How Many Sirtuin Genes Are Out There? Evolution of Sirtuin Genes in Vertebrates With a Description of a New Family Member.

Studying the evolutionary history of gene families is a challenging and exciting task with a wide range of implications. In addition to exploring fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of genes, disentangling their evolution is also critical to those who do functional/structural studies to allow a deeper and more precise interpretation of their results in an evolutionary context. The sirtuin gene family is a group of genes that are involved in a variety of biological functions mostly related to aging. Their duplicative history is an open question, as well as the definition of the repertoire of sirtuin genes among vertebrates. Our results show a well-resolved phylogeny that represents an improvement in our understanding of the duplicative history of the sirtuin gene family. We identified a new sirtuin gene family member (SIRT3.2) that was apparently lost in the last common ancestor of amniotes but retained in all other groups of jawed vertebrates. According to our experimental analyses, elephant shark SIRT3.2 protein is located in mitochondria, the overexpression of which leads to an increase in cellular levels of ATP. Moreover, in vitro analysis demonstrated that it has deacetylase activity being modulated in a similar way to mammalian SIRT3. Our results indicate that there are at least eight sirtuin paralogs among vertebrates and that all of them can be traced back to the last common ancestor of the group that existed between 676 and 615 millions of years ago.

Patient experience and non-surgical periodontal therapy in a postgraduate periodontal training program: A qualitative study

ABSTRACT: Objective: To explore patient experience for non-surgical periodontal therapy using phenomenography. Methods: This qualitative study was performed in a postgraduate specialist training program in periodontics. Patients reported their experiences through in-depth interviews in order to recognize the impact of non-surgical periodontal therapy on their quality of life and their satisfaction. A homogeneous sampling procedure was used, establishing redundancy after the fifteenth interview. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and analyzed by three researchers who codified the answers into categories to determine the emerging topics. Results: The core emerging themes were: (i) lack of information about periodontal disease; (ii) experience during treatment; (iii) treatment implications; and (iv) clinician-patient relationship. Conclusions: Patients seem to have limited knowledge about periodontal diseases. Reasons for attendance mainly include bleeding gums, tooth mobility, and aesthetic problems. Therapy can generate pain, fear, and is considered invasive, whereas dentine hypersensitivity may occur post-operatively. Despite this, patients would be willing to undergo treatment again and were generally satisfied with the level of care and treatment received.

Academics' and students' experiences in a chilean dental school during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study.

INTRODUCTION: The quick spread of COVID-19 has caused part of the world's population to adopt quarantine protocols that have limited professional activities, including dental training programmes. This study aimed to explore the experiences of students and personnel at a Chilean dental school during the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This phenomenological descriptive qualitative study reported staff and students' experiences during the pandemic through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. These were recorded on audio and video with a digital platform. Three researchers then transcribed and analyzed the recordings and codified the answers into categories to determine the emerging topics until a saturation point was reached. RESULTS: The core emerging themes among the staff group were (1) change in the personal/professional life balance, (2) online learning through digital platforms, (3) staff perceptions of students' learning experiences, and (4) concerns about the future. For students, the themes were (1) changes in the learning process, (2) online learning through digital platforms, (3) interpersonal relationships, and (4) concerns about the future. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a period of learning for our dental school staff and students. Even though online learning has been a useful tool for delivering didactic (theoretical) concepts, it has been unable to replace conventional education, including skills training. Students and teachers reported being overwhelmed at the beginning of the pandemic, but they have shown remarkable adaptability and resilience during this period.

DT-Diaphorase Prevents Aminochrome-Induced Lysosome Dysfunction in SH-SY5Y Cells.

Aminochrome has been reported to induce lysosomal dysfunction by inhibiting the vacuolar H-type ATPase localized in lysosome membrane. DT-diaphorase has been proposed to prevent aminochrome neurotoxicity but it is unknown whether this enzyme prevents aminochrome-induced lysosomal dysfunction. In the present study, we tested the protective role of DT-diaphorase in lysosomal dysfunction by generating a cell line (SH-SY5YsiNQ7) with a stable expression of a siRNA against DT-diaphorase with only 10% expression of mRNA enzyme. The cells differentiated with retinoic acid and 12-o-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate show a significant increase in the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase, vesicular monoamine transporter-2, and dopamine transporter. The incubation of SH-SY5YsiNQ7 cells with 10 µM aminochrome resulted in a significant decrease of lysosome pH determined by using acridine orange, while aminochrome has no effect on SH-SY5Y cells. These results support the proposed protective role of DT-diaphorase against aminochrome-induced lysosomal dysfunction.