1,720,969 research outputs found
Carnitines and its congeners: a metabolic pathway to the regulation of immune response and inflammation
No full textCarnitine and its congeners may regulate the immune networks, and their influence on functions of immune cells predominantly or exclusively relies on carnitine-dependent energy production from fatty acids. A reduced pool of carnitines has been demonstrated in either serum or tissues, or both, from patients with a wide spectrum of disorders characterized by unregulated or impaired immune responses ranging from sepsis syndrome to systemic sclerosis, infection with human immunodeficiency virus, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Furthermore, experimental studies have consistently reported that the deranged immune responses and the less efficient inflammation towards infectious organisms associated with aging may be enhanced or modulated by treatment with carnitines. There is also evidence that carnitine deprivation could adversely affect the course of the sepsis syndrome, at least in experimental models, and preliminary studies suggest that carnitine deficiency is ultimately implicated in the pathophysiology of endotoxin-mediated multiple organ failure. Several data indicate that carnitine deficiency is a contributing factor to the progression of infection with human immunodeficiency virus, and carnitine therapy in those patients could counteract the unregulated process of lymphocyte apoptosis and improve CD4 counts. Some case reports have suggested the use of carnitine for the treatment of the severe lactic acidosis that complicates in some patients the use of reverse transcriptase inhibitor
Probiotic lactobacilli: A new perspective for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease
No full textInflammatory bowel disease, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, results from an interaction between susceptibility genes, the host's bacterial environment, gut barrier defects, and immunological factors. New management approaches have been evolved from advances in our understanding of the pathobiology of this common gut disorder In particular, the therapeutic manipulation of the bacterial microenvironment in the gut seems to offer an innovative tool for the treatment of those patients. Since the gut is a highly sensitizing organ that contributes to the systemic imune response, potent treatments need to be developed to reduce gut inflammation in this disorder. Recent studies have demonstrated that probiotic lactobacilli, and also immunostimulatory DNA sequences from those same bacteria have an important anti-inflammatory potential in this context. Future research should better define among patients with inflammatory bowel disease the various clinical phenotypes with the greatest potential of response to probiotic treatment. Identification of the genes leading to the disease and a rather better understanding of the underlying immunoregulatory abnormalities will be crucial steps to define the different profiles of interaction between endogenous digestive bacterial flora and the immune system in each individual patient. Such advances will probably lead to targeting of effective treatments, including bacteriotherapy with probiotic lactobacilli, to subsets of patients with inflammatory bowel disease
EVALUATION OF VAGINAL MICROFLORA IN PATIENTS INFECTED WITH HIV
No full textHIV infection is thought to exacerbate the virulence of normal saprophytic vaginal microflora. We studied the vaginal ecosystem of HIV patients to detect the quantitative and qualitative variation of vaginal microrganisms. 15 patients (5 with AIDS and 10 with ARC) were investigated. Vaginal candidiasis was more frequent in this group than in the control groups. Gardnerella was present in 60% of patients generally in association with anaerobic bacteria and Mycoplasma. Among anaerobia, Bacteroides sp and other Gram-negative rods were the most common bacteria. Neisseria gonorrhoeae was absent in all patients tested. Chlamydia trachomatis was recovered in two out of the 15 HIV-positive patients. Aerobic Gram-negative flora was 100-fold that of the control group and anaerobic Gram-negative flora 10-fold
L-carnitine reduces lymphocyte apoptosis and oxidant stress in HIV-1-infected subjects treated with zidovudine and didanosine
No full textApoptosis is critical to the progression of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) infection. It appears reasonable that antiretroviral therapies may not achieve a full control of the infection in the absence of an impact on apoptosis. We assigned 20 asymptomatic HIV-infected subjects with advanced immunodeficiency to receive either zidovudine (AZT), and didanosine (DDI) or the same regimen plus L-carnitine, a known antiapoptotic drug, for 7 months. Immunologic and virologic parameters were measured at baseline and after 15, 60, 120, and 210 days of treatment. We assessed on each time point the following: (a) the frequency of peripheral blood apoptotic CD4 and CD8 lymphocytes, CD4 and CD8 cells with disrupted mitochondrial membrane potential, and CD4 and CD8 cells undergoing oxidant stress; (b) the expression of the molecular markers of apoptosis Fas and caspase-1; and (c) the expression of p35/cdk-5 regulatory subunit that is involved in regulating cell survival and apoptosis. Absolute CD4 and CD8 counts and plasma viremia were also measured. Apoptotic CD4 and CD8 cells, lymphocytes with disrupted mitochondrial membrane potential, and lymphocytes undergoing oxidant stress were greatly reduced in subjects treated with AZT and DDI plus L-carnitine compared with those who did not receive L-carnitine. Fas and caspase-1 were down-expressed and p35 overexpressed in lymphocytes from patients of the L-carnitine group. No difference was found in CD4 and CD8 counts and viremia between the groups. No toxicity of L-carnitine was recognized. The addition of L-carnitine is safe and allows apoptosis and oxidant stress to be greatly reduced in lymphocytes from subjects treated with AZT and DDI
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Characterization and selection of vaginal Lactobacillus strains for the preparation of vaginal tablets
No full textAims: To characterize and select Lactobacillus strains for properties that would make them a good alternative to the use of antibiotics to treat human vaginal infections. Methods and Results: Ten Lactobacillus strains belonging to four different Lactobacillus species were analysed for properties relating to mucosal colonization or microbial antagonism (adhesion to human epithelial cells, hydrogen peroxide production, antimicrobial activity towards Gardnerella vaginalis and Candida albicans and coaggregation with pathogens). The involvement of electrostatic interactions and the influence of bacterial metabolic state in the binding of lactobacilli to the cell surface were also studied. Adherence to epithelial cells varied greatly among the Lactobacillus species and among different strains belonging to the same Lactobacillus species. The reduction in surface negative electric charge promoted the binding of several Lactobacillus strains to the cell membrane whereas lyophilization reduced the adhesion capacity of many isolates. The antimicrobial activity of lactobacilli culture supernatant fluids was not directly related to the production of H2O2. Conclusions: Three strains (Lactobacillus brevis CD2, Lact. salivarius FV2 and Lact. gasseri MB335) showed optimal properties and were, therefore, selected for the preparation of vaginal tablets. The selected strains adhered to epithelial cells displacing vaginal pathogens; they produced high levels of H2O2, coaggregated with pathogens and inhibited the growth of G. vaginalis. Significance and Impact of the Study: The dosage formulation developed in this study appears to be a good candidate for the probiotic prophylaxis and treatment of human vaginal infections
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