Defects of mtDNA replication impaired mitochondrial biogenesis during Trypanosoma cruzi infection in human cardiomyocytes and chagasic patients: the role of Nrf1/2 and antioxidant response.

Background: Mitochondrial dysfunction is a key determinant in chagasic cardiomyopathy development in mice; however, its relevance in human Chagas disease is not known. We determined if defects in mitochondrial biogenesis and dysregulation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) coactivator-1 (PGC-1)-regulated transcriptional pathways constitute a mechanism or mechanisms underlying mitochondrial oxidative-phosphorylation (OXPHOS) deficiency in human Chagas disease.

Methods And Results: We utilized human cardiomyocytes and left-ventricular tissue from chagasic and other cardiomyopathy patients and healthy donors (n>6/group).

Cardiac-oxidized antigens are targets of immune recognition by antibodies and potential molecular determinants in chagas disease pathogenesis.

Trypanosoma cruzi elicits reactive oxygen species (ROS) of inflammatory and mitochondrial origin in infected hosts. In this study, we examined ROS-induced oxidative modifications in the heart and determined whether the resultant oxidized cardiac proteins are targets of immune response and of pathological significance in Chagas disease. Heart biopsies from chagasic mice, rats and human patients exhibited, when compared to those from normal controls, a substantial increase in protein 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), malondialdehyde (MDA), carbonyl, and 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT) adducts.

[Cardiac surgery in elderly patients].

Objective: The morbimortality of elderly patients, (age 70 years or older), who underwent surgery for valvular and coronary artery disease in the last 17 years was analyzed.

Patients And Method: A total of 1,305 patients (654 valvular, 531 coronary and 120 combined) operated from January 1985 to December 2000 were retrospectively studied. Mean age was 73.

Human interleukin 1 beta fused to the human growth hormone signal peptide is N-glycosylated and secreted by Chinese hamster ovary cells.

A hybrid gene consisting of the sequences coding for the signal peptide of human growth hormone and the mature form of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) was chemically synthesized. This sequence was inserted into a eukaryotic expression vector and introduced into Chinese hamster ovary cells. The resulting stably transformed cell lines produced large amounts of recombinant IL-1 beta, which was secreted into the culture medium mainly as a 22-kDa form.

Biologically active A-chain of the plant toxin ricin expressed from a synthetic gene in Escherichia coli.

To assess the biological activity and pharmacokinetic properties of nonglycosylated ricin A-chain (RA), we have obtained the polypeptide following expression of a synthetic 842-bp RA gene in Escherichia coli. Expression of the gene was carried out using the phage T5 PN25 promoter fused to the E. coli lac operator.

Characterization and sequencing of normal and modified oligonucleotides by 252Cf plasma desorption mass spectrometry.

Plasma desorption (PD) mass spectra of normal deoxyribo-oligonucleotides and of neutral methylphosphonate deoxyribo-oligonucleosides are examined and discussed. Molecular ions of oligonucleotides up to nonamer have been observed for neutral species. It is also shown that PD mass spectra can be used to monitor chemical modifications of oligonucleotides, such as the covalent binding of an organic fluorescent probe, along the synthesis process.