Mechanisms to Evade the Phagocyte Respiratory Burst Arose by Convergent Evolution in Typhoidal Salmonella Serovars.

Typhoid fever caused by Salmonella enterica serovar (S.) Typhi differs in its clinical presentation from gastroenteritis caused by S. Typhimurium and other non-typhoidal Salmonella serovars. The different clinical presentations are attributed in part to the virulence-associated capsular polysaccharide (Vi antigen) of S. Typhi, which prevents phagocytes from triggering a respiratory burst by preventing antibody-mediated complement activation. Paradoxically, the Vi antigen is absent from S. Paratyphi A, which causes a disease that is indistinguishable from typhoid fever. Here, we show that evasion of the phagocyte respiratory burst by S. Paratyphi A required very long O antigen chains containing the O2 antigen to inhibit antibody binding. We conclude that the ability to avoid the phagocyte respiratory burst is a property distinguishing typhoidal from non-typhoidal Salmonella serovars that was acquired by S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A independently through convergent evolution

Mortality following a brain tumour diagnosis in patients with multiple sclerosis

Objectives: As brain tumours and their treatment may theoretically have a poorer prognosis in inflammatory central nervous system diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), all-cause mortality following a brain tumour diagnosis was compared between patients with and without MS. The potential role of age at tumour diagnosis was also examined. Setting: Hospital inpatients in Sweden with assessment of mortality in hospital or following discharge. Participants: Swedish national registers identified 20 543 patients with an MS diagnosis (1969-2005) and they were matched individually to produce a comparison cohort of 204 163 members of the general population without MS. Everyone with a primary brain tumour diagnosis was selected for this study: 111 with MS and 907 without MS. Primary and secondary outcome measures: 5-year mortality risk following brain tumour diagnosis and age at brain tumour diagnosis. Results: A non-statistically significant lower mortality risk among patients with MS (lower for those with tumours of high-grade and uncertain-grade malignancy and no notable difference for low-grade tumours) produced an unadjusted HR (and 95% CI) of 0.75 (0.56 to 1.02). After adjustment for age at diagnosis, grade of malignancy, sex, region of residence and socioeconomic index, the HR is 0.91 (0.67-1.24). The change in estimate was largely due to adjustment for age at brain tumour diagnosis, as patients with MS were on average 4.7 years younger at brain tumour diagnosis than those in the comparison cohort (p<0.001). Conclusions: Younger age at tumour diagnosis may contribute to mortality reduction in those with highgrade and uncertain-grade brain tumours. Survival following a brain tumour is not worse in patients with MS; even after age at brain tumour diagnosis and grade of malignancy are taken into account

Differences of Functional Connectivity Brain Network in Emotional Judgment

Using combined emotional stimuli, combining photos of faces and recording of voices, we investigated the neural dynamics of emotional judgment using scalp EEG recordings. Stimuli could be either combioned in a congruent, or a non-congruent way.. As many evidences show the major role of alpha in emotional processing, the alpha band was subjected to be analyzed. Analysis was performed by computing the synchronization of the EEGs and the conditions congruent vs. non-congruent were compared using statistical tools. The obtained results demonstrate that scalp EEG ccould be used as a tool to investigate the neural dynamics of emotional valence and discriminate various emotions (angry, happy and neutral stimuli)

2-(4-Hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-benzothiazole suppresses tumor progression and metastatic potential of breast cancer cells by inducing ubiquitin ligase CHIP

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Latent heat in the chiral phase transition

The chiral phase transition at finite temperature and density is discussed in the framework of the QCD-like gauge field theory. The thermodynamical potential is investigated using a variational approach. Latent heat generated in the first-order phase transition is calculated. It is found that the latent heat is enhanced near the tricritical point and is more than several hundred MeV per quark.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Synthesis of crystalline microporous Mo−V−Bi oxide for selective (Amm)oxidation of light alkanes

Bismuth (Bi) was successfully introduced into the crystalline orthorhombic Mo3VOx (MoVO) structure for the first time by using the ethylammonium cation (EtNH3+) as a structure-directing agent in hydrothermal synthesis, and the catalytic activities of MoVO-containing Bi (MoVBiO) for selective oxidation of ethane and ammoxidation of propane were compared with those of ternary MoVO. Bi and EtNH3+ were located in hexagonal and heptagonal channels in the MoVO structure, respectively. EtNH3+ could be removed without collapse of the crystal structure by appropriate heat treatment, leaving the heptagonal channels empty. The introduction of Bi had only a little effect on the catalytic activity for selective oxidation of ethane. On the other hand, the conversion of propane was significantly enhanced in propane ammoxidation. Acrylonitrile selectivity was also enhanced by the introduction of Bi, especially at high temperatures (>440 °C)

Increased MicroRNA-34b and -34c Predominantly Expressed in Stromal Tissues Is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Human Colon Cancer

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