Berberine improves central memory formation of CD8+ T cells: Implications for design of natural product-based vaccines

Berberine (BBR) as one of the most effective natural products has been increasingly used to treat various chronic diseases due to its immunosuppressive/tolerogenic activities. However, it is unknown if BBR can be applied without abrogating the efforts of vaccination. Here we show that priming of CD8+ T cells in the presence of BBR lead to improved central memory formation (Tcm) with substantially reduced effector proliferation, primarily orchestrated through activation of AMPK and Stat5. Tcm derived from vaccinated mice fed with BBR were able to adoptively transfer protective immunity to naïve recipients. Vaccination of BBR-fed mice conferred better memory protection against infection without losing immediate effector efficacy, suggesting appreciable benefits from using BBR in vaccination. Thus, our study may help to lay the groundwork for mechanistic understanding of the immunomodulatory effects of natural products and their potential use as adjuvant that allows the design of novel vaccines with more desirable properties.

Enhanced shoot investment makes invasive plants exhibit growth advantages in high nitrogen conditions

Abstract Resource amendments commonly promote plant invasions, raising concerns over the potential consequences of nitrogen (N) deposition; however, it is unclear whether invaders will benefit from N deposition more than natives. Growth is among the most fundamental inherent traits of plants and thus good invaders may have superior growth advantages in response to resource amendments. We compared the growth and allocation between invasive and native plants in different N regimes including controls (ambient N concentrations). We found that invasive plants always grew much larger than native plants in varying N conditions, regardless of growth- or phylogeny-based analyses, and that the former allocated more biomass to shoots than the latter. Although N addition enhanced the growth of invasive plants, this enhancement did not increase with increasing N addition. Across invasive and native species, changes in shoot biomass allocation were positively correlated with changes in whole-plant biomass; and the slope of this relationship was greater in invasive plants than native plants. These findings suggest that enhanced shoot investment makes invasive plants retain a growth advantage in high N conditions relative to natives, and also highlight that future N deposition may increase the risks of plant invasions.

Resumo As alterações de recursos geralmente promovem invasões de plantas, suscitando preocupações quanto às conseqüências potenciais da deposição de nitrogênio (N); No entanto, não está claro se os invasores se beneficiarão da deposição de N mais do que com os nativos. O crescimento é um dos traços inerentes mais fundamentais das plantas e, portanto, os bons invasores podem ter vantagens de crescimento superiores em resposta a alterações de recursos. Comparamos o crescimento e a alocação entre plantas invasivas e nativas em diferentes regimes de N, incluindo controles (concentrações ambientais de N). Descobrimos que as plantas invasivas sempre cresceram muito mais do que as plantas nativas em diferentes condições de N, independentemente das análises baseadas em crescimento ou filogenia, e que o primeiro atribuiu mais biomassa aos rebentos do que o segundo. Embora N aumentou o crescimento de plantas invasivas, esse aumento não aumentou com o aumento da adição de N. Através das espécies invasivas e nativas, as mudanças na alocação da biomassa do extrato foram correlacionadas positivamente com as mudanças na biomassa da planta inteira; e a inclinação desse relacionamento foi maior em plantas invasivas do que plantas nativas. Essas descobertas sugerem que o aumento do investimento em lançamentos faz com que as plantas invasivas mantenham uma vantagem de crescimento em altas condições de N em relação aos nativos, e também destacar que a futura deposição de N pode aumentar os riscos de invasões de plantas.

use of -magnetic resonance spectroscopy in studying radiation-induced injury of the brain in elderly and young patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Background: This study aims to investigate the metabolic characteristics of radiotherapy-induced temporal lobe injury in elderly patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma using

Materials and Methods: Data were collected from 21 elderly patients and 33 young patients before and during therapy with different radiation dosages [20, 40, and 60 Gy] The Student's t-test was used to compare the 1H -MRS-based N-acetyl aspartate /Creatine [NAA/Cr], Choline/Creatine [Cho/ Cr], and NAA/Cho ratios in the temporal lobes

Results: Statistically significant differences in the NAA/Cr and NAA/Cho ratios was found between the two groups [P < 0.05] at 20, 40, and 60 Gy. The Cho/Cr ratios [20/40/60 Gy] were 1.82 +/- 0.16/1.61 +/- 0.29/1.37 +/- 0.13 and 1.77 +/- 0.19/1.48 +/- 0.17/1.06 +/- 0.14 in the elderly and young patients, respectively. We found significant differences between the two groups at the dosages of 40 and 60 Gy [P<0.05]. The decrease in the NAA/Cr and NAA/Cho ratios in the elderly group was significantly higher than that in the young patients with dosages of 20, 40, and 60 Gy. The decrease in the Cho/Cr ratio in the elderly group [2.15%/11.29%/12.90%] was significantly lower than that in the young patients [3.30%/15.93%/17.58%]

Conclusion: Under the same radiotherapy pattern and radiation dosage, the injury to the neurons in the temporal lobes was significantly greater in elderly patients than that in young patients. The intervention conducted in elderly patients at a dosage of 20 Gy might help minimize the injury to the neurons?

Radio-protective effect of hydrogen rich water combined with amifostine in mice

Background: Hydrogen has been demonstrated can selectively reduce the hydroxyl, which is the main cause of ionizing radiation-induced damage. Amifostine [AM] is the only radioprotective drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in radiotherapy. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the combined radio-protective effect of hydrogen rich water [HRW] and AM. Materials and Methods: Male ICR mice were treated intragastrically with HRW or/and intraperitoneally with AM 30 minutes prior to 9.0 Gy whole body irradiation from a [60]Co source [dose rate 0.96Gy/min]. Then the survival rate for 30 days, the hematological parameters, the Clinical chemistry parameters and the bone marrow nucleated cells were examined. Results: We found that the mice treated with HRW and AM before irradiation could increase the 30-day survival rate and improve the body weight better than the HRW or AM treatment alone group and irradiation alone group. Hematological test and Clinical chemistry assays also showed the same results that HRW combined AM could better improve the recovery of hemopoietic system and alleviate the detrimental effects of radiation. Conclusion: The results indicate that the combined application of HRW and AM may be a better method for radiation therapy

Relationship between white spot syndrome virus [WSSV] loads and characterizations of water quality in Litopenaeus vannamei culture ponds during the tropical storm

An in-situ experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of tropical storm on the white spot syndrome virus [WSSV] loads in Litopenaeus vannamei rearing ponds. White spot syndrome virus loads, heterotrophic bacteria, Vibrio and water quality [including temperature, dissolved oxygen [DO], salinity, pH, NH4-N, and NO2-N] were continually monitored through one tropical storm. The WSSV loads decreased when tropical storm made landfall, and substantially increased when typhoon passed. The variation of WSSV loads was correlated with DO, temperature, heterotrophic bacteria count, and ammonia-N concentrations. These results suggested that maintaining high level DO and promoting heterotrophic bacteria growth in the shrimp ponds might prevent the diseases' outbreak after the landfall of tropical storm

Distribution and diversity of coliform bacteria in estuary of jiahe river, china

Waterborne outbreaks of pathogenic bacteria from contaminated water are serious threats for public health. Coliform bacteria have been regarded as one of the most important indicators for monitoring pathogenic bacteria. To address potential pathogenic bacterial outbreaks, the distribution and diversity of coliform bacteria in Jiahe river, which flows through densely-populated urban area in China, were detected. Escherichia Coli and other coliform bacteria were counted using the membrane filter technique to describe the distribution of the coliform bacteria. Phylogenetic analysis was applied to investigate the diversity of the coliform bacteria. The results suggested that the quantities of coliform bacteria varied greatly between five sampling sites with the highest value at site YT4 and the lowest value at site YT2. Highest concentrations of E. coli and other coliform bacteria were also observed at YT4, while the lowest value was detected at sites YT3 and YT2, respectively. Various coliform bacteria were classified by phylogenetic analysis, including Citrobacter, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, and Raoultella. Components of coliform bacteria affiliated into these four genera were various in all sampling sites. The statistical analysis suggested that the distribution of coliform bacteria were remarkably influenced by total bacteria amount. Multiple environmental parameters were proved to affect the diversity of coliform bacteria. The results of this study revealed the correlation between coliform bacteria and the environmental parameters, which is important for predicting and preventing waterborne transmission of pathogenic bacteria

Application of pulsed field gel electrophoresis and ribotyping as genotypic methods versus phenotypic methods for typing of nosocomial infections caused by pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from surgical wards in suez canal university hospital

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen causing nosocomial infections in many hospitals. The aim of this study was to compare the different epidemiological typing techniques and their effectiveness in typing and discrimination of nosocomial Pseudomonas aeroginosa isolates

Methods: Seventy eight confirmed nosocomial Pseudomonus aeroginosa out of 1520 different sample [nosocomial infections and environmental samples] were collected during a period of one year. Six typing methods were evaluated, utilizing the confirmed 78 Pseudomonas strains, to assess their usefulness as tools to study the bacterial diversity. The methods used were antibiogram, pyocin typing, serotyping, extracellular enzyme typing, automated ribotyping and pulsed field gel electrophoresis [PFGE

Results: The distinctive capacity of four phenotyping methods was determined and compared to PFGE. Resistance to the antibiotics tested was in the 37.2% to 98.7% range; Imipenem was the most effective, whereas augmentin, carbenicillin and ceftazidime were the least effective antibiotics. Antibiogram for 78 isolates discriminate 13 different patterns

Pulsed field gel electrophoresis yielded 56 distinct types of P.aeruginosa with 100% distinction capacity [78/78] as all the strains were typable. Compared to PFGE, the distinctive capacities were 88.5% [69/78] for serotyping, 91% [71/78] for Pyocin typing and 100% [78/78] for automated ribotyping analysis. The results obtained in PFGE, were the easiest to read and interpret and most discriminating [0.99], followed by the pyocin typing [0.96], whereas ribotyping had [0.90] discriminatory power

Conclusion: Our results indicated that P.aeruginosa infections in Suez Canal University Hospital, mainly affect the hospitalized patients in orthopedic wards, surgical wards and burn units and played a great role in hospital associated infections. Imipenem was the best antibiotic as far as bacterial resistance is considered. Although, the lack of major PFGE type confirmed that no P.aeruginosa outbreak, typing results showed that PFGE was the best used typing method regarding high typability, sensitivity and discriminatory power. The used typing methods showed that cross transmission and treatment failure were the two main problems for spread of nosocomial infections inside surgical wards and should be considered to prevent this bacterial infection in medical units

Prediction of the aquatic toxicity of phenols to tetrahymena pyriformis from molecular descriptors

The purpose of this work is to develop robust and interpretable quantitative structure "activity relationship [QSAR] odels for assessing the aquatic toxicity of phenols using a combined set of descriptors encompassing the logP and recently developed variables [Monconn-Z variables]. The used dataset consists of 250 chemicals with toxicity data to the ciliate Tetrahymena pyriformis. For each compound, a total of 197 physico-chemical descriptors including logP and Molconn-Z descriptors were calculated. Multiple linear regression [LR] and Partial least squares [PLS] were used to obtain QSARs and the predictive performance of the proposed models were verified using external statistical validations. The results of stepwise-MLR analysis reveal that the AlogP, MlogP and ClogP models were not successful for the prediction of aquatic toxicity for all the compounds. And by using the logP [AlogP and MlogP] with Molconn-Z descriptors, the obtained QSARs were not successful enough until removal of some outliers. Two optimal QSARs were built with R[2] of 0.71 and 0.70 for the training sets and the external validation Q[2] of 0.69 and 0.68 respectively. All these selected descriptors in the best models account for the hydrophobic [AlogP, MlogP] and other electrotopological properties like SHCsatu, Scarboxylicacid, SHBa, gmax and nelem. PLS produces a good model using all the calculated descriptors with R[2] of 0.78 and Q[2] of 0.64, and hydrophobic and electrotopological descriptors show importance for the prediction of phenolic toxicity

Volatile organic compounds decomposition using nonthermal plasma coupled with a combination of catalysts

A series of experiments were performed for toluene decomposition from a gaseous influent at normal temperature and atmospheric pressure by nonthermal plasma coupled with a combination of catalysts technology. Nonthermal plasma was generated by dielectric barrier discharge. gamma -Al[2]O[3]3 was used to be a sorbent and a catalyst carrier. Nanocatalysts were MnO[2]/ gamma-Al[2]O[3] coupled with modified ferroelectric of nano-Ba[0.8]Sr[0.2]Zr[0.1]Ti[0.9]O[3]. gamma-Al[2]O[3] played an important role in prolonging reaction time of nonthermal plasma with volatile organic compounds molecules. MnO[2]/ gamma-Al[2]O[3] has an advantage for ozone removal, while nano-Ba[0.8]Sr[0.2]Zr[0.1]Ti[0.9]O[3] is a kind of good ferroelectric material for improving energy efficiency. Thus these packed materials were incorporated together to strengthen nonthermal plasma power for volatile organic compounds decomposition. The results showed the synergistic technology resulted in greater enhancement of toluene removal and energy efficiencies and a better inhibition for ozone formation in the gas exhaust. Based on the data analysis of the Fourier transforms infrared spectrum, the reaction process of toluene decomposition and the mechanism of synergistic effect are discussed. The results showed in a complex oxidation mechanism of toluene via several pathways, producing either ringretaining or ringopening products. The final products were carbon dioxide and water

Gaseous phase benzene decomposition by non-thermal plasma coupled with nano titania catalyst

Synergistic effect of atmospheric non-thermal plasma generated by dielectric barrier discharge and nano titania photocatalyst for benzene decomposition was tested. The paper indicated the effect of photocatalyst on removal efficiency of benzene, the compare of photocatalyst characteristic in different high temperatures by heat treatment, analysis of by-products. The results showed that the effect of degradation was visible by added photocatalyst in the plasma reactor. When concentration of benzene was 600 mg/m[3] and electric field strength was 10 kV/cm, the removal efficiency of benzene was increased up to 81% without photocatalyst. At the same condition, the removal efficiency was increased to 15% higher with photocatalyst. Nano titania crystal was anatase crystal in 450 °C heat treatment which is best for benzene removal. The plasma reactor packed with photocatalyst shows a better selectivity of carbon dioxide than that without photocatalyst. By-products are mostly carbon dioxide, water and a small quantity of carbon monoxide

Decomposition of benzene by non-thermal plasma processing: Photocatalyst and ozone effect

Plasma technology has some shortcomings, such as higher energy consumption and byproducts produced in the reaction process. However non-thermal plasma associated with catalyst can resolve these problems. Therefore this kind of technology was paied more and more attention to treat waste gas. A hybrid system comprising a non-thermal plasma reactor and nanometer titanium dioxide catalyst was used for benzene removal in the air. The paper described the synergistic effect of ozone and photocatalyst in the plasma reactor. Except of electric field strength, humidity and flow velocity, the synergistic behavior of ozone and photocatalyst was tested. The removal efficiency of benzene reaches nearly 99% when benzene concentration is 600 mg/m[3], and the removal efficiency of benzene also reaches above 90% when benzene concentration is 1500 mg/m[3]. The plasma reactor packed with photocatalyst shows a better selectivity of carbon dioxide than that without photocatalyst. The final products is mostly carbon dioxide, water and a small quantity of carbon monoxide