Search results for "inn"
showing 10 items of 7124 documents
Phosphorylation of CENP-A on serine 7 does not control centromere function.
2019
CENP-A is the histone H3 variant necessary to specify the location of all eukaryotic centromeres via its CENP-A targeting domain and either one of its terminal regions. In humans, several post-translational modifications occur on CENP-A, but their role in centromere function remains controversial. One of these modifications of CENP-A, phosphorylation on serine 7, has been proposed to control centromere assembly and function. Here, using gene targeting at both endogenous CENP-A alleles and gene replacement in human cells, we demonstrate that a CENP-A variant that cannot be phosphorylated at serine 7 maintains correct CENP-C recruitment, faithful chromosome segregation and long-term cell viab…
Lepidopteran species have a variety of defence strategies against bacterial infections
2017
The insect immune system has versatile ways of coping with microbial insults. Currently, innate immune priming has been described in several invertebrates, and the first insights into its mechanistic basis have been described. Here we studied infections with two different strains of Serratia marcescens bacteria in two different Lepidopteran hosts. The results reveal fundamental differences between the two hosts, a well-known model organism Galleria mellonella and a non-model species Arctia plantaginis. They differ in their strategies for resisting oral infections; priming their defences against a recurring sepsis; and upregulating immunity related genes as a response to the specific pathoge…
Effect of resource availability on evolution of virulence and competition in an environmentally transmitted pathogen
2018
Understanding ecological and epidemiological factors driving pathogen evolution in contemporary time scales is a major challenge in modern health management. Pathogens that replicate outside the hosts are subject to selection imposed by ambient environmental conditions. Increased nutrient levels could increase pathogen virulence by pre-adapting for efficient use of resources upon contact to a nutrient rich host or by favouring transmission of fast-growing virulent strains. We measured changes in virulence and competition in Flavobacterium columnare, a bacterial pathogen of freshwater fish, under high and low nutrient levels. To test competition between strains in genotype mixtures, we devel…
Anakinra drug retention rate and predictive factors of long-term response in systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis and adult onset still disease
2019
Background and Objective: Only a few studies have reported long-term efficacy of interleukin (IL)-1 inhibition in systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) and adult-onset Still disease (AOSD). Herein we report on the effectiveness of anakinra (ANA), expressed in terms of drug retention rate (DRR), and evaluate the predictive factors of drug survival in a cohort of patients with sJIA and AOSD. Patients and Methods: This is a multicenter study reviewing retrospectively the medical records from 61 patients with sJIA and 76 with AOSD, all treated with ANA in 25 Italian tertiary referral centers. Results: The cumulative retention rate of ANA at 12-, 24-, 48-, and 60-month of follow-up was 7…
Positive Controls in Adults and Children Support That Very Few, If Any, New Neurons Are Born in the Adult Human Hippocampus.
2020
Adult hippocampal neurogenesis was originally discovered in rodents. Subsequent studies identified the adult neural stem cells and found important links between adult neurogenesis and plasticity, behavior, and disease. However, whether new neurons are produced in the human dentate gyrus (DG) during healthy aging is still debated. We and others readily observe proliferating neural progenitors in the infant hippocampus near immature cells expressing doublecortin (DCX), but the number of such cells decreases in children and few, if any, are present in adults. Recent investigations using dual antigen retrieval find many cells stained by DCX antibodies in adult human DG. This has been interprete…
Different Innate and Adaptive Immune Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Infection of Asymptomatic, Mild, and Severe Cases
2020
Abstract Background SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus, not encountered before by humans. The wide spectrum of clinical expression of SARS-CoV-2 illness suggests that individual immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 play a crucial role in determining the clinical course after first infection. Immunological studies have focussed on patients with moderate to severe disease, demonstrating excessive inflammation in tissues and organ damage. We have studied the individual response to SARS-CoV-2 of asympromatic, mild and severe COVID-19 patients in order to investigate the role of innnate and adaptive immunity in determining the clinical course after first infection. Methods To understand the basis of th…
Body Mass Index and Associated Clinical Variables in Patients with Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity.
2019
Background: Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity (NCWS) is still a largely undefined condition, due to the lack of a diagnostic marker. Few data are available about the nutritional characteristics of NCWS patients at diagnosis. Aims: To evaluate the proportion of NCWS patients who were underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese at diagnosis, and to search for possible correlations between their Body Mass Index (BMI) and other NCWS-related disease characteristics. Patients and Methods: The clinical charts of 145 NCWS patients (125 F, 20 M, mean age 37.1 ±
Altered distribution and function of splenic innate lymphoid cells in adult chronic immune thrombocytopenia
2018
IF 7.607; International audience; Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) have been characterized as innate immune cells capable to modulate the immune response in the mucosae. Human ILCs have been rarely described in secondary lymphoid organs except in tonsils. Moreover, their function and phenotype in human secondary lymphoid organs during autoimmune diseases have never been studied. We took advantage of splenectomy as a treatment of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) to describe and compare splenic ILC from 18 ITP patients to 11 controls. We first confirmed that ILC3 represented the most abundant ILC subset in human non-inflamed spleens, accounting for 90% of total ILC, and that they were mostly constit…
Mechanisms of action of metformin in type 2 diabetes: Effects on mitochondria and leukocyte-endothelium interactions.
2020
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a very prevalent, multisystemic, chronic metabolic disorder closely related to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases. It is characterised by mitochondrial dysfunction and the presence of oxidative stress. Metformin is one of the safest and most effective anti-hyperglycaemic agents currently employed as first-line oral therapy for T2D. It has demonstrated additional beneficial effects, unrelated to its hypoglycaemic action, on weight loss and several diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disorders and metabolic diseases, including thyroid diseases. Despite the vast clinical experience gained over several decades of use, the mechanism of action of metformin i…
Triggering of Toll-like Receptors in Old Individuals. Relevance for Vaccination
2019
Aging is characterized by a general decline in a range of physiological functions, with a consequent increase in the risk of developing a variety of chronic diseases and geriatric syndromes. Additionally, increasing age is accompanied by a progressive decline in both innate and acquired immune system, referred to as immunosenescence. This impaired ability to mount an efficient immune response after exposure to microorganisms or vaccines represents a major challenge in acquiring protection against pathogens in aging. Therefore, there is still a great need for vaccines that are tailored to optimally stimulate the aged immune system, thus promoting more successful aging. Various strategies ca…