Research Interests: Biochemistry, RNA, Biology, Molecular Genetics, Medicine, and 15 moreBiological Sciences, Escherichia coli, Plasmids, Affinity chromatography, Citrus, Genes, Plant viruses, Amino Acid Profile, Plant Pathology, Citrus Tristeza Virus, Dissociation Constant, Closterovirus, single stranded DNA, High Salt, and Medical and Health Sciences
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Research Interests: Mathematics, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Probabilistic Logic, Image Representation, and 11 moreDiscriminant Analysis, Linear Discriminant Analysis, Info, Object Recognition, Support vector machine, Experimental Evaluation, High Dimensionality, Kullback Leibler, Model Complexity, Kullback-Leibler divergence, and image resolution
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Citrus leaf blotch virus (CLBV) has a single-stranded, positive-sense, genomic RNA (gRNA) organized in three ORFs, which encode a polyprotein involved in replication (RP), a potential movement protein (MP), and coat protein (CP). Northern... more
Citrus leaf blotch virus (CLBV) has a single-stranded, positive-sense, genomic RNA (gRNA) organized in three ORFs, which encode a polyprotein involved in replication (RP), a potential movement protein (MP), and coat protein (CP). Northern blot hybridization of total, virion, or double-stranded RNA with probes of different gRNA regions revealed that CLBV produces two 3'-coterminal and two 5'-coterminal subgenomic RNAs (sgRNAs). The 3'-coterminal sgRNAs contain the MP (3'MP sgRNA) and CP (3'CP sgRNA) genes and untranslated regions (UTRs) of 123 and 284 nt, respectively, at their…
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Research Interests: Cardiology, Treatment Outcome, Risk assessment, Optical coherence tomography, Medicine, and 15 morePregnancy, Humans, Female, Drug Eluting Stents, Coronary Angiography, Myocardial Infarction, Adult, Cesarean Section, Risk Assessment, Sirolimus, Chest Pain, Severity of Illness Index, postpartum period, Coronary Aneurysm, and Aneurysm dissecting
The presence of thin-cap fibroatheromas (TCFA) is associated with high risk of acute coronary syndrome, hence their early detection may identify high-risk patients. In the present study we investigated the ability of a combined imaging... more
The presence of thin-cap fibroatheromas (TCFA) is associated with high risk of acute coronary syndrome, hence their early detection may identify high-risk patients. In the present study we investigated the ability of a combined imaging catheter with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) plus intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) to detect TCFA in patients with stable coronary artery disease. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and combined NIRS-IVUS assessment were performed on identical coronary segments. IVUS analysis provided per-segment minimal cross-sectional area (CSA), plaque length (PL), plaque burden (PB), plaque volume (PV), and remodelling index (RI). OCT was used as the gold-standard reference to define TCFA (fibrous cap thickness <65 μm). Plaque lipid content was estimated by NIRS (lipid core burden index [LCBI]). OCT-defined TCFA was present in 18 of 76 segments. IVUS revealed that OCT-defined TCFA were positively remodelled lesions with greater PB and PV, smaller CSA, and lon...
Research Interests: Radiology, Optical coherence tomography, Medicine, Lipids, Humans, and 15 moreFemale, Male, Fibrosis, Aged, Cardiac Catheterization, Middle Aged, Acute Coronary Syndrome, Coronary Angiography, Observer Variation, Biological markers, Coronary Artery Disease, Predictive value of tests, Catheter, Cardiac Catheters, and Coronary Vessels
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Patients with both chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetes mellitus (DM) are at increased risk for thrombotic events compared to those with one abnormality alone. Whether this can be attributed to changes in platelet reactivity among... more
Patients with both chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetes mellitus (DM) are at increased risk for thrombotic events compared to those with one abnormality alone. Whether this can be attributed to changes in platelet reactivity among those with both CKD and DM is unknown. We prospectively studied 438 clopidogrel-naïve patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Platelet function tests were performed 4-6 hours after loading with 600 mg of clopidogrel. Platelet reactivity was assessed using the VerifyNow system and expressed as P2Y12 reaction units (PRU). High residual platelet reactivity (HRPR) was defined as PRU > 230. Patients were categorised into four groups by the presence or absence of CKD and DM. Among those without CKD or DM (n=166), DM alone (n=150), CKD alone (n=60) and both CKD and DM (n=62) the mean PRU levels were 201.6 ± 96.3, 220.5 ± 101.1, 254.9 ± 106.7 and 275.0 ± 94.5, respectively (p<0.001). Analogously, the prevalence of HRPR was 42.3%, 5...
Research Interests: Kidney diseases, Medicine, Platelet, Prospective studies, Humans, and 15 moreInternal Medicine, Diabetes mellitus, Female, Male, Haemostasis and Thrombosis, Platelet activation mechanism, Clinical Sciences, Aged, Middle Aged, Percutaneous Coronary Intervention, Diabetes complications, Odds ratio, Kidney Disease, Clopidogrel, and Cardiovascular medicine and haematology
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Research Interests: Biology, Virology, Medicine, Gene expression, Real-time RT-PCR, and 13 moreTranscriptome, Biological Sciences, Microarray, Change detection, Statistical Significance, Gene, Citrus, Microarray Analysis, Cdna Microarray, Citrus Tristeza Virus, Closterovirus, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, and Medical and Health Sciences
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) naturally infects only some citrus species and relatives and within these it only invades phloem tissues. Failure to agroinfect citrus plants and the lack of an experimental herbaceous host hindered development... more
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) naturally infects only some citrus species and relatives and within these it only invades phloem tissues. Failure to agroinfect citrus plants and the lack of an experimental herbaceous host hindered development of a workable genetic system. A full-genome cDNA of CTV isolate T36 was cloned in binary plasmids and was used to agroinfiltrate Nicotiana benthamiana leaves, with or without coinfiltration with plasmids expressing different silencing-suppressor proteins. A time course analysis in agroinfiltrated leaves indicated that CTV accumulates and moves cell-to-cell for at least three weeks postinoculation (wpi), and then, it moves systemically and infects the upper leaves with symptom expression. Silencing suppressors expedited systemic infection and often increased infectivity. In systemically infected Nicotiana benthamiana plants, CTV invaded first the phloem, but after 7 wpi, it was also found in other tissues and reached a high viral titer in upper leav...
Research Interests: Genetics, Microbiology, Plant Biology, Biology, Tobacco, and 15 morePlant Molecular Biology, Medicine, Gene Silencing, Plant diseases, Plasmids, Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions, Citrus, Host Pathogen Interactions, Citrus Tristeza Virus, Species Specificity, Closterovirus, Plant Leaves, Infectivity, Nicotiana benthamiana, and Agrobacterium tumefaciens
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV), a member of the Closteroviridae , has a positive-sense RNA genome of about 20 kb organized into 12 open reading frames (ORFs). The last 10 ORFs are expressed through 3′-coterminal subgenomic RNAs (sgRNAs)... more
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV), a member of the Closteroviridae , has a positive-sense RNA genome of about 20 kb organized into 12 open reading frames (ORFs). The last 10 ORFs are expressed through 3′-coterminal subgenomic RNAs (sgRNAs) regulated in both amounts and timing. Additionally, relatively large amounts of complementary sgRNAs are produced. We have been unable to determine whether these sgRNAs are produced by internal promotion from the full-length template minus strand or by transcription from the minus-stranded sgRNAs. Understanding the regulation of 10 sgRNAs is a conceptual challenge. In analyzing commonalities of a replicase complex in producing so many sgRNAs, we examined initiating nucleotides of the sgRNAs. We mapped the 5′ termini of intermediate- (CP and p13) and low- (p18) produced sgRNAs that, like the two highly abundant sgRNAs (p20 and p23) previously mapped, all initiate with an adenylate. We then examined modifications of the initiation site, which has been sho...
Research Interests: Genetics, Plant Biology, Biology, Virology, Medicine, and 15 moreGene expression, Biological Sciences, Plant sciences, Life Cycle, Citrus, Plant Pathology, Citrus Tristeza Virus, Base Sequence, Open Reading Frame, Site-directed Mutagenesis, RNA Virus, Full Length Movies, Nucleotides, Closteroviridae, and Medical and Health Sciences
We examined the population structure and genetic variation of four genomic regions within and between 30 Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) isolates from Spain and California. Our analyses showed that most isolates contained a population of... more
We examined the population structure and genetic variation of four genomic regions within and between 30 Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) isolates from Spain and California. Our analyses showed that most isolates contained a population of sequence variants, with one being predominant. Four isolates showed two major sequence variants in some genomic regions. The two major variants of three of these isolates showed very low nucleotide identity to each other but were very similar to those of other isolates, suggesting the possibility of mixed infections with two divergent isolates. Incongruencies of phylogenetic relationships in the different genomic regions and statistical analyses suggested that the genomes of some CTV sequence variants originated by recombination events between diverged sequence variants. No correlation was observed between geographic origin and nucleotide distance, and thus from a genetic view, the Spanish and Californian isolates analyzed here could be considered membe...
Research Interests: Genetics, Biology, Medicine, Biological Sciences, California, and 15 morePopulation, Plant diseases, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Genome, Citrus, Molecular Marker, Phylogenetic Tree, Genetic variation, Citrus Tristeza Virus, Open Reading Frame, Closterovirus, Nucleotides, Aphid, Molecular Sequence Data, and Medical and Health Sciences
A non-isotopic hybridisation procedure was developed to differentiate isolates of citrus tristeza virus (CTV) using digoxigenin (DIG)-labelled cDNA probes and different kinds of target RNA. Hybridisation of DIG-probes with purified... more
A non-isotopic hybridisation procedure was developed to differentiate isolates of citrus tristeza virus (CTV) using digoxigenin (DIG)-labelled cDNA probes and different kinds of target RNA. Hybridisation of DIG-probes with purified double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) or concentrated total RNA extracts spotted on nylon membranes allowed detection of CTV nucleic acid equivalent to as little as 0.1-1 mg infected tissue, when the reaction was developed with a chemiluminiscent substrate. This sensitivity was similar to or slightly better than that obtained by hybridisation with a 32P-labelled probe. CTV was also detectable by hybridisation of DIG-probes with tissue prints from freshly cut young citrus shoots. Hybridisation of tissue prints with DIG-probes under stringent conditions (60 degrees C and 50% formamide) could differentiate CTV isolates in citrus, whether grown in the greenhouse or in the field. This rapid and sensitive procedure can easily be applied to many samples, even under field conditions, and opens the way to monitoring spatio-temporal movement of specific CTV strains (or groups of strains) in epidemiological studies.
Research Interests: Microbiology, Molecular Biology, RNA, Medical Microbiology, Biology, and 13 moreMedicine, Nucleic acid hybridization, Monoclonal Antibodies, Journal of Virological Methods, Citrus, Plant viruses, dsRNA, Citrus Tristeza Virus, Dig, Epidemiologic Studies, double-stranded RNA, Closterovirus, and Nucleic Acid
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Research Interests: Cardiology, Kidney diseases, Medicine, Humans, Internal Medicine, and 15 moreEurope, Chronic Disease, Female, Male, Fibrosis, Clinical Sciences, Aged, Acute Coronary Syndrome, Coronary Angiography, CSA, Kidney Disease, Coronary Artery Disease, IQR, Heart arrest, and Cardiovascular medicine and haematology
We evaluated the impact of the everolimus-eluting stent (EES) on the frequency of stent thrombosis (ST), target vessel revascularization (TVR), myocardial infarction (MI), and cardiac death in randomized controlled trials comparing the... more
We evaluated the impact of the everolimus-eluting stent (EES) on the frequency of stent thrombosis (ST), target vessel revascularization (TVR), myocardial infarction (MI), and cardiac death in randomized controlled trials comparing the EES to non-everolimus-eluting drug-eluting stents (EE-DES).
Research Interests: Cardiology, Medicine, Humans, Internal Medicine, Female, and 15 moreMale, PES, Myocardial Revascularization, Meta Analysis, Aged, Middle Aged, Drug Eluting Stents, Myocardial Infarction, Public health systems and services research, Randomized Controlled Trial, Antiplatelet Therapy, Confidence Interval, Heart Diseases, Immunosuppressive Agents, and Cardiovascular medicine and haematology
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Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease results in >19 million deaths annually, and coronary heart disease accounts for the majority of this toll. Despite major advances in treatment of coronary heart disease patients, a large number of... more
Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease results in >19 million deaths annually, and coronary heart disease accounts for the majority of this toll. Despite major advances in treatment of coronary heart disease patients, a large number of victims of the disease who are apparently healthy die suddenly without prior symptoms. Available screening and diagnostic methods are insufficient to identify the victims before the event occurs. The recognition of the role of the vulnerable plaque has opened new avenues of opportunity in the field of cardiovascular medicine. This consensus document concludes the following. (1) Rupture-prone plaques are not the only vulnerable plaques. All types of atherosclerotic plaques with high likelihood of thrombotic complications and rapid progression should be considered as vulnerable plaques. We propose a classification for clinical as well as pathological evaluation of vulnerable plaques. (2) Vulnerable plaques are not the only culprit factors for the dev...
Research Interests: Medicine, Disease susceptibility, Humans, Consensus, Female, and 15 moreAnimals, Disease, Male, Clinical Sciences, Myocardial Infarction, Myocardium, Coronary heart disease, Public health systems and services research, Circulation, Biological markers, Disease Progression, Coronary Artery Disease, Acute Disease, mass Screening, and Cardiovascular medicine and haematology
Analysis of four genomic regions from 37 geographically diverse isolates of broad bean wilt virus 1 (BBWV-1) showed high genetic diversity in comparison to most plant viruses. Comparison of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions of... more
Analysis of four genomic regions from 37 geographically diverse isolates of broad bean wilt virus 1 (BBWV-1) showed high genetic diversity in comparison to most plant viruses. Comparison of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions of the small coat protein gene (SCP) revealed negative selection for most amino acid positions. Phylogenetic analysis of SCP showed that some BBWV-1 isolates from distant geographical areas were genetically close, suggesting long-distance migration. Analysis of genetic differentiation revealed high gene flow between Spanish and Near Eastern subpopulations, which were separated from North-Central and South-Eastern European subpopulations. Finally, putative recombinant and reassortant genomes were also identified.