Avoidance of the NLRP3 Inflammasome by the Stealth Pathogen, .

, a highly adapted obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen and the cause of the zoonosis Q fever, is a reemerging public health threat. employs a Type IV secretion system (T4SS) to establish and maintain its intracellular niche and modulate host immune responses including the inhibition of apoptosis. Interactions between and caspase-1-mediated inflammasomes are not fully elucidated.

A Cross-Sectional Online Survey Identifies Subspecialty Differences in the Management of Pediatric Cataracts Associated with Uveitis.

Introduction: To determine if differences exist between pediatric ophthalmologists and uveitis ophthalmologists in the treatment of pediatric uveitic cataracts and placement of intraocular lenses.

Methods: Uveitis ophthalmologists and pediatric ophthalmologists were surveyed via an online poll regarding their therapeutic management of pediatric uveitic cataract and intraocular lens (IOL) placement.

Results: Sixty-two responses from uveitis ophthalmologists and 47 responses from pediatric ophthalmologists were recorded.

The signaling adaptor BCAP inhibits NLRP3 and NLRC4 inflammasome activation in macrophages through interactions with Flightless-1.

B cell adaptor for phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) (BCAP) is a signaling adaptor that activates the PI3K pathway downstream of B cell receptor signaling in B cells and Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling in macrophages. BCAP binds to the regulatory p85 subunit of class I PI3K and is a large, multidomain protein. We used proteomic analysis to identify other BCAP-interacting proteins in macrophages and found that BCAP specifically associated with the caspase-1 pseudosubstrate inhibitor Flightless-1 and its binding partner leucine-rich repeat flightless-interacting protein 2.

Genome Sequences of Campylobacter jejuni 81-176 Variants with Enhanced Fitness Relative to the Parental Strain in the Chicken Gastrointestinal Tract.

Campylobacter jejuni is a major cause of food-borne infections in the United States due to its ability to asymptomatically colonize the gastrointestinal tracts of chickens. Using competition assays with parental C. jejuni 81-176, variants with consistently improved fitness in chicken ceca relative to the parental strain were identified and sequenced.