Dengue Virus Infection of the Aedes aegypti Salivary Gland and Chemosensory Apparatus Induces Genes that Modulate Infection and Blood-Feeding Behavior

The female Aedes aegypti salivary gland plays a pivotal role in bloodmeal acquisition and reproduction, and thereby dengue virus (DENV) transmission. It produces numerous immune factors, as well as immune-modulatory, vasodilatory, and anti-coagulant molecules that facilitate blood-feeding. To assess the impact of DENV infection on salivary gland physiology and function, we performed a comparative genome-wide microarray analysis of the naïve and DENV infection-responsive A. aegypti salivary gland transcriptomes. DENV infection resulted in the regulation of 147 transcripts that represented a variety of functional classes, including several that are essential for virus transmission, such as immunity, blood-feeding, and host-seeking. RNAi-mediated gene silencing of three DENV infection-responsive genes - a cathepsin B, a putative cystatin, and a hypothetical ankyrin repeat-containing protein - significantly modulated DENV replication in the salivary gland. Furthermore, silencing of two DENV infection-responsive odorant-binding protein genes (OBPs) resulted in an overall compromise in blood acquisition from a single host by increasing the time for initiation of probing and the probing time before a successful bloodmeal. We also show that DENV established an extensive infection in the mosquito's main olfactory organs, the antennae, which resulted in changes of the transcript abundance of key host-seeking genes. DENV infection, however, did not significantly impact probing initiation or probing times in our laboratory infection system. Here we show for the first time that the mosquito salivary gland mounts responses to suppress DENV which, in turn, modulates the expression of chemosensory-related genes that regulate feeding behavior. These reciprocal interactions may have the potential to affect DENV transmission between humans

Do hypoxia/normoxia culturing conditions change the neuroregulatory profile of Wharton Jelly mesenchymal stem cells secretome?

Introduction: The use of human umbilical cord Wharton Jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hWJ-MSCs) has been considered a new potential source for future safe applications in regenerative medicine. Indeed, the application of hWJ-MSCs into different animal models of disease, including those from the central nervous system, has shown remarkable therapeutic benefits mostly associated with their secretome. Conventionally, hWJ-MSCs are cultured and characterized under normoxic conditions (21 % oxygen tension), although the oxygen levels within tissues are typically much lower (hypoxic) than these standard culture conditions. Therefore, oxygen tension represents an important environmental factor that may affect the performance of mesenchymal stem cells in vivo. However, the impact of hypoxic conditions on distinct mesenchymal stem cell characteristics, such as the secretome, still remains unclear. Methods: In the present study, we have examined the effects of normoxic (21 % O2) and hypoxic (5 % O2) conditions on the hWJ-MSC secretome. Subsequently, we address the impact of the distinct secretome in the neuronal cell survival and differentiation of human neural progenitor cells. Results: The present data indicate that the hWJ-MSC secretome collected from normoxic and hypoxic conditions displayed similar effects in supporting neuronal differentiation of human neural progenitor cells in vitro. However, proteomic analysis revealed that the use of hypoxic preconditioning led to the upregulation of several proteins within the hWJ-MSC secretome. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the optimization of parameters such as hypoxia may lead to the development of strategies that enhance the therapeutic effects of the secretome for future regenerative medicine studies and applications. © 2015 Teixeira et al.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (Ciência 2007 program and IF Development Grant (AJS); and pre-doctoral fellowships to FGT (SFRH/69637/ 2010) and SIA (SFRH/BD/81495/2011); Canada Research Chairs (LAB) and a SSE Postdoctoral Fellowship (KMP); The National Mass Spectrometry Network (RNEM) (REDE/1506/REM/2005); co-funded by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), ao abrigo do Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional (QREN), através do Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Integrating automatic and interactive method for coronary artery segmentation : let PACS workstation think ahead

Purpose: To provide an efficient method to extract useful information from the increasing amount of coronary CTA. Methods: A quantitative coronary CTA analysis tool was built on OsiriX, which integrates both fully automatic and interactive methods for coronary artery extraction. The computational power of an ordinary PC is exploited by running the non-supervised coronary artery segmentation and centerline tracking in the background as soon as the images are received. When the user opens the data, the software provides a real-time interactive analysis environment. Results: The average overlap between the centerline created in our software and the reference standard was 96.0%. The average distance between them was 0.38 mm. The automatic procedure runs for 3-5 min as a single-thread application in background. Interactive processing takes 3 min in average. Conclusion: In preliminary experiments, the software achieved higher efficiency than the former interactive method, and reasonable accuracy compared to manual vessel extraction.The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com: Chunliang Wang and Örjan Smedby, Integrating automatic and interactive method for coronary artery segmentation: let PACS workstation think ahead, 2011, International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, (5), 3, 275-285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11548-009-0393-z Copyright: Springer Science Business Media http://www.springerlink.com/</p

Preclinical proof of concept for the first [18F]-Nanocyclix®TKI-PET radiotracer targeting activated EGFR positive lung tumors

LDM TEPInternational audienc

Performance analysis of a STEMI network: prognostic impact of the type of first medical contact facility

Prognosis in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is determined by delay in primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). The impact of first medical contact (FMC) facility type on reperfusion delays and mortality remains controversial.We performed a prospective registry of primary coronary intervention (PCI)-treated STEMI patients (2010-2020) in the Codi Infart STEMI network. We analyzed 1-year all-cause mortality depending on the FMC facility type: emergency medical service (EMS), community hospital (CH), PCI hospital (PCI-H), or primary care center (PCC).We included 18?332 patients (EMS 34.3%; CH 33.5%; PCI-H 12.3%; PCC 20.0%). Patients with Killip-Kimball classes III-IV were: EMS 8.43%, CH 5.54%, PCI-H 7.51%, PCC 3.76% (P?<?.001). All comorbidities and first medical assistance complications were more frequent in the EMS and PCI-H groups (P?<?.05) and were less frequent in the PCC group (P?<?.05 for most variables). The PCI-H group had the shortest FMC-to-PCI delay (median 82?minutes); the EMS group achieved the shortest total ischemic time (median 151?minutes); CH had the longest reperfusion delays (P?<?.001). In an adjusted logistic regression model, the PCI-H and CH groups were associated with higher 1-year mortality, OR, 1.22 (95%CI, 1.00-1.48; P?=?.048), and OR, 1.17 (95%CI 1.02-1.36; P?=?.030), respectively, while the PCC group was associated with lower 1-year mortality than the EMS group, OR,?0.71 (95%CI 0.58-0.86; P?<?.001).FMC with PCI-H and CH was associated with higher adjusted 1-year mortality than FMC with EMS. The PCC group had a much lower intrinsic risk and was associated with better outcomes despite longer revascularization delays.Copyright © 2023 Sociedad Española de Cardiología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved