Conserved OprF as a Selective Immunogen against Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Due to the importance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in severe inpatient infections and high mortality, the need for an efficient vaccine against these bacteria is increasing. In this regard, the general outer membrane porin of the most problematic microorganism P. aeruginosa, outer membrane protein F (OprF), is a good vaccine candidate. METHODS: The databank of NCBI was used to retrieve protein sequences recorded for OprF in P. aeruginosa.The current study aimed at investigating the conservation of the OprF in 150 reference sequences, clinical, and environmental strains of P. aeruginosa from different countries via bioinformatic tools.T-COFFEE and PRALINE software were used for alignment. RESULTS: Of these, 134 strains were isolated from clinical specimens and other strains from environmental samples. Evaluation of alignment by the mentioned software clearly showed that this protein was conserved. Antigenicity and grand average of hydropathicity were favorable. CONCLUSION: Conservation of OprF in all pathogenic and environmental strains of P. aeruginosa indicated that it can be considered as a good immunogen; however, the protectivity of OprF should be validated experimentally.

Post-infarct sleep disruption and its relation to cardiac remodeling in a rat model of myocardial infarction.

Sleep disruption after myocardial infarction (MI) by affecting ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is thought to contribute to myocardial remodeling and progressive worsening of cardiac function. The aim of current study was to test the hypothesis about the increased risk of developing heart failure due to experience of sleep restriction (SR) after MI. Male Wistar rats (n = 40) were randomly assigned to four experimental groups: (1) Sham, (2) MI, (3) MI and SR (MI + SR) (4) Sham and SR (Sham + SR). MI was induced by permanent ligation of left anterior descending coronary artery. Twenty-four hours after surgery, animals were subjected to chronic SR paradigm. Blood sampling was performed at days 1, 8 and 21 after MI for determination of serum levels of creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), corticosterone, malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitric oxide (NO). Finally, at 21 days after MI, echocardiographic parameters and expression of MuRF1, MaFBx, A20, eNOS, iNOS and NF-kB in the heart were evaluated. We used H&E staining to detect myocardial hypertrophy. We found out that post infarct SR increased corticosterone levels. Our results highlighted deteriorating effects of post-MI SR on NO production, oxidative stress, and echocardiographic indexes (p < 0.05). Moreover, its detrimental effects on myocardial damage were confirmed by overexpression of MuRF1, MaFBx, iNOS and NF-kB (p < 0.001) in left ventricle and downregulation of A20 and eNOS (p < 0.05). Furthermore, histological examination revealed that experience of SR after MI increased myocardial diameter as compared to Sham subjects (p < 0.05). Our data suggest that SR after MI leads to an enlargement of the heart within 21 days, marked by an increase in oxidative stress and NO production as well as an imbalance in UPS that ultimately results in cardiac dysfunction and heart failure.