scholarly journals May the Force Be with You (Or Not): The Immune System under Microgravity

Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1941
Author(s):  
Mei ElGindi ◽  
Jiranuwat Sapudom ◽  
Ibrahim Hamed Ibrahim ◽  
Mohamed Al-Sayegh ◽  
Weiqiang Chen ◽  
...  

All terrestrial organisms have evolved and adapted to thrive under Earth’s gravitational force. Due to the increase of crewed space flights in recent years, it is vital to understand how the lack of gravitational forces affects organisms. It is known that astronauts who have been exposed to microgravity suffer from an array of pathological conditions including an impaired immune system, which is one of the most negatively affected by microgravity. However, at the cellular level a gap in knowledge exists, limiting our ability to understand immune impairment in space. This review highlights the most significant work done over the past 10 years detailing the effects of microgravity on cellular aspects of the immune system.

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (18) ◽  
pp. 6623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Bienz ◽  
Salima Ramdani ◽  
Hans Knecht

Our understanding of the tumorigenesis of classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) and the formation of Reed–Sternberg cells (RS-cells) has evolved drastically in the last decades. More recently, a better characterization of the signaling pathways and the cellular interactions at play have paved the way for new targeted therapy in the hopes of improving outcomes. However, important gaps in knowledge remain that may hold the key for significant changes of paradigm in this lymphoma. Here, we discuss the past, present, and future of cHL, and review in detail the more recent discoveries pertaining to genetic instability, anti-apoptotic signaling pathways, the tumoral microenvironment, and host-immune system evasion in cHL.


Author(s):  
Katarzyna Curzytek ◽  
Monika Leśkiewicz

AbstractSince affective disorders are considered to be underlain by the immune system malfunction, an important role in their pathophysiology is assigned to the proinflammatory mediators. Recently, chemokines, the group of chemotactic cytokines, have become a focus for basic and clinical scientists in the context of the development and treatment of brain diseases. Among them, chemokine CCL2 and its main receptor CCR2 have become candidate mediators of abnormal brain-immune system dialogue in depression. Besides the chemotactic activity, the CCL2-CCR2 axis is involved in various neurobiological processes, neurogenesis, neurotransmission, neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, as well as neuroregeneration. Given the range of immunomodulatory possibilities that the CCL2-CCR2 pair can exert on the nervous system, its proinflammatory properties were initially thought to be a major contributor to the development of depressive disorders. However, further research suggests that the malfunctions of the nervous system are rather associated with impaired homeostatic properties manifested by the CCL2-CCR2 dyad dysfunctions. This review aims to present literature data on the action of the CCL2-CCR2 axis in the central nervous system under physiological and pathological conditions, as well as the contribution of this ligand-receptor system to the processes underlying affective disorders. Additionally, this article draws attention to the importance of the CCL2-CRR2 pathway as a potential pharmacological target with antidepressant potential.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 237-244
Author(s):  
Youssef EL Hassouni ◽  
Mohammed Bourhia ◽  
Ahmed Bari ◽  
Riaz Ullah ◽  
Hafiz Majid Mahmood ◽  
...  

Abstract Autoimmune diseases are pathological conditions in which the immune system mistakenly attacks its own tissues. This study evaluates the performance of two techniques, which are identifiers of autoantibody specifics: immunoblot and immunodot. This study was conducted in 300 patients of whom 62 were tested positive for antinuclear antibodies. The patients were initially screened for antinuclear antibodies using indirect immunofluorescence. Then, the identification of specific autoantibodies such as anti-extractable nuclear antigens (ENAs) was carried out using the immunoblot and immunodot techniques. The results showed that immunoblot and immunodot did not present a significant difference in their sensitivity against anti-SSA/52, SSB, CENP-B, PCNA, U1-snRNP, Jo-1, Pm-scl, and Mi-2 (p > 0.05). However, the two techniques showed a significant difference in their sensitivity toward autoantibodies anti-DNAn, anti-histone, anti-SmD1, and anti-ds-DNA (p < 0.05). The immunoblot data were in complete accordance with the immunodot data (100%) regarding the detection of autoantibodies such as anti SSA/52, SSB, CENP-B, PCNA, U1-snRP, Jo-1, Pm-scl, and Mi-2, 80% regarding SmD1, and 75% concerning ds-DNA. We should certainly pay closer attention to the efficiency of the techniques used in the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. e001684
Author(s):  
Rafael Moreno

The development of oncolytic viruses (OVs) has increased significantly in the past 20 years, with many candidates entering clinical trials and three of them receiving approval for some indications. Recently, OVs have also gathered interest as candidates to use in combination with immunotherapies for cancer due to their immunogenic properties, which include immunogenic cell death and the possibility to carry therapeutic transgenes in their genomes. OVs transform non-immunogenic ‘cold’ tumors into inflamed immunogenic ‘hot’ tumors, where immunotherapies show the highest efficacy. However, in monotherapy or in combination with immunotherapy, OVs face numerous challenges that limit their successful application, in particular upon systemic administration, such as liver sequestration, neutralizing interactions in blood, physical barriers to infection, and fast clearance by the immune system. In this regard, the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as cells carrier for OV delivery addresses many of these obstacles acting as virus carriers and factories, expressing additional transgenes, and modulating the immune system. Here, I review the current progress of OVs-loaded MSCs in cancer, focusing on their interaction with the immune system, and discuss new strategies to improve their therapeutic efficacy.


1997 ◽  
Vol 48 (8) ◽  
pp. 923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiro Kittaka

The method developed over the past decade in northern Japan to culture phyllosoma larvae of five species of principally cool-temperate spiny lobsters combines the features of upwelling water, co- cultured microalgae, and use of mussel gonad as food. The feeding behaviour of the phyllosomas shows that they are primarily predators with the pereiopods and secondarily plankton feeders with the maxillipeds and maxillae. Recent work has shown that contamination of culture water by microorganisms such as the fouling protozoans Vorticellaspp. can greatly reduce phyllosoma survival. The significance of co-cultures of microalgae in maintaining water quality is not yet fully understood. Newly hatched lavae of sailfin sandfish (Arctoscopus japonicus) is an excellent food for late-stage phyllosomas of Jasus verreauxi. About 5% of J. verreauxi phyllosomas metamorphosed into pueruli. Mortality during the puerulus stage was reduced by increasing the capacity of the culture tanks from 30 L to 100 L. A single Palinurus elephas phyllosoma raised in co-culture with diatoms and fed mussel gonad and A. japonicus larvae metamorphosed into a puerulus in 65 days after seven moults.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 3665
Author(s):  
Wiwin Is Effendi ◽  
Tatsuya Nagano ◽  
Helmia Hasan ◽  
Resti Yudhawati

The innate immune system identifies exogenous threats or endogenous stress through germline-encoded receptors called pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that initiate consecutive downstream signaling pathways to control immune responses. However, the contribution of the immune system and inflammation to fibrosing interstitial lung diseases (ILD) remains poorly understood. Immunoreceptor tyrosine-based motif-bearing C-type lectin-like receptors (CTLRs) may interact with various immune cells during tissue injury and wound repair processes. Dectin-1 is a CTLR with dominant mechanisms manifested through its intracellular signaling cascades, which regulate fibrosis-promoting properties through gene transcription and cytokine activation. Additionally, immune impairment in ILD facilitates microbiome colonization; hence, Dectin-1 is the master protector in host pulmonary defense against fungal invasion. Recent progress in determining the signaling pathways that control the balance of fibrosis has implicated immunoreceptor tyrosine-based motif-bearing CTLRs as being involved, either directly or indirectly, in the pathogenesis of fibrosing ILD.


1984 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 75-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Lass

Considering all the work done on vowel system typology and universals in the past half-century (Trubetzkoy 1929, 1939; Hockett Sedlak 1969; Crothers 1978), my title may seem rather arrogant. There are after all theories of vocalic organisation about, or at least models and taxonomies; there are even attempts to explain why certain implicational universals seem to hold (from Jakobson's [laws of solidarity] (1968) to the more sophisticated treatments in Liljencrants & Lindblom 1972; Kim 1973; etc.).


1876 ◽  
Vol 24 (164-170) ◽  
pp. 471-544 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Past ◽  

Preface to Preliminary Beports. The Preliminary Beports have been prepared at the request of Professor Wyville Thomson. They have been compiled during the past three weeks from notes taken daily during the past three years. In only a few cases has it been possible to refer to the objects remarked upon, they haviug been sent home for greater safety, or packed away beyond reach. When specimens taken early in the cruise can be placed side by side and compared with tfie more recent revelations of the trawl, dredge, or soundingtube, many of the statements herein made may require to be modified. Beports on three years’ wrork, prepared under the disadvantages above mentioned, must necessarily be very incomplete; and indulgence may be asked till the final Eeport can be issued.


Author(s):  
Philippe Ghosez ◽  
Javier Junquera

Taking a historical perspective, we provide a brief overview of the first-principles modeling of ferroelectric perovskite oxides over the past 30 years. We emphasize how the work done by a relatively small community on the fundamental understanding of ferroelectricity and related phenomena has been at the origin of consecutive theoretical breakthroughs, with an impact going often well beyond the limit of the ferroelectric community. In this context, we first review key theoretical advances such as the modern theory of polarization, the computation of functional properties as energy derivatives, the explicit treatment of finite fields, or the advent of second-principles methods to extend the length and timescale of the simulations. We then discuss how these have revolutionized our understanding of ferroelectricity and related phenomena in this technologically important class of compounds. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics, Volume 13 is March 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


Author(s):  
Bin Zheng ◽  
Hae Chang Gea

In this paper, topology optimization problems with two types of body force are considered: gravitational force and centrifugal force. For structural design under both external and gravitational forces, a total mean compliance formulation is used to produce the stiffest structure. For rotational structural design with high angular velocity, one additional design criteria, kinetic energy, is included in the formulation. Sensitivity analyses of the total mean compliance and kinetic energy are derived. Finally, design examples are presented and compared to show the effects of body forces on the optimized results.


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