Congenitally athymic homozygous (nu/nu) mice were shown to be significantly more susceptible to Trypanosoma cruzi infection than their thymus-bearing heterozygous (nu/+) littermates, as measured by increased parasitemia, mortality rate, and shortened survival time. In addition, transplantation of neonatal thymus into athymic mice reestablished normal levels of resistance to T. cruzi, i.e., comp...

This paper briefly reviewed recent reports on the epidemiological and experimental data on low dose radiation effects that support the concept of radiation hormesis. These reports point to the possibility of existence of a threshold dose in cancer induction by ionizing radiation and in some cases the occurrence of hormetic effects with stimulation of host defense mechanisms. The possibility of ...

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are host defense peptides that are well conserved throughout the course of evolution. Histones are classical DNA-binding proteins, rich in cationic amino acids, and recently appreciated as precursors for various histone-derived AMPs. The present study deals with identification of the potential antimicrobial peptide sequence of teleostin from the histone H2A of mari...

Bacteremia develops when bacteria manage to escape the host immune mechanisms or when the otherwise well-orchestrated immune response fails to control bacterial spread due to inherent or acquired immune defects that are associated with susceptibility to infection. The pathogenesis of bacteremia has some characteristic features that are influenced by the genetic signature of the host. In this re...

Salmonella occupies a vacuolar compartment inside cells of its host. Recent studies have shown that the fate of this vacuole is different in various cell types, and that the outcome of colonization is determined by both the infecting bacterium and defense mechanisms of the host cell.

Simultaneous measurements of fluorescence and thermal emission have been made by a combined fluorescence and photoacoustic techniques on isolated thylakoids pretreated by a prolonged illumination of saturating light. The traces of the signals are used to calculate four characteristic parameters, energy storage, half-saturation intensity, number of photons to close reaction center, and a constan...

An organism is defined as "an individual living thing capable of responding to stimuli, growing, reproducing, and maintaining homeostasis." Early during evolution multicellular organisms explored the advantages of a symbiotic life. Mammals harbor a complex aggregate of microorganisms (called microbiota) that includes bacteria, fungi, and archaea. Some of these bacteria have already defined bene...

Cells are metastable per se and a fine-tuned balance of de novo protein synthesis and degradation shapes their proteome. The primary function of peptides is to supply amino acids for de novo protein synthesis or as an energy source during starvation. Peptides are intrinsically short-lived and steadily trimmed by an armada of intra and extracellular peptidases. However, peptides acquired additio...

An important function of the chemical senses is to warn against dangerous biological and chemical agents in the environment. The discovery in recent years of "taste" receptor cells outside the oral cavity that appear to have protective functions has raised new questions about the nature and scope of the chemical senses in general and of chemesthesis in particular. The present paper briefly revi...

There is much evidence demonstrating that psychosocial interventions in caregivers and oncological staff produce an improvement in their patients' quality of life. The aim of this explorative study was to evaluate the effect of a new approach in promoting more functional ways to face stressful situations in the constellation of people around patients: caregivers, physicians and nurses. Thirty-f...