Simultaneous monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 and bacterial profiles from the air of hospital environments with COVID-19-affected patients.

Unlabelled: The SARS-CoV-2 presence and the bacterial community profile in air samples collected at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Operational Unit of Infectious Diseases of Santa Caterina Novella Hospital in Galatina (Lecce, Italy) have been evaluated in this study. Air samplings were performed in different rooms of the ICU ward with and without COVID-19 patients. No sample was found positive to SARS-CoV-2, according to Allplex 2019-nCoV Assay.

Compositional Data Analysis of 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing Results from Hospital Airborne Microbiome Samples.

The compositional analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing datasets is applied to characterize the bacterial structure of airborne samples collected in different locations of a hospital infection disease department hosting COVID-19 patients, as well as to investigate the relationships among bacterial taxa at the genus and species level. The exploration of the centered log-ratio transformed data by the principal component analysis via the singular value decomposition has shown that the collected samples segregated with an observable separation depending on the monitoring location. More specifically, two main sample clusters were identified with regards to bacterial genera (species), consisting of samples mostly collected in rooms with and without COVID-19 patients, respectively.

BAG3 Protein Is Involved in Endothelial Cell Response to Phenethyl Isothiocyanate.

Phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), a cruciferous vegetable-derived compound, is a versatile cancer chemopreventive agent that displays the ability to inhibit tumor growth during initiation, promotion, and progression phases in several animal models of carcinogenesis. In this report, we dissect the cellular events induced by noncytotoxic concentrations of PEITC in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). In the early phase, PEITC treatment elicited cells' morphological changes that comprise reduction in cell volume and modification of actin organization concomitantly with a rapid activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway.

HIV-1 Tat protein induces glial cell autophagy through enhancement of BAG3 protein levels.

BAG3 protein has been described as an anti-apoptotic and pro-autophagic factor in several neoplastic and normal cells. We previously demonstrated that BAG3 expression is elevated upon HIV-1 infection of glial and T lymphocyte cells. Among HIV-1 proteins, Tat is highly involved in regulating host cell response to viral infection.

Prevalence and distribution of human papillomavirus genotype in south eastern Italy, in the period 2006-2011: implications for intervention.

Persistent infection of High Risk (HR) Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection can lead to cervical cancer. The HPV genotypes are found worldwide, but important regional variations have been found. For a population-based HPV type prevalence study to assess the effect of existing and new prevention methods, frequently updated information on the burden of cervical cancer is essential.

Synaptosomal protein synthesis in P2 and Ficoll purified fractions.

Cytoplasmic protein synthesis of brain synaptosomes has generally been determined in the Ficoll purified fraction which contains fewer contaminating mitochondria, microsomes and myelin fragments than the parent P2 fraction. Using a highly selective assay of this activity we have compared the total translation activity and the specific activity of the proteins synthesized by either fraction in control rats and in rats trained for a two-way active avoidance task. In control rats the specific activity remained essentially the same in both fractions but in trained rats the value of the Ficoll fraction was markedly lower (38.

Optimization protocol for amyloid-β peptides detection in human cerebrospinal fluid using SELDI TOF MS.

Purpose: The aim of the present work was to set up an optimized protocol for human cerebrospinal fluid amyloid-β (Aβ) profiling.

Experimental Design: We devised an immunoproteomic assay that employs monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) on Preactivated Surface (PS20) chip array followed by SELDI TOF MS. A comparison of a number of factors was performed, and the impact of these differences was noted.

Novel T719P AbetaPP mutation unbalances the relative proportion of amyloid-beta peptides.

A novel missense mutation (T719P) in the amyloid-beta protein precursor (AbetaPP) gene was discovered in a 46-year old patient affected by early onset familial Alzheimer's disease. Using surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS), we determined mass profiles of amyloid-beta peptides (Abeta) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of the AbetaPP mutated patient, healthy control subjects (n = 10), and of two subjects carrying mutations in presenilins genes (PS) (i.e.

Local gene expression in axons and nerve endings: the glia-neuron unit.

Neurons have complex and often extensively elongated processes. This unique cell morphology raises the problem of how remote neuronal territories are replenished with proteins. For a long time, axonal and presynaptic proteins were thought to be exclusively synthesized in the cell body, which delivered them to peripheral sites by axoplasmic transport.

Axonal and presynaptic RNAs are locally transcribed in glial cells.

In the last few years, the long-standing opinion that axonal and presynaptic proteins are exclusively derived from the neuron cell body has been substantially modified by the demonstration that active systems of protein synthesis are present in axons and nerve terminals. These observations have raised the issue of the cellular origin of the involved RNAs, which has been generally attributed to the neuron soma. However, data gathered in a number of model systems indicated that axonal RNAs are synthesized in the surrounding glial cells.