Apart from their role in cellular immunity via phagocytosis and encapsulation, Drosophila hemocytes release soluble factors such as antimicrobial peptides, and cytokines to induce humoral responses. In addition, they participate in coagulation and wounding, and in development. To assess their role during infection with entomopathogenic nematodes, we depleted plasmatocytes and crystal cells, the two classes of hemocytes present in naïve larvae by expressing proapoptotic proteins in order to produce hemocyte-free (Hml-apo, originally called Hemoless) larvae. Surprisingly, we found that Hml-apo larvae are still resistant to nematode infections. When further elucidating the immune status of Hml-apo larvae, we observe a shift in immune effector pathways including massive lamellocyte differentiation and induction of Toll- as well as repression of imd signaling. This leads to a pro-inflammatory state, characterized by the appearance of melanotic nodules in the hemolymph and to strong developmental defects including pupal lethality and leg defects in escapers. Further analysis suggests that most of the phenotypes we observe in Hml-apo larvae are alleviated by administration of antibiotics and by changing the food source indicating that they are mediated through the microbiota. Biochemical evidence identifies nitric oxide as a key phylogenetically conserved regulator in this process. Finally we show that the nitric oxide donor L-arginine similarly modifies the response against an early stage of tumor development in fly larvae.

Highlights d Drosophila neuroblast selection is an EMT-like process, gated by the Notch pathway d SoxB and Snail family members constitute missing proneural genes d The Notch and EMT pathways intersect via the EMT gene crumbs d The Notch-SoxB-Snail-EMT pathway orchestrates neuroblast selection and delamination

In the developing Drosophila central nervous system neural progenitor (neuroblast; NB) selection is gated by lateral inhibition, controlled by Notch signalling and proneural genes. However, proneural mutants only display partial NB reduction, indicating the existence of additional genes with proneural activity. In addition, recent studies reveal involvement of key epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) genes in NB selection, but the regulatory interplay between Notch signalling and the EMT machinery is unclear. We find that the SoxB gene SoxNeuro and the Snail gene worniou are integrated with the Notch pathway, and constitute the missing proneural genes. Notch signalling, the proneural, SoxNeuro, and worniou genes regulate key EMT genes to orchestrate the NB specification process. Hence, we uncover an expanded lateral inhibition network for NB specification, and demonstrate its link to key players in the EMT machinery. Because of the evolutionary conservation of the genes involved, the Notch-SoxB-Snail-EMT network may control neural progenitor selection in many other systems.

Introduction: Hypertension (HTN) is one of the most common diseases of the cardiovascular system. It is an increasingly important medical and public health problem. Hypertension is regarded as an indicator for erectile dysfunction. That is why problems with erectile function are an important concern in the treatment of hypertension. Objective: To investigate the frequency and severity of erectile dysfunction among hypertensive and normotensive married men attending a tertiary care hospital of Bangladesh. Material & Methods: It was a cross sectional comparative study. The study was done at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College, Bogura, Bangladesh in the department of Medicine from July 2019 to January 2021. A total of 150 patients were selected as a study population. Purposive sampling was applied to collect the sample as per inclusion and exclusion criteria. The participants who were excluded from the study declined to give their consent, didn’t complete the questionnaire and there was difficulties in fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria. After collecting the data, it was checked and rechecked for omission, inconsistencies and improbabilities. Data analysis was performed by Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), version-22. Results: Analysis was done with the data of 150 cases. Out of the total 150 cases 75 were hypertensive and 75 were normotensive. The respondents were further sub grouped into an age matched manner. The predominant respondent age group was 40 to 49 years which included 42 in normotensive group and 42 in hypertensive group. The age range of the normotensive was 33-55 years in the study population and the mean age of them was (42.65 ± 5.53) years. On spot measurement of blood pressure 26 patients were found in an uncontrolled state of BP. Fifteen (15) subjects was in grade I and 11 subjects were in grade II. Among them 53.3% of grade 1 had ED and 90.9% with grade II suffered from ED. None was found in the range of grade III or ....