Toxoplasma gondii Nicolle et Manceaux, 1909, the etiologic agent of toxoplasmosis, was considered a clonal population with three distinct genetic lineages (I, II and III); however, sequence analysis of different strains has revealed distinct atypical genotypes. Macrophages are essential for immunity against toxoplasmosis and differential cell regulation may affect the course of the disease. In this context, our study aims to investigate the infection by TgChBrUD2, a highly virulent atypical Brazilian strain of T. gondii, on the activation and polarisation of human macrophages. Human macrophage-like cells obtained from THP-1 cells were infected with TgChBrUD2, RH or ME49 strains of T. gondii to evaluate the impact of parasite infection on macrophage polarisation. Our results indicate that the TgChBrUD2 and ME49 strains of T. gondii induced a classic activation of human macrophages, which was confirmed by the high rate of spindle-shaped macrophages, low amount of urea and increase in the levels of nitrite, as well as the down-regulation of M2-markers. In contrast, RH strain promoted an alternative activation of macrophages. The polarisation of human macrophages towards an M1 subtype mediated by TgChBrUD2 and ME49 strains resulted in a low parasite burden, with high levels of IL-6 and MIF. Finally, the M2 subtype triggered by the RH strain culminated in a lower intracellular proliferation index. We concluded that the atypical (TgChBrUD2) and clonal (ME49) strains are able to elicit an M1 subtype, which results in parasitism control, partially explained by the high levels of IL-6 and MIF produced during the infection by these genotypes. In contrast, the clonal (RH) strain promoted a macrophage polarisation towards an M2 subtype, marked by a high parasite burden, with a weak modulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Thus, atypical strains can present different mechanisms of pathogenicity and transmissibility compared to clonal strains, as well as they can use distinct strategies to evade the host's immune response and ensure their survival.
Inherited disturbances of the mitochondrial energy generating system represent a heterogeneous group of disorders associated with a broad spectrum of metabolic abnormalities and clinical symptoms. We used the polarographic and spectrophotometric method for detection of mitochondrial disorders, because these two techniques provide a different insight into mitochondrial function. In six patients suspected of mitochondrial disease we found defects of complex I (two patients), complex III (one patient), complex IV (two patients) and a combination of defect of complex III and IV (one patient). Citrate synthase activity, used as the reference enzyme, was not changed. A comparison of the two methods showed several differences in evaluation of mitochondrial enzymes activity due to the fact that both methods used different conditions for enzyme activity measurements. In contrast to oxygen consumption measurements, where the function of the whole-integrated respiratory chain is characterized, spectrophotometric measurements characterize activities of isolated complexes in disintegrated membranes. However, it may be concluded from our experiments that both methods provide useful and complementary data about mitochondrial energetic functions. Whereas spectrophotometric data are suitable for evaluation of maximal enzyme activities of mitochondrial enzyme complexes, polarographic data provide better information about enzyme activities in cells with mitochondrial defects under in situ conditions., L. Wenchich, Z. Drahota, T. Honzík, H. Hansíková, M. Tesařová, J. Zeman, J. Houštěk., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) controllable and observable systems where the controller has access to some plant outputs but not others are considered. Analytical expressions of coprime factorizations of a given plant, a solution of the Diophantine equation and the two free parameters of a two-degrees of freedom (2DOF) controller based on observer stabilizing control are presented solving a pole placement problem, a mixed sensitivity criterion, and a reference tracking problem. These solutions are based on proposed stabilizing gains solving a pole placement problem by output feedback. The proposed gains simplify the coprime factorizations of the plant and the controller, and allow assigning a decoupled characteristic polynomial. The 2DOF stabilizing control is based on the Parameterization of All Stabilizing Controllers (PASC) where the free parameter in the feedback part of the controller solves the mixed sensitivity robust control problem of attenuation of a Low-Frequency (LF) additive disturbance at the input of the plant and of a High-Frequency (HF) additive disturbance at the measurement, while the free parameter in the reference part of the controller assures that the controlled output tracks the reference at LF such as step or sinusoidal inputs. With the proposed expressions, the mixed sensitivity problem is solved without using weighting functions, so the controller does not increase its order; and the infinite norm of the mixed sensitivity criterion, as well as the assignment of poles, is determined by a set of control parameters.
Autoři popisují případ polékového halucinatorního syndromu u 42leté pacientky s karcinomem prsu po infuzi paklitaxelu v rámci adjuvantní chemoterapie dle protokolu AC-T. Kazuistika poukazuje na potencionální riziko paklitaxelu ve smyslu psychotropního nežádoucího účinku a nutnost mezioborové spolupráce, konkrétně pak s psychiatrem. Časná symptomatická psychofarmakologická léčba umožnila bezproblémové dokončení adjuvantní chemoterapie., The authors report on a case of drug-induced hallucinatory syndrome after paclitaxel infusion in a 42-year-old woman with breast carcinoma treated with adjuvant chemotherapy AC-T. This case report highlights the potential risk of paclitaxel causing hallucinatory syndrome. At the same time it indicates the need to cooperate with the psychiatrist. Early symptomatic psychopharmacological treatment enabled the smooth completion of chemotherapy., Ladislav Slováček, Birgita Slováčková, and Literatura 27