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Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a highly prevalent human herpesvirus that persists for life in more than 95% of the adult population. EBV usually establishes an asymptomatic life-long infection, but it is also associated with malignancies affecting B lymphocytes and epithelial cells mainly. The virus alternates between a latent phase and a lytic phase, both of which contribute to the initiation of the tumor process. So far, there is only a limited number of antiviral molecules against the lytic phase, most of them targeting viral replication. Recent studies provided evidence that EBV uses components of the NLRP3 inflammasome to enter the productive phase of its cycle following activation in response to various stimuli. In the present work, we demonstrate that shikonin, a natural molecule with low toxicity which is known to inhibit inflammasome, can efficiently repress EBV reactivation. Similar results were obtained with apigenin and OLT 1177, two other NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors. It is shown herein that shikonin repressed the transcription of reactivation-induced NLRP3 thereby inhibiting inflammasome activation and EBV lytic phase induction., 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 © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) concentration in serum or plasma has been proposed as an important biological marker in various inflammation-related pathologies. We previously showed that low titer autoantibodies against HMGB1 could emerge during the course of sepsis. Importantly their presence was positively related with patients' survival. In this study, we focused on plasma samples from 2 patients who survived sepsis and exhibited high titer antibodies to HMGB1. These antibodies were proved to be specific for HMGB1 since they did not bind to HMGB2 or to human serum albumin. Following IgG purification, it has shown that both patients secreted HMGB1-hydrolyzing autoantibodies in vitro. These findings suggested that proteolytic antibodies directed against HMGB1 can be produced in patients surviving septic shock., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a widely distributed gamma-herpesvirus that has been associated with various cancers mainly from lymphocytic and epithelial origin. Although EBV-mediated oncogenesis has been associated with viral oncogenes expressed during latency, a growing set of evidence suggested that antiviral treatments directed against EBV lytic phase may contribute to prevent some forms of cancers, including EBV-positive Post-Transplant Lymphoproliferative Diseases. It is shown here that dipyridamole (DIP), a safe drug with favorable and broad pharmacological properties, inhibits EBV reactivation from B-cell lines. DIP repressed immediate early and early genes expression mostly through its ability to inhibit nucleoside uptake. Considering its wide clinical use, DIP repurposing could shortly be evaluated, alone or in combination with other antivirals, to treat EBV-related diseases where lytic replication plays a deleterious role., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

During their lifecycle, bacteria are exposed to continuous changes in their environment, some of which are stressful and can be harmful. The cell envelope is the first line of defense against a hostile environment, but it is also the first target for damage. To deal with this problem, bacteria have evolved systems collectively called "envelope stress response," or ESR, dedicated to the detection and repair of damaged components. Here we decided to investigate whether the atypical two-component system ZraP-SR is a novel ESR. Based on the screening of more than 240 drugs using the Biolog technology, we show that the deletion of zraP or zraR confers increased susceptibility to five classes of antibiotics and to some environmental stress targeting the envelope. Using a microscopy approach, we also establish that ZraP and ZraR are required to maintain envelope integrity. So far, the ZraR regulator was only known to activate the transcription of zraP and zraSR. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing and RT-qPCR, we have now identified 25 additional genes regulated by ZraR, the majority of which are involved in the response against stress. Taken together, our results demonstrate that ZraP-SR is a novel ESR., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

60 consecutive patients (mean age: 80,7 yrs; s.d.: 6,1 yrs; range 70-94 yrs) referred to a geriatric medicine department with syncope or dizziness were proposectively compared with 40 age and sex matched controls. A battery of non-invasive investigations including tilt-test, glycemia, 12 lead ecg., eeg, 24 hour ambulatory ecg recording,. M--mode echocardiogram and cervical Doppler velocimetry was applied blindly to patients and controls. The proportion of abnormalities was similar in both groups having sick sinus syndrom or complete atrio-ventricular block versus no control (p less than 0.05). By contrast history-case was of great predictive value: 6 of 13 patients reporting abrupt syncope had a 24 ecg recording showing sick sinus syndrom or complete atrio ventricular block, versus 2 of 47 other patients (p less than 0,01); 11 of 14 patients reporting orhostatic dizziness or syncope had a tilt-test consistent with orthostactic hypotension versus 6 of 46 other patients (p less than 0,01).