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Medical Metaphors in Economics News Articles in English and Italian
2017
As Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 3) state in Metaphors We Live by, “our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.” From a linguistic point of view, metaphors not only exist in everyday language but in specialized discourse too, where they are frequently the result of interdisciplinary borrowings. The language of economics, replete with medical metaphors, is one of the most representative examples of this phenomenon. This paper offers a quantitative and qualitative analysis of medical metaphors in English and Italian economics news discourse, as no research seems to have been conducted so far on the topic from a cross-linguistic…
Voriconazole inhibits biofilm formation in different species of the genus Candida
2012
To determine the ability of voriconazole to inhibit the formation of biofilms.A total of 38 blood isolates of Candida spp. (8 Candida albicans, 10 Candida tropicalis, 10 Candida glabrata, 7 Candida parapsilosis sensu stricto and 3 Candida orthopsilosis) and C. albicans ATCC 90028 and ATCC 64548 were assessed. Biofilm formation was quantified using XTT reduction assays. The inhibition of biofilm formation was determined (i) in the presence of 0.06 and 0.25 mg/L voriconazole, and (ii) on surfaces previously coated with 0.06, 0.25, 1, 4 and 16 mg/L voriconazole.Voriconazole reduced biofilm formation under both conditions, the extent depending on the species, isolate and drug concentration. In …
Candida and Candidiasis: The Cell Wall as a Potential Molecular Target for Antifungal Therapy
2004
The fungal species Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogen, which causes serious infections in humans, particularly in immunocompromised patients. Depending on the underlying host defect, C. albicans causes a variety of infections, ranging from superficial mucocutaneous candidiasis to life-threatening disseminated infections. Both the limited spectrum of antifungal drugs currently in clinical use and the emergence of resistances make necessary the development of new effective antifungal drugs with minimal side effects; however, such a research is limited by the small number of specific target sites identified to date. The cell wall is a fungal specific dynamic structure essential to a…
In vitro activity of the new semi-synthetic polypeptide cilofungin (LY121019) against Aspergillus and Candida species.
1990
The in vitro activity of cilofungin (LY121019), a new semi-synthetic antifungal agent was evaluated. Potent activity was seen against Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis, with almost identical MIC and MFC results, whereas no activity was seen against any isolates of Candida parapsilosis or three Aspergillus spp. However, MICs were dependent on medium and test conditions chosen. It is concluded that cilofungin has good activity against some medically important yeasts in vitro, and that its in vitro activity depends on the method used.
Antibody response toCandida albicanscell wall antigens
2003
The cell wall of Candida albicans is not only the structure where many essential biological functions reside but is also a significant source of candidal antigens. The major cell wall components that elicit a response from the host immune system are proteins and glycoproteins, the latter being predominantly mannoproteins. Both carbohydrate and protein moieties are able to trigger immune responses. Proteins and glycoproteins exposed at the most external layers of the wall structure are involved in several types of interactions of fungal cells with the exocellular environment. Thus, coating of fungal cells with host antibodies has the potential to profoundly influence the host-parasite intera…
Clinical strains ofCandida albicansexpress the surface antigen glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase in vitro and in infected tissues
1999
We have previously described the presence of an enzymatically active form of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate-dehydrogenase (GAPDH) in the cell surface of Candida albicans ATCC 26555 which is also a fibronectin and laminin binding protein. Immunohistochemical analysis of tissue sections from patients with disseminated candidiasis with a polyclonal antiserum to GAPDH from C. albicans (PAb anti-CA-GAPDH) revealed that the enzyme is expressed at the surface of fungal cells in infected tissues. The same PAb detected the presence of GAPDH species, with a molecular mass of approximately 33 kDa, in cell wall extracts obtained from clinical isolates of the fungus. These cell surface-bound GAPDH moieties …
Influence of aging on murine neutrophil and macrophage function against Candida albicans.
2008
Previous work by our group showed that aged C57BL/6 mice develop an altered innate and adaptive immune response to Candida albicans and are more susceptible to systemic primary candidiasis. In this work, we used young (2-3 months old) and aged (18-20 months old) C57BL/6 mice to study in vitro the influence of aging on (1) the fungicidal activity of neutrophils and macrophages, (2) the production of cytokines by resident peritoneal macrophages in response to C. albicans, and (3) cell surface Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2 expression on resident peritoneal macrophages. Our results indicate that murine phagocytes have a fungicidal activity well preserved with aging. In vitro production of proinfla…
Diagnosis of systemic candidiasis by enzyme immunoassay detection of specific antibodies to mycelial phase cell wall and cytoplasmic candidal antigens
1993
Diagnosis of systemic Candida infections was attempted by the use of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (EIA) to detect IgG antibodies towards cell wall-bound and cytoplasmic candidal antigens. Cell wall antigens were sequentially solubilized by treatment of germinated blastoconidia of Candida albicans (ATCC 26555 strain) with beta-mercaptoethanol (beta ME extract) and digestion with Zymolyase 20T, a beta-glucanase preparation (Zymolyase extract). Protoplasts obtained after treatment with Zymolyase were osmotically lysed (cytoplasmic antigens). Sera were obtained from patients with systemic (n = 28) and superficial (n = 46) candidiasis. Control sera were obtained from normal healthy indiv…
Identification of Candida dubliniensis among oral yeast isolates from an Italian population of human immunodeficiency virus-infected (HIV+) subjects
2002
Candida dubliniensis, an emerging oral pathogen, phenotypically resembles Candida albicans so closely that it is easily misidentified as such. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of two phenotypic methods, growth at 45 degrees C and 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) reduction, for confirming presumptive identification of C. dubliniensis and C. albicans by colony color on CHROMagar Candida (CAC) medium. A combination of these methods was used to establish the prevalence of oral C. dubliniensis in an Italian population of 45 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected subjects. Twenty-two samples (48.9%) were positive for yeasts on CAC medium producing a total …
Dectin-1 mediatesin vitrophagocytosis ofCandida albicansyeast cells by retinal microglia: Figure 1
2011
We have investigated the expression of TLR2 and Dectin-1 in retinal microglia and their involvement in Candida albicans phagocytosis using a cytometric approach. The expression of both receptors has been demonstrated in CD11b+ retinal cells. Phagocytosis of pHrodo-labelled C. albicans yeasts by microglial CD11b+ cells of C57BL/6 mice was inhibited both by the Dectin-1 antagonist laminarin and anti-Dectin-1 antibodies, whereas phagocytosis of yeasts by retinal microglia of TLR2 KO mice was unaffected. These data indicate that phagocytosis of C. albicans yeasts by retinal microglia is mediated by Dectin-1, whereas TLR2 does not play a significant role in this process.