Milk and bugs educate infant immune systems

Immune-system maturation starts early in life, but studies investigating immune-system education in human infants remain scarce. In a recent issue of Cell, Henrick et al. study early gut microbiota and immune-system development in two infant cohorts. The authors describe that Bifidobacteria can use milk sugars to produce immunoregulatory compounds that induce immune tolerance and reduce intestinal inflammation

Interaction between drugs and the gut microbiome

The human gut microbiome is a complex ecosystem that can mediate the interaction of the human host with their environment. The interaction between gut microbes and commonly used non-antibiotic drugs is complex and bidirectional: gut microbiome composition can be influenced by drugs, but, vice versa, the gut microbiome can also influence an individual's response to a drug by enzymatically transforming the drug's structure and altering its bioavailability, bioactivity or toxicity (pharmacomicrobiomics). The gut microbiome can also indirectly impact an individual's response to immunotherapy in cancer treatment. In this review we discuss the bidirectional interactions between microbes and drugs, describe the changes in gut microbiota induced by commonly used non-antibiotic drugs, and their potential clinical consequences and summarise how the microbiome impacts drug effectiveness and its role in immunotherapy. Understanding how the microbiome metabolises drugs and reduces treatment efficacy will unlock the possibility of modulating the gut microbiome to improve treatment

The maternal gut microbiome during pregnancy and its role in maternal and infant health

There is growing knowledge that the maternal gut microbiome undergoes substantial changes during pregnancy. However, despite the recognition that the maternal gut microbiome influences maternal and infant health, we still have a limited understanding of the clinical and environmental factors that can impact the maternal gut microbiome during pregnancy and the consequences of these changes. Here, we review the current body of knowledge about factors shaping the maternal gut microbiome during pregnancy and its role in the development of pregnancy complications and infant health.</p

Novel rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility locus at 22q12 identified in an extended UK genome-wide association study

© 2014 The Authors. Arthritis & Rheumatology is published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Preparation of polyacetylenes with N-benzylidene-2-hydroxyaniline groups

Byly připraveny následující monoethynylované N-benzyliden-2-hydroxyaniliny: N-(4- ethynylbenzyliden)-2-hydroxyanilin, N-(3-ethynylbenzyliden)-2-hydroxyanilin, N-(4- ethynylbenzyliden)-2-hydroxy-5-nitroanilin a N-(3-ethynylbenzyliden)-2-hydroxy-5- nitroanilin, které se lišily pozicí ethynylové skupiny na benzylidenovém jádře a substitucí hydroxyanilinového jádra. Monoethynylované N-benzyliden-2-hydroxyaniliny byly použity jako monomery řetězové koordinační homo- a kopolymerizace. Homopolymerizací vznikly lineární polyacetylenové homopolymery s N-benzyliden-2-hydroxyanilinovými substituenty. Kopolymerizace se síťovadly typu multiethynylarenů poskytla hustě propojené kopolymerní polyacetylenové sítě. Lineární jednotky sítí nesly N-benzyliden-2-hydroxyanilinové substituenty, propojení mezi řetězci sítí bylo realizováno arenovými spojkami. Texturní parametry připravených sítí výrazně závisely na typu použitých komonomerů. Nejvyšší hodnoty specifických povrchů (~530 m2 /g) byly dosaženy u sítí připravených kopolymerizací N-(4-ethynylbenzyliden)-2-hydroxyanilinu nebo N-(3-ethynylbenzyliden)-2-hydroxyanilinu s 4,4'-diethynylbifenylem použitým jako síťovadlo. Vybrané lineární polymery a polymerní sítě byly metalovány ionty Pd2+ , které byly v polymerech koordinovány k atomům dusíku a kyslíku...The following monoethynylated N-benzylidene-2-hydroxyanilines were prepared: N-(4- ethynylbenzylidene)-2-hydroxyaniline, N-(3-ethynylbenzylidene)-2-hydroxyaniline, N-(4- ethynylbenzylidene)-2-hydroxy-5-nitroaniline and N-(3-ethynylbenzylidene)-2-hydroxy-5- nitroaniline, which differed in the position of the ethynyl group on the benzylidene ring and the substitution of the hydroxyaniline ring. Monoethynylated N-benzylidene-2- hydroxyanilines were used as the monomers for the chain-growth coordination homo- and copolymerization. The homopolymerization resulted in linear polyacetylene homopolymers with N-benzylidene-2-hydroxyaniline substituents. The copolymerization with multiethynylarene-type cross-linkers provided densely cross-linked copolymeric polyacetylene networks. The linear units of the networks carried N-benzylidene-2- hydroxyaniline substituents, the interconnection between the chains of the networks being realized by arene links. The texture parameters of the prepared networks significantly depended on the type of comonomers used. The highest specific surface area values (~530 m2 /g) were achieved with networks prepared by copolymerization of N-(4- ethynylbenzylidene)-2-hydroxyaniline or N-(3-ethynylbenzylidene)-2-hydroxyaniline,with 4,4'-diethynylbiphenyl used as a cross-linker. Selected...Katedra fyzikální a makromol. chemieDepartment of Physical and Macromolecular ChemistryPřírodovědecká fakultaFaculty of Scienc

Multi-omics approaches for better understanding of the downstream effects of genetic risk factors

It is known that person's genome accounts for various phenotypic traits, including disease susceptibility. Studies of common diseases have identified genomic variants that increase or decrease the risk of these diseases.However the mechanism of action of these variants is usually unknown. In order to understand how they work and to identify plausible drug targets it is important to study the effect of genetic variation on the steps that exist between DNA and the phenotype. The first step is transcription of DNA into RNA, which can be represented by the amount of RNA molecules. The effect of genetic variation on RNA levels is studied by correlating genotype and RNA data. In this thesis I used an approach called expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) mapping to study the downstream effects of disease-associated genetic variants on gene expression in order to get insight into disease mechanisms

Association of polymorphic markers rs243865 and rs3025058 with the development of arterial hypertension

Association of polymorphic markers rs243865 and rs3025058 with the development of arterial hypertension Essential hypertension is a multifactorial polygenic disease with a highest incidence in the world. The purpose of the study was to assess the relationship between gene polymorphisms MMP2-1586S>T (rs243865) and -1612 5A/6A MMP3 (rs3025058) with the development of arterial hypertension in population of the Central Chernozem region of Russi

Principles of pharmacological correction of pulmonary arterial hypertension

Prostanoids are a promising group of drugs for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), since they possess not only vasodilating, but also antiplatelet and antiproliferative actions. Therefore, it seems logical to use prostacyclin and its analogs to treat patients with various forms of PA