Papers by Christian Rodrigues
PLOS One, 2011
Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) play a major role in anti-viral immunity by virtue of their a... more Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) play a major role in anti-viral immunity by virtue of their ability to produce high amounts of type I interferons (IFNs) and a variety of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in response to viral infections. Since recent studies have established that pDCs accumulate at the site of virus entry in the mucosa, here we analyzed whether epithelial cells were able to modulate the function of pDCs. We found that the epithelial cell lines HT-29 and Caco-2, as well as a primary culture of human renal tubular epithelial cells (HRTEC), induced the phenotypic maturation of pDCs stimulating the production of inflammatory cytokines. By contrast, epithelial cells did not induce any change in the phenotype of conventional or myeloid DCs (cDCs) while significantly stimulated the production of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. Activation of pDCs by epithelial cells was prevented by Bafilomycin A1, an inhibitor of endosomal acidification as well as by the addition of RNase to the culture medium, suggesting the participation of endosomal TLRs. Interestingly, the cross-talk between both cell populations was shown to be associated to an increased expression of TLR7 and TLR9 by pDCs and the production of LL37 by epithelial cells, an antimicrobial peptide able to bind and transport extracellular nucleic acids into the endosomal compartments. Interestingly, epithelium-activated pDCs impaired the establishment of a productive HIV infection in two susceptible target cells through the stimulation of the production of type I IFNs, highlighting the anti-viral efficiency of this novel activation pathway.
Journal of Experimental Medicine, 2009
the phenotypic maturation of DCs and the production of IL-10 but not IL-12p70. At low values of e... more the phenotypic maturation of DCs and the production of IL-10 but not IL-12p70. At low values of extracellular pH ( ف 6.5 pH units), similar to those found in the vaginal mucosa after sexual intercourse, the binding of HIV-1 to the spermatozoa and the consequent transmission of HIV-1 to DCs were strongly enhanced. Our observations support the notion that far from being a passive carrier, spermatozoa acting in concert with DCs might affect the early course of sexual transmission of HIV-1 infection.
The role of semen in sexual transmission of HIV: beyond a carrier for virus particles
Microbes and Infection, 2011
Unprotected sexual intercourse between discordant couples is by far the most frequent mode of HIV... more Unprotected sexual intercourse between discordant couples is by far the most frequent mode of HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus type 1) transmission being semen the main vector for HIV-1 dissemination worldwide. Semen is usually considered merely as a vehicle for HIV-1 transmission. In this review we discuss recent observations suggesting that beyond being a carrier for virus particles semen markedly influences the early events involved in sexual transmission of HIV through the mucosal barriers.
Journal of Cell Biology, 2009
the phenotypic maturation of DCs and the production of IL-10 but not IL-12p70. At low values of e... more the phenotypic maturation of DCs and the production of IL-10 but not IL-12p70. At low values of extracellular pH ( ف 6.5 pH units), similar to those found in the vaginal mucosa after sexual intercourse, the binding of HIV-1 to the spermatozoa and the consequent transmission of HIV-1 to DCs were strongly enhanced. Our observations support the notion that far from being a passive carrier, spermatozoa acting in concert with DCs might affect the early course of sexual transmission of HIV-1 infection.
We discuss the dependence of set-valued dynamical systems on parameters. Under mild assumptions w... more We discuss the dependence of set-valued dynamical systems on parameters. Under mild assumptions which are often satisfied for random dynamical systems with bounded noise and control systems, we establish the fact that topological bifurcations of minimal invariant sets are discontinuous with respect to the Hausdorff metric, taking the form of lower semi-continuous explosions and instantaneous appearances. We also characterise these transitions by properties of Morse-like decompositions.
Physical Review E, 2009
The topological structure of basin boundaries plays a fundamental role in the sensitivity to the ... more The topological structure of basin boundaries plays a fundamental role in the sensitivity to the final state in chaotic dynamical systems. Herewith we present a study on the dynamics of dissipative systems close to the Hamiltonian limit, emphasising the increasing number of periodic attractors, and on the structural changes in their basin boundaries as the dissipation approaches zero. We show numerically that a power law with nontrivial exponent describes the growth of the total number of periodic attractors as the damping is decreased. We also establish that for small scales the dynamics is governed by effective dynamical invariants, whose measure depends not only on the region of the phase space, but also on the scale under consideration. Therefore, our results show that the concept of effective invariants is also relevant for dissipative systems. PACS numbers: 05.45.Ac 61.43.Hv I.
Physical Review E, 2010
A great number of physical processes are described within the context of Hamiltonian scattering. ... more A great number of physical processes are described within the context of Hamiltonian scattering. Previous studies have rather been focused on trajectories starting outside invariant structures, since the ones starting inside are expected to stay trapped there forever. This is true though only for the deterministic case. We show however that, under finitely small random fluctuations of the field, trajectories starting inside Arnold-Kolmogorov-Moser (KAM) islands escape within finite time. The non-hyperbolic dynamics gains then hyperbolic characteristics due to the effect of the random perturbed field. As a consequence, trajectories which are started inside KAM curves escape with hyperbolic-like time decay distribution, and the fractal dimension of a set of particles that remain in the scattering region approaches that for hyperbolic systems. We show a universal quadratic power law relating the exponential decay to the amplitude of noise. We present a random walk model to relate this distribution to the amplitude of noise, and investigate this phenomena with a numerical study applying random maps.
Physical Review E, 2010
The dynamics of escape from an attractive state due to random perturbations is of central interes... more The dynamics of escape from an attractive state due to random perturbations is of central interest to many areas in science. Previous studies of escape in chaotic systems have rather focused on the case of unbounded noise, usually assumed to have Gaussian distribution. In this paper, we address the problem of escape induced by bounded noise. We show that the dynamics of escape from an attractor's basin is equivalent to that of a closed system with an appropriately chosen "hole". Using this equivalence, we show that there is a minimum noise amplitude above which escape takes place, and we derive analytical expressions for the scaling of the escape rate with noise amplitude near the escape transition. We verify our analytical predictions through numerical simulations of two well known 2-dimensional maps with noise.
Physical Review E, 2010
A great number of physical processes are described within the context of Hamiltonian scattering. ... more A great number of physical processes are described within the context of Hamiltonian scattering. Previous studies have rather been focused on trajectories starting outside invariant structures, since the ones starting inside are expected to stay trapped there forever. This is true though only for the deterministic case. We show however that, under finitely small random fluctuations of the field, trajectories starting inside Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) islands escape within finite time. The nonhyperbolic dynamics gains then hyperbolic characteristics due to the effect of the random perturbed field. As a consequence, trajectories which are started inside KAM curves escape with hyperboliclike time decay distribution, and the fractal dimension of a set of particles that remain in the scattering region approaches that for hyperbolic systems. We show a universal quadratic power law relating the exponential decay to the amplitude of noise. We present a random walk model to relate this distribution to the amplitude of noise, and investigate these phenomena with a numerical study applying random maps.
Physical Review E, 2010
The dynamics of escape from an attractive state due to random perturbations is of central interes... more The dynamics of escape from an attractive state due to random perturbations is of central interest to many areas in science. Previous studies of escape in chaotic systems have rather focused on the case of unbounded noise, usually assumed to have Gaussian distribution. In this paper, we address the problem of escape induced by bounded noise. We show that the dynamics of escape from an attractor’s basin is equivalent to that of a closed system with an appropriately chosen “hole.” Using this equivalence, we show that there is a minimum noise amplitude above which escape takes place, and we derive analytical expressions for the scaling of the escape rate with noise amplitude near the escape transition. We verify our analytical predictions through numerical simulations of two well-known two-dimensional maps with noise.
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Papers by Christian Rodrigues