A novel 3D culture model of fungal keratitis to explore host-pathogen interactions within the stromal environment.

Fungal keratitis (FK) pathology is driven by both fungal growth and inflammation within the corneal stroma. Standard in vitro infection models ̶ involving co-culture of the pathogen and the corneal cells in tissue culture medium ̶ are sufficient to probe host responses to the fungus; however, they lack the physiological structure and nutrient composition of the stroma to accurately study fungal invasiveness and metabolic processes. We therefore sought to develop a culture model of FK that would allow for both host and fungal cell biology to be evaluated in parallel. Towards this end, we employed a previously described system in which primary human cornea fibroblasts (HCFs) are cultured on transwell membranes, whereupon they secrete a three-dimensional (3D) collagen matrix that resembles the human stroma. We demonstrated that two common mold agents of FK, Fusarium petroliphilum and Aspergillus fumigatus, penetrated into these constructs and caused a disruption of the collagen matrix that is characteristic of infection. HCF morphology appeared altered in the presence of fungus and electron microscopy revealed a clear internalization of fungal spores into these cells. Consistent with this apparent phagocyte-like activity of the HCFs, mRNA and protein levels for several pro-inflammatory cytokines/chemokines (including TNFα, IL-1ß, IL-6, and IL-8) were significantly upregulated compared to uninfected samples. We similarly found an upregulation of several HCF metalloproteases (MMPs), which are enzymes that breakdown collagen during wound healing and may further activate pro-inflammatory signaling molecules. Finally, several fungal collagenase genes were upregulated during growth in the constructs relative to growth in tissue culture media alone, suggesting a fungal metabolic shift towards protein catabolism. Taken together, our results indicate that this 3D-stromal model provides a physiologically relevant system to study host and fungal cell pathobiology during FK.

Templates for writing PyMOL scripts.

PyMOL commands are used to exert exquisite control over the appearance of a molecular model. This control has made PyMOL popular for making images of protein structures for publications and presentations. However, many users have poor recall of the commands due to infrequent use of PyMOL. This poor recall hinders the writing of new code in scripts. One solution is to build the new script by using code fragments as templates for modular parts of the task at hand. The code fragments can be accessed from a library while writing the code from inside a text editor (e.g., Visual Studio Code, Vim, and Emacs). We developed a library of PyMOL code templates or snippets called pymolsnips to ease the writing of PyMOL code in scripts. We made pymolsnips available on GitHub in formats for 18 popular text editors. Most of the supported text editors are available for Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. The GitHub site includes animations that complement the instructions for installing the library for each text editor. We expect that the library will help many PyMOL users to be more productive when writing PyMOL script files.

Resilience in Men and Women Experiencing Sexual Assault or Traumatic Stress: Validation and Replication of the Scale of Protective Factors.

The literature on sexual assault (SA) typically has been generalized to women and children. However, both men and women experience SA. Research shows that not all individuals experience the negative impacts of SA in the same way. The ability to buffer the negative effects of SA may lie in specific protective factors that determine resilience. Resilience scales used in adult populations have not been validated for use in SA samples. The purpose of the present study was to replicate the factor structure of a resilience scale, the Scale of Protective Factors (SPF), in a sample of emerging adults (n = 571) and to validate the replicated model on a subsample of the participants who reported SA (n = 173). Additionally, we sought to examine gender differences in mental health outcomes including depression and anxiety, and the availability of protective factors that determine resilience among those participants who reported experiencing SA (n = 173) as compared to other forms of traumatic stress (n = 132). The SPF achieved good model fit in the larger emerging adult sample and adequate model fit was achieved in the SA subsample. Results indicated significant gender differences in mental health outcomes with η2 ranging between .03 and .21. Implications and future directions are discussed.