New pest management solutions are needed to control soil invertebrates (insects, nematodes, mollusks) in order to implement the goals of the European Green Deal. Natural volatile organic compounds ...(VOCs) such as 1-octen-3-ol and 3-octanone, emitted by the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium brunneum could be part of the solution. Three major crop pests, Agriotes lineatus (wireworm), Diabrotica virgifera virgifera (corn rootworm) and Phyllopertha horticola (garden chafer), were susceptible to fumigation with 1-octen-3-ol and 3-octanone. The toxicity of the VOCs was tested in soil-free arenas and in soils which differed in moisture content and porosity. The mortality rates were dependent on the interaction between the VOC treatment, dose and pest species. The insects differed in their sensitivity to these VOCs. A dose of 1.25 µl of 1-octen-3-ol applied in a closed glass tube was sufficient to kill D. v. virgifera and P. horticola in soil trials whereas 5 µl was needed to kill A. lineatus. The highest dose (20 µl) was highly toxic to all insects. Soil moisture content slightly influenced mortality rates whereas porosity had no obvious impact. The mode of action of the VOCs is unknown but the compounds are likely to cause tissue damage and loss of body fluids. This may explain the shrivelled appearance of corn rootworm and garden chafer and melanisation in wireworm. Both 1-octen-3-ol and 3-octanone show promise as biofumigants.
The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) 1-octen-3-ol and 3-octanone produced by the entomopathogenic fungus
Metarhizium brunneum
are known to have pesticidal properties at high doses against a range of ...invertebrate pests. Very little is known about their behavior-modifying (semiochemical) properties. This study focused on investigating the behavioral responses of three subterranean crop pests, wireworm (
Agriotes lineatus
)
,
western corn rootworm (
Diabrotica virgifera virgifera
), and garden chafer (
Phyllopertha horticola
), to relatively low doses of 1-octen-3-ol and 3-octanone. The behavior of wireworms and corn rootworms were slightly influenced by the VOCs, yet not significantly. Western corn rootworms appeared to be slightly attracted by 100 µl and 200 µl 1-octen-3-ol and 100 µl dose of 3-octanone, respectively but slightly repelled by the higher dose of 3-octanone. Wireworms appeared to be slightly repelled by 1-octen-3-ol and high dose 3-octanone, but slightly attracted by the 100 µl dose of 3-octanone. The VOCs had no significant impact on garden chafer. In silico studies showed that corn rootworm odorant binding proteins (OBPs) had a strong binding affinity of 1-octen-3-ol and high dose 3-octanone, indicating that these VOCs can be detected and recognized by corn rootworm. OBPs are well conserved between species; thus, wireworm and garden chafer OBPs should also be able to bind with the VOCs. Further trials will be done to confirm that VOCs could be used as semiochemicals. Appropriate formulation of the VOCs should increase their efficacy and prevent rapid dissipation of the VOCs.
Soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) represent a heterogeneous group of rare tumors including more than 70 different histological subtypes. High throughput molecular analysis (next generation sequencing exome ...NGS) is a unique opportunity to identify driver mutations that can change the usual one-size-fits-all treatment paradigm to a patient-driven therapeutic strategy. The primary objective of the MULTISARC trial is to assess whether NGS can be conducted for a large proportion of metastatic STS participants within a reasonable time, and, secondarily to determine whether a NGS-guided therapeutic strategy improves participant's outcome.
This is a randomized, multicentre, phase II/III trial inspired by the design of umbrella and biomarker-driven trials. The setting plans up to 17 investigational centres across France and the recruitment of 960 participants. Participants aged at least 18 years, with unresectable locally advanced and/or metastatic STS confirmed by the French sarcoma pathological reference network, are randomized according to 1:1 allocation ratio between the experimental arm "NGS" and the standard "No NGS". NGS will be considered feasible if (i) NGS results are available and interpretable, and (ii) a report of exome sequencing including a clinical recommendation from a multidisciplinary tumor board is provided to investigators within 7 weeks from reception of the samples on the biopathological platform. A feasibility rate of more than 70% is expected (null hypothesis: 70% versus alternative hypothesis: 80%). In terms of care, participants randomized in "No NGS" arm and who fail treatment will be able to switch to the NGS arm at the request of the investigator.
The MULTISARC trial is a prospective study designed to provide high-level evidence to support the implementation of NGS in routine clinical practice for advanced STS participants, on a large scale.
clinicaltrial.gov NCT03784014 .
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•We propose a new concept of healing catalyst film made of passivating additives and high catalytic activity building blocks.•Defects passivation is achieved by strong adsorption of ...Mo (oxo)- thio monomers on the defects of the photoactive substrate.•Catalytic activity arises from polynuclear Mo oxo-thio complexes included in the Mo oxo thio complexes distribution.•H2 generation with photocurrents up to 2 nmA cm-2 are achieved on 2D WSe2 photocathodes using this healing catalyst film.
2D semiconducting nanosheets of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides are attractive materials for solar energy conversion because of their unique absorption properties. Here, we show that Mo thio- and oxo-thio-complexes anchored on 2D p-WSe2 nanosheets considerably boost water splitting under visible light irradiation with photocurrent density up to 2.0 mA cm−2 at -0.2 V/NHE. Besides developing high electro-catalytic activity, the Mo-complexes film is also shown to be capable of healing surface defects. We propose that the observed healing of surface defects arises from the strong adsorption on point defects of the 2D WSe2 substrate of Mo complexes such as (MoS4)2-, (MoOS3)2-, (Mo2S6O2)2- as supported by DFT calculations. In addition, the thio-, oxo-thio Mo complexes films are shown to enhance charge carrier separation and migration favouring the hydrogen evolution reaction, putting forward the use of thio-, oxo-thio-Mo complexes as a multicomponent passivation layer exhibiting multiple properties.
Cartilage is a non-innervated and non-vascularized tissue. It is composed of one main cell type, the chondrocyte, which governs homeostasis within the cartilage tissue, but has low metabolic ...activity. Articular cartilage undergoes substantial stresses that lead to chondral defects, and inevitably osteoarthritis (OA) due to the low intrinsic repair capacity of cartilage. OA remains an incurable degenerative disease. In this context, several dietary supplements have shown promising results, notably in the relief of OA symptoms. In this study, we investigated the effects of collagen hydrolysates derived from fish skin (Promerim
30 and Promerim
60) and fish cartilage (Promerim
40) on the phenotype and metabolism of human articular chondrocytes (HACs). First, we demonstrated the safety of Promerim
hydrolysates on HACs cultured in monolayers. Then we showed that, Promerim
hydrolysates can increase the HAC viability and proliferation, while decreasing HAC SA-β-galactosidase activity. To evaluate the effect of Promerim
on a more relevant model of culture, HAC were cultured as organoids in the presence of Promerim
hydrolysates with or without IL-1β to mimic an OA environment. In such conditions, Promerim
hydrolysates led to a decrease in the transcript levels of some proteases that play a major role in the development of OA, such as Htra1 and metalloproteinase-1. Promerim
hydrolysates downregulated HtrA1 protein expression. In contrast, the treatment of cartilage organoids with Promerim
hydrolysates increased the neosynthesis of type I collagen (Promerim
30, 40 and 60) and type II collagen isoforms (Promerim
30 and 40), the latter being the major characteristic component of the cartilage extracellular matrix. Altogether, our results demonstrate that the use of Promerim
hydrolysates hold promise as complementary dietary supplements in combination with the current classical treatments or as a preventive therapy to delay the occurrence of OA in humans.
Abstract
Variant interpretation is the key issue in molecular diagnosis. Spliceogenic variants exemplify this issue as each nucleotide variant can be deleterious via disruption or creation of splice ...site consensus sequences. Consequently, reliable in silico prediction of variant spliceogenicity would be a major improvement. Thanks to an international effort, a set of 395 variants studied at the mRNA level and occurring in 5′ and 3′ consensus regions (defined as the 11 and 14 bases surrounding the exon/intron junction, respectively) was collected for 11 different genes, including BRCA1, BRCA2, CFTR and RHD, and used to train and validate a new prediction protocol named Splicing Prediction in Consensus Elements (SPiCE). SPiCE combines in silico predictions from SpliceSiteFinder-like and MaxEntScan and uses logistic regression to define optimal decision thresholds. It revealed an unprecedented sensitivity and specificity of 99.5 and 95.2%, respectively, and the impact on splicing was correctly predicted for 98.8% of variants. We therefore propose SPiCE as the new tool for predicting variant spliceogenicity. It could be easily implemented in any diagnostic laboratory as a routine decision making tool to help geneticists to face the deluge of variants in the next-generation sequencing era. SPiCE is accessible at (https://sourceforge.net/projects/spicev2-1/).
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