Novel management to enhance spider biodiversity in existing grass buffer strips

• 1 Grass buffer strips have been widely sown to mitigate against intensive agricultural management practices that have negatively impacted on invertebrate and plant biodiversity in arable farming systems. Typically, such strips are floristically species poor and are dominated by grasses. In the present study, we developed management practices to enhance the floristic and structural diversity of these existing strips for the benefit of spiders, a key provider of natural pest control in crops.
• 2 Across three UK arable farms, we investigated the benefits of: (i) scarification to create germination niches into which wildflower seeds were sown and (ii) the effect of graminicide applications to suppress grass dominance. Spiders were sampled twice per year (July and September) during 2008 and 2009.
• 3 The combination of scarification with wildflower seeds, as well as graminicide, resulted in the greatest wildflower cover and lowest grass cover, with a general trend of increased abundance of adult and juvenile spiders. The abundance of Pachygnatha degeeri, Bathyphantes gracilis and juvenile wolf spiders of the genus Pardosa was positively correlated with wildflower cover, probably reflecting increased prey availability. Sward structure was negatively correlated with Erigone atra, Oedothorax fuscus and juvenile Pardosa abundance.
• 4 Management that utilizes existing commonly adopted agri‐environment options, such as grass buffer strips, represents a potentially important conservation tool for increasing the quantity and quality of invertebrate habitats. This can maximize opportunities for the provision of multiple ecosystem services, including pest regulation by predators such as spiders. These management practices have the potential to be incorporated into existing U.K. and European agri‐environment schemes.

     

Elevated Mutagenesis Does Not Explain the Increased Frequency of Antibiotic Resistant Mutants in Starved Aging Colonies

The frequency of mutants resistant to the antibiotic rifampicin has been shown to increase in aging (starved), compared to young colonies of Eschierchia coli. These increases in resistance frequency occur in the absence of any antibiotic exposure, and similar increases have also been observed in response to additional growth limiting conditions. Understanding the causes of such increases in the frequency of resistance is important for understanding the dynamics of antibiotic resistance emergence and spread. Increased frequency of rifampicin resistant mutants in aging colonies is cited widely as evidence of stress-induced mutagenesis (SIM), a mechanism thought to allow bacteria to increase mutation rates upon exposure to growth-limiting stresses. At the same time it has been demonstrated that some rifampicin resistant mutants are relatively fitter in aging compared to young colonies, indicating that natural selection may also contribute to increased frequency of rifampicin resistance in aging colonies. Here, we demonstrate that the frequency of mutants resistant to both rifampicin and an additional antibiotic (nalidixic-acid) significantly increases in aging compared to young colonies of a lab strain of Escherichia coli. We then use whole genome sequencing to demonstrate conclusively that SIM cannot explain the observed magnitude of increased frequency of resistance to these two antibiotics. We further demonstrate that, as was previously shown for rifampicin resistance mutations, mutations conferring nalidixic acid resistance can also increase fitness in aging compared to young colonies. Our results show that increases in the frequency of antibiotic resistant mutants in aging colonies cannot be seen as evidence of SIM. Furthermore, they demonstrate that natural selection likely contributes to increases in the frequency of certain antibiotic resistance mutations, even when no selection is exerted due to the presence of antibiotics.     

Multitargeted therapies for multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) comprises 1% of all malignancies and 10% of all hematological malignancies. MM is a malignancy of plasma cells in the bone marrow where complex and dynamic interactions with the bone marrow microenvironment lead to tumor progression, skeletal destruction and angiogenesis. Despite the discovery of several novel treatments against MM, including the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib, it is considered to be an incurable disease with an average 4–5 years overall survival.     

External Validation of the Derived Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio as a Prognostic Marker on a Large Cohort of Pancreatic Cancer Patients

Background

With growing evidence on the role of inflammation in cancer biology, the presence of a systemic inflammatory response has been postulated as having prognostic significance in a wide range of cancer types. The derived neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (dNLR), which represents an easily determinable potential prognostic marker in daily practise and clinical trials, has never been externally validated in pancreatic cancer (PC) patients.

Methods

Data from 474 consecutive PC patients, treated between 2004 and 2012 at a single centre, were evaluated retrospectively. Cancer-specific survival (CSS) was assessed using the Kaplan-Meier method. To evaluate the prognostic relevance of dNLR, univariate and multivariate Cox regression models were applied.

Results

We calculated by ROC analysis a cut-off value of 2.3 for the dNLR to be ideal to discriminate between patients’ survival in the whole cohort. Kaplan-Meier curve reveals a dNLR≥2.3 as a factor for decreased CSS in PC patients (p<0.001, log-rank test). An independent significant association between high dNLR≥2.3 and poor clinical outcome in multivariate analysis (HR = 1.24, CI95% = 1.01–1.51, p = 0.041) was identified.

Conclusion

In the present study we confirmed elevated pre-treatment dNLR as an independent prognostic factor for clinical outcome in PC patients. Our data encourage independent replication in other series and settings of this easily available parameter as well as stratified analysis according to tumor resectability.     

Transcriptional and epigenetic effects of Vitis vinifera L. leaf extract on UV-stressed human dermal fibroblasts

Molecular Biology Reports - Adverse environmental conditions such as UV radiation induce oxidative and aging events leading to severe damage to human skin cells. Natural products such as plant...     

Age and menopause affect the expression of specific cytokines/chemokines in plasma and cervical lavage samples from female sex workers in Nairobi,Kenya

Background

Aging of the immune system, known as immunosenescence, is associated with profound changes in both innate and adaptive immune responses, resulting in increased susceptibility to infection and a decreased ability to respond to vaccination. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of age and menopause on the expression of 22 different cytokines/chemokines in both plasma and cervical lavage samples from female sex-worker cohort from Nairobi, Kenya (age range 20–65).

Results

Cytokine/chemokine levels were measured using a Miliplex multiplex assay (Millipore). We found that age positively correlated with MCP-1 (p?=?0.0002) and IP-10 (p?=?0.03) systemic cytokine expression, and that women over 50 expressed the highest levels of these cytokines, but also had elevated expression of MIG (ANOVA p?=?0.0096) and MIP-3β(ANOVA p?=?0.0434). We also found that IL-8 (p?=?0.047) and sCD40L (p?=?0.01) systemic expression negatively correlated with age. Further, MIG (p?=?0.0081) and MCP-1 (p?=?0.0157) were present at higher levels in post-menopausal women suggesting a potential estrogen dependant systemic regulation of these cytokines. In cervical lavage samples, age did not directly correlate with the expression of any of the tested cytokines/chemokines, however sIL-2Rα (ANOVA p?=?0.0170) and IL-15 (ANOVA p?=?0.0251)were significantly higher in women over 50. Menopause was shown to have a more profound effect on cytokine expression in the cervical mucosa with MIG (p?=?0.0256), MIP-3α (p?=?0.0245), IL-1β (p?=?0.0261), IL-6 (p?=?0.0462), IL-8 (p?=?0.007), IP-10 (p?=?0.0357) and MCP-1 (p?=?0.0427) all significantly under-expressed in post-menopausal women.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that aging and menopause-associated hormonal changes are associated with significant changes in systemic and mucosal cytokine/chemokine expression, which may have implications for the age-related decline in the ability to fight against infections.

     

A mutation in the Cdon gene potentiates congenital nevus development mediated by NRASQ61K

Congenital nevi develop before birth and sometimes cover large areas of the body. They are presumed to arise from the acquisition of a gene mutation in an embryonic melanocyte that becomes trapped in the dermis during development. Mice bearing the Cdk4^R24C::Tyr‐NRAS^Q61K transgenes develop congenital nevus‐like lesions by post‐natal day 10, from melanocytes escaping the confines of hair follicles. We interbred these mice with the collaborative cross (CC), a resource that enables identification of modifier genes for complex diseases (those where multiple genes are involved). We examined variation in nevus cell density in 66 CC strains and mapped a large‐effect quantitative trait locus (QTL) controlling nevus cell density to murine chromosome 9. The best candidate for a gene that exacerbates congenital nevus development in the context of an NRAS mutation is Cdon, a positive regulator of sonic hedgehog (Shh) that is expressed mainly in keratinocytes.