The envelope protein of a human endogenous retrovirus-W family activates innate immunity through CD14/TLR4 and promotes Th1-like responses.: The HERV family MSRV retrovirus activates innate immunity

rendre public SVPInternational audienceMultiple sclerosis-associated retroviral element (MSRV) is a retroviral element, the sequence of which served to define the W family of human endogenous retroviruses. MSRV viral particles display proinflammatory activities both in vitro in human mononuclear cell cultures and in vivo in a humanized SCID mice model. To understand the molecular basis of such properties, we have investigated the inflammatory potential of the surface unit of the MSRV envelope protein (ENV-SU), the fraction that is poised to naturally interact with host cells. We report in this study that MSRV ENV-SU induces, in a specific manner, human monocytes to produce major proinflammatory cytokines through engagement of CD14 and TLR4, which are pattern recognition receptors of primary importance in innate immunity. ENV-SU could also trigger a maturation process in human dendritic cells. Finally, ENV-SU endowed dendritic cells with the capacity to support a Th1-like type of Th cell differentiation. The data are discussed in the context of immune responses and chronic proinflammatory disorders

Formes et conditions de sortie de la vulnérabilité en milieux populaires

synthèse des recherche de l'équipe Formes et conditions d'entrée et de sortie de la "vulnérabilité" en milieux populaire

A general martingale approach to large noise homogenization

We consider Markov processes with generator of the form $\gamma \mathcal{L}_{1} + \mathcal{L}_{0}$, in which $\mathcal{L}_{1}$ generates a so-called dominant process that converges at large times towards a random point in a fixed subset called the effective state space. Using the usual characterization through martingales problems, we give general conditions under which homogenization holds true: the original process converges, when $\gamma$ is large and for the Meyer-Zheng pseudo-path topology and for finite-dimensional time marginals, towards an identified effective Markov process on the effective space. Few simple model examples for diffusions are studied.Comment: 60 pages. v1: Preliminary versio

Visions et divisions à l’université

Comment les universitaires parlent-ils de leur travail ? Comment décrivent-ils leurs tâches et comment celles-ci s’agencent-elles ? L’article met en discussion les résultats principaux d’un rapport de recherche publié en 2005. Celui-ci s’interroge sur les pratiques et les catégories de perception des enseignants-chercheurs face à l’accroissement des tâches administratives, au développement des formations professionnelles et à la massification des publics étudiants, ces transformations semblant devoir se traduire par le recul de la place de la recherche dans l’économie générale du métier.How do university professors speak about their work? How do they describe their tasks and how do these tasks combine ? This paper discusses the main results of a research report published in 2005. This report wonders about the practices and categories of perception of teachers- researchers faced with the increase of administrative tasks, the development of professional training and the massification of student audiences. These changes seem to involve a decline of the place of research in the general organisation of the profession.¿Cómo hablan los universitarios de su trabajo ? ¿Cómo describen sus tareas ? y ¿cómo se agencian éstas ? El artículo pone en discusión los principales resultados de una relación de investigación publicada en 2005. Ésta se interroga sobre las prácticas y las categorías de percepción de los docentes-investigadores frente al aumento de las tareas administrativas, al desarrollo de las formaciones profesionales y a la masificación de los públicos estudiantiles, al parecer estas transformaciones se traducirían por la regresión del lugar de la investigación en la economía general del oficio.Wie sprechen die Akademiker von ihrer Arbeit ? Wie beschreiben sie ihre Tätigkeiten und wie passen diese zusammen ? Der Artikel zeigt die Hauptergebnisse eines 2005 veröffentlichen Forschungsberichts. Dieser analysiert die Tätigkeiten und die Wahrnehmungskategorien der Lehrer-Forscher der Zunahme der Verwaltungsaufgaben, der Entwicklung der Berufsausbildungen und der Vermassung der Studenten gegenüber. Dabei verursachen diese Verwandlungen anscheinend den Rückgang der Forschung im Beruf

2D to 3D crossover of the magnetic properties in ordered arrays of iron oxide nanocrystals

The magnetic 2D to 3D crossover behavior of well-ordered arrays of monodomain gamma-Fe2O3 spherical nanoparticles with different thicknesses has been investigated by magnetometry and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Using the structural information of the arrays obtained from grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering and scanning electron microscopy together with the experimentally determined values for the saturation magnetization and magnetic anisotropy of the nanoparticles, we show that MC simulations can reproduce the thickness-dependent magnetic behavior. The magnetic dipolar particle interactions induce a ferromagnetic coupling that increases in strength with decreasing thickness of the array. The 2D to 3D transition in the magnetic properties is mainly driven by a change in the orientation of the magnetic vortex states with increasing thickness, becoming more isotropic as the thickness of the array increases. Magnetic anisotropy prevents long-range ferromagnetic order from being established at low temperature and the nanoparticle magnetic moments instead freeze along directions defined by the distribution of easy magnetization directions

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE

Combined search for the quarks of a sequential fourth generation

Results are presented from a search for a fourth generation of quarks produced singly or in pairs in a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011. A novel strategy has been developed for a combined search for quarks of the up and down type in decay channels with at least one isolated muon or electron. Limits on the mass of the fourth-generation quarks and the relevant Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements are derived in the context of a simple extension of the standard model with a sequential fourth generation of fermions. The existence of mass-degenerate fourth-generation quarks with masses below 685 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level for minimal off-diagonal mixing between the third- and the fourth-generation quarks. With a mass difference of 25 GeV between the quark masses, the obtained limit on the masses of the fourth-generation quarks shifts by about +/- 20 GeV. These results significantly reduce the allowed parameter space for a fourth generation of fermions.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

2BC Non-Structural Protein of Enterovirus A71 Interacts with SNARE Proteins to Trigger Autolysosome Formation

Viruses have evolved unique strategies to evade or subvert autophagy machinery. Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) induces autophagy during infection in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we report that EV-A71 triggers autolysosome formation during infection in human rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells to facilitate its replication. Blocking autophagosome-lysosome fusion with chloroquine inhibited virus RNA replication, resulting in lower viral titres, viral RNA copies and viral proteins. Overexpression of the non-structural protein 2BC of EV-A71 induced autolysosome formation. Yeast 2-hybrid and co-affinity purification assays showed that 2BC physically and specifically interacted with a N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment receptor (SNARE) protein, syntaxin-17 (STX17). Co-immunoprecipitation assay further showed that 2BC binds to SNARE proteins, STX17 and synaptosome associated protein 29 (SNAP29). Transient knockdown of STX17, SNAP29, and microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3B (LC3B), crucial proteins in the fusion between autophagosomes and lysosomes) as well as the lysosomal-associated membrane protein 1 (LAMP1) impaired production of infectious EV-A71 in RD cells. Collectively, these results demonstrate that the generation of autolysosomes triggered by the 2BC non-structural protein is important for EV-A71 replication, revealing a potential molecular pathway targeted by the virus to exploit autophagy. This study opens the possibility for the development of novel antivirals that specifically target 2BC to inhibit formation of autolysosomes during EV-A71 infection.Peer reviewe

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO