Development of a multiplex microsphere immunoassay for the detection of antibodies against highly pathogenic viruses in human and animal serum samples.

Surveillance of highly pathogenic viruses circulating in both human and animal populations is crucial to unveil endemic infections and potential zoonotic reservoirs. Monitoring the burden of disease by serological assay could be used as an early warning system for imminent outbreaks as an increased seroprevalance often precedes larger outbreaks. However, the multitude of highly pathogenic viruses necessitates the need to identify specific antibodies against several targets from both humans as well as from potential reservoir animals such as bats.

Utility of primary cells to examine NPC1 receptor expression in Mops condylurus, a potential Ebola virus reservoir.

The significance of the integral membrane protein Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) in the ebolavirus entry process has been determined using various cell lines derived from humans, non-human primates and fruit bats. Fruit bats have long been purported as the potential reservoir host for ebolaviruses, however several studies provide evidence that Mops condylurus, an insectivorous microbat, is also an ebolavirus reservoir. NPC1 receptor expression in the context of ebolavirus replication in microbat cells remains unstudied.

Assays for laboratory confirmation of novel human coronavirus (hCoV-EMC) infections.

We present a rigorously validated and highly sensitive confirmatory real-time RT-PCR assay (1A assay) that can be used in combination with the previously reported upE assay. Two additional RT-PCR assays for sequencing are described, targeting the RdRp gene (RdRpSeq assay) and N gene (NSeq assay), where an insertion/deletion polymorphism might exist among different hCoV-EMC strains. Finally, a simplified and biologically safe protocol for detection of antibody response by immunofluorescence microscopy was developed using convalescent patient serum.

Multicentre evaluation of central nervous system infections due to Flavi and Phleboviruses in Turkey.

Objectives: Flavi- and Phleboviruses associated with central nervous system (CNS) infections including West Nile Virus (WNV), Tick-borne Encephalitis Virus (TBEV) and Toscana Virus (TOSV) cause significant morbidity and mortality in humans. In this study, the impact of these agents have been investigated in CNS infections at referral hospitals in two provinces in Turkey, where circulation of these viruses have previously been recognized.

Methods: In the study, 258 samples from 126 individuals from Ankara and 113 samples from 108 individuals from Izmir provinces collected in 2010 were included.

Evaluation of the first commercial chikungunya virus indirect immunofluorescence test.

The chikungunya virus (CHIKV), an arbovirus of the genus Alphavirus, family Togaviridae, is mainly transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. It causes an acute infection, characterized by high fever, polyarthralgia and rash and was responsible for a major outbreak which started in 2005 and spread over many islands of the south western Indian Ocean before it hit the Indian subcontinent. As nucleic acid amplification can be used only during the viremic period, serological tests are most widely used for the diagnosis of CHIKV infections.

Potential beneficial as well as detrimental effects of chronic treatment with lisinopril and (or) spironolactone on isolated hearts following low-flow ischemia in normal and infarcted rats.

This study was designed to demonstrate potential beneficial as well as detrimental effects of lisinopril and spironolactone given in combination. In patients with congestive heart failure or myocardial infarction, the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors may inhibit aldosterone production. Spironolactone, a specific aldosterone receptor antagonist may exert other independent and additive effects to those of ACE inhibitors.

Reactive hyperemia during early reperfusion as a determinant of improved functional recovery in ischemic preconditioned rat hearts.

Objective: Our study was undertaken to clarify the impact of the shear stress-induced reactive hyperemia (associated with reperfusion) in preconditioning-mediated protection.

Methods: In control rat hearts, a 40-minute preischemic perfusion (constant pressure: 70 mm Hg) period was followed by 25-minute global low-flow ischemia (constant flow: 0.3 mL/min) and 30-minute reperfusion (constant pressure).

Mechanisms underlying the coronary vasodilation in the isolated perfused hearts of rats submitted to one week of high carbon monoxide exposure in vivo.

We examined the possible mechanisms for carbon monoxide (CO)-induced effects in hearts isolated from Wistar rats exposed for 1 wk to 530 ppm CO. They were treated by daily intraperitoneal injections of either methylene blue (10 mg/kg), glibenclamide (3 mg/kg), or apamin (125 nmol/kg), known to inhibit vasodilatory mechanisms. Hearts were excised, cannulated, and retrogradely perfused through the coronary artery, using the Langendorff method with a constant perfusion pressure.

A 4-AP-sensitive current is enhanced by chronic carbon monoxide exposure in coronary artery myocytes.

A physiological role of carbon monoxide has been suggested for coronary myocytes; however, direct evidence is lacking. The objective of this study was to test the effect of chronic carbon monoxide exposure on the K(+) currents of the coronary myocytes. The effect of 3-wk chronic exposure to carbon monoxide was assessed on K(+) currents in isolated rat left coronary myocytes by the use of the patch-clamp technique in the whole cell configuration.

Acute ischemic preconditioning and high subchronic CO exposure independently increase myocardial tolerance to ischemia.

This study was designed to investigate whether exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) could alter or raise the ischemic tolerance induced by preconditioning. To this end, isolated rat hearts were aerobically perfused for 20 min. Hearts were then randomized to two groups: (1) a further 20-min aerobic perfusion, and (2) ischemic preconditioning (2 cycles of 5 min of ischemia followed by 5 min of reperfusion).

Beneficial effects of amiodarone and dronedarone (SR 33589b), when applied during low-flow ischemia, on arrhythmia and functional parameters asssessed during reperfusion in isolated rat hearts.

The effects of short-term amiodarone and dronedarone treatments on action potential characteristics and arrhythmia (ventricular tachycardia ) induced by reperfusion after global low-flow ischemia were studied in rat hearts. The actions of amiodarone and SR on recovery of coronary flow and contractile function were also determined. Isolated hearts were stabilized for 40 min and were then submitted to 25-min global low-flow ischemia (constant coronary flow, 0.

Ischemic tolerance of the heart by adaptation to chronic hypoxia is suppressed by high subchronic carbon monoxide exposure.

This study was designed to investigate whether exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) could alter the ischemic tolerance induced by chronic hypoxia. We aimed to determine whether chronic hypoxia-induced cardiovascular adaptation was modified during the return to normoxia or by subchronic CO exposure. The degree of resistance to an in vitro transient ischemia was measured, using the Langendorff method, in hearts from rats previously exposed to chronic hypoxic hypoxia and/or subchronic CO exposure to 600 ppm.

[Prosthesis fitting after maxillectomy: an indispensable factor in acceptance and rehabilitation].

Surgical resection is often required for maxillary cancer, producing a communication between the oral cavity and the nose or paranasal sinuses. After maxillectomy, patients experience major dysfunction in speech and swallowing which have a very negative psychological effect. These problems can be overcome with an immediate prosthesis but to be fully successful, coordinated work is required between the surgeon and the maxillofacial prosthodontist before, during and after surgery.

Cardiovascular effects of subchronically low/high carbon monoxide exposure in rats.

This study was designed to determine whether subchronic CO exposure ranging from 15 to 530 ppm induced modifications in the rat cardiovascular system. We investigated the degree of resistance to an in vitro transient ischemia in the hearts exposed in vivo to different CO concentrations for 1-4 weeks. Subchronic CO exposure induced dose and/or time-dependent increases (hematocrit, cardiomegaly and coronary flow).

[Standards, Options and Recommendations (SOR) for good practices in dentistry for head and neck cancer patients. Federation of the French Cancer Centres (FNCLCC)].

Context: The Standards, Options and Recommendations (SOR), initiated in 1993, is a collaborative project between the Federation of the French Cancer Centres (FNCLCC), the 20 French Cancer Centres and specialists from French Public Universities, General Hospitals and Private Clinics. The main objective is the development of clinical practice guidelines to improve the quality of health care and outcomes for cancer patients. The methodology is based on literature review and critical appraisal by a multidisciplinary experts group, with feedback from specialists in cancer care delivery.

Ciliary neurotrophic factor is a regulator of muscular strength in aging.

Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) participates in the survival of motor neurons and reduces the denervation-induced atrophy of skeletal muscles. Experiments performed in rats show a decrease in peripheral CNTF synthesis during aging, associated with an overexpression of its alpha-binding receptor component by skeletal muscles. Measurement of sciatic nerve CNTF production and of the muscular performance developed by the animals revealed a strong correlation between the two studied parameters (r = 0.

Electrophysiological approach of the role of Na+/H+ exchange in low-flow global ischemia and in ischemic preconditioning.

We investigated, at first in low-flow global ischemia and then with ischemic preconditioning, the effects of a compound, (4-isopropyl-3-methylsulphonylbenzoyl)guanidine hydrochloride (HOE 642), known to inhibit the Na+/H+ exchange in rat cardiomyocytes. In rat isolated hearts, perfused on a Langendorff apparatus with Krebs-Henseleit carbonate buffer, the action potentials and the contractile function were measured during a 25-min period of global low-flow ischemia (coronary flow, 0.3 mL.

Action potentials in right and left ventricles from chronic hypoxic rats: effect of almitrine.

Rats were exposed to a 3-wk regimen of chronic normobaric hypoxia, with or without almitrine treatment. Chronic hypoxia led to a significant rise in the right ventricular mass and lengthened the action potential duration (APD) in right ventricle and in nonhypertrophied left ventricle. Hypertrophy and APD lengthening were significantly enhanced by almitrine.

Mechanical and electrophysiological effects of preconditioning in isolated ischemic/reperfused rat hearts.

Changes in action potential duration (APD) were studied during ischemic/reperfusion injury preceded or not by preconditioning in isolated rat hearts. Hearts were perfused on a Langendorff apparatus with Krebs-Henseleit carbonate buffer and submitted to 25-min global low-flow ischemia (coronary flow, 0.3 mol x min-1) followed by 30-min reperfusion.

Effects of chronic angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibition on the relations between ventricular action potential changes and myocardial hypertrophy in aging rats.

We studied the effect of aging on cardiac hypertrophy and action potential duration (APD) in normotensive male WAG/Rij rats and evaluated the role of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in these effects. Cardiac hypertrophy occurs in 30-month-old rats, as indicated by an increase in heart weight, and APD gradually increases with aging in the epicardial region of the right and the left ventricle. Short-term treatment (1 month) with the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) perindopril prevented age-related increase in heart weight/body weight ratio independent of its antihypertensive effects, but did not prevent changes in APD in 30-month-old rats.

Altered electrical response to caffeine exposure in hypertrophied rat myocardium.

We investigated the electrophysiological effects of cardiac hypertrophy induced by different experimental models. Comparison of the action potentials of hypertrophied and control rat hearts reveals a pronounced prolongation of the action potential for all types of hypertrophy. This prolongation affects the entire repolarization phase of the action potential 8 days after severe aortic constriction, after 8 days of isoproterenol treatment (5 mg/kg per day), and 3 months after an aortocaval fistula.

Hypertrophy induced alteration of action potential and effects of the inhibition of angiotensin converting enzyme by perindopril in infarcted rat hearts.

Not much is known about alterations in electrical activity in the healthy part of a heart made hypertrophic as a result of local ischaemia, yet such an investigation might allow us to predict the stages leading to cardiac failure and so aid its prevention. We therefore studied the electrophysiological changes which occurred in rats in which ligation of the left coronary artery had produced hypertrophy of the non-infarcted myocardium. One month after the intervention the overall degree of hypertrophy of the ventricles reached 15.

Role of ATP in the maintenance of action potential configuration of the isolated working rat heart.

The relation between action potential configuration and myocardial adenosine triphosphate (ATP) concentration was analysed in isolated low and high work rat heart preparations. Glucose used as sole substrate could not provide total energy production when the isolated hearts performed high work. This may explain the decrease in action potential duration and plateau amplitude (phases 2 and 3) that occurred concomitantly with a low total myocardial ATP concentration.

[Absence, in the hypertrophied rat heart caused by aortocaval fistula, of several metabolic and electrophysiological changes seen in other models of hypertrophy].

In this work, we compared the electrophysiological and metabolic parameters of a volume overload model of cardiac hypertrophy (aorto-caval fistula) with those of two other models of hypertrophy (aortic stenosis and isoproterenol pretreatment). In these last models, a prolongation of action potential and a decrease of myocardial ATP content are observed. However, these alterations are not shown in the aorto-caval fistulated animals while their heart are well hypertrophied.

Role of membrane permeabilities (calcium, chloride, and potassium) in the genesis of the notch observed on simian and prosimian cardiac action potentials.

The effect of temperature reduction on monkey ventricular action potentials has been studied. Under this condition the genesis of a notch separating the AP spike from the AP plateau has been related either to a conduction phenomenon or to a delay in the activation of the slow inward current. It is observed that the development of a notch at the beginning of the plateau depends both on the presence of a large outward, repolarising current, carried by chloride and/or potassium ions, and on the presence of a slow inward calcium current large enough to depolarise the membrane as the chloride current deactivates.