Search Results (10)

Background/Objectives: We sought to evaluate the association between the risk of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of breast cancer genes 1 (BRCA1) and 2 (BRCA2). Methods: We prospectively recruited 515 cases with PTC and 296 controls without cancer. The genotypes of five BRCA1 SNPs (rs8176318, rs1799966, rs799917, rs16940, rs1799949) and three BRCA2 SNPs (rs15869, rs1799943, rs1799955) were determined using the TaqMan assay. We evaluated the association of haplotypes with the risk of PTC due to linkage disequilibrium (LD). Results: The five BRCA1 SNPs were significantly associated with the risk of PTC. The AC genotype of rs8176318 (OR = 0.69, p = 0.02) and the CT and CC genotypes of rs1799966 (OR = 0.70, p = 0.02 and OR = 0.67, p = 0.01, respectively) were associated with a decreased risk of PTC. The AG genotype of rs16940 (OR = 0.67, p = 0.01) and the AG genotypes of rs799917 and rs1799949 (both OR = 0.70, p = 0.02) decreased the risk of PTC. Haplotype 1 [rs8176318(C)-rs1799966(T)-rs799917(G)-rs16940(A)-rs1799949(G)] ± (OR = 0.69, p = 0.02) and haplotype 2 [rs8176318(A)-rs1799966(C)-rs799917(A)-rs16940(G)-rs1799949(A)] ± (OR = 0.71, p = 0.03) of BRCA1 reduced the risk of PTC. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the polymorphisms of BRCA1 may contribute to the susceptibility to PTC in the Korean population. Full article

Serbia has recently begun facing a serious problem with the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål), which was first recorded in October 2015. This species belongs to the Pentomidae family and is notorious for causing extensive damage to plants. During the winter, it tends to gather in urban areas, such as houses and different man-made facilities, which has raised concerns among producers and citizens. The population of this species has rapidly increased, causing significant economic damage to cultivated plants. However, despite the alarming situation no natural enemies have yet been identified in Serbia. Therefore, research in 2022 was focused on collecting stink bug eggs to investigate the presence of egg parasitoids. The study identified two foreign Hymenoptera species for the European region, Trissolcus japonicus (Ashmead) and Tr. mitsukurii (Ashmead) (Scelionidae), recorded for the first time in Serbia. Additionally, the list of egg parasitoid species belonging to the Hymenoptera order includes seven local species: Anastatus bifasciatus (Geoffroy), from the Eupelmidae family; Ooencyrtus sp., from the Encyrtidae family; and Telenomus turesis (Walker), Tr. basalis (Wollaston), Tr. belenus (Walker), Tr. colemani (Crawford), and Tr. semistriatus (Nees von Esenbeck), from the Scelionidae family. In total, nine egg parasitoid species were, for the first time, reported as parasitizing H. halys and related species in Serbia. Full article

Background: Currently, there are no studies evaluating the feasibility of a prostate biopsy approach in men undergoing a kidney transplant (KT). Owing to this evidence, we planned a retrospective population-based study to evaluate our experience of a transrectal prostate biopsy (TR-PB) approach and studied the impact on the complication rate and outcomes in patients undergoing KT with suspected prostate cancer (PCa). Methods: We collected data from KT patients who underwent PB with a transrectal approach. One week and two weeks after the PB, patients’ information was collected regarding possible complications during the post-biopsy period. Results: A total of 121 patients were included in this study. Among them, Group 1 was composed of 59 patients undergoing TR-PB with an ultrasound (US) standard technique, and Group 2 consisted of 62 patients undergoing TR-PB with an MRI-US cognitive technique. We observed a 28.9% Clavien–Dindo grade ≤ 2 of early side effect rates (mostly rectal bleeding and other minor hematuria), with a very low rate of hospital re-admission for acute urinary retention (3.3%); only one man required hospitalization for rectal bleeding, and there were no major complications. Conclusions: We can affirm that TR-PB can be a safe procedure with a low risk of severe complications when performed by skilled specialists with a standardized procedural pathway. Full article

The amyE gene encoding α-amylase from Bacillus subtilis 168 was fused to several genes, the products of which are membrane proteins to express AmyE extracellularly. Genes of CapA, a subunit of the capsular poly-γ-glutamate synthetase of Bacillus subtilis subsp. natto; YiaT^R232, the first 232 residues of YiaT, an outer membrane protein of Escherichia coli K-12; and PgsA, cytidine 5′-diphosphate-diacylglycerol-glycerol-3-phosphate 3-phosphatidyltransferase of B. subtilis subsp. natto, were used. The Escherichia coli strain harboring the plasmid carrying the pgsA-amyE fusion expressed a very high level of amylase not only on the extracellular surface of the cells but also in the medium and the intracellular space and solubilized steamed rice in two days. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the amylase purified from the culture medium (Ser-Ala-Glu-Thr-Ala) indicated that it was cleaved at the signal peptide cleavage site of AmyE. The strain SH2204, transformed with pKN11 carrying speA (arginine decarboxylase gene), speB (agmatinase gene) and argA^{ATG Y19C} (N-acetylglutamate synthase gene) and pMAN63 carrying pgsA-amyE produced 1.2 mM putrescine from 5 mM arginine by adding 0.5 mM IPTG in eight days. Discarding steamed rice is not only a food loss, but also a waste of renewable, biogenerated resources due to the burning of it with petroleum, increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The E. coli strain developed in this study can help solve this problem because it can produce an important chemical using steamed rice as the sole carbon and energy source. Full article

According to several studies, the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) ranges from 2.4 to 9.9 percent among adult mental inpatients. However, subjects with forms of ASD that fit in the high functioning spectrum may remain undiagnosed during childhood and adolescence without reaching clinical attention until they develop in adult life other psychiatric disorders, often characterized by treatment resistance and poor outcomes. The aim of this case report was to evaluate the role of an undiagnosed ASD in the mental illness trajectory and discuss the diagnostic and therapeutic implications. We reported a case of a young man with an undiagnosed ASD that came to clinical attention only after the development of a severe manic episode with mixed and psychotic features and with catatonia in adulthood, despite meeting DSM-5-TR (APA, 2022) diagnostic criteria for ASD since early childhood. This case confirms the need of a timely identification of ASD in order to prevent the development of a mental illness trajectory and to improve the prognosis and the outcome. Moreover, on the heuristic level, this case seems to support the presence of a continuum between ASD and catatonia. In this framework, the use of a questionnaire based on a spectrum model, such as the AdAS Spectrum, could be useful in early diagnosis of ASD without intellectual or language impairment as well as in early detection of subthreshold conditions (broad autism spectrum phenotype or autistic traits), which represents a vulnerability factor for the development of various mental disorders. Full article

Increasing resistance to triazole antifungals in Aspergillus fumigatus is worrisome because of the associated high mortality of triazole-resistant A. fumigatus (TRAF) infections. While most studies have focused on single triazole-susceptible (WT) or TRAF infections, reports of TRAF cases developing mixed WT and TRAF infections have been described in several studies. However, the prevalence of mixed infections and their responses to current recommended therapies are unknown and could be inappropriate, leading to poor clinical outcomes. To address the urgent need for tools to diagnose, monitor disease development and therapy efficacies in mixed infection settings where quantification of WT versus TRAF is key, this study developed a novel qPCR assay to differentiate WT and TRAF harboring the cyp51A-TR₃₄/L98H mutation. The proposed assay successfully quantified A. fumigatus and discriminated TRAF-TR₃₄ in vitro and in vivo, which was achieved by increasing the yield of extracted DNA through improved homogenization and specific primers targeting the WT-sequence or TR₃₄-insertion and a TaqMan-probe directed to A. fumigatus. The here-developed qPCR assay overcomes sensitivity issues of methodologies such as CFU counts, providing specific, reproducible, and reliable quantitative information to study and follow up the (interplay and individual) effects of mixed A. fumigatus infections on disease development and treatment responses. Full article

Spent sulfite liquor (SSL) from softwood processing is rich in hemicellulose (acetyl galactoglucomannan, AcGGM), lignin, and lignin-derived compounds. We investigated the effect of sequential AcGGM purification on the enzymatic bioconversion of AcGGM. SSL was processed through three consecutive purification steps (membrane filtration, precipitation, and adsorption) to obtain AcGGM with increasing purity. Significant reduction (~99%) in lignin content and modest loss (~18%) of polysaccharides was observed during purification from the least pure preparation (UFR), obtained by membrane filtration, compared to the purest preparation (AD), obtained by adsorption. AcGGM (~14.5 kDa) was the major polysaccharide in the preparations; its enzymatic hydrolysis was assessed by reducing sugar and high-performance anion-exchange chromatography analysis. The hydrolysis of the UFR preparation with Viscozyme L or Trichoderma reesei β-mannanase TrMan5A (1 mg/mL) resulted in less than ~50% bioconversion of AcGGM. The AcGGM in the AD preparation was hydrolyzed to a higher degree (~67% with TrMan5A and 80% with Viscozyme L) and showed the highest conversion rate. This indicates that SSL contains enzyme-inhibitory compounds (e.g., lignin and lignin-derived compounds such as lignosulfonates) which were successfully removed. Full article

Streptomyces sp. TR1341 was isolated from the sputum of a man with a history of lung and kidney tuberculosis, recurrent respiratory infections, and COPD. It produces secondary metabolites associated with cytotoxicity and immune response modulation. In this study, we complement our previous results by identifying the genetic features associated with the production of these secondary metabolites and other characteristics that could benefit the strain during its colonization of human tissues (virulence factors, modification of the host immune response, or the production of siderophores). We performed a comparative phylogenetic analysis to identify the genetic features that are shared by environmental isolates and human respiratory pathogens. The results showed a high genomic similarity of Streptomyces sp. TR1341 to the plant-associated Streptomyces sp. endophyte_N2, inferring a soil origin of the strain. Putative virulence genes, such as mammalian cell entry (mce) genes were not detected in the TR1341’s genome. The presence of a type VII secretion system, distinct from the ones found in Mycobacterium species, suggests a different colonization strategy than the one used by other actinomycete lung pathogens. We identified a higher diversity of genes related to iron acquisition and demonstrated that the strain produces ferrioxamine B in vitro. These results indicate that TR1341 may have an advantage in colonizing environments that are low in iron, such as human tissue. Full article

Site-specific irrigation management for perennial crops such as grape requires water use assessments at high spatiotemporal resolution. In this study, small unmanned-aerial-system (UAS)-based imaging was used with a modified mapping evapotranspiration at high resolution with internalized calibration (METRIC) energy balance model to map water use (UASM-ET approach) of a commercial, surface, and direct-root-zone (DRZ) drip-irrigated vineyard. Four irrigation treatments, 100%, 80%, 60%, and 40%, of commercial rate (CR) were also applied, with the CR estimated using soil moisture data and a non-stressed average crop coefficient of 0.5. Fourteen campaigns were conducted in the 2018 and 2019 seasons to collect multispectral (ground sampling distance (GSD): 7 cm/pixel) and thermal imaging (GSD: 13 cm/pixel) data. Six of those campaigns were near Landsat 7/8 satellite overpass of the field site. Weather inputs were obtained from a nearby WSU-AgWeatherNet station (1 km). First, UASM-ET estimates were compared to those derived from soil water balance (SWB) and conventional Landsat-METRIC (LM) approaches. Overall, UASM-ET (2.70 ± 1.03 mm day⁻¹ [mean ± std. dev.]) was higher than SWB-ET (1.80 ± 0.98 mm day⁻¹). However, both estimates had a significant linear correlation (r = 0.64–0.81, p < 0.01). For the days of satellite overpass, UASM-ET was statistically similar to LM-ET, with mean absolute normalized ET departures (ET_d,MAN) of 4.30% and a mean r of 0.83 (p < 0.01). The study also extracted spatial canopy transpiration (UASM-T) maps by segmenting the soil background from the UASM-ET, which had strong correlation with the estimates derived by the standard basal crop coefficient approach (T_d,MAN = 14%, r = 0.95, p < 0.01). The UASM-T maps were then used to quantify water use differences in the DRZ-irrigated grapevines. Canopy transpiration (T) was statistically significant among the irrigation treatments and was highest for grapevines irrigated at 100% or 80% of the CR, followed by 60% and 40% of the CR (p < 0.01). Reference T fraction (T_rF) curves established from the UASM-T maps showed a notable effect of irrigation treatment rates. The total water use of grapevines estimated using interpolated T_rF curves was highest for treatments of 100% (425 and 320 mm for the 2018 and 2019 seasons, respectively), followed by 80% (420 and 317 mm), 60% (391 and 318 mm), and 40% (370 and 304 mm) of the CR. Such estimates were within 5% to 11% of the SWB-based water use calculations. The UASM-T-estimated water use was not the same as the actual amount of water applied in the two seasons, probably because DRZ-irrigated vines might have developed deeper or lateral roots to fulfill water requirements outside the irrigated soil volume. Overall, results highlight the usefulness of high-resolution imagery toward site-specific water use management of grapevines. Full article

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important staple food crops worldwide, while its growth and productivity are threatened by various abiotic stresses, especially salt stress. Unraveling how rice adapts to salt stress at the transcription level is vital. It can provide valuable information on enhancing the salt stress tolerance performance of rice via genetic engineering technologies. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis of different rice genotypes at the seedling stage based on 96 public microarray datasets, aiming to identify the key salt-responsive genes and understand the molecular response mechanism of rice under salt stress. In total, 5559 genes were identified to be differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under salt stress, and 3210 DEGs were identified during the recovery process. The Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment results revealed that the salt-response mechanisms of shoots and roots were different. A close-knit signaling network, consisting of the Ca²⁺ signal transduction pathway, the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade, multiple hormone signals, transcription factors (TFs), transcriptional regulators (TRs), protein kinases (PKs), and other crucial functional proteins, plays an essential role in rice salt stress response. In this study, many unreported salt-responsive genes were found. Besides this, MapMan results suggested that TNG67 can shift to the fermentation pathway to produce energy under salt stress and may enhance the Calvin cycle to repair a damaged photosystem during the recovery stage. Taken together, these findings provide novel insights into the salt stress molecular response and introduce numerous candidate genes for rice salt stress tolerance breeding. Full article