Fluorescent probes for investigating the internalisation and action of bioorthogonal ruthenium catalysts within Gram-positive bacteria.

Bioorthogonal reactions are extremely useful for the chemical modification of biomolecules, and are already well studied in mammalian cells. In contrast, very little attention has been given to the feasibility of such reactions in bacteria. Herein we report modified coumarin dyes for monitoring the internalisation and activity of bioorthogonal catalysts in the Gram-positive bacterial species .

Siderophore-Linked Ruthenium Catalysts for Targeted Allyl Ester Prodrug Activation within Bacterial Cells.

Due to rising resistance, new antibacterial strategies are needed, including methods for targeted antibiotic release. As targeting vectors, chelating molecules called siderophores that are released by bacteria to acquire iron have been investigated for conjugation to antibacterials, leading to the clinically approved drug cefiderocol. The use of small-molecule catalysts for prodrug activation within cells has shown promise in recent years, and here we investigate siderophore-linked ruthenium catalysts for the activation of antibacterial prodrugs within cells.

FAConstructor: an interactive tool for geometric modeling of nerve fiber architectures in the brain.

Purpose: The technique 3D polarized light imaging (3D-PLI) allows to reconstruct nerve fiber orientations of postmortem brains with ultra-high resolution. To better understand the physical principles behind 3D-PLI and improve the accuracy and reliability of the reconstructed fiber orientations, numerical simulations are employed which use synthetic nerve fiber models as input. As the generation of fiber models can be challenging and very time-consuming, we have developed the open source FAConstructor tool which enables a fast and efficient generation of synthetic fiber models for 3D-PLI simulations.

Receptor density pattern confirms and enhances the anatomic-functional features of the macaque superior parietal lobule areas.

The macaque monkey superior parietal lobule (SPL) is part of a neuronal network involved in the integration of information from visual and somatosensory cortical areas for execution of reaching and grasping movements. We applied quantitative in vitro receptor autoradiography to analyse the distribution patterns of 15 different receptors for glutamate, GABA, acetylcholine, serotonin, dopamine, and adenosine in the SPL of three adult male Macaca fascicularis monkeys. For each area, mean (averaged over all cortical layers) receptor densities were visualized as a receptor fingerprint of that area.

Derivation of Fiber Orientations From Oblique Views Through Human Brain Sections in 3D-Polarized Light Imaging.

3D-Polarized Light Imaging (3D-PLI) enables high-resolution three-dimensional mapping of the nerve fiber architecture in unstained histological brain sections based on the intrinsic birefringence of myelinated nerve fibers. The interpretation of the measured birefringent signals comes with conjointly measured information about the local fiber birefringence strength and the fiber orientation. In this study, we present a novel approach to disentangle both parameters from each other based on a weighted least squares routine (ROFL) applied to oblique polarimetric 3D-PLI measurements.

3D Reconstructed Cyto-, Muscarinic M2 Receptor, and Fiber Architecture of the Rat Brain Registered to the Waxholm Space Atlas.

High-resolution multiscale and multimodal 3D models of the brain are essential tools to understand its complex structural and functional organization. Neuroimaging techniques addressing different aspects of brain organization should be integrated in a reference space to enable topographically correct alignment and subsequent analysis of the various datasets and their modalities. The Waxholm Space (http://software.

Impact of priming on the response of neutrophils to human neutrophil alloantigen-3a antibodies.

Background: Human neutrophil alloantigen-3a (HNA-3a) antibodies can induce transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI). The severity of TRALI varies largely among the affected patients. Severe comorbidity seems to increase the susceptibility for TRALI, potentially by priming of neutrophils.

Human neutrophil antigen-3a antibodies induce neutrophil aggregation in a plasma-free medium.

Background: Antibodies against the human neutrophil alloantigen-3a (HNA-3a) are involved in severe cases of transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI), but the susceptibility of patients towards HNA-3a antibody differs largely. HNA-3a antibodies induce granulocyte aggregation. However, it is unresolved whether plasma proteins are required for granulocyte aggregation.