A phospholipid immunomodulator from Akkermansia muciniphila.

A recent paper in Nature (Bae et al., 2022) reports the discovery of a phosphatidylethanolamine from Akkermansia muciniphila that mediates the immunomodulatory function of the bacterium via regulation of the Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) or the TLR2-TLR1 signaling complex in immune cells.

Bacterial Indole as a Multifunctional Regulator of Klebsiella oxytoca Complex Enterotoxicity.

Gastrointestinal microbes respond to biochemical metabolites that coordinate their behaviors. Here, we demonstrate that bacterial indole functions as a multifactorial mitigator of Klebsiella grimontii and Klebsiella oxytoca pathogenicity. These closely related microbes produce the enterotoxins tilimycin and tilivalline; cytotoxin-producing strains are the causative agent of antibiotic-associated hemorrhagic colitis and have been associated with necrotizing enterocolitis of premature infants.

Bacterial Swarmers Enriched During Intestinal Stress Ameliorate Damage.

Background And Aims: Bacterial swarming, a collective movement on a surface, has rarely been associated with human pathophysiology. This study aims to define a role for bacterial swarmers in amelioration of intestinal stress.

Methods: We developed a polymicrobial plate agar assay to detect swarming and screened mice and humans with intestinal stress and inflammation.

Alternative Techniques for Breast Tumour Detection using Ultrasound.

Ultrasound images are potentially invaluable for imaging internal organs and diseases. However, due to noise, they are still difficult to interpret. We apply and compare supervised machine learning approaches to train a model of lesions using features with unsupervised machine learning approaches to segment and detect tumours in breasts.

Divergent early mesoderm specification underlies distinct head and trunk muscle programmes in vertebrates.

Head and trunk muscles have discrete embryological origins and are governed by distinct regulatory programmes. Whereas the developmental route of trunk muscles from mesoderm is well studied, that of head muscles is ill defined. Here, we show that, unlike the myogenic trunk paraxial mesoderm, head mesoderm development is independent of the T/Tbx6 network in mouse.

Two zinc finger proteins from Mycobacterium smegmatis: DNA binding and activation of transcription.

Single zinc finger domain containing proteins are very few in number. Of numerous zinc finger proteins in eukaryotes, only three of them like GAGA, Superman and DNA binding by one finger (Dof) have single zinc finger domain. Although few zinc finger proteins have been described in eubacteria, no protein with single C4 zinc finger has been described in details in anyone of them.

Mechanism of regulation of phosphorylation-dephosphorylation of Ca2+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ -Atpases by modulator proteins isolated from rat brain cytosol.

Two proteins of molecular mass 13 kDa, a specific inhibitor of Na+, K+ -ATPase and another of 12 kDa, which can distinguish between Ca2, Mg2+ and Ca2+ -ATPase activities have been obtained from the pooled fractions isolated from rat brain, using Sephadex G-100 chromatography. In order to determine the key step(s), which is affected by the modulators, we have designed an in vitro experiment of phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of these ATPases in the absence and presence of the modulators. The results suggest that the phosphorylation step of Mg2+ -independent Ca2+ -ATPase is inhibited, while in Mg2+ -dependent Ca2 -ATPase, the dephosphorylation step is stimulated by the modulators.

Modulation of age at onset in Huntington's disease and spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 patients originated from eastern India.

To identify the genetic modifier(s) that might alter the age at onset in Huntington's disease (HD) we have analyzed variations in GluR6 kainate receptor (GluR6), CA150 gene, Delta2642 and polymorphic CCG repeat variation in huntingtin (htt) gene in 77 HD patients and normal individuals. In addition, variation in the RAI1 gene was analyzed in 30 spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA2) patients and normal individuals to show the possible influence on the age at onset. Multiple regression analysis indicated that variation in GluR6 and CCG repeat genotype might explain 6.