Main and interaction effects of extrusion temperature and usage level of full fat soybean on performance and blood metabolites of broiler chickens

The extruded full fat soybean (EFFSB) may be used in diet to satisfy the energy and protein requirements of fast growing broiler chickens. The main and interaction effects of three extrusion temperatures and two dietary levels of FFSB were studied on the performance, physiological enzymes and blood metabolites of broiler chickens from 0 to 42 days. The batches of full fat soybean (FFSB) were wet extruded at three temperatures (145, 155 and 165°C, respectively) for 15 s. 240 day-old Ross 308 male broiler chicks were divided and placed in 24 pens. Six starter, grower and finisher diets were provided in a 2 × 3 factorial design with two dietary levels of EFFSB (7.5 and 15%) and three extrusion temperatures (145, 155 and 165°C). The extrusion temperatures did not have significant effect on feed intake (FI), body weight gain (WG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of chickens during each and whole period, but the inclusion rate of EFFSB had significant (P<0.05) effect on FI and WG. The FI and WG of chickens fed diet contained 15% EFFSB was significantly (P<0.05) lower than those fed 7.5% EFFSB diet. The extrusion temperatures and inclusion rate did not significantly affect pancreas weight, creatine phosphokinase (CPK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) enzymes, indicating that the anti-nutrients residuals of FFSBs extruded at 145, 155 and 165°C did not influence liver system and pancreas size of chicks at 21 days of age. The interaction effects between dietary levels of EFFSB and extrusion temperatures on performance criteria, pancreas weight, CPK, LDH, AST and ALT enzymes of chickens were not significant (P>0.05) during each and whole period. It is concluded that blood metabolites and broiler performance were not affected (P>0.05) with extrusion temperature from 145 to 165°C, but increasing dietary levels of EFFSB from 7.5 to 15%, affected (P<0.05) negatively the growth rate of chicks.Key words: Full fat soybean extrusion, temperature, broiler performance, blood metabolites

Effect of Rolled or Extruded Flaxseeds in Finisher Diet on Pellet Quality, Performance, and n-3 Fatty Acids in Breast and Thigh Muscles of Broiler Chickens

An experiment was conducted to compare the effect of corn-soybean meal finisher (29-42d) diets containing flaxseeds (rolled or extruded) on pellet quality, performance, n-3 fatty acids (FA) and oxidative stability of meat in broiler chickens. Seven pelleted diets were provided in a 3×2 factorial arrangement with three flaxseed levels (5, 10, and 15%) and two processing methods (rolled or extruded) and a zero flaxseed diet (control). Birds fed diet containing 15% flaxseed had significantly lower weight gain and higher feed conversion ratio compared to those fed diets contained 0, 5 and/or 10% flaxseed. The type of flaxseed processing did not influence (P > 0.05) fatty acid profile and the MDA content in muscles. Chickens fed the control diet had relatively high levels of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids and low levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Feeding diets contained flaxseed markedly reduced the levels of saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids and increased polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly the n-3 fatty acids in meat. It is concluded that the addition of 15% flaxseeds to finisher diet can increase n-3 fatty acids and lipid peroxidation in meat, while reducing growth performance of broiler chickens. However, feeding finisher diet containing 10% flaxseed compared to 5 or 15% flaxseed is of more practical to achieve an acceptable level of Omega-3 fatty acids in breast and thigh muscles without compromising the performance of broiler chickens

Validation of the 2023 International Diagnostic Criteria for MOGAD in a Selected Cohort of Adults and Children

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To test the performance of the 2023 myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD) criteria in adults and children with inflammatory demyelinating conditions who were tested for MOG antibodies (Abs). // METHODS: This was a retrospective study of patients tested for MOG-Abs from 2018 to 2022 in 2 specialist hospitals. The inclusion criteria comprised ≥1 attendance in an adult or pediatric demyelinating disease clinic and complete clinical and MRI records. The final clinical diagnosis of MOGAD, made by the treating neurologist, was taken as the benchmark against which the new criteria were tested. The international MOGAD diagnostic criteria were applied retrospectively; they stipulate at least 1 clinical or MRI supporting feature for MOGAD diagnosis in positive fixed MOG cell-based assay without a titer. The performance MOG-Ab testing alone for MOGAD diagnosis was also assessed and compared with that of MOGAD criteria using the McNemar test. // RESULTS: Of the 1,879 patients tested for MOG-Abs, 539 (135 pediatric and 404 adults) met the inclusion criteria. A clinical diagnosis of MOGAD was made in 86/539 (16%) patients (37 adults, 49 children), with a median follow-up of 3.6 years. The MOGAD diagnostic criteria had sensitivity of 96.5% (adults 91.9%, children 100%), specificity of 98.9% (adults 98.8%, children 98.9%), positive predictive value of 94.3% (adults 89.4%, children 98%), negative predictive value of 99.3% (adults 99.2%, children 100%), and accuracy of 98.5% (adults 98.3%, children 99.2%). When compared with MOG-Ab testing alone, a difference was seen only in adults: a significantly higher specificity (98.9% vs 95.6%, p = 0.0005) and nonstatistically significant lower sensitivity (91.9% vs 100%, p = 0.08). // DISCUSSION: The international MOGAD diagnostic criteria exhibit high performance in selected patients with inflammatory demyelinating diseases (who had a high pretest probability of having MOGAD) compared with best clinical judgment; their performance was better in children than in adults. In adults, the MOGAD criteria led to an improvement in specificity and positive predictive value when compared with MOG-Ab testing alone, suggesting that the requirement of at least 1 clinical or MRI supporting feature is important. Future work should address the generalizability of the diagnostic criteria to cohorts of greater clinical diversity seen within neurologic settings

Designer Magnetoplasmonics with Nickel Nanoferromagnets

We introduce a new perspective on magnetoplasmonics in nickel nanoferromagnets by exploiting the phase tunability of the optical polarizability due to localized surface plasmons and simultaneous magneto-optical activity. We demonstrate how the concerted action of nanoplasmonics and magnetization can manipulate the sign of rotation of the reflected light’s polarization (i.e., to produce Kerr rotation reversal) in ferromagnetic nanomaterials and, further, how this effect can be dynamically controlled and employed to devise conceptually new schemes for biochemosensing. © 2011 American Chemical Society.A.D. and Z.P. acknowledge support from the Swedish Research Council and Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (Framework program Functional Electromagnetic Metamaterials, project RMA08). J.Å. acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (Future Research Leader Programme), and the G€oran Gustafsson Foundation. J.Å. is a Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Research Fellow supported by a grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. V.B. acknowledges the G€oran Gustafsson Foundation and the Blanceflor Boncompagni-Ludovisi Foundation. P.V. acknowledges funding from the Basque Government through the ETORGAI Program, Project No. ER- 2010/00032 and Program No. PI2009-17, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education under Projects No. CSD2006-53 and No. MAT2009-07980. J.N. acknowledges funding for the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education through No. 2009-SGR-1292 and No. MAT2010-20616-C02 projects.Peer Reviewe

Age-associated B cells predict impaired humoral immunity after COVID-19 vaccination in patients receiving immune checkpoint blockade

Age-associated B cells (ABC) accumulate with age and in individuals with different immunological disorders, including cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint blockade and those with inborn errors of immunity. Here, we investigate whether ABCs from different conditions are similar and how they impact the longitudinal level of the COVID-19 vaccine response. Single-cell RNA sequencing indicates that ABCs with distinct aetiologies have common transcriptional profiles and can be categorised according to their expression of immune genes, such as the autoimmune regulator (AIRE). Furthermore, higher baseline ABC frequency correlates with decreased levels of antigen-specific memory B cells and reduced neutralising capacity against SARS-CoV-2. ABCs express high levels of the inhibitory FcγRIIB receptor and are distinctive in their ability to bind immune complexes, which could contribute to diminish vaccine responses either directly, or indirectly via enhanced clearance of immune complexed-antigen. Expansion of ABCs may, therefore, serve as a biomarker identifying individuals at risk of suboptimal responses to vaccination

Brainstem neurochemical profiles after hospitalisation for COVID-19: a 7T MR spectroscopy study

BackgroundSomatic, cognitive and mental health issues have been identified in three-quarters of people 5 months after hospitalisation for severe acute SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection. The underlying neuroanatomical basis of these symptoms remains unclear, but recent studies suggest a role for altered brainstem physiology. We aimed to test the hypothesis that brainstem neurochemical profiles differ in patients who had been hospitalised for COVID-19 compared to matched controls using 7T magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS).MethodsThis prospective case–control study recruited 34 individuals who were hospitalised for COVID-19 and 15 healthy controls with no history of COVID-19 infection from two major UK hospitals before vaccines became available. The participants underwent 7T semi-adiabatic localization by adiabatic selective refocusing (sLASER) 1H-MRS at the ponto-medullary junction. Water-referenced metabolite concentrations were compared between the patients and controls and correlated with infection severity, as measured by maximum C-reactive protein (CRPmax) assay during inpatient admission. Linear mixed modelling was used with a 0.05 significance level.ResultsSpectral quality was high/acceptable in 44/49 participants according to the MRS Consensus criteria. The magnitude of inflammation during patient admission (i.e., CRPmax) correlated positively with myo-inositol concentration (β = 0.005, p = 0.035), as did patient-reported symptoms (β = −0.564, p = 0.023). However, metabolite concentrations were not significantly different between the patients and controls.ConclusionWe show the feasibility of assessing brainstem neurochemical profiles using 7T 1H-MRS in a multi-centre study. Technical limitations at one site’s 7T MRI led to variable repetition times, which limited our statistical power and should be avoided in future studies. Our findings highlight the need for further investigation into the role of neuroinflammation in post-acute COVID-19

Enhanced Intracellular Delivery of Curcumin by Chitosan-Lipoic Acid as Reduction-Responsive Nanoparticles

Aims: Enhancement of anti-tumor activity of the chemotherapeutic agent CUR by redox-sensitive nanoparticle to get a deeper insight into cancer therapy.Background: Tumor targetability and stimulus are widely used to study the delivery of drugs for cancer diagnosis and treatment because poor cellular uptake and inadequate intracellular drug release lead to inefficient delivery of anticancer agents to tumor tissue.Objective: Studies distinguishing between tumor and normal tissues or redox-sensitive systems using glutathione (GSH) as a significant signal.Methods: In this study, we designed Chitosan-Lipoic acid Nanoparticles (CS-LANPs) to improve drug delivery for breast cancer treatment by efficient delivery of Curcumin (CUR). The properties of blank CS-LANPs were studied in detail. The size and the polydispersity index (PDI) of the CS-LANPs were optimized.Results: The results indicate the mean size and PDI of the blank CS-LANPs were around 249 nm and 0.125, respectively. However, the drug loading (DL) and encapsulation efficiency (EE) of the CS-LANPs were estimated to be about 18.22% and 99.80%, respectively. Compared to non-reductive conditions, the size of reduction-sensitive CS-LANPs increased significantly under reductive conditions. Therefore, the drug release of CS-LANPs in the presence of glutathione was much faster than that of non-GSH conditions. Moreover, the antitumor effect of CS-LANPs on MCF-7 cells was determined in vitro by MTT assay, cell cytotoxicity, Caspase-3 Assay, detection of mitochondrial membrane potential and quantification of apoptosis incidence.Conclusion: CS-LANPs showed a remarkably increased accumulation in tumor cells and had a better tumor inhibitory activity in vitro. CS-LANPs could successfully deliver drugs to cancer cells and revealed better efficiency than free CUR.Imaging- and therapeutic targets in neoplastic and musculoskeletal inflammatory diseas