Loss of the Capsule Increases the Adherence Activity but Decreases the Virulence of Avibacterium paragallinarum.

Avibacterium paragallinarum is the causative agent of infectious coryza, an important respiratory disease of chickens. The capsule is an important virulence determinant of many pathogenic bacteria, but the function of the capsule in Av. paragallinarum is not well defined. In this study, acapsular mutants of Av. paragallinarum were constructed by inactivation of the hctA gene using the TargeTron gene knockout system. The acapsular mutants were found to have greater hemagglutination activity than did the wild-type strain. Further, acapsular mutants exhibited an increased ability to adhere to DF-1 cells and to form biofilms on abiotic surfaces. Virulence assays showed that acapsular mutants were less virulent than the wild-type strain. Taken together, these results indicated that loss of capsule increases hemagglutination and adhesion activities but decreases the virulence of Av. paragallinarum. These results could be valuable to further elucidate the function of the capsule and the mechanism of pathogenicity of Av. paragallinarum.

Melatonin regulation of transcription in the reversal of morphine tolerance: Microarray analysis of differential gene expression.

Tolerance and associated hyperalgesia induced by long­term morphine administration substantially restrict the clinical use of morphine in pain treatment. Melatonin, a neurohormone released by the pineal gland, has been demonstrated to attenuate anti­nociceptive morphine tolerance. The present study investigates differentially expressed genes in the process of morphine tolerance and altered gene expression subsequent to melatonin treatment in chronic morphine­infused ratspinal cords. Morphine tolerance was induced in male Wistar rats by intrathecal morphine infusion (the MO group). Melatonin (the MOMa group) was administered to overcome the effects derived by morphine. The mRNA collected from L5­S3 of the spinal cord was extracted and analysed by rat expression microarray. Principal component analysis and clustering analysis revealed that the overall gene profiles were different in morphine and melatonin treatments. Subsequent to Gene Ontology analysis, the biological processes of differentially expressed genes of MO and MOMa compared with the control group were constructed. Furthermore, a panel of genes exclusively expressed following melatonin treatment and another panel of genes with inverse expression between the MO and MOMa group were also established. Subsequent to PANTHER pathway analysis, a group of genes with inverse expression following melatonin administrated compared with morphine alone were identified. The expression levels of genes of interest were also confirmed using a reverse transcription­quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The gene panel that was constructed suggests a potential signaling pathway in morphine tolerance development and is valuable for investigating the mechanism of morphine tolerance and the regulatory gene profiles of melatonin treatment. These results may contribute to the discovery of potential drug targets in morphine tolerance treatments in the future.

Early life exposure to a rodent carcinogen propiconazole fungicide induces oxidative stress and hepatocarcinogenesis in medaka fish.

Conazole pollution is an emerging concern to human health and environmental safety because of the broad use of conazole fungicides in agriculture and medicine and their frequent occurrence in aquifers. The agricultural pesticide propiconazole has received much regulatory interest because it is a known rodent carcinogen with evidence of multiple adverse effects in mammals and non-targeted organisms. However, the carcinogenic effect and associated mechanism of propiconazole in fish under microgram-per-liter levels of environmental-relevant exposure remains unclear. To explore whether early life of propiconzaole exposure would induce oxidative stress and latent carcinogenic effects in fish, we continuously exposed larvae of wild type or p53(-/-) mutant of medaka fish (Oryzias latipes) to propiconazole (2.5-250µg/L) for 3, 7, 14 or 28 days and assessed liver histopathology and/or the oxidative stress response and gene expression during exposure and throughout adulthood. Propiconazole dose-dependently induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, altered homeostasis of antioxidant superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione S-transferase and caused lipid and protein peroxidation during early life exposure in wild type medaka. Such exposure also significantly upregulated gene expression of the cytochrome P450 CYP1A, but marginally suppressed that of tumor suppressor p53 in adults. Furthermore, histopathology revealed that p53(-/-) mutant medaka with early life exposure to propiconazole showed increased incidence of hepatocarcionogensis, as compared to the p53(-/-) control group and wild type strain. We demonstrated that propiconazole can initiate ROS-mediated oxidative stress and induce hepatic tumorigenesis associated with CYP1A- and/or p53 -mediated pathways with the use of wild type and p53(-/-) mutant of medaka fish. The toxic response of medaka to propiconazole is compatible with that observed in rodents.

Persistent endocrine disruption effects in medaka fish with early life-stage exposure to a triazole-containing aromatase inhibitor (letrozole).

Letrozole (LET) is a triazole-containing drug that can inhibit the activity of cytochrome P450 aromatase. It is an environmentally emerging pollutant because of its broad use in medicine and frequent occurrence in aquifers receiving the effluent of municipal or hospital wastewater. However, the toxic impact of LET on fish populations remains unclear. We exposed medaka fish (Oryzias latipes) at an early stage of sexual development to a continuous chronic LET at environmentally relevant concentrations and assessed the endocrine disruption effects in adulthood and the next generation. LET exposure at an early life stage persistently altered phenotypic sex development and reproduction in adults and skewed the sex ratio in progeny. As well, LET exposure led to a gender-different endocrine disruption as seen by the interruption in gene expression responsible for estrogen synthesis and metabolism and fish reproduction. LET interfering with the aromatase system in early life stages of medaka can disrupt hormone homeostasis and reproduction. This potent aromatase inhibitor has potential ecotoxicological impact on fish populations in aquatic environments.