Effect of zinc oxide-eugenol endodontic paste on planktonic aggregates and biofilm of Enterococcus faecalis - An atomic force microscopy evaluation.

Objective: This work aimed to evaluate the in vitro effect of zinc oxide-eugenol paste (ZOE) on planktonic aggregates (EfPA) and biofilm (EfBio) of Enterococcus faecalis, focusing on their morphological aspects observed and analyzed using atomic force microscopy (AFM).

Design: The eugenol and paste were characterized by Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), respectively. The effect of ZOE on EfPA and EfBio was evaluated by a direct-contact test through colony counting and crystal violet staining protocol.

Molecular insights into human phosphatidylserine synthase 1 reveal its inhibition promotes LDL uptake.

In mammalian cells, two phosphatidylserine (PS) synthases drive PS synthesis. Gain-of-function mutations in the Ptdss1 gene lead to heightened PS production, causing Lenz-Majewski syndrome (LMS). Recently, pharmacological inhibition of PSS1 has been shown to suppress tumorigenesis.

Chemical Characterization and Effect of a Lactobacilli-Postbiotic on Biofilm In Vitro.

Postbiotic is the term used to define the soluble factors, metabolic products, or byproducts released by live probiotic bacteria or after its lysis. The objective of this study was to carry out the chemical characterization of the postbiotic of LR-32 and to evaluate its in vitro effect on the development of the biofilm. After the cultivation of the probiotic strain, the postbiotic was extracted by centrifuging the culture and filtering the supernatant.

Interaction between the gut microbiota and colonic enteroendocrine cells regulates host metabolism.

Nutrient handling is an essential function of the gastrointestinal tract. Hormonal responses of small intestinal enteroendocrine cells (EECs) have been extensively studied but much less is known about the role of colonic EECs in metabolic regulation. To address this core question, we investigated a mouse model deficient in colonic EECs.

Modelled impact of Tiny Targets on the distribution and abundance of riverine tsetse.

Background: The insecticide-treated baits known as Tiny Targets are one of the cheapest means of controlling riverine species of tsetse flies, the vectors of the trypanosomes that cause sleeping sickness in humans. Models of the efficacy of these targets deployed near rivers are potentially useful in planning control campaigns and highlighting the principles involved.

Methods And Principal Findings: To evaluate the potential of models, we produced a simple non-seasonal model of the births, deaths, mobility and aging of tsetse, and we programmed it to simulate the impact of seven years of target use against the tsetse, Glossina fuscipes fuscipes, in the riverine habitats of NW Uganda.

Exploring the potential of endophyte-plant interactions for improving crop sustainable yields in a changing climate.

Climate change poses a major threat to global food security, significantly reducing crop yields as cause of abiotic stresses, and for boosting the spread of new and old pathogens and pests. Sustainable crop management as a route to mitigation poses the challenge of recruiting an array of solutions and tools for the new aims. Among these, the deployment of positive interactions between the micro-biotic components of agroecosystems and plants can play a highly significant role, as part of the agro-ecological revolution.

LPD-3 as a megaprotein brake for aging and insulin-mTOR signaling in C. elegans.

Insulin-mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling drives anabolic growth during organismal development; its late-life dysregulation contributes to aging and limits lifespans. Age-related regulatory mechanisms and functional consequences of insulin-mTOR remain incompletely understood. Here, we identify LPD-3 as a megaprotein that orchestrates the tempo of insulin-mTOR signaling during C.

Testing three primate species' attentional biases toward preferred and unpreferred foods: Seeing red or high valued food?

Animals navigate complex environments that present both hazards and essential resources. The prioritization of perceptual information that is relevant to their next actions, such as accessing or avoiding different resources, poses a potential challenge to animals, one that can impact survival. While animals' attentional biases toward negatively valanced and threatening stimuli have been explored, parallel biases toward differently valued resources remain understudied.

DGAT2 inhibition blocks SREBP-1 cleavage and improves hepatic steatosis by increasing phosphatidylethanolamine in the ER.

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 (DGAT2) catalyzes the final step of triglyceride (TG) synthesis. DGAT2 deletion in mice lowers liver TGs, and DGAT2 inhibitors are under investigation for the treatment of fatty liver disease. Here, we show that DGAT2 inhibition also suppressed SREBP-1 cleavage, reduced fatty acid synthesis, and lowered TG accumulation and secretion from liver.

Adipose-specific overexpression of human AGPAT2 in mice causes increased adiposity and mild hepatic dysfunction.

AGPAT2, a critical enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of phospholipids and triacylglycerol (TAG), is highly expressed in adipose tissue (AT). Whether overexpression of AGPAT2 in AT will result in increased TAG synthesis (obesity) and its metabolic complications remains unknown. We overexpressed human specifically in AT using the adiponectin promoter and report increased mass of subcutaneous, gonadal, and brown AT in wild-type mice.

Regulated adipose tissue-specific expression of human in lipodystrophic -null mice results in regeneration of adipose tissue.

Genetic loss of in humans and mice results in congenital generalized lipodystrophy with near-total loss of adipose tissue and predisposition to develop insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus, hepatic steatosis, and hypertriglyceridemia. The mechanism by which deficiency results in loss of adipose tissue remains unknown. We studied this by re-expressing human (hAGPAT2) in -null mice, regulated by doxycycline.

An enteroendocrine-microbial axis in the large intestine controls host metabolism.

Nutrient handling is an essential function of the gastrointestinal tract. Most nutrient absorption occurs in the small intestine and is coordinated by hormone-producing intestinal epithelial cells known as enteroendocrine cells (EECs). In contrast, the colon mostly reclaims water and electrolytes, and handles the influx of microbially-derived metabolites, including short chain fatty acids (SCFA).

Investigating the unaccounted ones: insights on age-dependent reproductive loss in a viviparous fly.

Most empirical and theoretical studies on reproductive senescence focus on observable attributes of offspring produced, such as size or postnatal survival. While harder to study, an important outcome of reproduction for a breeding individual is whether a viable offspring is produced at all. While prenatal mortality can sometimes be directly observed, this can also be indicated through an increase in the interval between offspring production.

Marker-Assisted Pyramiding of Blast-Resistance Genes in a Elite Rice Cultivar through Forward and Background Selection.

Rice blast, caused by , is one of the main rice diseases worldwide. The pyramiding of blast-resistance () genes, coupled to Marker-Assisted BackCrossing (MABC), provides broad-spectrum and potentially durable resistance while limiting the donor genome in the background of an elite cultivar. In this work, MABC coupled to foreground and background selections based on KASP marker assays has been applied to introgress four genes (, and ) in a renowned Italian rice variety, highly susceptible to blast.

Ethanol consumption favors pro-contractile phenotype of perivascular adipose tissue: A role for interleukin-6.

Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) exerts anticontractile effect, but under non-physiological conditions it may contribute to vascular dysfunction by releasing pro-inflammatory cytokines. Since PVAT is an important source of interleukin (IL)-6, we evaluated whether this cytokine would contribute to ethanol-induced vascular dysfunction. With this purpose, male C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) or IL-6-deficient mice (IL-6) were treated with ethanol for 12 weeks.

Identification of the area sampled by traps: A modelling study with tsetse.

Background: Sampling with traps provides the most common means of investigating the abundance, composition and condition of tsetse populations. It is thus important to know the size of the area from which the samples originate, but that topic is poorly understood.

Methods And Principal Findings: The topic was clarified with the aid of a simple deterministic model of the mobility, births and deaths of tsetse.

Lactobacilli Probiotics Modulate Antibacterial Response Gene Transcription of Dendritic Cells Challenged with LPS.

Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that may modulate the immune response by altering the maturation and function of antigen-presenting cells, such as dendritic cells. This study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial gene expression of dendritic cells challenged with LPS and probiotics. Immature dendritic cells were obtained from human CD14 monocytes and challenged with E.

Marker-Assisted Introgression of the Salinity Tolerance Locus Saltol in Temperate Japonica Rice.

Background: Rice is one of the most salt sensitive crops at seedling, early vegetative and reproductive stages. Varieties with salinity tolerance at seedling stage promote an efficient growth at early stages in salt affected soils, leading to healthy vegetative growth that protects crop yield. Saltol major QTL confers capacity to young rice plants growing under salt condition by maintaining a low Na/K molar ratio in the shoots.