Two new Morganella species from the Brazilian Amazon rainforest

Two new Morganella species, M. albostipitata and M. rimosa were found during studies of gasteroid fungi in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve, Amazonas State, Brazil. The new taxa are described, and illustrated with photographs and line drawings, and taxonomical comments are made

Correlates of overall and central obesity in adults from seven European countries: findings from the Food4Me Study

To identify predictors of obesity in adults and investigate to what extent these predictors are independent of other major confounding factors. Data collected at baseline from 1441 participants from the Food4Me study conducted in seven European countries were included in this study. A food frequency questionnaire was used to measure dietary intake. Accelerometers were used to assess physical activity levels (PA), whereas participants self-reported their body weight, height and waist circumference via the internet. The main factors associated (p < 0.05) with higher BMI per 1-SD increase in the exposure were age (β:1.11 kg/m2), intakes of processed meat (β:1.04 kg/m2), red meat (β:1.02 kg/m2), saturated fat (β:0.84 kg/m2), monounsaturated fat (β:0.80 kg/m2), protein (β:0.74 kg/m2), total energy intake (β:0.50 kg/m2), olive oil (β:0.36 kg/m2), sugar sweetened carbonated drinks (β:0.33 kg/m2) and sedentary time (β:0.73 kg/m2). In contrast, the main factors associated with lower BMI per 1-SD increase in the exposure were PA (β:-1.36 kg/m2), intakes of wholegrains (β:-1.05 kg/m2), fibre (β:-1.02 kg/m2), fruits and vegetables (β:-0.52 kg/m2), nuts (β:-0.52 kg/m2), polyunsaturated fat (β:-0.50 kg/m2), Healthy Eating Index (β:-0.42 kg/m2), Mediterranean diet score (β:-0.40 kg/m2), oily fish (β:-0.31 kg/m2), dairy (β:-0.31 kg/m2) and fruit juice (β:-0.25 kg/m2). These findings are important for public health and suggest that promotion of increased PA, reducing sedentary behaviours and improving the overall quality of dietary patterns are important strategies for addressing the existing obesity epidemic and associated disease burden

Application of Multi-SNP Approaches Bayesian LASSO and AUC-RF to Detect Main Effects of Inflammatory-Gene Variants Associated with Bladder Cancer Risk

The relationship between inflammation and cancer is well established in several tumor types, including bladder cancer. We performed an association study between 886 inflammatory-gene variants and bladder cancer risk in 1,047 cases and 988 controls from the Spanish Bladder Cancer (SBC)/EPICURO Study. A preliminary exploration with the widely used univariate logistic regression approach did not identify any significant SNP after correcting for multiple testing. We further applied two more comprehensive methods to capture the complexity of bladder cancer genetic susceptibility: Bayesian Threshold LASSO (BTL), a regularized regression method, and AUC-Random Forest, a machine-learning algorithm. Both approaches explore the joint effect of markers. BTL analysis identified a signature of 37 SNPs in 34 genes showing an association with bladder cancer. AUC-RF detected an optimal predictive subset of 56 SNPs. 13 SNPs were identified by both methods in the total population. Using resources from the Texas Bladder Cancer study we were able to replicate 30% of the SNPs assessed. The associations between inflammatory SNPs and bladder cancer were reexamined among non-smokers to eliminate the effect of tobacco, one of the strongest and most prevalent environmental risk factor for this tumor. A 9 SNP-signature was detected by BTL. Here we report, for the first time, a set of SNP in inflammatory genes jointly associated with bladder cancer risk. These results highlight the importance of the complex structure of genetic susceptibility associated with cancer risk.The work was partially supported by the Fondo de Investigacion Sanitaria, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (G03/174, 00/0745, PI051436, PI061614, PI09-02102, G03/174 and Sara Borrell fellowship to ELM) and Ministry of Science and Innovation (MTM2008-06747-C02-02 and FPU fellowship award to VU), Spain; AGAUR-Generalitat de Catalunya (Grant 2009SGR-581); Fundaciola Maratode TV3; Red Tematica de Investigacion Cooperativa en Cancer (RTICC); Asociacion Espanola Contra el Cancer (AECC); EU-FP7-201663; and RO1-CA089715 and CA34627; the Spanish National Institute for Bioinformatics (www.inab.org); and by the Intramural Research Program of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, USA. MD Anderson support for this project included U01 CA 127615 (XW); R01 CA 74880 (XW); P50 CA 91846 (XW, CPD); Betty B. Marcus Chair fund in Cancer Prevention (XW); UT Research Trust fund (XW) and R01 CA 131335 (JG)

Scleroderma minutisporum, a new earthball from the Amazon rainforest

A new species of earthball, Scleroderma minutisporum was found in the Brazilian Amazon. The specimen, collected in Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve, Amazonas State, Brazil is named because of the small size of its basidiospores. A description, photographs, and taxonomical comments are provided, and the holotype is compared with related taxa

Granulomatous Reactivation during the Course of a Leprosy Infection: Reaction or Relapse

Leprosy is a serious infectious disease whose treatment still poses some challenges. Patients are usually treated with a combination of antimicrobial drugs called multidrug therapy. Although this treatment is effective against Mycobacterium leprae, the bacillus that causes leprosy, patients may develop severe inflammatory reactions during treatment. These reactions may be either attributed to an improvement in the immunological reactivity of the patient along with the treatment, or to relapse of the disease due to the proliferation of remaining bacilli. In certain patients these two conditions may be difficult to differentiate. The present study addresses the histopathology picture of and the M. leprae bacilli in sequential biopsies taken from lesions of patients who presented such reactions aiming to improve the differentiation of the two conditions. This is important because these reactions are one of the major causes of the disabilities of the patients with leprosy, and should be treated early and appropriately. Our results show that the histopathology picture alone is not sufficient, and that bacilli's counting is necessary

Expression of AMPA and NMDA receptor subunits in the cervical spinal cord of wobbler mice

BACKGROUND: The localisation of AMPA and NMDA receptor subunits was studied in a model of degeneration of cervical spinal motoneurons, the wobbler mouse. Cervical regions from early or late symptomatic wobbler mice (4 or 12 weeks of age) were compared to lumbar tracts (unaffected) and to those of healthy mice. RESULTS: No differences were found in the distribution of AMPA and NMDA receptor subunits at both ages. Western blots analysis showed a trend of reduction in AMPA and NMDA receptor subunits, mainly GluR1 and NR2A, exclusively in the cervical region of late symptomatic mice in the triton-insoluble post-synaptic fraction but not whole homogenates. Colocalisation experiments evidenced the expression of GluR1 and NR2A receptors in activated astrocytes from the cervical spinal cord of wobbler mice, GluR2 did not colocalise with GFAP positive cells. No differences were found in the expression of AMPA and NMDA receptor subunits in the lumbar tract of wobbler mice, where neither motoneuron loss nor reactive gliosis occurs. CONCLUSION: In late symptomatic wobbler mice altered levels of GluR1 and NR2A receptor subunits may be a consequence of motoneuron loss rather than an early feature of motoneuron vulnerability

Chronic kidney disease increases cardiovascular unfavourable outcomes in outpatients with heart failure

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chronic heart failure (CHF) has a high morbidity and mortality. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has consistently been found to be an independent risk factor for unfavorable cardiovascular (CV) outcomes. Early intervention on CKD reduces the progression of CHF, hospitalizations and mortality, yet there are very few studies about CKD as a risk factor in the early stages of CHF. The aims of our study were to assess the prevalence and the prognostic importance of CKD in patients with systolic CHF stages B and C.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This is a prospective cohort study, dealing with prognostic markers for CV endpoints in patients with systolic CHF (ejection fraction ≤ 45%).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>CKD was defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m²and CV endpoints as death or hospitalization due to CHF, in 12 months follow-up. Eighty three patients were studied, the mean age was 62.7 ± 12 years, and 56.6% were female. CKD was diagnosed in 49.4% of the patients, 33% of patients with CHF stage B and 67% in the stage C. Cardiovascular endpoints were observed in 26.5% of the patients. When the sample was stratified into stages B and C of CHF, the occurrence of CKD was associated with 100% and 64.7%, respectively, of unfavorable CV outcomes. After adjustments for all other prognostic factors at baseline, it was observed that the diagnosis of CKD increased in 3.6 times the possibility of CV outcomes (CI 95% 1.04-12.67, p = 0.04), whereas higher ejection fraction (R = 0.925, IC 95% 0.862-0.942, p = 0.03) and serum sodium (R = 0.807, IC 95% 0.862-0.992, p = 0.03) were protective.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this cohort of patients with CHF stages B and C, CKD was prevalent and independently associated with increased risk of hospitalization and death secondary to cardiac decompensation, especially in asymptomatic patients.</p

Inhibition of Atrogin-1/MAFbx Mediated MyoD Proteolysis Prevents Skeletal Muscle Atrophy In Vivo

Ubiquitin ligase Atrogin1/Muscle Atrophy F-box (MAFbx) up-regulation is required for skeletal muscle atrophy but substrates and function during the atrophic process are poorly known. The transcription factor MyoD controls myogenic stem cell function and differentiation, and seems necessary to maintain the differentiated phenotype of adult fast skeletal muscle fibres. We previously showed that MAFbx mediates MyoD proteolysis in vitro. Here we present evidence that MAFbx targets MyoD for degradation in several models of skeletal muscle atrophy. In cultured myotubes undergoing atrophy, MAFbx expression increases, leading to a cytoplasmic-nuclear shuttling of MAFbx and a selective suppression of MyoD. Conversely, transfection of myotubes with sh-RNA-mediated MAFbx gene silencing (shRNAi) inhibited MyoD proteolysis linked to atrophy. Furthermore, overexpression of a mutant MyoDK133R lacking MAFbx-mediated ubiquitination prevents atrophy of mouse primary myotubes and skeletal muscle fibres in vivo. Regarding the complex role of MyoD in adult skeletal muscle plasticity and homeostasis, its rapid suppression by MAFbx seems to be a major event leading to skeletal muscle wasting. Our results point out MyoD as the second MAFbx skeletal muscle target by which powerful therapies could be developed

Analysis of human MDM4 variants in papillary thyroid carcinomas reveals new potential markers of cancer properties

A wild-type (wt) p53 gene characterizes thyroid tumors, except for the rare anaplastic histotype. Because p53 inactivation is a prerequisite for tumor development, alterations of p53 regulators represent an alternative way to impair p53 function. Indeed, murine double minute 2 (MDM2), the main p53 negative regulator, is overexpressed in many tumor histotypes including those of the thyroid. A new p53 regulator, MDM4 (a.k.a. MDMX or HDMX) an analog of MDM2, represents a new oncogene although its impact on tumor properties remains largely unexplored. We estimated levels of MDM2, MDM4, and its variants, MDM4-S (originally HDMX-S) and MDM4-211 (originally HDMX211), in a group of 57 papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC), characterized by wt tumor protein 53, in comparison to matched contra-lateral lobe normal tissue. Further, we evaluated the association between expression levels of these genes and the histopathological features of tumors. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed a highly significant downregulation of MDM4 mRNA in tumor tissue compared to control tissue (P < 0.0001), a finding confirmed by western blot on a subset of 20 tissue pairs. Moreover, the tumor-to-normal ratio of MDM4 levels for each individual was significantly lower in late tumor stages, suggesting a specific downregulation of MDM4 expression with tumor progression. In comparison, MDM2 messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels were frequently upregulated with no correlation with MDM4 levels. Lastly, we frequently detected overexpression of MDM4-S mRNA and presence of the aberrant form, MDM4-211 in this tumor group. These findings indicate that MDM4 alterations are a frequent event in PTC. It is worthy to note that the significant downregulation of full-length MDM4 in PTC reveals a novel status of this factor in human cancer that counsels careful evaluation of its role in human tumorigenesis and of its potential as therapeutic target