Restricted Application of Insecticides: A Promising Tsetse Control Technique,but What Do the Farmers Think of It?

Background

Restricted application of insecticides to cattle is a cheap and safe farmer-based method to control tsetse. In Western Africa, it is applied using a footbath, mainly to control nagana and the tick Amblyomma variegatum. In Eastern and Southern Africa, it might help controlling the human disease, i.e., Rhodesian sleeping sickness as well. The efficiency of this new control method against ticks, tsetse and trypanosomoses has been demonstrated earlier. The invention, co-built by researchers and farmers ten years ago, became an innovation in Burkina Faso through its diffusion by two development projects.

Methodology/Principal Findings

In this research, we studied the process and level of adoption in 72 farmers inhabiting the peri-urban areas of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. Variables describing the livestock farming system, the implementation and perception of the method and the knowledge of the epidemiological system were used to discriminate three clusters of cattle farmers that were then compared using indicators of adoption. The first cluster corresponded to modern farmers who adopted the technique very well. The more traditional farmers were discriminated into two clusters, one of which showed a good adoption rate, whereas the second failed to adopt the method. The economic benefit and the farmers'' knowledge of the epidemiological system appeared to have a low impact on the early adoption process whereas some modern practices, as well as social factors appeared critical. The quality of technical support provided to the farmers had also a great influence. Cattle farmers'' innovation-risk appraisal was analyzed using Rogers'' adoption criteria which highlighted individual variations in risk perceptions and benefits, as well as the prominent role of the socio-technical network of cattle farmers.

Conclusions/Significance

Results are discussed to highlight the factors that should be taken into consideration, to move discoveries from bench to field for an improved control of trypanosomoses vectors.     

Ice shaping properties, similar to that of antifreeze proteins, of a zirconium acetate complex

The control of the growth morphologies of ice crystals is a critical issue in fields as diverse as biomineralization, medicine, biology, civil or food engineering. Such control can be achieved through the ice-shaping properties of specific compounds. The development of synthetic ice-shaping compounds is inspired by the natural occurrence of such properties exhibited by antifreeze proteins. We reveal how a particular zirconium acetate complex is exhibiting ice-shaping properties very similar to that of antifreeze proteins, albeit being a radically different compound. We use these properties as a bioinspired approach to template unique faceted pores in cellular materials. These results suggest that ice-structuring properties are not exclusive to long organic molecules and should broaden the field of investigations and applications of such substances.     

Disruption of the langerin/CD207 gene abolishes Birbeck granules without a marked loss of Langerhans cell function

Langerin is a C-type lectin expressed by a subset of dendritic leukocytes, the Langerhans cells (LC). Langerin is a cell surface receptor that induces the formation of an LC-specific organelle, the Birbeck granule (BG). We generated a langerin(-/-) mouse on a C57BL/6 background which did not display any macroscopic aberrant development. In the absence of langerin, LC were detected in normal numbers in the epidermis but the cells lacked BG. LC of langerin(-/-) mice did not present other phenotypic alterations compared to wild-type littermates. Functionally, the langerin(-/-) LC were able to capture antigen, to migrate towards skin draining lymph nodes, and to undergo phenotypic maturation. In addition, langerin(-/-) mice were not impaired in their capacity to process native OVA protein for I-A(b)-restricted presentation to CD4(+) T lymphocytes or for H-2K(b)-restricted cross-presentation to CD8(+) T lymphocytes. langerin(-/-) mice inoculated with mannosylated or skin-tropic microorganisms did not display an altered pathogen susceptibility. Finally, chemical mutagenesis resulted in a similar rate of skin tumor development in langerin(-/-) and wild-type mice. Overall, our data indicate that langerin and BG are dispensable for a number of LC functions. The langerin(-/-) C57BL/6 mouse should be a valuable model for further functional exploration of langerin and the role of BG.     

Modulation of serotonergic receptor signaling and cross-talk by prion protein

The inducible serotonergic 1C115-HT cell line expresses a defined set of serotonergic receptors of the 5-HT2B, 5-HT1B/D, and 5-HT2A subtypes, which sustain a regulation of serotonergic associated functions through G-protein-dependent signaling. 1C115-HT cells have been instrumental to assign a signaling function to the cellular prion protein PrPC. Here, we establish that antibody-mediated ligation of PrPC concomitant to agonist stimulation of 5-HT receptors modulates the couplings of all three serotonergic receptors present on 1C115-HT cells. Specific impacts of PrP antibodies were monitored depending on the receptor and pathway considered. PrPC ligation selectively cancels the 5-HT2A-PLC response, decreases the 5-HT1B/D negative coupling to adenylate cyclase, and potentiates the 5-HT2B-PLA2 coupling. As a result, PrPC ligation disturbs the functional interactions occurring between the signaling pathways of the three receptor subtypes. In 1C115-HT cells, antagonizing cross-talks arising from 5-HT2B and 5-HT2A receptors control the 5-HT1B/D function. PrPC ligation reinforces the negative regulation exerted by 5-HT2B on 5-HT1B/D receptors. On the other hand it abrogates the blocking action of 5-HT2A on the regulatory loop linking 5-HT1B/D receptors. We propose that the ligation of PrPC affects the potency or dynamics of G-protein activation by agonist-bound serotonergic receptors. Finally, the PrPC-dependent modulation of 5-HT receptor couplings is restricted to 1C115-HT cells expressing a complete serotonergic phenotype. It critically involves a PrPC-caveolin platform implemented on the neurites of 1C115-HT cells during differentiation. Our findings define PrPC as a modulator of 5-HT receptor coupling to G-proteins and thereby as a protagonist contributing to the homeostasis of serotonergic neurons. They provide a foundation for uncovering the impact of prion infection on serotonergic functions.     

Regulation of the amyloid precursor protein ectodomain shedding by the 5-HT4 receptor and Epac

The serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT4) receptor is of potential interest for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease because it increases memory and learning. In this study, we investigated the effect of zinc metalloprotease inhibitors on the amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing induced by the serotonin 5-HT4 receptor in vitro. We show that secretion of the non-amyloidogenic form of APP, sAPPalpha induced by the 5-HT4(e) receptor isoform was not due to a general boost of the constitutive secretory pathway but rather to its specific effect on alpha-secretase activity. Although the h5-HT4(e) receptor increased IP3 production, inhibition of PKC did not modify its effect on sAPPalpha secretion. In addition, we found that alpha secretase activity is regulated by the cAMP-regulated guanine nucleotide exchange factor, Epac and the small GTPase Rac.     

D1S80 single-locus discrimination among African populations

The highly polymorphic D1S80 locus has no known genetic function. However, this variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) locus has been highly valuable in forensic identification. In this study we report the allele and genotype frequencies of five African populations (Benin, Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, and Rwanda), which can be used as databases to help characterize populations and identify individuals. The allele frequencies were used to infer genetic associations through phylogenetic, principal component, and G test statistical analyses. Compliance with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium expectations was determined as were F(ST) estimates, theta p values, and power of discrimination assessment for each population. Our analyses of 28 additional populations demonstrate that the D1S80 locus alone can be used to discriminate geographic and ethnic groups. We have generated databases useful for human identification and phylogenetic studies.     

Application of formal methods to biological regulatory networks: extending Thomas' asynchronous logical approach with temporal logic

Based on the discrete definition of biological regulatory networks developed by René Thomas, we provide a computer science formal approach to treat temporal properties of biological regulatory networks, expressed in computational tree logic. It is then possible to build all the models satisfying a set of given temporal properties. Our approach is illustrated with the mucus production in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This application of formal methods from computer science to biological regulatory networks should open the way to many other fruitful applications.     

Potential automata. Application to the genetic code III

In previous notes, we have described both mathematical properties of potential (n-switches) and potential-Hamiltonian (Liénard systems) continuous differential systems, and also biological applications, especially those concerning primitive cyclic RNAs related to the genetic code. In the present note, we give a general definition of a potential automaton, and we show that a discrete Hopfield-like system already introduced by Goles et al. is a good candidate for such a potential automaton: it has a Lyapunov functional that decreases on its trajectories and whose time derivative is just its discrete velocity. Then we apply this new notion of potential automaton to the genetic code. We show in particular that the consideration of only physicochemical properties of amino-acids, like their molecular weight, hydrophobicity and ability to create hydrogen bonds suffices to build a potential decreasing on trajectories corresponding to the synonymy classes of the genetic code. Such an 'a minima' construction reinforces the classical stereochemical hypothesis about the origin of the genetic code and authorizes new views about the optimality of its synonymy classes.     

Classification of DNA methylation patterns in tumor cell genomes using a CpG island microarray

Our group has initiated experiments to epigenetically profile CpG island hypermethylation in genomic DNA from tissue specimens of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) using a microarray of 12,288 CpG island clones. Our technique, known as a methylation-specific restriction enzyme (MSRE) analysis, is a variation of the differential methylation hybridization (DMH) technique, in that it is not an array comparison of two DNA samples using methylation-specific restriction enzymes. Instead, it is a comparison of a single DNA sample's response to a methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme (HpaII) and its corresponding methylation-insensitive isoschizomer (MspI). Estimation of the reproducibility of this microarray assay by intraclass correlation (ICC) demonstrated that in four replicate experiments for three tumor specimens, the ICC observed for a given tumor specimen ranged from 0.68 to 0.85 without filtering of data. Repeated assays achieved 87% concordance or greater for all tumors after filtering of array data by fluorescence intensity. We utilized hierarchical clustering on a population of 37 HNSCC samples to cluster tumor samples with similar DNA methylation profiles. Supervised learning techniques are now being utilized to allow us to identify associations between specific epigenetic signatures and clinical parameters. Such techniques will allow us to identify select groups of CpG island loci that could be used as epigenetic markers for both diagnosis and prognosis in HNSCC.