Gademacgregor1153

cRG-I was therefore considered to be non-mutagenic. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect and underlying mechanisms of Ganoderma atrum polysaccharide (PSG-1) on cyclophosphamide (Cy)-induced intestinal mucosal dysfunction in mice. Results showed that PSG-1 promoted the formation of IgA-secreting cells, modulated sIgA, IgE, IgG, IgM secretion, and improved TLR-2, TLR-4, TLR-6 mRNA levels while these factors were suppressed after Cy treatment. CD4+ and CD8+ T cell numbers were also elevated by PSG-1. Cytokines including IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-2, IL-12p70, IL-4, IL-1β, IL-17, IL-21, IL-23, TGF-β3 and transcription factors including T-bet, GATA-3, RORγt, Foxp3 increased after PSG-1 administration. Besides, PSG-1 reversed goblet cell numbers, and upregulated tight junction proteins like ZO-1, occludin and claudin-1 in immunosuppressed mice. Apart from these, the autophagy-related proteins LC3, Beclin-1, Atg5 and Atg7 were enhanced by PSG-1. These findings demonstrated that PSG-1 could ameliorate Cy-induced impairment of intestinal immunity and mucosal integrity, which maybe associated with autophagy in mice. The increase in human infertility prevalence due to male reproductive disorders has been associated with extensive endocrine-disrupting chemical (EDC) exposure. Acrylamide (AA) is a compound formed spontaneously during heat processing of some foods that are mainly consumed by children and adolescents. In this study, we evaluated the prepubertal AA exposure effects on male adult reproductive physiology using a prepubertal experimental model to analyze the pubertal development, spermatogenesis hormones levels and genes expression involved in male reproductive function. This study is the first one to use the validated protocol to correlate the AA exposure with puberty development, as well as the AA-induced endocrine disrupting effects on reproductive axis. AA did not affect the age at puberty, the reproductive organ's weight and serum hormonal levels. AA reduces spermatogenesis, induces morphological and functional defects on sperm and alters transcript expression of sexual hormone receptors (Ar and Esr2), the transcript expression of Tnf, Egr2, Rhcg and Lrrc34. These findings suggest that excessive AA consumption may impair their reproductive capacity at adulthood, despite no changes in hormonal profile being observed. Living systems exhibit complex yet organized behavior on multiple spatiotemporal scales. To investigate the nature of multiscale coordination in living systems, one needs a meaningful and systematic way to quantify the complex dynamics, a challenge in both theoretical and empirical realms. The present work shows how integrating approaches from computational algebraic topology and dynamical systems may help us meet this challenge. In particular, we focus on the application of multiscale topological analysis to coordinated rhythmic processes. First, theoretical arguments are introduced as to why certain topological features and their scale-dependency are highly relevant to understanding complex collective dynamics. Second, we propose a method to capture such dynamically relevant topological information using persistent homology, which allows us to effectively construct a multiscale topological portrait of rhythmic coordination. Finally, the method is put to test in detecting transitions in real data from an experiment of rhythmic coordination in ensembles of interacting humans. The recurrence plots of topological portraits highlight collective transitions in coordination patterns that were elusive to more traditional methods. This sensitivity to collective transitions would be lost if the behavioral dynamics of individuals were treated as separate degrees of freedom instead of constituents of the topology that they collectively forge. Such multiscale topological portraits highlight collective aspects of coordination patterns that are irreducible to properties of individual parts. The present work demonstrates how the analysis of multiscale coordination dynamics can benefit from topological methods, thereby paving the way for further systematic quantification of complex, high-dimensional dynamics in living systems. V.OBJECTIVES EUCAST recently warned about area of technical uncertainty (ATU) of amoxicillin/clavulanate (AMX/C) disk susceptibility testing against Enterobacterales. Thus, we aimed to compare the reliability of three routine methods and to evaluate the ATU impact. METHODS 286 Escherichia coli strains (including 159 AMX-resistant) were categorized for the two EUCAST AMX/C breakpoints by disk diffusion (Bio-Rad), Phoenix automate (Becton Dickinson) and Etest (AES) compared to broth microdilution reference method. RESULTS By microdilution, 84.2% of strains were AMX/C susceptible using urinary breakpoint (MIC ≤32 mg/L) and 62.2% using systemic breakpoint (MIC ≤8 mg/L), with 63.6% of MICs between 4 and 16 mg/L. For systemic breakpoint, category agreement (CA) and very major error (VME) were unacceptable for Etest (71.7% and 27.3%), disk (73.1% and 23.4% at 19 mm cut-off) and in a lesser extent for Phoenix (83.6% and 10.5%). For disks, unacceptable VME rate was observed for diameters up to 22 mm, probably due to overcharged disks. For Etest, VME were high at 6 mg/L (46/63) and 8 mg/L (22/29). For urinary breakpoint, CA was more acceptable for disk (88.9%) and Etest (84.3%) (unevaluable for Phoenix). CONCLUSION AMX/C susceptibility testing of E. coli for systemic breakpoint was unreliable for the three routine methods, mainly explained by the high prevalence (∼60%) of strains with microdilution MICs around the breakpoint (8 mg/L). Our data confirmed the EUCAST 19-20 mm ATU for disk and suggested to introduce ATU for Etest MIC values of 6 and 8 mg/L. OBJECTIVES Zika virus (ZIKV) infection during pregnancy may cause fetus neurological abnormalities and therefore fast and accurate laboratory assays are critical for rapid diagnosis. ELISA based on ZIKV NS1 protein was developed and shown to be sensitive and highly specific, however it's negative and positive predictive values were not tested. In this study we evaluated the ability of the NS1-based ELISA to exclude ZIKV infection and serve as a first line screening tool for travelers. METHODS We tested samples obtained during the peak of ZIKV infection from 1188 symptomatic and asymptomatic Israeli travelers using NS1-based IgG and IgM ELISA, real-time RT-PCR analysis and ZIKV neutralization. Ubiquitin chemical Kaplan-Maier method was used to evaluate the duration of ZIKV RNA in whole blood and urine samples. RESULTS NS1-based ELISA identified 20 true-positive, 5 false-positive and 4 false negative cases resulting in sensitivity and specificity of 83.3% (95%CI 62-94%) and 97.5% (95%CI 94-99%) respectively and positive and negative predictive values of 80% (95%CI 59-92%) and 98% (95%CI 95-99%) respectively.