Inverted Expression Profiles of Sex-Biased Genes in Response to Toxicant Perturbations and Diseases

10.1371/journal.pone.0056668PLoS ONE82

Importance of Conventional Radiography in Diagnosis and Management of Giant Cell Tumour at an unusual location

Giant cell tumour (GCT) or osteoclastoma of the bone is mostly benign but locally aggressive primary tumour of unknownorigin occurring at epiphysis. It is a tumour of long bones and rarely seen in bones of hand and foot. The cases are reported intarsal and carpal bone but involvement of metatarsal bone is very rare. We present a case of twenty years old female patientwith GCT of second metatarsal of left foot. The patient underwent aggressive curettage and filling with bone chips and is onregular follow up

The hidden world within plants: ecological and evolutionary considerations for defining functioning of microbial endophytes

All plants are inhabited internally by diverse microbial communities comprising bacterial, archaeal, fungal, and protistic taxa. These microorganisms showing endophytic lifestyles play crucial roles in plant development, growth, fitness, and diversification. The increasing awareness of and information on endophytes provide insight into the complexity of the plant microbiome. The nature of plant-endophyte interactions ranges from mutualism to pathogenicity. This depends on a set of abiotic and biotic factors, including the genotypes of plants and microbes, environmental conditions, and the dynamic network of interactions within the plant biome. In this review, we address the concept of endophytism, considering the latest insights into evolution, plant ecosystem functioning, and multipartite interactions.EU Cost Action [FA1103, 312117]; FWF (Austrian Science Foundation) [P26203-B22, P24569-B25]; Portuguese FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) [SFRH/BPD/78931/2011]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Endophytes vs tree pathogens and pests: can they be used as biological control agents to improve tree health?

Like all other plants, trees are vulnerable to attack by a multitude of pests and pathogens. Current control measures for many of these diseases are limited and relatively ineffective. Several methods, including the use of conventional synthetic agro-chemicals, are employed to reduce the impact of pests and diseases. However, because of mounting concerns about adverse effects on the environment and a variety of economic reasons, this limited management of tree diseases by chemical methods is losing ground. The use of biological control, as a more environmentally friendly alternative, is becoming increasingly popular in plant protection. This can include the deployment of soil inoculants and foliar sprays, but the increased knowledge of microbial ecology in the phytosphere, in particular phylloplane microbes and endophytes, has stimulated new thinking for biocontrol approaches. Endophytes are microbes that live within plant tissues. As such, they hold potential as biocontrol agents against plant diseases because they are able to colonize the same ecological niche favoured by many invading pathogens. However, the development and exploitation of endophytes as biocontrol agents will have to overcome numerous challenges. The optimization and improvement of strategies employed in endophyte research can contribute towards discovering effective and competent biocontrol agents. The impact of environment and plant genotype on selecting potentially beneficial and exploitable endophytes for biocontrol is poorly understood. How endophytes synergise or antagonise one another is also an important factor. This review focusses on recent research addressing the biocontrol of plant diseases and pests using endophytic fungi and bacteria, alongside the challenges and limitations encountered and how these can be overcome. We frame this review in the context of tree pests and diseases, since trees are arguably the most difficult plant species to study, work on and manage, yet they represent one of the most important organisms on Earth

Vaccination with Recombinant Microneme Proteins Confers Protection against Experimental Toxoplasmosis in Mice

Toxoplasmosis, a zoonotic disease caused by Toxoplasma gondii, is an important public health problem and veterinary concern. Although there is no vaccine for human toxoplasmosis, many attempts have been made to develop one. Promising vaccine candidates utilize proteins, or their genes, from microneme organelle of T. gondii that are involved in the initial stages of host cell invasion by the parasite. In the present study, we used different recombinant microneme proteins (TgMIC1, TgMIC4, or TgMIC6) or combinations of these proteins (TgMIC1-4 and TgMIC1-4-6) to evaluate the immune response and protection against experimental toxoplasmosis in C57BL/6 mice. Vaccination with recombinant TgMIC1, TgMIC4, or TgMIC6 alone conferred partial protection, as demonstrated by reduced brain cyst burden and mortality rates after challenge. Immunization with TgMIC1-4 or TgMIC1-4-6 vaccines provided the most effective protection, since 70% and 80% of mice, respectively, survived to the acute phase of infection. In addition, these vaccinated mice, in comparison to non-vaccinated ones, showed reduced parasite burden by 59% and 68%, respectively. The protective effect was related to the cellular and humoral immune responses induced by vaccination and included the release of Th1 cytokines IFN-γ and IL-12, antigen-stimulated spleen cell proliferation, and production of antigen-specific serum antibodies. Our results demonstrate that microneme proteins are potential vaccines against T. gondii, since their inoculation prevents or decreases the deleterious effects of the infection

Gene therapy for monogenic liver diseases: clinical successes, current challenges and future prospects

Over the last decade, pioneering liver-directed gene therapy trials for haemophilia B have achieved sustained clinical improvement after a single systemic injection of adeno-associated virus (AAV) derived vectors encoding the human factor IX cDNA. These trials demonstrate the potential of AAV technology to provide long-lasting clinical benefit in the treatment of monogenic liver disorders. Indeed, with more than ten ongoing or planned clinical trials for haemophilia A and B and dozens of trials planned for other inherited genetic/metabolic liver diseases, clinical translation is expanding rapidly. Gene therapy is likely to become an option for routine care of a subset of severe inherited genetic/metabolic liver diseases in the relatively near term. In this review, we aim to summarise the milestones in the development of gene therapy, present the different vector tools and their clinical applications for liver-directed gene therapy. AAV-derived vectors are emerging as the leading candidates for clinical translation of gene delivery to the liver. Therefore, we focus on clinical applications of AAV vectors in providing the most recent update on clinical outcomes of completed and ongoing gene therapy trials and comment on the current challenges that the field is facing for large-scale clinical translation. There is clearly an urgent need for more efficient therapies in many severe monogenic liver disorders, which will require careful risk-benefit analysis for each indication, especially in paediatrics

Endophytes vs tree pathogens and pests: can they be used as biological control agents to improve tree health?

Like all other plants, trees are vulnerable to attack by a multitude of pests and pathogens. Current control measures for many of these diseases are limited and relatively ineffective. Several methods, including the use of conventional synthetic agro-chemicals, are employed to reduce the impact of pests and diseases. However, because of mounting concerns about adverse effects on the environment and a variety of economic reasons, this limited management of tree diseases by chemical methods is losing ground. The use of biological control, as a more environmentally friendly alternative, is becoming increasingly popular in plant protection. This can include the deployment of soil inoculants and foliar sprays, but the increased knowledge of microbial ecology in the phytosphere, in particular phylloplane microbes and endophytes, has stimulated new thinking for biocontrol approaches. Endophytes are microbes that live within plant tissues. As such, they hold potential as biocontrol agents against plant diseases because they are able to colonize the same ecological niche favoured by many invading pathogens. However, the development and exploitation of endophytes as biocontrol agents will have to overcome numerous challenges. The optimization and improvement of strategies employed in endophyte research can contribute towards discovering effective and competent biocontrol agents. The impact of environment and plant genotype on selecting potentially beneficial and exploitable endophytes for biocontrol is poorly understood. How endophytes synergise or antagonise one another is also an important factor. This review focusses on recent research addressing the biocontrol of plant diseases and pests using endophytic fungi and bacteria, alongside the challenges and limitations encountered and how these can be overcome. We frame this review in the context of tree pests and diseases, since trees are arguably the most difficult plant species to study, work on and manage, yet they represent one of the most important organisms on Earth

Upregulation of Ets1 expression by NFATc2 and NFKB1/RELA promotes breast cancer cell invasiveness

Breast cancer is highly aggressive and is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in women in developed countries. The ETS proto-oncogene 1 (Ets1) has versatile roles during the cellular processes of cancer development. It is often highly expressed in breast cancers and mediates migration and invasion of human breast cancer cells. However, underlying mechanisms of Ets1 gene expression is still ambiguous. Here, we identified a core-regulatory element (CRE) located in the Ets1 promoter region (−540/−80 bp from TSS) that contains elements responsible for associating with NFATs and NF-κBs. Compared with the less metastatic breast cancer cells, metastatic breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) show open chromatin configurations in the CRE, which facilitates direct binding of NFATc2 and/or NFKB1/RELA complex to trans-activate Ets1 transcription. Moreover, enhanced level of Nfatc2 and Nfkb1 positively correlated with Ets1 expression in the human breast cancer specimens. Deletion of the CRE region by CRISPR/Cas9 system resulted in significant reduction in Ets1 expression, which led to alterations of Ets1-mediated transcription programs including tumor invasiveness-related genes. Proper regulation of Ets1 gene expression by targeting the NFATc2 and NFKB1/RELA interaction could be a potential therapeutic target for Ets1-mediated metastatic breast cancer.11sciescopu