Chemosensory Contributions of E-Cigarette Additives on Nicotine Use

While rates of smoking combustible cigarettes in the United States have trended down in recent years, use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has dramatically increased, especially among adolescents. The vast majority of e-cigarette users consume “flavored” products that contain a variety of chemosensory-rich additives, and recent literature suggests that these additives have led to the current “teen vaping epidemic.” This review, covering research from both human and rodent models, provides a comprehensive overview of the sensory implications of e-cigarette additives and what is currently known about their impact on nicotine use. In doing so, we specifically address the oronasal sensory contributions of e-cigarette additives. Finally, we summarize the existing gaps in the field and highlight future directions needed to better understand the powerful influence of these additives on nicotine use

O que mudou no cenário canavieiro 30 anos após o levante de Guariba?

Em 1984, em Guariba, SP, ocorreu um grande protesto de boias-frias que resultou em mudanças das condições enfrentadas nas lavouras de cana-de-açúcar. Neste trabalho, para avaliar o que mudou nos últimos 30 anos na paisagem, na forma de manejo da cana-de-açúcar, na vida dos trabalhadores rurais e do município, mapeou-se a mudança de uso e cobertura das terras usando imagens de satélite de 1988 e 2013, que foram interpretadas usando o software ArcGis 10.1 e as ferramentas de análise do ArcToolbox. Há 30 anos, a área de cana-de-açúcar tomava 81% do município (22.037 ha) e atualmente ocupa em torno de 23 mil ha, portanto não houve mudança expressiva, qualitativa e quantitativamente, na paisagem rural. Porém, houve aumento expressivo na área urbana do município, que passou de 581 ha para 1.190 ha, provavelmente em decorrência do êxodo da população rural para a cidade e da fixação, no município, dos antigos migrantes sazonais do Nordeste, que se dedicavam à colheita manual da cana-de-açúcar. A mudança gradativa, nos últimos 30 anos, no sistema da colheita manual de cana queimada para a colheita mecanizada sem queima reduziu de 7.000 para 970 o número de boias-frias e fortaleceu o sindicalismo na região. Trinta anos depois da maior greve rural do setor canavieiro, o transporte dos trabalhadores é feito em ônibus, há equipamentos de proteção, as empresas fornecem facões e os salários melhoraram. Entretanto, novas questões trabalhistas surgiram, como terceirização e jornadas de trabalho irregulares, horas extras ilegais, ausência de intervalos de descanso e trabalho noturno

Mudança de uso e cobertura das terras em municípios do nordeste do Estado de São Paulo.

A região da Alta Mogiana, principal área produtora de café do Estado de São Paulo, vem sofrendo um processo simultâneo de convivência e reestruturação produtiva entre o café e a cana-de-açúcar. Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a declividade, a localização de usinas sucroalcooleiras e, principalmente, a mudança de uso e cobertura das terras nos municípios de Ribeirão Corrente e Cristais Paulista nos últimos 25 anos. O mapeamento dos municípios foi feito usando imagens de satélite obtidas em 1988 e 2013, que foram interpretadas usando o software ArcGis 10.1 e as ferramentas de análise contidas em seu banco de ferramentas, conhecidas como ArcToolbox, para mensurar as áreas de cada cultura. Ribeirão Corrente e Cristais Paulista, que não apresentavam cultivos de cana-de-açúcar em 1988, atualmente apresentam 2.184,6 ha e 3.447,5 ha dessa cultura, respectivamente. No entanto, nos últimos 25 anos, a área cultivada com café também apresentou aumento. Em Ribeirão Corrente, a área plantada com café aumentou de 2.862,5 ha para 6.630,5 ha. Em Cristais Paulista, o aumento foi de 4.401,4 ha para 10.174,1 ha. As declividades entre 0% e 12%, ideais para o cultivo da cana-de-açúcar, representam 92% da área de Ribeirão Corrente e 84% da área de Cristais Paulista. Portanto, ambos os municípios têm condições ótimas para a cultura da cana-de-açúcar, principalmente Cristais Paulista, que apresenta a maior parte das terras, em torno de 40%, ocupadas com pastagem (14.223,3 ha). Constata-se também que as áreas de cana-de-açúcar expandem-se de acordo com a proximidade de usinas instaladas em municípios próximos

A DNA Tool for the Identification of Heavily Exploited Atlantic Billfishes

Due to the morphological similarities among species, the International Commission for the Conservation of the Atlantic Tunas has recommended the use of diagnostic molecular tools to allow for robust species-level identifications of the billfishes. In this study, a protocol for the molecular identification of all six Atlantic billfishes was developed utilizing a PCR–RFLP approach, targeting the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1. A survey of 28 restriction endonucleases identified two enzymes (TaqI and HaeIII) that produced species-specific banding patterns sufficient to distinguish species. The protocol was validated against billfishes captured across their Atlantic distributions

Inferring Phytoplankton, Terrestrial Plant and Bacteria Bulk delta C-13 Values from Compound Specific Analyses of Lipids and Fatty Acids

Stable isotope mixing models in aquatic ecology require delta C-13 values for food web end members such as phytoplankton and bacteria, however it is rarely possible to measure these directly. Hence there is a critical need for improved methods for estimating the delta C-13 ratios of phytoplankton, bacteria and terrestrial detritus from within mixed seston. We determined the delta C-13 values of lipids, phospholipids and biomarker fatty acids and used these to calculate isotopic differences compared to the whole-cell delta C-13 values for eight phytoplankton classes, five bacterial taxa, and three types of terrestrial organic matter (two trees and one grass). The lipid content was higher amongst the phytoplankton (9.5 +/- 4.0%) than bacteria (7.3 +/- 0.8%) or terrestrial matter (3.9 +/- 1.7%). Our measurements revealed that the delta C-13 values of lipids followed phylogenetic classification among phytoplankton (78.2% of variance was explained by class), bacteria and terrestrial matter, and there was a strong correlation between the delta C-13 values of total lipids, phospholipids and individual fatty acids. Amongst the phytoplankton, the isotopic difference between biomarker fatty acids and bulk biomass averaged -10.7 +/- 1.1 parts per thousand for Chlorophyceae and Cyanophyceae, and -6.1 +/- 1.7 parts per thousand for Cryptophyceae, Chrysophyceae and Diatomophyceae. For heterotrophic bacteria and for type I and type II methane-oxidizing bacteria our results showed a -1.3 +/- 1.3 parts per thousand, -8.0 +/- 4.4 parts per thousand, and -3.4 +/- 1.4 parts per thousand delta C-13 difference, respectively, between biomarker fatty acids and bulk biomass. For terrestrial matter the isotopic difference averaged -6.6 +/- 1.2 parts per thousand. Based on these results, the delta C-13 values of total lipids and biomarker fatty acids can be used to determine the delta C-13 values of bulk phytoplankton, bacteria or terrestrial matter with +/- 1.4 parts per thousand uncertainty (i.e., the pooled SD of the isotopic difference for all samples). We conclude that when compound-specific stable isotope analyses become more widely available, the determination of delta C-13 values for selected biomarker fatty acids coupled with established isotopic differences, offers a promising way to determine taxa-specific bulk delta C-13 values for the phytoplankton, bacteria, and terrestrial detritus embedded within mixed seston.Peer reviewe

Principles for the post-GWAS functional characterisation of risk loci

Several challenges lie ahead in assigning functionality to susceptibility SNPs. For example, most effect sizes are small relative to effects seen in monogenic diseases, with per allele odds ratios usually ranging from 1.15 to 1.3. It is unclear whether current molecular biology methods have enough resolution to differentiate such small effects. Our objective here is therefore to provide a set of recommendations to optimize the allocation of effort and resources in order maximize the chances of elucidating the functional contribution of specific loci to the disease phenotype. It has been estimated that 88% of currently identified disease-associated SNP are intronic or intergenic. Thus, in this paper we will focus our attention on the analysis of non-coding variants and outline a hierarchical approach for post-GWAS functional studies

Essential oils yield and composition of Myrtaceae species from Atlantic Forest of South Brazil.

Edition of Abstracts of the 48th International Symposium on Essential Oils, Pécs, Hungary, 2017. Abstracts. Babedio, 2017. ISEO 2017, 10 a 13 set. 2017. OP-15

Remodeling of T Cell Dynamics During Long COVID Is Dependent on Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Several COVID-19 convalescents suffer from the post-acute COVID-syndrome (PACS)/long COVID, with symptoms that include fatigue, dyspnea, pulmonary fibrosis, cognitive dysfunctions or even stroke. Given the scale of the worldwide infections, the long-term recovery and the integrative health-care in the nearest future, it is critical to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms as well as possible predictors of the longitudinal post-COVID-19 responses in convalescent individuals. The immune system and T cell alterations are proposed as drivers of post-acute COVID syndrome. However, despite the number of studies on COVID-19, many of them addressed only the severe convalescents or the short-term responses. Here, we performed longitudinal studies of mild, moderate and severe COVID-19-convalescent patients, at two time points (3 and 6 months from the infection), to assess the dynamics of T cells immune landscape, integrated with patients-reported symptoms. We show that alterations among T cell subsets exhibit different, severity- and time-dependent dynamics, that in severe convalescents result in a polarization towards an exhausted/senescent state of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and perturbances in CD4+ Tregs. In particular, CD8+ T cells exhibit a high proportion of CD57+ terminal effector cells, together with significant decrease of naïve cell population, augmented granzyme B and IFN-γ production and unresolved inflammation 6 months after infection. Mild convalescents showed increased naïve, and decreased central memory and effector memory CD4+ Treg subsets. Patients from all severity groups can be predisposed to the long COVID symptoms, and fatigue and cognitive dysfunctions are not necessarily related to exhausted/senescent state and T cell dysfunctions, as well as unresolved inflammation that was found only in severe convalescents. In conclusion, the post-COVID-19 functional remodeling of T cells could be seen as a two-step process, leading to distinct convalescent immune states at 6 months after infection. Our data imply that attenuation of the functional polarization together with blocking granzyme B and IFN-γ in CD8+ cells might influence post-COVID alterations in severe convalescents. However, either the search for long COVID predictors or any treatment to prevent PACS and further complications is mandatory in all patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and not only in those suffering from severe COVID-19

Genetic inhibition of neurotransmission reveals role of glutamatergic input to dopamine neurons in high-effort behavior

Midbrain dopamine neurons are crucial for many behavioral and cognitive functions. As the major excitatory input, glutamatergic afferents are important for control of the activity and plasticity of dopamine neurons. However, the role of glutamatergic input as a whole onto dopamine neurons remains unclear. Here we developed a mouse line in which glutamatergic inputs onto dopamine neurons are specifically impaired, and utilized this genetic model to directly test the role of glutamatergic inputs in dopamine-related functions. We found that while motor coordination and reward learning were largely unchanged, these animals showed prominent deficits in effort-related behavioral tasks. These results provide genetic evidence that glutamatergic transmission onto dopaminergic neurons underlies incentive motivation, a willingness to exert high levels of effort to obtain reinforcers, and have important implications for understanding the normal function of the midbrain dopamine system.Fil: Hutchison, M. A.. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Gu, X.. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Adrover, Martín Federico. National Institutes of Health; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: Lee, M. R.. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Hnasko, T. S.. University of California at San Diego; Estados UnidosFil: Alvarez, V. A.. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Lu, W.. National Institutes of Health; Estados Unido

4-1BBL-containing leukemic extracellular vesicles promote immunosuppressive effector regulatory T cells

Chronic and acute myeloid leukemia evade immune system surveillance and induce immunosuppression by expanding proleukemic Foxp31 regulatory T cells (Tregs). High levels of immunosuppressive Tregs predict inferior response to chemotherapy, leukemia relapse, and shorter survival. However, mechanisms that promote Tregs in myeloid leukemias remain largely unexplored. Here, we identify leukemic extracellular vesicles (EVs) as drivers of effector proleukemic Tregs. Using mouse model of leukemia-like disease, we found that Rab27adependent secretion of leukemic EVs promoted leukemia engraftment, which was associated with higher abundance of activated, immunosuppressive Tregs. Leukemic EVs attenuated mTOR-S6 and activated STAT5 signaling, as well as evoked significant transcriptomic changes in Tregs. We further identified specific effector signature of Tregs promoted by leukemic EVs. Leukemic EVs-driven Tregs were characterized by elevated expression of effector/tumor Treg markers CD39, CCR8, CD30, TNFR2, CCR4, TIGIT, and IL21R and included 2 distinct effector Treg (eTreg) subsets: CD301CCR8hiTNFR2hi eTreg1 and CD391TIGIThi eTreg2. Finally, we showed that costimulatory ligand 4-1BBL/CD137L, shuttled by leukemic EVs, promoted suppressive activity and effector phenotype of Tregs by regulating expression of receptors such as CD30 and TNFR2. Collectively, our work highlights the role of leukemic extracellular vesicles in stimulation of immunosuppressive Tregs and leukemia growth. We postulate that targeting of Rab27a-dependent secretion of leukemic EVs may be a viable therapeutic approach in myeloid neoplasms