203 research outputs found
OddzOn Products and Derivation of Invention: At Odds with the Purpose of Section 102(f) of the Patent Act of 1952?
Abstract Background Antimicrobial peptides are important components of the host defence with a broad range of functions including direct antimicrobial activity and modulation of inflammation. Lack of cathelin-related antimicrobial peptide (CRAMP) was associated with higher mortality and bacterial burden and impaired neutrophil granulocyte infiltration in a model of pneumococcal meningitis. The present study was designed to characterize the effects of CRAMP deficiency on glial response and phagocytosis after exposure to bacterial stimuli. Methods CRAMP-knock out and wildtype glial cells were exposed to bacterial supernatants from Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitides or the bacterial cell wall components lipopolysaccharide and peptidoglycan. Cell viability, expression of pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators and activation of signal transduction pathways, phagocytosis rate and glial cell phenotype were investigated by means of cell viability assays, immunohistochemistry, real-time RT-PCR and Western blot. Results CRAMP-deficiency was associated with stronger expression of pro-inflammatory and weakened expression of anti-inflammatory cytokines indicating a higher degree of glial cell activation even under resting-state conditions. Furthermore, increased translocation of nuclear factor ‘kappa-light-chain-enhancer’ of activated B-cells was observed and phagocytosis of S. pneumoniae was reduced in CRAMP-deficient microglia indicating impaired antimicrobial activity. Conclusions In conclusion, the present study detected severe alterations of the glial immune response due to lack of CRAMP. The results indicate the importance of CRAMP to maintain and regulate the delicate balance between beneficial and harmful immune response in the brain
Impact Study of Numerical Discretization Accuracy on Parameter Reconstructions and Model Parameter Distributions
In optical nano metrology numerical models are used widely for parameter
reconstructions. Using the Bayesian target vector optimization method we fit a
finite element numerical model to a Grazing Incidence X-Ray fluorescence data
set in order to obtain the geometrical parameters of a nano structured line
grating. Gaussian process, stochastic machine learning surrogate models, were
trained during the reconstruction and afterwards sampled with a Markov chain
Monte Carlo sampler to determine the distribution of the reconstructed model
parameters. The numerical discretization parameters of the used finite element
model impact the numerical discretization error of the forward model. We
investigated the impact of the polynomial order of the finite element ansatz
functions on the reconstructed parameters as well as on the model parameter
distributions. We showed that such a convergence study allows to determine
numerical parameters which allows for efficient and accurate reconstruction
results.Comment: Submitted to Metrologia Focus Issue on MATHMET 2023 conferenc
Proteomic Adaptation of Streptococcus pneumoniae to the Human Antimicrobial Peptide LL-37
Secreted antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are an important part of the human innate immune system and prevent local and systemic infections by inhibiting bacterial growth in a concentration-dependent manner. In the respiratory tract, the cationic peptide LL-37 is one of the most abundant AMPs and capable of building pore complexes in usually negatively charged bacterial membranes, leading to the destruction of bacteria. However, the adaptation mechanisms of several pathogens to LL-37 are already described and are known to weaken the antimicrobial effect of the AMP, for instance, by repulsion, export or degradation of the peptide. This study examines proteome-wide changes in Streptococcus pneumoniae D39, the leading cause of bacterial pneumonia, in response to physiological concentrations of LL-37 by high-resolution mass spectrometry. Our data indicate that pneumococci may use some of the known adaptation mechanisms to reduce the effect of LL-37 on their physiology, too. Additionally, several proteins seem to be involved in resistance to AMPs which have not been related to this process before, such as the teichoic acid flippase TacF (SPD_1128). Understanding colonization- and infection-relevant adaptations of the pneumococcus to AMPs, especially LL-37, could finally uncover new drug targets to weaken the burden of this widespread pathogen
Optimized diamond inverted nanocones for enhanced color center to fiber coupling
Nanostructures can be used for boosting the light outcoupling of color
centers in diamond; however, the fiber coupling performance of these
nanostructures is rarely investigated. Here, we use a finite element method for
computing the emission from color centers in inverted nanocones and the overlap
of this emission with the propagation mode in a single-mode fiber. Using
different figures of merit, the inverted nanocone parameters are optimized to
obtain maximal fiber coupling efficiency, free-space collection efficiency, or
rate enhancement. The optimized inverted nanocone designs show promising
results with 66% fiber coupling or 83% free-space coupling efficiency at the
tin-vacancy center zero-phonon line wavelength of 619 nm. Moreover, when
evaluated for broadband performance, the optimized designs show 55% and 76% for
fiber coupling and free-space efficiencies respectively, for collecting the
full tin-vacancy emission spectrum at room temperature. An analysis of
fabrication insensitivity indicates that these nanostructures are robust
against imperfections. For maximum emission rate into a fiber mode, a design
with a Purcell factor of 2.34 is identified. Finally, possible improvements
offered by a hybrid inverted nanocone, formed by patterning into two different
materials, are investigated, and increases the achievable fiber coupling
efficiency to 71%.Comment: The following article has been accepted by Applied Physics Letters.
After it is published, it will be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.005033
Proteomic Investigation Uncovers Potential Targets and Target Sites of Pneumococcal Serine-Threonine Kinase StkP and Phosphatase PhpP
Like eukaryotes, different bacterial species express one or more Ser/Thr kinases and phosphatases that operate in various signaling networks by catalyzing phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of proteins that can immediately regulate biochemical pathways by altering protein function. The human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae encodes a single Ser/Thr kinase-phosphatase couple known as StkP-PhpP, which has shown to be crucial in the regulation of cell wall synthesis and cell division. In this study, we applied proteomics to further understand the physiological role of pneumococcal PhpP and StkP with an emphasis on phosphorylation events on Ser and Thr residues. Therefore, the proteome of the non-encapsulated D39 strain (WT), a kinase (ΔstkP), and phosphatase mutant (ΔphpP) were compared in a mass spectrometry based label-free quantification experiment. Results show that a loss of function of PhpP causes an increased abundance of proteins in the phosphate uptake system Pst. Quantitative proteomic data demonstrated an effect of StkP and PhpP on the two-component systems ComDE, LiaRS, CiaRH, and VicRK. To obtain further information on the function, targets and target sites of PhpP and StkP we combined the advantages of phosphopeptide enrichment using titanium dioxide and spectral library based data evaluation for sensitive detection of changes in the phosphoproteome of the wild type and the mutant strains. According to the role of StkP in cell division we identified several proteins involved in cell wall synthesis and cell division that are apparently phosphorylated by StkP. Unlike StkP, the physiological function of the co-expressed PhpP is poorly understood. For the first time we were able to provide a list of previously unknown putative targets of PhpP. Under these new putative targets of PhpP are, among others, five proteins with direct involvement in cell division (DivIVA, GpsB) and peptidoglycan biosynthesis (MltG, MreC, MacP)
- …