-
Torres Kinney posted an update 20 hours, 41 minutes ago
Transylvania is a historical region in the northwestern part of Romanian with a rather heterogeneous population. Our study is the first to determine human leukocyte antigen (HLA) profiles in a large population sample from this region and to compare them with other European population groups. HLA genes were examined in 2,794 individuals using the Single Specific Primer-Polymerase Chain Reaction (SSP-PCR) and Polymerase Chain Reaction Sequence-Specific Oligonucleotide (PCR-SSO) methods. All samples were tested for the HLA-A locus, 2,773 for HLA-B, 1,847 for HLA-C, and 2,719 for HLA-DRB1 loci. HLA gene frequency data from several European population groups (as presented in studies involving more than 1,000 individuals) served as reference in comparison with the local sample. The distribution of HLA genes in the studied population group was heterogeneous, as the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was statistically significant (P value less then 0.01). The most common genes found in our sample group were A∗02 (0.27%), B∗35 (0.14%), C∗07 (0.25%), and DRB1∗11 (0.19%). The most common haplotype was A∗01~B∗08~C∗07~DRB1∗03 (1.26% in 1,770 individuals with complete data). This analysis confirmed the known heterogeneity of the Transylvanian population. The study indicates that the European population groups located in close vicinity (those from Serbia, Hungary, Wallachia, and Croatia) are genetically closest to the Transylvanian population. Copyright © 2019 Mihaela L. Vică et al.The phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R1) is the major autoantigen in idiopathic membranous nephropathy (MN). However, the pathogenic role of anti-PLA2R1 autoantibodies is unclear. Our aim was to evaluate the in vitro cytotoxicity of anti-PLA2R1 antibodies mediated by complement. Forty-eight patients with PLA2R1-related MN from the prospective cohort SOURIS were included. Anti-PLA2R1 titer, epitope profile, and anti-PLA2R1 IgG subclasses were characterized by ELISA. Cell cytotoxicity was evaluated by immunofluorescence in HEK293 cells overexpressing PLA2R1 incubated with patient or healthy donor sera in the presence or absence of rabbit complement or complement inhibitors. Mean cytotoxicity of anti-PLA2R1 sera for HEK293 cells overexpressing PLA2R1 was 2 ± 2%, which increased to 24 ± 6% after addition of rabbit complement (p less then 0.001) (n = 48). GVB-EDTA, which inhibits all complement activation pathways, completely blocked cell cytotoxicity, whereas Mg-EGTA, which only inhibits the classical and lectin mplement-mediated cytotoxicity could benefit from adjuvant therapy using complement inhibitor associated with rituximab to induce earlier remission and less podocyte injury. Copyright © 2019 Maël Lateb et al.Chronic wounds are a major global health problem with the presence of biofilm significantly contributing to wound chronicity. Current treatments are ineffective in resolving biofilm and simultaneously killing the bacteria; therefore, effective biofilm-resolving drugs are needed. We have previously shown that, together with α-tocopherol, N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) significantly improves the healing of biofilm-containing chronic wounds, in a diabetic mouse model we developed, by causing disappearance of the bacteria and breakdown of the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS). We hypothesize that NAC creates a microenvironment that affects bacterial survival and EPS integrity. To test this hypothesis, we developed an in vitro biofilm system using microbiome taken directly from diabetic mouse chronic wounds. For these studies, we chose mice in which chronic wound microbiome was rich in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (97%). We show that NAC at concentrations with pH less then pKa causes bacterial cell death and breakdown pyright © 2020 Xin Li et al.As a chronic metabolic disease, diabetes mellitus (DM) is broadly characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose. Novel epidemiological studies demonstrate that some diabetic patients have an increased risk of developing dementia compared with healthy individuals. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most frequent cause of dementia and leads to major progressive deficits in memory and cognitive function. Multiple studies have identified an increased risk for AD in some diabetic populations, but it is still unclear which diabetic patients will develop dementia and which biological characteristics can predict cognitive decline. Although few mechanistic metabolic studies have shown clear pathophysiological links between DM and AD, there are several plausible ways this may occur. Since AD has many characteristics in common with impaired insulin signaling pathways, AD can be regarded as a metabolic disease. We conclude from the published literature that the body’s diabetic status under certain circumstances such as metabolic abnormalities can increase the incidence of AD by affecting glucose transport to the brain and reducing glucose metabolism. Furthermore, due to its plentiful lipid content and high energy requirement, the brain’s metabolism places great demands on mitochondria. Thus, the brain may be more susceptible to oxidative damage than the rest of the body. LY3473329 Emerging evidence suggests that both oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction are related to amyloid-β (Aβ) pathology. Protein changes in the unfolded protein response or endoplasmic reticulum stress can regulate Aβ production and are closely associated with tau protein pathology. Altogether, metabolic disorders including glucose/lipid metabolism, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and protein changes caused by DM are associated with an impaired insulin signal pathway. These metabolic factors could increase the prevalence of AD in diabetic patients via the promotion of Aβ pathology. Copyright © 2020 Yanan Sun et al.We report here the clinical, genetic, and molecular characteristics of type 2 diabetes in a Chinese family. There are differences in the severity and age of onset in diabetes among these families. By molecular analysis of the complete mitochondrial genome in this family, we identified the homoplasmic m.15897G>A mutation underwent sequence analysis of whole mitochondrial DNA genome, which localized at conventional position ten of tRNAThr, and distinct sets of mtDNA polymorphisms belonging to haplogroup D4b1. This mutation has been implicated to be important for tRNA identity and stability. Using cybrid cell models, the decreased efficiency of mitochondrial tRNAThr levels caused by the m.15897G>A mutation results in respiratory deficiency, protein synthesis and assembly, mitochondrial ATP synthesis, and mitochondrial membrane potential. These mitochondrial dysfunctions caused an increase in the production of reactive oxygen species in the mutant cell lines. These data provide a direct evidence that a novel tRNA mutation was associated with T2DM.