Quantifying viral dynamics of highly and less pathogenic simian/human immunodeficiency viruses from in vitro experimental data

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 37-40
Author(s):  
Shingo Iwami

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 3005
Author(s):  
Kanchan Bhardwaj ◽  
Ana Sanches Silva ◽  
Maria Atanassova ◽  
Rohit Sharma ◽  
Eugenie Nepovimova ◽  
...  

Conifers have long been recognized for their therapeutic potential in different disorders. Alkaloids, terpenes and polyphenols are the most abundant naturally occurring phytochemicals in these plants. Here, we provide an overview of the phytochemistry and related commercial products obtained from conifers. The pharmacological actions of different phytochemicals present in conifers against bacterial and fungal infections, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are also reviewed. Data obtained from experimental and clinical studies performed to date clearly underline that such compounds exert promising antioxidant effects, being able to inhibit cell damage, cancer growth, inflammation and the onset of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, an attempt has been made with the intent to highlight the importance of conifer-derived extracts for pharmacological purposes, with the support of relevant in vitro and in vivo experimental data. In short, this review comprehends the information published to date related to conifers’ phytochemicals and illustrates their potential role as drugs.



Physiology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sriram M. Ajay ◽  
Upinder S. Bhalla

Synaptic plasticity provides a record of neuronal activity and is a likely basis for memory. The early apparent simplicity of the process of synaptic plasticity has been lost in a flood of experimental data that now implicates some 200 signaling molecules in cellular memory. It is now clear that these signaling networks perform surprisingly sophisticated cellular decisions that weigh factors such as input patterns, location of stimulus, history of activity, and context. Computer models have followed experiments into this maze of molecular detail, often matching closely with their experimental counterparts, but perhaps losing simplicity in the process. Here, we suggest that the merger of models and experiment have begun to restore the earlier simplicity by outlining a few key functional roles for signaling networks in synaptic plasticity. In this review, we discuss the current state of understanding of synaptic plasticity in terms of models and experiments.



2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 20180033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Pauliny ◽  
Emily Miller ◽  
Nicky Rollings ◽  
Erik Wapstra ◽  
Donald Blomqvist ◽  
...  

Standardized swim-up trials are used in in vitro fertilization clinics to select particularly motile spermatozoa in order to increase the probability of a successful fertilization. Such trials demonstrate that sperm with longer telomeres have higher motility and lower levels of DNA damage. Regardless of whether sperm motility, and successful swim-up to fertilization sites, is a direct or correlational effect of telomere length or DNA damage, covariation between telomere length and sperm performance predicts a relationship between telomere length and probability of paternity in sperm competition, a prediction that for ethical reasons cannot be tested on humans. Here, we test this prediction in sand lizards ( Lacerta agilis ) using experimental data from twice-mated females in a laboratory population, and telomere length in blood from the participating lizards. Female identity influenced paternity (while the mechanism was not identified), while relatively longer male telomeres predicted higher probability of paternity. We discuss potential mechanisms underpinning this result.



2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (8) ◽  
pp. 3960-3964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Preusser ◽  
Lars Briese ◽  
Andreas S. Baur ◽  
Dieter Willbold

ABSTRACT The Nef protein of the simian and human immunodeficiency viruses is known to directly bind and downregulate the CD4 receptor. Although the molecular mechanism is well understood, direct binding of Nef and CD4 is difficult to demonstrate and is believed to be of low affinity. Applying nuclear magnetic resonance and fluorescence spectroscopy, we biophysically reevaluated the CD4-Nef complex and found the dissociation constant to be in the submicromolar range. We conclude that additional, so far disregarded residues in the N terminus of Nef are important for interaction with CD4.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin P Holder ◽  
Catherine A. A. Beauchemin

Background For a typical influenza infection in vivo, viral titers over time are characterized by 1–2 days of exponential growth followed by an exponential decay. This simple dynamic can be reproduced by a broad range of mathematical models which makes model selection and the extraction of biologically-relevant infection parameters from experimental data difficult. Results We analyze in vitro experimental data from the literature, specifically that of single-cycle viral yield experiments, to narrow the range of realistic models of infection. In particular, we demonstrate the viability of using a normal or lognormal distribution for the time a cell spends in a given infection state (e.g., the time spent by a newly infected cell in the latent state before it begins to produce virus), while exposing the shortcomings of ordinary differential equation models which implicitly utilize exponential distributions and delay-differential equation models with fixed-length delays. Conclusions By fitting published viral titer data from challenge experiments in human volunteers, we show that alternative models can lead to different estimates of the key infection parameters.



2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. G. Giannopapa ◽  
J. M. B. Kroot ◽  
A. S. Tijsseling ◽  
M. C. M. Rutten ◽  
F. N. van de Vosse

Research on wave propagation in liquid filled vessels is often motivated by the need to understand arterial blood flows. Theoretical and experimental investigation of the propagation of waves in flexible tubes has been studied by many researchers. The analytical one-dimensional frequency domain wave theory has a great advantage of providing accurate results without the additional computational cost related to the modern time domain simulation models. For assessing the validity of analytical and numerical models, well defined in vitro experiments are of great importance. The objective of this paper is to present a frequency domain analytical model based on the one-dimensional wave propagation theory and validate it against experimental data obtained for aortic analogs. The elastic and viscoelastic properties of the wall are included in the analytical model. The pressure, volumetric flow rate, and wall distention obtained from the analytical model are compared with experimental data in two straight tubes with aortic relevance. The analytical results and the experimental measurements were found to be in good agreement when the viscoelastic properties of the wall are taken into account.



Computation ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simeone Marino ◽  
Caitlin Hult ◽  
Paul Wolberg ◽  
Jennifer Linderman ◽  
Denise Kirschner

Within the first 2–3 months of a Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, 2–4 mm spherical structures called granulomas develop in the lungs of the infected hosts. These are the hallmark of tuberculosis (TB) infection in humans and non-human primates. A cascade of immunological events occurs in the first 3 months of granuloma formation that likely shapes the outcome of the infection. Understanding the main mechanisms driving granuloma development and function is key to generating treatments and vaccines. In vitro, in vivo, and in silico studies have been performed in the past decades to address the complexity of granuloma dynamics. This study builds on our previous 2D spatio-temporal hybrid computational model of granuloma formation in TB (GranSim) and presents for the first time a more realistic 3D implementation. We use uncertainty and sensitivity analysis techniques to calibrate the new 3D resolution to non-human primate (NHP) experimental data on bacterial levels per granuloma during the first 100 days post infection. Due to the large computational cost associated with running a 3D agent-based model, our major goal is to assess to what extent 2D and 3D simulations differ in predictions for TB granulomas and what can be learned in the context of 3D that is missed in 2D. Our findings suggest that in terms of major mechanisms driving bacterial burden, 2D and 3D models return very similar results. For example, Mtb growth rates and molecular regulation mechanisms are very important both in 2D and 3D, as are cellular movement and modulation of cell recruitment. The main difference we found was that the 3D model is less affected by crowding when cellular recruitment and movement of cells are increased. Overall, we conclude that the use of a 2D resolution in GranSim is warranted when large scale pilot runs are to be performed and if the goal is to determine major mechanisms driving infection outcome (e.g., bacterial load). To comprehensively compare the roles of model dimensionality, further tests and experimental data will be needed to expand our conclusions to molecular scale dynamics and multi-scale resolutions.



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