Cold allodynia is a debilitating symptom of orofacial neuropathic pain resulting from trigeminal nerve damage. The molecular and neural bases of this sensory alteration are still poorly understood. Here, using chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the infraorbital nerve (IoN) (IoN-CCI) in mice, combined with behavioral analysis, Ca imaging and patch-clamp recordings of retrogradely labeled IoN neurons in culture, immunohistochemistry, and adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector-based delivery , we explored the mechanisms underlying the altered orofacial cold sensitivity resulting from axonal damage in this trigeminal branch.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Globally, it is estimated that 1.0 million individuals are newly infected by Hepatitis C virus (HCV) every year, and nearly 50 million people live with a chronic infection, according to World Health Organization. To overcome underdiagnosis of HCV infection among hard-to-reach populations, it is essential to develop new rapid and easy-to-use molecular diagnostic systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAirborne animal viral pathogens can rapidly spread and become a global threat, resulting in substantial socioeconomic and health consequences. To prevent and control potential epidemic outbreaks, accurate, fast, and affordable point-of-care (POC) tests are essential. As a proof-of-concept, we have developed a molecular system based on the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technique for avian metapneumovirus (aMPV) detection, an airborne communicable agent mainly infecting turkeys and chickens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding air microbial content, especially in highly polluted urban areas, is crucial for assessing its effect on human health and ecosystems. In this context, the impact of gaseous pollutants on the aerobiome remains inconclusive due to a lack of studies separating this factor from other contaminants or environmental factors. In this study, we aimed to experimentally assess the influence of contrasting concentrations of atmospheric gaseous pollutants as isolated variables on the composition of the aerobiome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHoney and pollen from and , stingless bees from northern Argentina, presented a particular microbiological profile and associated enzymatic activities. The cultured bacteria were mostly spp. (44%) and spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnzyme scaffolding is an emerging approach for enhancing the catalytic efficiency of multi-enzymatic cascades by controlling their spatial organization and stoichiometry. This study introduces a novel family of engineered SCAffolding Bricks, named SCABs, utilizing the consensus tetratricopeptide repeat (CTPR) domain for organized multi-enzyme systems. Two SCAB systems are developed, one employing head-to-tail interactions with reversible covalent disulfide bonds, the other relying on non-covalent metal-driven assembly via engineered metal coordinating interfaces.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe quilombola women, a documentary that considers the quilombola identity and the right to COVID-19 vaccination, evokes notions of priority, rights, privileges and identity during the process of matching the number of vaccine doses available to citizens' arms. Omission by a Brazilian federal government grounded in necro-politics and denial, plus a lack of information, led quilombo communities to take it on themselves to draw up lists of those eligible for vaccination. The production team's aim was to use images as political language in the health field, so as to document and give visibility to these issues as one illustration of combating social and health inequalities and inequities rooted in structural racism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: American tegumentary leishmaniasis (ATL) is an endemic neglected tropical disease (NTD), its conventional treatment is toxic, slow, and invasive. Rapid diagnosis is crucial for the clinical management of suspected patients, so the development and use of low-cost, miniaturised and portable devices could be the key.
Objectives: This work aimed to develop a simple paper-based electrochemical platform for the serological detection of ATL.
Nanovesicles produced with lipids and polymers are promising devices for drug and bioactive delivery and are of great interest in pharmaceutical applications. These nanovesicles can be engineered for improvement in bioavailability, patient compliance or to provide modified release or enhanced delivery. However, their applicability strongly depends on the safety and low immunogenicity of the components.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCold Spring Harb Mol Case Stud
December 2023
Inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate receptor type 1 () is an endoplasmic reticulum-bound intracellular inositol triphosphate receptor involved in the regulation of intracellular calcium. Pathogenic variants in are associated with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) types 15/16 and 29 and have recently been implicated in a facial microsomia syndrome. In this report, we present a family with three affected individuals found to have a heterozygous missense c.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is growing interest in emerging viruses that can cause serious or lethal disease in humans and animals. The proliferation of cloacal virome studies, mainly focused on poultry and other domestic birds, reveals a wide variety of viruses, although their pathogenic significance is currently uncertain. Analysis of viruses detected in wild birds is complex and often biased towards waterfowl because of the obvious interest in avian influenza or other zoonotic viruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCold thermoreceptor neurons detect temperature drops with highly sensitive molecular machinery concentrated in their peripheral free nerve endings. The main molecular entity responsible for cold transduction in these neurons is the thermo-TRP channel TRPM8. Cold, cooling compounds such as menthol, voltage, and osmolality rises activate this polymodal ion channel.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe upsurge of bacterial resistance to conventional antibiotics turned a well-recognized public health threat. The need of developing new biomaterials of effective practical use in order to tackle bacterial resistance became urgent. In this study, a submicrometric bioparticle of known antibacterial activity was produced in powder form with suitable texture and appealing characteristics for effective oral administration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrom the first glucose biosensor from Updike and Hicks (1968), there was an explosion of research in biosensors for detecting a wide range of analytes [...
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 gene editing system has been shown to be effective at inhibiting human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Studies have not consistently used a trackable dual reporter system to determine what cells received the Cas9/gRNA to determine the overall knockdown of HIV. Some studies have used stably transduced cells under drug selection to accomplish this goal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNano-structured and functionalized materials for encapsulation, transport, targeting and controlled release of drugs are of high interest to overcome low bioavailability in oral administration. We develop lipid-based cubosomes, which are surface-functionalized with biocompatible chitosan--arginine and alginate, displaying internal liquid crystalline structures. Polyelectrolyte-shell (PS) cubosomes have pH-responsive characteristics profitable for oral delivery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAfrican swine fever virus (ASFV) is the causative agent of one of the most lethal diseases affecting domestic pig and wild boar, which is endangering the swine industry due to its rapid expansion. ASFV has developed different mechanisms to evade the host immune response, including inhibition of type I IFN (IFN-I) production and signaling, since IFN-I is a key element in the cellular antiviral response. Here, we report a novel mechanism of evasion of the IFN-I signaling pathway carried out by the ASFV ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme pI215L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Genomic studies have identified numerous genetic variants associated with susceptibility to multiple sclerosis (MS); however, each one explains only a small percentage of the risk of developing the disease. These variants are located in genes involved in specific pathways, which supports the hypothesis that the risk of developing MS may be linked to alterations in these pathways, rather than in specific genes. We analyzed the role of the TNFRSF1A gene, which encodes one of the TNF-α receptors involved in a signaling pathway previously linked to autoimmune disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHepatitis C virus (HCV) infection remains a global health problem, detected only in the early stages by molecular tests. Molecular tests detect HCV RNA, which is very prone to degradation by ribonucleases, reason why blood samples must be transported and stored at - 20 °C, or even - 70 °C for long-term storage. Flinders Technology Associates (FTA) cards are a useful sampling collecting device for dry blood spot (DBS) storage, especially for low and middle-income countries (LMIC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmart biosensors are becoming an important support for modern healthcare, even more so in the current context. Numerous smartphone-based biosensor developments were published in recent years, some highly effective and sensitive. However, when patents and patent applications related to smart biosensors for healthcare applications are analyzed, it is surprising to note that, after significant growth in the first half of the decade, the number of applications filed has decreased considerably in recent years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNon-cell-autonomous mechanisms contribute to neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), in which astrocytes release unidentified factors that are toxic to motoneurons (MNs). We report here that mouse and patient iPSC-derived astrocytes with diverse ALS/FTD-linked mutations (SOD1, TARDBP, and C9ORF72) display elevated levels of intracellular inorganic polyphosphate (polyP), a ubiquitous, negatively charged biopolymer. PolyP levels are also increased in astrocyte-conditioned media (ACM) from ALS/FTD astrocytes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntiretroviral therapy (ART) allows suppressed viremia to reach less than 50 copies/mL in most treated persons living with HIV (PLWH). However, the existence of PLWH that show events of persistent low-level viremia (pLLV) between 50 and 1000 copies/mL and with different virological consequences have been observed. PLLV has been associated with higher virological failure (VF), viral genotype resistance, adherence difficulties and AIDS events.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanodelivery of drugs aims to ensure drug stability in the face of adverse biochemical conditions in the course of administration, concomitant with appropriate pharmacological action provided by delivery at the targeted site. In this study, the application potential of a nanoparticle produced with biopolymers chitosan--arginine and alginate as an oral drug delivery material is evaluated. Both macromolecules being weak polyelectrolytes, the nanoparticle presents strong thermodynamic interactions with a biological model membrane consisting of a charged lipid liposome bilayer, leading to membrane disruption and membrane penetration of the nanoparticles in ideal conditions of pH corresponding to the oral route.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF