A case of muscular bridge resulting in myocardial infraction following heavy effort: a case report

Muscular bridge (MB) is transient systolic coronary blockage occurring due to exposure of a portion of epicardial coronary arteries to compression during systole as a result of tunneling into the myocardium. Although rare, these patients may develop angina pectoris, severe arrhythmia and myocardial infraction (MI). A 30-year-old male patient presented to the emergency with severe pain with an onset at the front part of the chest followed by spreading to the back and arms, during a football match. The investigations performed revealed anterior wall infraction and thus thrombolytic treatment was administered. Patient's history was normal except for smoking. The patient was detected to play football occasionally since his childhood; however, we learnt that he had started playing without warm-up exercises at the last football match. Coronary angiography detected a lesion with an onset in the left anterior descending artery following the 1st diagonal and extending to the 2nd diagonal and exhibiting a significant contraction during systole. The patient was considered to have myocardial infraction secondary to myocardial bridge. Sudden deaths frequently occur in competitive sports requiring heavy effort

Recent advances in Pichia pastoris as host for heterologous expression system for lipases : a review

The production of heterologous lipases is one of the most promising strategies to increase the productivity of the bioprocesses and to reduce costs, with the final objective that more industrial lipase applications could be implemented. In this chapter, an overview of the new success in synthetic biology, with traditional molecular genetic techniques and bioprocess engineering in the last 5 years in the cell factory Pichia pastoris, the most promising host system for heterologous lipase production, is presented. The goals get on heterologous Candida antarctica, Rhizopus oryzae, and Candida rugosa lipases, three of the most common lipases used in biocatalysis, are showed. Finally, new cell factories producing heterologous lipases are presented

Impacts of climate change on plant diseases – opinions and trends

There has been a remarkable scientific output on the topic of how climate change is likely to affect plant diseases in the coming decades. This review addresses the need for review of this burgeoning literature by summarizing opinions of previous reviews and trends in recent studies on the impacts of climate change on plant health. Sudden Oak Death is used as an introductory case study: Californian forests could become even more susceptible to this emerging plant disease, if spring precipitations will be accompanied by warmer temperatures, although climate shifts may also affect the current synchronicity between host cambium activity and pathogen colonization rate. A summary of observed and predicted climate changes, as well as of direct effects of climate change on pathosystems, is provided. Prediction and management of climate change effects on plant health are complicated by indirect effects and the interactions with global change drivers. Uncertainty in models of plant disease development under climate change calls for a diversity of management strategies, from more participatory approaches to interdisciplinary science. Involvement of stakeholders and scientists from outside plant pathology shows the importance of trade-offs, for example in the land-sharing vs. sparing debate. Further research is needed on climate change and plant health in mountain, boreal, Mediterranean and tropical regions, with multiple climate change factors and scenarios (including our responses to it, e.g. the assisted migration of plants), in relation to endophytes, viruses and mycorrhiza, using long-term and large-scale datasets and considering various plant disease control methods

Genetic variability of hepatitis C virus before and after combined therapy of interferon plus ribavirin

We present an analysis of the selective forces acting on two hepatitis C virus genome regions previously postulated to be involved in the viral response to combined antiviral therapy. One includes the three hypervariable regions in the envelope E2 glycoprotein, and the other encompasses the PKR binding domain and the V3 domain in the NS5A region. We used a cohort of 22 non-responder patients to combined therapy (interferon alpha-2a plus ribavirin) for which samples were obtained before initiation of therapy and after 6 or/and 12 months of treatment. A range of 25-100 clones per patient, genome region and time sample were sequenced. These were used to detect general patterns of adaptation, to identify particular adaptation mechanisms and to analyze the patterns of evolutionary change in both genome regions. These analyses failed to detect a common adaptive mechanism for the lack of response to antiviral treatment in these patients. On the contrary, a wide range of situations were observed, from patients showing no positively selected sites to others with many, and with completely different topologies in the reconstructed phylogenetic trees. Altogether, these results suggest that viral strategies to evade selection pressure from the immune system and antiviral therapies do not result from a single mechanism and they are likely based on a range of different alternatives, in which several different changes, or their combination, along the HCV genome confer viruses the ability to overcome strong selective [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

Oral intake of Lactobacillus pentosus strain b240 accelerates salivary immunoglobulin A secretion in the elderly: A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Immunoglobulin A (IgA) secretion in saliva decreases with age and may be the cause of increased vulnerability of the elderly to respiratory infections. The effect of oral intake of lactic acid bacteria on salivary secretory IgA (SIgA) in the elderly has not been reported. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the acceleration of salivary SIgA secretion by oral intake of <it>Lactobacillus pentosus </it>strain b240 (b240) in the elderly.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 80 healthy elderly individuals were randomly allocated to either an intervention (i.e., b240) or a control (i.e., placebo) group. The elderly individuals in the b240 group were given a sterile water beverage (125 mL) containing heat-killed b240 (4 × 10⁹cells), while those in the placebo group were given only a sterile water beverage (125 mL); both groups received their respective beverages once daily for 12 weeks. Saliva was collected before initiation of the study and every 2 weeks thereafter. Saliva flow rate and SIgA concentration were determined, and the SIgA secretion rate was calculated. The mean salivary SIgA secretion rate in the b240 group steadily increased until week 4 (exhibiting a 20% elevation relative to that at week 0), and then remained stable until week 12. Changes in SIgA secretion rate over the intervention period were significantly greater in the b240 group than in the placebo group. The treatment groups exhibited no significant differences in adverse events.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Oral intake of <it>L. pentosus </it>strain b240 for 12 weeks significantly accelerated salivary SIgA secretion, thereby indicating its potential utility in the improvement of mucosal immunity and resistance against infection in the elderly.</p

Patterns and drivers of tree Mortality in Iberian Forests: climatic effects are modified by competition

Tree mortality is a key process underlying forest dynamics and community assembly. Understanding how tree mortality is driven by simultaneous drivers is needed to evaluate potential effects of climate change on forest composition. Using repeat-measure information fromc.400,000 trees from the Spanish Forest Inventory, we quantified the relative importance of tree size, competition, climate and edaphic conditions on tree mortality of 11 species, and explored the combined effect of climate and competition. Tree mortality was affected by all of these multiple drivers, especially tree size and asymmetric competition, and strong interactions between climate and competition were found. All species showed L-shaped mortality patterns (i.e. showed decreasing mortality with tree size), but pines were more sensitive to asymmetric competition than broadleaved species. Among climatic variables, the negative effect of temperature on tree mortality was much larger than the effect of precipitation. Moreover, the effect of climate (mean annual temperature and annual precipitation) on tree mortality was aggravated at high competition levels for all species, but especially for broadleaved species. The significant interaction between climate and competition on tree mortality indicated that global change in Mediterranean regions, causing hotter and drier conditions and denser stands, could lead to profound effects on forest structure and composition. Therefore, to evaluate the potential effects of climatic change on tree mortality, forest structure must be considered, since two systems of similar composition but different structure could radically differ in their response to climatic conditions

Current findings for recurring mutations in acute myeloid leukemia

The development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a multistep process that requires at least two genetic abnormalities for the development of the disease. The identification of genetic mutations in AML has greatly advanced our understanding of leukemogenesis. Recently, the use of novel technologies, such as massively parallel DNA sequencing or high-resolution single-nucleotide polymorphism arrays, has allowed the identification of several novel recurrent gene mutations in AML. The aim of this review is to summarize the current findings for the identification of these gene mutations (Dnmt, TET2, IDH1/2, NPM1, ASXL1, etc.), most of which are frequently found in cytogenetically normal AML. The cooperative interactions of these molecular aberrations and their interactions with class I/II mutations are presented. The prognostic and predictive significances of these aberrations are also reviewed

Detection and elimination of cellular bottlenecks in protein-producing yeasts

Yeasts are efficient cell factories and are commonly used for the production of recombinant proteins for biopharmaceutical and industrial purposes. For such products high levels of correctly folded proteins are needed, which sometimes requires improvement and engineering of the expression system. The article summarizes major breakthroughs that led to the efficient use of yeasts as production platforms and reviews bottlenecks occurring during protein production. Special focus is given to the metabolic impact of protein production. Furthermore, strategies that were shown to enhance secretion of recombinant proteins in different yeast species are presented