Development of a new portable air sampler based on electrostatic precipitation.

Airborne particles are known to cause illness and to influence meteorological phenomena. It is therefore important to monitor their concentrations and to identify them. A challenge is to collect micro and nanoparticles, microorganisms as well as toxic molecules with a device as simple and small as possible to be used easily and everywhere. Electrostatic precipitation is an efficient method to collect all kinds of airborne particles. Furthermore, this method can be miniaturized. A portable, silent, and autonomous air sampler based on this technology is therefore being developed with the final objective to collect very efficiently airborne pathogens such as supermicron bacteria but also submicron viruses. Particles are collected on a dry surface so they may be concentrated afterwards in a small amount of liquid medium to be analyzed. It is shown that nearly 98 % of airborne particles from 10 nm to 3 µm are collected.

Expression of excitatory amino acid transporter-2 (EAAT-2) and glutamine synthetase (GS) in brain macrophages and microglia of SIVmac251-infected macaques.

Na+-dependent transporters for glutamate (excitatory amino acid transporters, EAATs) clear extracellular glutamate in the brain and prevent excitotoxic neuronal damage. Glutamine synthetase (GS) provides metabolic support for neurones by producing the neurotrophic amino acid glutamine. EAAT and GS expression has recently been demonstrated in macrophages and microglial cells in vitro, and in two models of acute inflammation in vivo. This observation might modify our current understanding of brain inflammation, which considers activated microglia and brain macrophages as the main neurotoxic cells through their production of a variety of neurotoxins, including glutamate. EAAT and GS expression by these cells would entail neuroprotective and neurotrophic properties, counterbalancing the deleterious consequences of microglial activation. Macaque infection by the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) is considered the most relevant model for human acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), including chronic inflammation of the brain at the early asymptomatic stage of the infection, followed by an AIDS-like disease where neuronal death occurs. We studied the expression of EAAT-2 and GS in the brains of three SIVmac251-infected and two noninfected cynomolgus macaques. We found that both microglia and brain macrophages expressed EAAT-2 and GS in infected primates, suggesting that these cells might, like astrocytes, clear extracellular glutamate and provide glutamine to neurones. Microglia and macrophages could thus have neuroprotective and neurotrophic properties in addition to their production of neurotoxins. This finding might explain the contrast between early intense microglial activation and the late occurrence of neuronal apoptotic cell death, which is mainly observed at the terminal stage of the disease.

Calpain 1-protein kinase C complex: effect of calpain inhibitors after dissociation.

A calpain 1-protein kinase C (PKC) complex was isolated from rabbit skeletal muscle by hydrophobic interaction chromatography on phenyl-sepharose and by strong anion exchange chromatography on Q-Sepharose. Calpain 1 and kinase activities were then dissociated on a phenyl-Sepharose matrix using gradients of decreasing ionic strength. The purified PKC obtained corresponded to conventional PKC and was recognized by a monoclonal antibody specific for alpha and beta isotypes. Leupeptin, calpain inhibitor II, and the more selective calpain inhibitors calpeptin and MDL 28170 did not block the activation of the purified PKC by Ca2+ and phosphatidylserine.