Heavy metals in agricultural soils and crops and their health risks in Swat District,northern Pakistan

This study assessed the concentrations of heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn) in agricultural soils and crops (fruits, grains and vegetable) and their possible human health risk in Swat District, northern Pakistan. Cd concentration was found higher than the limit (0.05 mg/kg) set by world health organization in 95% fruit and 100% vegetable samples. Moreover, the concentrations of Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni and Zn in the soils were shown significant correlations with those in the crops. The metal transfer factor (MTF) was found highest for Cd followed by Cr > Ni > Zn > Cu > Mn, while the health risk assessment revealed that there was no health risk for most of the heavy metals except Cd, which showed a high level of health risk index (HRI ⩾ 10E-1) that would pose a potential health risk to the consumers.     

天幕脑膜瘤的影像学分型及显微手术治疗

目的 探讨天幕脑膜瘤的影像学分型及手术效果。方法 回顾性分析2018年1月至2019年12月显微手术治疗的31例天幕脑膜瘤的临床资料。按影像学资料分型:前内侧型（Ⅰ型）、前外侧型（Ⅱ型）、内中型（Ⅲ型）、后内侧型（Ⅳ型）、后外侧型（Ⅴ型）；根据肿瘤生长方向分为幕上型、幕下型、幕上下型。依据肿瘤分型选择合适手术入路。结果 31例中，Ⅰ型3例 ，Ⅱ型5例，Ⅲ型3例，Ⅳ型8例，Ⅴ型12例；幕上型6例，幕下型19例，幕上下型6例；Simpson分级Ⅰ级切除23例，Ⅱ级5例，Ⅳ级3例。无手术死亡病例。31例术后随访3~18个月；2例部分切除术后行伽玛刀治疗，复查MRI未见肿瘤增长；1例部分切除术后13个月复查MRI显示肿瘤进展，但无新发症状，动态复查MRI随访观察；所有病人术后均恢复良好，KPS评分≥70分。结论 天幕脑膜瘤手术入路的选择必须依据肿瘤的位置、大小及生长方向综合分析，个体化设计。选择合适的手术入路、熟悉掌握运用局部显微解剖关系、术中尽量避免过度牵拉造成肿瘤周围组织及血管损伤、最大程度减少手术并发症，是取得良好手术效果的关键。     

皮下结节病

皮下结节病是一种少见的结节病皮肤损害，病因不明，免疫反应是主要发病机制。临床表现为四肢的无痛性皮下结节，多伴有双侧肺门淋巴结肿大等系统损害。组织病理表现为皮下脂肪层和真皮深层的非干酪性上皮细胞样结节，周围有结缔组织包裹，结节周围少量淋巴细胞浸润。结合组织病理检查和影像学检查可明确诊断。糖皮质激素是首选治疗方法。肿瘤坏死因子-α拮抗剂、免疫抑制剂和光动力治疗也是可供选择的治疗手段之一。     

Biomarkers associated with disease severity in allergic and nonallergic asthma

Asthma is a complex, chronic respiratory disease with a wide clinical spectrum. Use of high-throughput technologies has generated a great deal of data that require validation. In this work the objective was to validate molecular biomarkers related to asthmatic disease types in peripheral blood samples and define their relationship with disease severity. With this purpose, ninety-four previously described genes were analyzed by qRT-PCR in 30 healthy control (HC) subjects, 30 patients with nonallergic asthma (NA), 30 with allergic asthma (AA), and 14 patients with allergy (rhinitis) but without asthma (AR). RNA was extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) using the TRIzol method. After data normalization, principal component analysis (PCA) was performed, and multiple approaches were used to test for differential gene expression. Relevance was defined by RQ (relative quantification) and corrected P value (<0.05). Protein levels of IL-8 and MSR1 were determined by ELISA and Western blot, respectively.PCA showed 4 gene expression clusters that correlated with the 4 clinical phenotypes. Analysis of differential gene expression between clinical groups and HCs revealed 26 statistically relevant genes in NA and 69 in AA. Protein interaction analysis revealed IL-8 to be a central protein. Average levels of IL-8 were higher in the asthma patients’ sera (NA: 452.28 ± 357.72, AA: 327.46 ± 377 pg/ml) than in HCs (286.09 ± 179.10), but without reaching statistical significance. Nine genes, especially MSR1, were strongly associated with severe NA.In conclusion, several molecular biomarkers of asthma have been defined, some of which could be useful for the diagnosis or prognosis of disease severity.     

Zervikale Belastung während des Sicherns – der Einfluss verschiedener Sicherungstechniken auf die Mobilität der Halswirbelsäule

BackgroundAlways carefully watching the climber, the belayer has to keep a position for a long time, which is damaging to the cervical spine. This often causes stiffness in the neck, which leads to cervical restrictions of motion. 3 types of belaying, the habitual belaying, the “CU glasses” and the “coordinated head position”, have been examined relating to their ability to avoid muscular tensions.Materials and methodsThe mobility of the cervical spine of 30 male and female climbers has been measured with an inclinometer immediately before and after defined belaying of 10 min. The subjects have been distributed to the 3 types of belaying at random. Additional the subjects had to answer questions concerning their personal feelings and a pain-rating-scale.ResultsWithin the group with habitual belaying, significant limitations in the mobility of the cervical spine in each direction could be determined, connected with strong pain after defined belaying. While using the “CU glasses” or “coordinated head posture”, no restrictions in movement (for each direction p>.05) has been noticed. Subjects that belayed with the “coordinated head posture” complained about backache because of the unfamiliar, active posture.ConclusionsDepending on the actual climbing-situation, the belayer should use either the „CU glasses“ or the „coordinated head posture“, in order to avoid muscular tension in the neck.Level of evidenceIIa     

Identification of genetic variants of Brucella spp. through genome-wide association studies

Brucellosis is an important zoonotic disease caused by Brucella spp. We present a phylogeny of 552 strains based on genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) determined by an alignment-free k-mer approach. A total of 138,029 SNPs were identified from 552 Brucella genomes. Of these, 31,152 and 106,877 were core and non-core SNPs, respectively. Based on pan-genome analysis 11,937 and 972 genes were identified as pan and core genome, respectively. The pan-genome-wide analysis studies (Pan-GWAS) could not identify the group-specific variants in Brucella spp. Therefore, we focused on SNP based genome-wide association studies (SNP-GWAS) to identify the species-specific genetic determinants in Brucella spp. Phylogenetic tree representing eleven recognized Brucella spp. showed 16 major lineages. We identified 143 species-specific SNPs in Brucella abortus that are conserved in 311 B. abortus genomes. Of these, 141 species-specific SNPs were confined in the positively significant SNPs of B. abortus using SNP-GWAS. Since conserved in all the B. abortus genomes studied, these SNPs might have originated very early during the evolution of B. abortus and might be responsible for the evolution of B. abortus with cattle as the preferred host. Similarly, we identified 383 species-specific SNPs conserved in 132 Brucella melitensis genomes. Of these 379 species-specific SNPs were identified as positively associated using GWAS. Interestingly, > 98% of the SNPs that are significantly, positively associated with the traits showed 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity. These identified species-specific core-SNPs identified in Brucella genomes could be responsible for the speciation and their respective host adaptation.     

Real-time assessment of bacteriophage T3-derived antimicrobial activity against planktonic and biofilm-embedded Escherichia coli by isothermal microcalorimetry

Bacterial biofilms, highly resistant to the conventional antimicrobial therapy, remain an unresolved challenge pressing the medical community to investigate new and alternative strategies to fight chronic implant-associated infections. Recently, strictly lytic bacteriophages have been revalued as powerful agents to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria even in biofilm. Here, the interaction of T3 bacteriophage and planktonic and biofilm Escherichia coli TG1, respectively, was evaluated using isothermal microcalorimetry. Microcalorimetry is a non-invasive and highly sensitive technique measuring growth-related heat production of microorganisms in real-time. Planktonic and biofilm E. coli TG1 were exposed to different titers of T3 bacteriophage, ranging from 10² to 10⁷ PFU/ml. The incubation of T3 with E. coli TG1 showed a strong inhibition of heat production both in planktonic and biofilm already at lower bacteriophage titers (10³ PFU/ml). This method could be used to screen and evaluate the antimicrobial potential of different bacteriophages, alone and in combination with antibiotics in order to improve the treatment success of biofilm-associated infections.     

Mussel oligopeptides ameliorate cognition deficit and attenuate brain senescence in d-galactose-induced aging mice

Dietary supplementation exerts beneficial effects in reducing incidence of chronic neurodegenerative diseases. The purpose of this study was to examine protective effects of mussel (Mytilus edulis) oligopeptides supplementation on brain function in d-galactose induced aging mice. Sixty female 8-month-old mice were randomly divided into five groups: vehicle control, d-galactose, and d-galactose combined with 200, 500, 1000 mg/kg mussel oligopeptides. The results showed that mussel oligopeptides could improve cognitive learning and memory ability and protect the hippocampal neurons. In addition, GSH, SOD and GSH-pX activities were increased and MDA level was significantly decreased in mice fed with mussel oligopeptides. It was also found that mussel oligopeptides supplementation prevented d-galactose-induced elevations of iNOS activity and NO production and lactate acid levels in brain. Moreover, PI3K and Akt genes were up-regulated by mussel oligopeptides supplementation. These findings suggest that mussel oligopeptides are able to enhance exercise capacity and protect against oxidative damage caused by d-galactose in aging model mice through regulating oxidation metabolism and PI3K/Akt/NOS signal pathway. Therefore, mussel oligopeptides are good materials for future development of healthcare products to combat age-related brain dysfunction and to improve healthy life span.