Induced plant volatiles allow sensitive monitoring of plant health status in greenhouses

A novel approach to support the inspection of greenhouse crops is based on the measurement of volatile organic compounds emitted by unhealthy plants.This approach has attracted some serious interest over the last decade. In pursuit of this interest, we performed several experiments at the laboratory-scale to pinpoint marker volatiles that can be used to indicate certain health problems. In addition to these laboratory experiments, pilot and model studies were performed in order to verify the validity of these marker volatiles under real-world conditions. This paper provides an overview of results and gives an outlook on the use of plant volatiles for plant health monitoring.Key words: plant health, volatiles, plant pathogens, plant infection     

Effect of man-made electromagnetic fields on common <i>Brassicaceae Lepidium sativum</i> (cress d’Alinois) seed germination: a preliminary replication study

Under high levels of radiation (70-100 µW/m2 =175 mV/m), seeds of Brassicaceae Lepidium sativum (cress d’Alinois) never germinated. In fact, the first step of seeds’ germination ‒ e.g. imbibitions of germinal cells ‒ could not occur under radiation, while inside the humid compost such imbibitions occurred and roots slightly developed. When removed from the electromagnetic field, seeds germinated normally. The radiation was, thus, most likely the cause of the non-occurrence of the seeds’ imbibitions and germination.     

Cytoplasmic dynein could be key to understanding neurodegeneration

A new mouse mutation, Sprawling, highlights an essential role for the dynein heavy chain in sensory neuron function, but it lacks the ability of other known heavy-chain mutations to ameliorate neurodegeneration due to defective superoxide dismutase.     

Synthèse de nucléosides pyrimidiquesàpartir de 1,2-anhydro-4-désoxy-3-O-méthyl-pentopyranoses

Monotosylation of 4-deoxy-3-O-methyl-dl-threo- and -erythro-pentopyranose led, in 62–68% yield, to the 2-O-tosyl derivatives which, on treatment at room temperature with sodium hydride in anhydrous ether, gave quantitatively 1,2-anhydro-4-deoxy-3-O-methyl-dl-threo- and -erythro-pentopyranose, respectively. These epoxides reacted with 2,4-dimethoxypyrimidine in the presence of pyridinium hydrochloride to give, in 68–78% yield, 1-(4-deoxy-3-O-methyl-β-dl-erythro- and -α,β-dl-threo-pentopyranosyl)-4-methoxy-2-pyrimidinone, respectively. Isomers having a trans-1′,2′ configuration were preponderantly formed by an Sn2 reaction.     

Rheumatoid synovial fluid interleukin-17-producing CD4 T cells have abundant tumor necrosis factor-alpha co-expression,but little interleukin-22 and interleukin-23R expression

Introduction  

Th17 cells have been implicated in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of this study was to systematically analyse the phenotype, cytokine profile and frequency of interleukin-17 (IL-17) producing CD4-positive T cells in mononuclear cells isolated from peripheral blood, synovial fluid and synovial tissue of RA patients with established disease, and to correlate cell frequencies with disease activity.     

Tumor‐associated macrophages (TAMs) depend on ZEB1 for their cancer‐promoting roles

Accumulation of tumor‐associated macrophages (TAMs) associates with malignant progression in cancer. However, the mechanisms that drive the pro‐tumor functions of TAMs are not fully understood. ZEB1 is best known for driving an epithelial‐to‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) in cancer cells to promote tumor progression. However, a role for ZEB1 in macrophages and TAMs has not been studied. Here we describe that TAMs require ZEB1 for their tumor‐promoting and chemotherapy resistance functions in a mouse model of ovarian cancer. Only TAMs that expressed full levels of Zeb1 accelerated tumor growth. Mechanistically, ZEB1 expression in TAMs induced their polarization toward an F4/80^low pro‐tumor phenotype, including direct activation of Ccr2. In turn, expression of ZEB1 by TAMs induced Ccl2, Cd74, and a mesenchymal/stem‐like phenotype in cancer cells. In human ovarian carcinomas, TAM infiltration and CCR2 expression correlated with ZEB1 in tumor cells, where along with CCL2 and CD74 determined poorer prognosis. Importantly, ZEB1 in TAMs was a factor of poorer survival in human ovarian carcinomas. These data establish ZEB1 as a key factor in the tumor microenvironment and for maintaining TAMs’ tumor‐promoting functions.     

Distinct transthyretin oxidation isoform profile in spinal fluid from patients with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment

Background

Transthyretin (TTR), an abundant protein in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), contains a free, oxidation-prone cysteine residue that gives rise to TTR isoforms. These isoforms may reflect conditions in vivo. Since increased oxidative stress has been linked to neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) it is of interest to characterize CSF-TTR isoform distribution in AD patients and controls. Here, TTR isoforms are profiled directly from CSF by an optimized immunoaffinity-mass spectrometry method in 76 samples from patients with AD (n = 37), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 17)), and normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH, n = 15), as well as healthy controls (HC, n = 7). Fractions of three specific oxidative modifications (S-cysteinylation, S-cysteinylglycinylation, and S-glutathionylation) were quantitated relative to the total TTR protein. Results were correlated with diagnostic information and with levels of CSF AD biomarkers tau, phosphorylated tau, and amyloid β_1-42 peptide.

Results

Preliminary data highlighted the high risk of artifactual TTR modification due to ex vivo oxidation and thus the samples for this study were all collected using strict and uniform guidelines. The results show that TTR is significantly more modified on Cys(10) in the AD and MCI groups than in controls (NPH and HC) (p ≤ 0.0012). Furthermore, the NPH group, while having normal TTR isoform distribution, had significantly decreased amyloid β peptide but normal tau values. No obvious correlations between levels of routine CSF biomarkers for AD and the degree of TTR modification were found.

Conclusions

AD and MCI patients display a significantly higher fraction of oxidatively modified TTR in CSF than the control groups of NPH patients and HC. Quantitation of CSF-TTR isoforms thus may provide diagnostic information in patients with dementia symptoms but this should be explored in larger studies including prospective studies of MCI patients. The development of methods for simple, robust, and reproducible inhibition of in vitro oxidation during CSF sampling and sample handling is highly warranted. In addition to the diagnostic information the possibility of using TTR as a CSF oxymeter is of potential value in studies monitoring disease activity and developing new drugs for neurodegenerative diseases.