Zika Virus Growth in Human Kidney Cells Is Restricted by an Elevated Glucose Level

Mosquito-borne Zika virus (ZIKV) became a real threat to human health due to the lack of vaccine and effective antiviral treatment. The virus has recently been responsible for a global outbreak leading to millions of infected cases. ZIKV complications were highlighted in adults with Guillain–Barré syndrome and in newborns with increasing numbers of congenital disorders ranging from mild developmental delays to fatal conditions. The ability of ZIKV to establish a long-term infection in diverse organs including the kidneys has been recently documented but the consequences of such a viral infection are still debated. Our study aimed to determine whether the efficiency of ZIKV growth in kidney cells relates to glucose concentration. Human kidney HK-2 cells were infected with different ZIKV strains in presence of normal and high glucose concentrations. Virological assays showed a decrease in viral replication without modifying entry steps (viral binding, internalization, fusion) under high glucose conditions. This decrease replication was associated with a lower virus progeny and increased cell viability when compared to ZIKV-infected HK-2 cells in normal glucose concentration. In conclusion, we showed for the first time that an elevated glucose level influences ZIKV replication level with an effect on kidney cell survival.     

Fat Distribution and Lipid Profile of Young Adults with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia Due to 21-Hydroxylase Enzyme Deficiency

We aimed to compare detailed fat distribution and lipid profile between young adults with congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase enzyme deficiency and a control group. We also verified independent associations of treatment duration and daily hydrocortisone dose equivalent (HDE) with lipid profile within patients. This case–control study included 23 patients (7 male and 16 female) matched by an age range of young adults (18–31 years) with 20 control subjects (8 male and 12 female). Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to measure the fat distribution. Male patients demonstrated elevated indices of fat mass for total (7.7 ± 2.1 vs. 4.5 ± 1.3 kg/m², p = 0.003), trunk (4.0 ± 1.2 vs. 2.2 ± 0.8 kg/m², p = 0.005), android (0.63 ± 0.24 vs. 0.32 ± 0.15 kg/m², p = 0.008), gynoid (1.34 ± 0.43 vs. 0.74 ± 0.24 kg/m², p = 0.005), arm (0.65 ± 0.16 vs. 0.39 ± 0.10 kg/m², p = 0.009), and leg regions (2.7 ± 0.8 vs. 1.6 ± 0.4 kg/m², p = 0.005) than the control group, but not in females. However, female patients demonstrated elevated ratio of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (1.90 ± 0.46 vs. 1.39 ± 0.47, p = 0.009) than the control group, but not in males. Total fat mass was inversely correlated with total testosterone (r = −0.64, p = 0.014) and positively correlated with leptin in males (r = 0.75, p = 0.002). An elevated daily HDE (β = 0.43, p = 0.038 and β = 0.47, p = 0.033) and trunk to total fat mass ratio (β = 0.46, p = 0.025, and β = 0.45, p = 0.037) were independently correlated with impaired lipid profile markers. Although there is no altered lipid profile, male patients demonstrated an increased fat distribution. However, female patients presented with an impaired lipid profile marker but demonstrated close values of normal fat distribution. Interestingly, the dose of glucocorticoid therapy can have some role in the lipid mechanisms.     

New substrates of papain, based on the conserved sequence of natural inhibitors of the cystatin family

A discontinuous borate/formate buffer system is presented for horizontal polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of DNA fragments. The resolution potential of the system could be altered by changing the total monomer concentration (5-9%T), the concentration of the crosslinker piperazine diacrylamide (2-5%CPDA), as well as the concentration of formate in the gel (40-120 mM), the leading ion of the buffer system. The separation of DNA fragments would be improved by increasing the migration distance from 22 to 28 cm. This discontinuous polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis system proved highly reproducible.     

Synthesis of poly(α-thiophenediyl)benzylidene with high molecular weight and its thermal stability

Summary The synthesis of poly(-thiophenediyl)benzylidene (PTB) with high molecular weight is described. Number-average degrees of polymerization reached about 74. The characterizations of the polymer was investigated by ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, IR, and UV-VIS spectra. The polymer with well-defined structure and high molecular weight was obtained by polymerization at low temperature and in polar solvent. This polymer was thermally stable and a thermal decomposition took place at 391°C under nitrogen and at 370°C under air. The glass transformation temperature was 117°C and this PTB was nonfusible.     

Randomized constraint solvers: a comparative study

The complexity of constraints is a major obstacle for constraint-based software verification. Automatic constraint solvers are fundamentally incomplete: input constraints often build on some undecidable theory or some theory the solver does not support. This paper proposes and evaluates several randomized solvers to address this issue. We compared the effectiveness of a symbolic solver (CVC3), a random solver, two heuristic search solvers, and seven hybrid solvers (i.e. mix of random, symbolic, and heuristic solvers). We evaluated the solvers on a benchmark generated with a concolic execution of 9 subjects. The performance of each solver was measured by its precision, which is the fraction of constraints that the solver can find solution out of the total number of constraints that some solver can find solution. As expected, symbolic solving subsumes the other approaches for the 4 subjects that only generate decidable constraints. For the remaining 5 subjects, which contain undecidable constraints, the hybrid solvers achieved the highest precision (fraction of constraints that a solver can find a solution out of the total number of satisfiable constraints). We also observed that the solvers were complementary, which suggests that one should alternate their use in iterations of a concolic execution driver.     

Selective deposition on block copolymer film by thermal evaporation of silver

Selective deposition of Ag onto nanostructured block copolymer film template of poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(methacrylate) with azobenzene mesogen (PEO-b-PMA(Az)) has been done by thermal evaporation technique. A hexagonally arranged pattern or ordered strip structure of the PEO nanocylinders dispersed in the PMA(Az) matrix appears on the pure copolymer film surface after thermal annealing at 140 °C or 110 °C, respectively. Atomic force microscopy confirms that the deposited Ag atoms prefer to wet PMA(Az) matrix domains on the film surface, and finally aggregate into discrete nanoparticles in both cases. An ordered porous metallic layer is created on the hexagonally patterned copolymer template surface due to the preferential interaction of Ag toward the PMA(Az) phase. Alternatively, ordered array of metallic chains is formed on the template featured with strip structure. While the nominal layer thickness of the deposited Ag is 50 nm, the ordered metallic nanostructure disappears, indicating the host copolymer template cannot guide the spatial distribution of the deposited metal any more.     

Elaboration and properties of novel biobased nanocomposites with halloysite nanotubes and thermoplastic polyurethane from dimerized fatty acids

Nanocomposites of biobased thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) from dimer fatty acids and halloysite nanotubes (HNT) were elaborated by different melt processing routes such as direct mixing (1 step process) and masterbatch/dilution (2 steps process), at different temperatures (150 and 180 °C). Rheological and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses indicated that the HNT distribution and dispersion were dependent on the processing conditions: the 2 steps process produced well dispersed nanocomposites and the masterbatch dilution at 180 °C improved the HNT distribution through the TPU. Consequently, a high reinforcement was achieved, with a 40% increase in the elastic modulus and 8 °C increase in the relaxation temperature related to the glass transition of the TPU soft segments. Furthermore, a percolated network was attained, even if a large extent of HNT breaking was observed during processing, suggesting that a synergistic effect between the HNT particles and the TPU's hard segments in the molten state occurred. Thus, HNT nanotubes can be seen as highly reinforcing nanofillers when good dispersion and distribution are achieved through the polymeric matrix.     

Terminal defined chain-growth polycondensation of 4-chloropyridine

This work examines the polycondensation of 4-chloropyridine derivatives using an N-(4-tert-butylbenzyl)-4-chloropyridinium (BPymCl) initiator and ion exchange reagents NaBPh₄, NaBF₄, and TBABF₄. The ¹H NMR spectra demonstrate that the product quantity is proportional to the total conversion of the monomer and the initiator. The MALDI-TOF MS spectrum shows that the product contains more than 9 monomer units. The polymerization was well-terminated via the addition of dimethylaminopyridine. These results indicate that the polycondensation proceeds in a chain-growth manner. This polycondensation could be a new example of a controlled polymerization with a well-defined end group.