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Emotion regulation is a central task of daily life. Difficulty regulating emotions is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD), one of the most common and impairing personality disorder diagnoses. While anger and symptoms of depression are instantiated in the criteria for BPD, anxiety is not, despite being among the most common psychiatric symptoms. In a sample of online respondents (N = 471), we explored the interactions between anxiety symptoms and BPD traits in predicting well-being (WHO-5) as well as poorer work and social adjustment (WSAS), while controlling for anger and depression. We hypothesized that anxiety would lead to more impairment (i.e., lower well-being and poorer work and more difficulties with work and social adjustment) as BPD traits increased. BPD traits and symptoms of anxiety both contributed to overall lower levels well-being and higher levels of psychosocial dysfunction. However, contrary to our expectations, at higher (vs. lower) levels of BPD traits, symptoms of anxiety were less conducive to lower well-being on the WHO-5. For the WSAS, there was no consistent evidence for an interaction between BPD traits and anxiety in predicting functioning. By and large, our results do not support the idea that anxiety contributes to more impairment at higher levels of BPD traits.

Subunit reassociation in mucin 1, a breast cancer tumor marker, is reported as one of the critical factors for its cytoplasmic activation. Inhibition of its heterodimeric association would therefore result in loss of its function and alter disease progression. The present study aimed at evaluating peptide inhibitor designing strategies that may serve as antagonist against this receptor-ligand alliance. Several peptides and their derivatives were designed based on native residues, subunit interface, hydrogen bonding and secondary structure. Docking studies with the peptides were carried on the receptor subunit and their binding affinities were evaluated using steered molecular dynamics simulation and umbrella sampling. Our results showed that among all the different classes of peptides evaluated, the receptor based peptide showed the highest binding affinity. This result was concurrent with the experimental observation that the receptor-ligand alliance in mucin 1 is highly specific. Our results also show that peptide ligand against this subunit association is only stabilized through native residue inter-protein interaction irrespective of the peptide structure, peptide length and number of hydrogen bonds. Consistency in binding affinity, pull force and free energy barrier was observed with only the receptor derived peptides which resulted in favorable interprotein interactions at the interface. Several observations were made and discussed which will eventually lead to designing efficient peptide inhibitors against mucin 1 heterodimeric subunit reassociation.

Responses in micro-mineral metabolism to changes in dietary ingredient composition and inclusion of a micro-mineral premix (Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn and Se) were studied in rainbow trout. In a 2 x 2 factorial design, triplicate groups of rainbow trout (initial weight: 20 g) were fed over 12 weeks at 17°C a fishmeal-based diet (M) or a plant-ingredient based diet (V), with or without inclusion of a mineral premix. Trout fed the V vs. M diet had lower feed intake, growth, hepato-somatic index, apparent availability coefficient (AAC) of Fe, Cu, Mn and Zn and also lower whole body Se and Zn concentration, whereas whole body Fe and Cu and plasma Fe concentrations were higher. Feeding the V diet increased intestinal ferric reductase activity; at transcriptional level, hepatic hepcidin expression was down-regulated and ferroportin 1 was up-regulated. Transcription of intestinal Cu-transporting ATPases and hepatic copper transporter1 were higher in V0 compared to other groups. Among the hepatic metalo-enzyme activities assayed, only Se-dependent glutathione peroxidase was affected, being lower in V fed fish. Premix inclusion reduced the AAC of Fe, Cu and Zn; increased the whole body concentration of all micro- minerals; up-regulated hepatic hepcidin and down-regulated intestinal ferroportin 1 transcription; and reduced the transcription of Cu-transporting ATPases in the intestine. Overall, the regulation of micro-mineral metabolism in rainbow trout, especially Fe and Cu, was affected both by a change in ingredient composition and micro-mineral premix inclusion.

Chelation therapy is one of the most appreciated methods in the treatment of metal induced disease predisposition. Coordination chemistry provides a way to understand metal association in biological structures. In this work we have implemented coordination chemistry to study nickel coordination due to its high impact in industrial usage and thereby health consequences. This paper reports the analysis of nickel coordination from a large dataset of nickel bound structures and sequences. Coordination patterns predicted from the structures are reported in terms of donors, chelate length, coordination number, chelate geometry, structural fold and architecture. The analysis revealed histidine as the most favored residue in nickel coordination. The most common chelates identified were histidine based namely HHH, HDH, HEH and HH spaced at specific intervals. Though a maximum coordination number of 8 was observed, the presence of a single protein donor was noted to be mandatory in nickel coordination. The coordination pattern did not reveal any specific fold, nevertheless we report preferable residue spacing for specific structural architecture. In contrast, the analysis of nickel binding proteins from bacterial and archeal species revealed no common coordination patterns. Nickel binding sequence motifs were noted to be organism specific and protein class specific. As a result we identified about 13 signatures derived from 13 classes of nickel binding proteins. The specifications on nickel coordination presented in this paper will prove beneficial for developing better chelation strategies.

Buprofezin is an insect growth regulator and widely used insecticide in Malaysia. The present study evaluated the toxic effects of buprofezin on the embryo and larvae of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) as a model organism. The embryos and larvae were exposed to 7 different concentrations (0, 0.05, 0.5, 5, 25, 50 and 100 mg/L) of buprofezin. Each concentration was assessed in five replicates. Eggs were artificially fertilized and 200 eggs and larvae were subjected to a static bath treatment for all the concentrations. The mortality of embryos was significantly increased with increasing buprofezin concentrations from 5 to 100 mg/L (p< 0.05). However, the mortality was not significantly different (p0.05) in the LC50 values obtained at 24 and 48 h exposure times. Malformations were observed when the embryos and larvae exposed to more than 5 mg/L. The results emerged from the study suggest that even the low concentration (5 mg/L) of buprofezin in the aquatic environment may have adverse effect on the early embryonic and larval development of African catfish.

Buprofezin is an insect growth regulator and widely used insecticide in Malaysia. The present study evaluated the toxic effects of buprofezin on the embryo and larvae of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) as a model organism. The embryos and larvae were exposed to 7 different concentrations (0, 0.05, 0.5, 5, 25, 50 and 100 mg/L) of buprofezin. Each concentration was assessed in five replicates. Eggs were artificially fertilized and 200 eggs and larvae were subjected to a static bath treatment for all the concentrations. The mortality of embryos was significantly increased with increasing buprofezin concentrations from 5 to 100 mg/L (p< 0.05). However, the mortality was not significantly different (p<0.05) among the following concentrations: 0 (control), 0.05, 0.5 and 5 mg/L. Data obtained from the buprofezin acute toxicity tests were evaluated using probit analysis. The 24 h LC50 value (with 95% confidence limits) of buprofezin for embryos was estimated to be 6.725 (3.167-15.017) mg/L. The hatching of fish embryos was recorded as 68.8, 68.9, 66.9, 66.4, 26.9, 25.1 and 0.12% in response to 7 different concentrations of buprofezin, respectively. The mortality rate of larvae significantly (p<0.05) increased with increasing buprofezin concentrations exposed to 24-48 h. The 24 and 48 h LC50 values (with 95% confidence limits) of buprofezin for the larvae was estimated to be 5.702 (3.198-8.898) and 4.642 (3.264-6.287) mg/L respectively. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in the LC50 values obtained at 24 and 48 h exposure times. Malformations were observed when the embryos and larvae exposed to more than 5 mg/L. The results emerged from the study suggest that even the low concentration (5 mg/L) of buprofezin in the aquatic environment may have adverse effect on the early embryonic and larval development of African catfish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]