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Bacillus subtilis is known to promote root growth and improve plant physiology, while organic compost enhances soil water retention. This study explored the combined effect of inoculating B. subtilis in organic compost on soybean growth under water deficit. The treatments included chemical fertilization, non-inoculated organic compost, and organic compost inoculated with B. subtilis which were assessed under well-watered and water-deficit conditions. The organic compost inoculated with B. subtilis increased root biomass, length, volume, and the number of root tips under well-watered conditions, although it reduced root diameter. Under water deficit, the organic compost inoculated with B. subtilis increased root tip number (∼150%), biomass (∼95%) and number (∼85%) of nodules. Water deficit negatively affected soybean physiology, reduced photosynthesis, transpiration, and stomatal conductance, while increased internal CO₂ concentration. However, the organic compost inoculated with B. subtilis mitigated these effects, enhancing photosynthesis (∼20%) and water use efficiency (∼25%). Under water deficit, this treatment also increased shoot biomass by 15% and the drought tolerance index by 51% compared to the control. The combination of B. subtilis and organic compost improved root architecture, nodulation, and drought tolerance. These results suggest that B. subtilis inoculated in the organic compost is a promising strategy for enhancing soybean productivity and resilience under water stress, offering a novel approach to mitigating drought effects in agriculture., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the GSH effect on functional and histological recovery after experimental spinal cord injury in rats., Methods: Forty Wistar rats were subjected to spinal cord injury through the Multicenter Animal Spinal Cord Injury Study (MASCIS) Impactor system. The rats were sorted and divided into four groups, as follows: Group 1 ‒ Laminectomy and spinal cord injury; Group 2 ‒ Laminectomy, spinal cord injury and Saline Solution (SS) 0.9%; Group 3 ‒ Laminectomy, spinal cord injury, and GSH; and Group 4 ‒ lLaminectomy without spinal cord injury. GSH and SS were administered intraperitoneally. Groups 1 and 4 received no intervention., Results: The rats were evaluated for locomotor function recovery at seven different times by the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) scale on days 2, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, and 42 after the spinal cord injury. On day 42, the rats were sacrificed to analyze the histological findings of the injured spinal cord. In the group submitted to GSH, our experimental study revealed better functional scores on the BBB scale, horizontal ladder scale, and cranial and caudal axon count. The differences found were statistically significant in BBB scores and axonal count analysis., Conclusion: This study demonstrated that using glutathione in experimental spinal trauma can lead to better functional recovery and improved axonal regeneration rate in Wistar rats submitted to experimental spinal cord injury., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 HCFMUSP. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The surgical approach to the lumbosacral spine has been the subject of experimental and scientific anatomical studies since the Hippocratic era. However, it was in the 20th century that, with the evolution of asepsis and antibiotic therapy, spine surgery began to evolve at breakneck speed, and the various possibilities of access roads became objects of development and discussion. As a result, pathologies of the lumbosacral spine can be accessed in different ways and positions, from the traditional posterior approach in the prone position to the anterior, oblique, lateral, and endoscopic approaches. The current article brings state-of-the-art access routes to the lumbosacral spine. This article objective is to elucidate the possibilities of accesses the lumbar spine for any purposes, as decompression, fusion, tumour resections, reconstruction or deformity correction, despites type of implants or implants positioning., Competing Interests: Conflito de Interesses Os autores não têm conflitos de interesse a declarar., (The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).)

Introduction: Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a neglected vector-borne parasitic disease prevalent in 92 countries with approximately one million new infections annually. Interactions between vector saliva and the human host alter the response to infection and outcome of disease., Methods: To characterize the human immunological responses developed against saliva of Phlebotomus duboscqi , a Leishmania major (L. major) vector, we repeatedly exposed the arms of 14 healthy U.S volunteers to uninfected P. duboscqi bites. Blood was collected a week after each exposure and used to assess total IgG antibodies against the proteins of P. duboscqi salivary gland homogenate (SGH) and the levels of IFN-gamma and IL-10 from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) stimulated with SGH or recombinant sand fly proteins. We analyzed skin punch biopsies of the human volunteer arms from the insect bite site and control skin site after multiple P. duboscqi exposures (four volunteers) using immunohistochemical staining., Results: A variety of immediate insect bite skin reactions were observed. Late skin reactions to insect bites were characterized by macular hyperpigmentation and/or erythematous papules. Hematoxylin and eosin staining showed moderate mononuclear skin infiltrate with eosinophils in those challenged recently (within 2 months), eosinophils were not seen in biopsies with recall challenge (6 month post bites). An increase in plasma antigen-specific IgG responses to SGH was observed over time. Western Blot results showed strong plasma reactivity to five P. duboscqi salivary proteins. Importantly, volunteers developed a cellular immunity characterized by the secretion of IFN-gamma upon PBMC stimulation with P. duboscqi SGH and recombinant antigens., Discussion: Our results demonstrate that humans mounted a local and systemic immune response against P. duboscqi salivary proteins. Specifically, PduM02/SP15-like and PduM73/adenosine deaminase recombinant salivary proteins triggered a Th1 type immune response that might be considered in future development of a potential Leishmania vaccine., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 de Araujo, Abdeladhim, Teixeira, Hummer, Wilkerson, Ressner, Lakhal-Naouar, Ellis, Meneses, Nurmukhambetova, Gomes, Tolbert, Turiansky, Pazgier, Oliveira, Valenzuela, Kamhawi and Aronson.)

Introduction: Chagas disease (CD) is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi . Although endemic mainly in Latin America, CD has become a global public health problem due to migration of infected individuals to non-endemic regions. Despite progress made in drug development, preclinical assays for drug discovery are required to accelerate the development of new drugs with reduced side effects, which are much needed for human treatment., Methods: We used a cure model of infected mice treated with Fexinidazole (FZ) to further validate a novel Enzyme Linked Aptamer (ELA) assay that detects parasite biomarkers circulating in the blood of infected animals., Results: The ELA assay showed cure by FZ in ~71% and ~77% of mice infected with the VL-10 and Colombiana strains of T. cruzi , respectively. The ELA assay also revealed superior treatment efficacy of FZ compared to Benznidazole prior to immunosuppression treatment., Discussion: Our study supports the use of ELA assay as an alternative to traditional serology or blood PCR to assess the efficacy of antichagasic drugs during their preclinical phase of development. Further, the combination of high sensitivity and ease of use make this parasite antigen detection assay an attractive new tool to facilitate the development of much needed new therapies for CD., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 de Araujo, Nagarkatti, Mazzeti, Gonçalves, Figueiredo Diniz, Campos do Vale, Martins-Filho, Debrabant, Bahia and Teixeira-Carvalho.)

Soybean-maize are cultivated in different management systems, such as no-tillage and pastures, which presents potential to add organic residues, and it can potentially impacts the soil microbial community present in these systems. Thus, this study aimed to examine the effects of different soybean-maize management practices on the diversity and composition of soil microbial communities. Specifically, 16 S rRNA amplicon sequencing was used to investigate whether the use of pasture species in a fallowing system influences microbial communities in a soybean-maize rotation system, as compared to conventional tillage and no-tillage systems. The results indicate that the inclusion of the pasture species Urochloa brizantha in soybean-maize management systems leads to distinct responses within the soil microbial community. It was found that different soybean-maize management systems, particularly those with U. brizantha, affected the microbial community, likely due to the management applied to this pasture species. The system with 3 years of fallowing before soybean-maize showed the lowest microbial richness (∼2000 operational taxonomic units) and diversity index (∼6.0). Proteobacteria (∼30%), Acidobacteria (∼15%), and Verrucomicrobia (∼10%) were found to be the most abundant phyla in the soil under tropical native vegetation, while soils under cropland had an increased abundance of Firmicutes (∼30% to ∼50%) and Actinobacteria (∼30% to ∼35%). To summarize, this study identified the impacts of various soybean-maize management practices on the soil microbial community and emphasized the advantages of adding U. brizantha as a fallow species., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a chronic infection caused by Leishmania ( L .) donovani or L. infantum parasites. Despite having the infection, most individuals never develop the clinical disease and are able to control the parasite and remain asymptomatic. However, some progress to symptomatic VL, leading to death if untreated. The host immune response has a major role in determining the progression and severity of the clinical manifestations in VL; several immune biomarkers of symptomatic VL have been described with interferon-gamma release as a surrogate biomarker of host cellular immunity. However, new biomarkers to identify asymptomatic VL (AVL) are needed for the identification of people at risk for VL activation. In our study, levels of chemokine/cytokine in the supernatants of peripheral mononuclear blood cells (PBMC) from 35 AVL + Iraq-deployed participants, stimulated in vitro with soluble Leishmania antigen for 72 h, were assessed by a bead-based assay that allows the measurement of multiple analytes. PBMC of AVL-negative military beneficiaries were used as controls. Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1, Monokine Induced by Gamma Interferon and Interleukin-8, were detected at high levels in AVL + stimulated cultures from Iraq deployers compared to uninfected controls. Measurement of chemokine/cytokine levels can identify cellular immune responses in AVL + asymptomatic individuals.

Chromium (Cr) contamination can affect microorganisms in the soil, but the response of the microbial community in the rhizosphere of plants grown in Cr-contaminated soils is poorly understood. Therefore, this study assessed the microbial community, by amplicon sequencing, in the rhizosphere of maize and cowpea growing in uncontaminated (∼6.0 mg kg -1 Cr) and Cr-contaminated soils (∼250 mg kg -1 Cr). Comparing Cr-contaminated and uncontaminated soils, the microbial community in the maize rhizosphere clustered separately, while the microbial community in the cowpea rhizosphere did not present clear clustering. The microbial richness ranged from ∼5000 (rhizosphere in Cr-contaminated soil) to ∼8000 OTUs (in uncontaminated soil). In the comparison of specific bacterial groups in the rhizosphere of maize, Firmicutes were enriched in Cr-contaminated soil, including Bacilli, Bacillales, and Paenibacillus. Cowpea rhizosphere showed a higher abundance of six microbial groups in Cr-contaminated soil, highlighting Rhizobiales, Pedomicrobium, and Gemmatimonadetes. The microbial community in both rhizospheres presented a similar proportion of specialists comparing uncontaminated (2.2 and 3.4% in the rhizosphere of maize and cowpea, respectively) and Cr-contaminated soils (1.8 and 3.2% in the rhizosphere of maize and cowpea, respectively). This study showed that each plant species drove differently the microbial community in the rhizosphere, with an important effect of Cr-contamination on the microbial community assembly., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Meniscal root tears represent radial tears or avulsions of the meniscal cartilage at the tibial attachment site that profoundly affect meniscal biomechanics and kinematics. Meniscal root tears have the functional effect of a total meniscectomy and can lead to rapid degenerative change with development of early knee osteoarthritis (OA). A growing range of arthroscopic surgical techniques have been developed to repair meniscal root tears with the aim of restoring joint kinematics and contact pressures and delaying the development of OA. With increased understanding of the anatomy and biomechanics of the meniscal root, meniscal root injury repair has become the treatment of choice in knees with nonadvanced OA. This article reviews the anatomy and biomechanics of the meniscal roots, clinical and imaging diagnostic criteria of meniscal root tears, correlation between arthroscopy and MRI in the diagnosis and classification of meniscal root tears, and expected and abnormal MRI findings after meniscal root repair. Familiarity with MRI signs and classifications of meniscal root tears, as well as with root repair surgical techniques, can aid radiologists in correctly reporting preoperative and postoperative MRI findings.