizations are a popular tool to mine regularities from data. There are many ways to interpret the factorizations, but one particularly suited for data mining utilizes the fact that a matrix product can be interpreted as a sum of rank-1 matrices. Then the factorization of a matrix becomes the task of finding a small number of rank-1 matrices, sum of which is a good representation of the original matrix. Seen this way, it becomes obvious that many problems in data mining can be expressed as matrix factorizations with correct definitions of what a rank-1 matrix and a sum of rank-1 matrices mean. This paper develops a unified theory, based on generalized outer product operators, that encompasses many pattern set mining tasks. The focus is on the computational aspects of the theory and studying the computational complexity and approximability of many problems related to generalized matrix factorizations. The results immediately apply to a large number of data mining problems, and hopefully allow generalizing future results and algorithms, as well.

    Chaperoning of the histone octamer by the acidic domain of DNA repair factor APLF

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    Nucleosome assembly requires the coordinated deposition of histone complexes H3-H4 and H2A-H2B to form a histone octamer on DNA. In the current paradigm, specific histone chaperones guide the deposition of first H3-H4 and then H2A-H2B. Here, we show that the acidic domain of DNA repair factor APLF (APLF AD) can assemble the histone octamer in a single step and deposit it on DNA to form nucleosomes. The crystal structure of the APLF AD-histone octamer complex shows that APLF AD tethers the histones in their nucleosomal conformation. Mutations of key aromatic anchor residues in APLF AD affect chaperone activity in vitro and in cells. Together, we propose that chaperoning of the histone octamer is a mechanism for histone chaperone function at sites where chromatin is temporarily disrupted
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