Expansion of amphibian intronless interferons revises the paradigm for interferon evolution and functional diversity

Citation: Sang, Y. M., Liu, Q. F., Lee, J., Ma, W. J., McVey, D. S., & Blecha, F. (2016). Expansion of amphibian intronless interferons revises the paradigm for interferon evolution and functional diversity. Scientific Reports, 6, 17. doi:10.1038/srep29072Interferons (IFNs) are key cytokines identified in vertebrates and evolutionary dominance of intronless IFN genes in amniotes is a signature event in IFN evolution. For the first time, we show that the emergence and expansion of intronless IFN genes is evident in amphibians, shown by 24-37 intronless IFN genes in each frog species. Amphibian IFNs represent a molecular complex more complicated than those in other vertebrate species, which revises the established model of IFN evolution to facilitate re-inspection of IFN molecular and functional diversity. We identified these intronless amphibian IFNs and their intron-containing progenitors, and functionally characterized constitutive and inductive expression and antimicrobial roles in infections caused by zoonotic pathogens, such as influenza viruses and Listeria monocytogenes. Amphibians, therefore, may serve as overlooked vectors/hosts for zoonotic pathogens, and the amphibian IFN system provides a model to study IFN evolution in molecular and functional diversity in coping with dramatic environmental changes during terrestrial adaption

Exponential energy decay of solutions for a system of viscoelastic wave equations of Kirchhoff type with strong damping

The initial boundary value problem for a system of viscoelastic wave equations of Kirchhoff type with strong damping is considered. We prove that, under suitable assumptions on relaxation functions and certain initial data, the decay rate of the solutions energy is exponential

Alterations in Cortical Sensorimotor Connectivity following Complete Cervical Spinal Cord Injury: A Prospective Resting-State fMRI Study

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have demonstrated alterations during task-induced brain activation in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. The interruption to structural integrity of the spinal cord and the resultant disrupted flow of bidirectional communication between the brain and the spinal cord might contribute to the observed dynamic reorganization (neural plasticity). However, the effect of SCI on brain resting-state connectivity patterns remains unclear. We undertook a prospective resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) study to explore changes to cortical activation patterns following SCI. With institutional review board approval, rs-fMRI data was obtained in eleven patients with complete cervical SCI (\u3e2 years post injury) and nine age-matched controls. The data was processed using the Analysis of Functional Neuroimages software. Region of interest (ROI) based analysis was performed to study changes in the sensorimotor network using pre- and post-central gyri as seed regions. Two-sampled t-test was carried out to check for significant differences between the two groups. SCI patients showed decreased functional connectivity in motor and sensory cortical regions when compared to controls. The decrease was noted in ipsilateral, contralateral, and interhemispheric regions for left and right precentral ROIs. Additionally, the left postcentral ROI demonstrated increased connectivity with the thalamus bilaterally in SCI patients. Our results suggest that cortical activation patterns in the sensorimotor network undergo dynamic reorganization following SCI. The presence of these changes in chronic spinal cord injury patients is suggestive of the inherent neural plasticity within the central nervous system

Evaluation of Whole-Brain Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Spinal Cord Injury - A Large-Scale Network Analysis Using Network Based Statistic

Large-scale network analysis characterizes the brain as a complex network of nodes and edges to evaluate functional connectivity patterns. The utility of graph-based techniques has been demonstrated in an increasing number of restingstate functional MRI (rs-fMRI) studies in the normal and diseased brain. However, to our knowledge, graph theory has not been used to study the reorganization pattern of resting-state brain networks in patients with traumatic complete spinal cord injury (SCI). In the present analysis, we applied a graph-theoretical approach to explore changes to global brain network architecture as a result of SCI. Fifteen subjects with chronic (\u3e 2 years) complete (American Spinal Injury Association [ASIA] A) cervical SCI and 15 neurologically intact controls were scanned using rs-fMRI. The data were preprocessed followed by parcellation of the brain into 116 regions of interest (ROI) or nodes. The average time series was extracted at each node, and correlation analysis was performed between every pair of nodes. A functional connectivity matrix for each subject was then generated. Subsequently, the matrices were averaged across groups, and network changes were evaluated between groups using the network-based statistic (NBS) method. Our results showed decreased connectivity in a subnetwork of the whole brain in SCI compared with control subjects. Upon further examination, increased connectivity was observed in a subnetwork of the sensorimotor cortex and cerebellum network in SCI. In conclusion, our findings emphasize the applicability of NBS to study functional connectivity architecture in diseased brain states. Further, we show reorganization of large-scale resting-state brain networks in traumatic SCI, with potential prognostic and therapeutic implications

Susceptibility of swine to H5 and H7 low pathogenic avian influenza viruses

Citation: Balzli, C., Lager, K., Vincent, A., Gauger, P., Brockmeier, S., Miller, L., . . . Swayne, D. E. (2016). Susceptibility of swine to H5 and H7 low pathogenic avian influenza viruses. Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses. doi:10.1111/irv.12386Background: The ability of pigs to become infected with low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) viruses and then generate mammalian adaptable influenza A viruses is difficult to determine. Yet, it is an important link to understanding any relationship between LPAI virus ecology and possible epidemics among swine and/or humans. Objectives: Assess susceptibility of pigs to LPAI viruses found within the United States and their direct contact transmission potential. Methods: Pigs were inoculated with one of ten H5 or H7 LPAI viruses selected from seven different bird species to test infectivity, virulence, pathogenesis, and potential to transmit virus to contact pigs through histological, RRT-PCR and seroconversion data. Results: Although pigs were susceptible to infection with each of the LPAI viruses, no clinical disease was recognized in any pig. During the acute phase of the infection, minor pulmonary lesions were found in some pigs and one or more pigs in each group were RRT-PCR-positive in the lower respiratory tract, but no virus was detected in upper respiratory tract (negative nasal swabs). Except for one group, one or more pigs in each LPAI group developed antibody. No LPAI viruses transmitted to contact pigs. Conclusions: LPAI strains from various bird populations within the United States are capable of infecting pigs. Although adaptability and transmission of individual strains seem unlikely, the subclinical nature of the infections demonstrates the need to improve sampling and testing methods to more accurately measure incidence of LPAI virus infection in pigs, and their potential role in human-zoonotic LPAI virus dynamics. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Floquet states and persistent currents transitions in a mesoscopic ring

We consider the effect of an oscillating potential on the single-particle spectrum and the time-averaged persistent current of a one-dimensional phase-coherent mesoscopic ring with a magnetic flux. We show that in a ring with an even number of spinless electrons the oscillating potential has a strong effect on the persistent current when the excited side bands are close to the eigen levels of a pure ring. Resonant enhancement of side bands of the Floquet state generates a sign change of the persistent current.Comment: 2 figure

Phenomenological Understanding of a Transport Regime with Reflection Symmetry in the Quantum Hall System in a Composite Fermion Picture

In this paper, we present a phenomenological picture based on the composite fermion theory, in responding to the recent discovery by Shahar et al. of a new transport regime near the transition from a $\nu=1$ quantum Hall liquid to a Hall insulator(ref[8]). In this picture, the seemingly unexpected reflection symmetry in the longitudinal resistivity $\rho_{xx}$ can be understood clearly as due to the symmetry of the gapful excitations which dominate $\sigma_{xx}$ across the transition, and the abrupt change in $\sigma_{xy}$ at the transition. The parameter $\alpha$ in the linear fit of $\nu_0(T)$ in ref[8] is also given a simple physical meaning and the effective mass can be calculated from $\alpha$, which gives a reasonable value of several electron band mass. When taking into account the result of network model, the almost invariant Hall resistivity $\rho_{xy}$ across the transition is also well-understood.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, final version to appear in Phys.Rev.

The Reproducibility of Lists of Differentially Expressed Genes in Microarray Studies

Reproducibility is a fundamental requirement in scientific experiments and clinical contexts. Recent publications raise concerns about the reliability of microarray technology because of the apparent lack of agreement between lists of differentially expressed genes (DEGs). In this study we demonstrate that (1) such discordance may stem from ranking and selecting DEGs solely by statistical significance (P) derived from widely used simple t-tests; (2) when fold change (FC) is used as the ranking criterion, the lists become much more reproducible, especially when fewer genes are selected; and (3) the instability of short DEG lists based on P cutoffs is an expected mathematical consequence of the high variability of the t-values. We recommend the use of FC ranking plus a non-stringent P cutoff as a baseline practice in order to generate more reproducible DEG lists. The FC criterion enhances reproducibility while the P criterion balances sensitivity and specificity

Rift Valley fever virus structural and nonstructural proteins: recombinant protein expression and immunoreactivity against antisera from sheep

The Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) encodes the structural proteins nucleoprotein (N), aminoterminal glycoprotein (Gn), carboxyterminal glycoprotein (Gc), and L protein, 78-kD, and the nonstructural proteins NSm and NSs. Using the baculovirus system, we expressed the full-length coding sequence of N, NSs, NSm, Gc, and the ectodomain of the coding sequence of the Gn glycoprotein derived from the virulent strain of RVFV ZH548. Western blot analysis using anti-His antibodies and monoclonal antibodies against Gn and N confirmed expression of the recombinant proteins, and in vitro biochemical analysis showed that the two glycoproteins, Gn and Gc, were expressed in glycosylated form. Immunoreactivity profiles of the recombinant proteins in western blot and in indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay against a panel of antisera obtained from vaccinated or wild type (RVFV)-challenged sheep confirmed the results obtained with anti-His antibodies and demonstrated the suitability of the baculo-expressed antigens for diagnostic assays. In addition, these recombinant proteins could be valuable for the development of diagnostic methods that differentiate infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA)