Molecular regulation of autophagy in a pro-inflammatory tumour microenvironment: New insight into the role of serum amyloid A

Chronic inflammation, systemic or local, plays a vital role in tumour progression and metastasis. Dysregulation of key physiological processes such as autophagy elicit unfavourable immune responses to induce chronic inflammation. Cytokines, growth factors and acute phase proteins present in the tumour microenvironment regulate inflammatory responses and alter crosstalk between various signalling pathways involved in the progression of cancer. Serum amyloid A (SAA) is a key acute phase protein secreted by the liver during the acute phase response (APR) following infection or injury. However, cancer and cancer-associated cells produce SAA, which when present in high levels in the tumour microenvironment contributes to cancer initiation, progression and metastasis. SAA can activate several signalling pathways such as the PI3K and MAPK pathways, which are also known modulators of the intracellular degradation process, autophagy. Autophagy can be regarded as having a double edged sword effect in cancer. Its dysregulation can induce malignant transformation through metabolic stress which manifests as oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and DNA damage. On the other hand, autophagy can promote cancer survival during metabolic stress, hypoxia and senescence. Autophagy has been utilised to promote the efficiency of chemotherapeutic agents and can either be inhibited or induced to improve treatment outcomes. This review aims to address the known mechanisms that regulate autophagy as well as illustrating the role of SAA in modulating these pathways and its clinical implications for cancer therapy.     

诱集植物在农业中的应用研究进展与展望

全世界每年因病虫害导致严重的农业经济损失, 为了减少病虫害的发生, 实际生产中通常使用大量化学农药, 然而农药的大量施用, 不仅造成环境污染和农产品安全问题, 还会使病虫害产生抗药性, 天敌种群受损, 从而导致病虫害爆发日益严重。种植诱集植物是一种环境友好型病虫害防控方法, 该方法主要是通过诱集植物吸引虫害和降低病害, 从而减少病虫害对主栽作物的危害, 达到保护主栽作物的目的, 最终减少农业上化学农药的使用。根据诱集植物自身特性, 将其分为五种主导作用类型: 传统诱集植物、致死型诱集植物、基因工程型诱集植物、生物辅助控制型诱集植物、化学信息素辅助作用型诱集植物等, 根据种植和利用方式, 将其分为: 围种诱集、间种诱集、连作诱集、与其它方式结合等。尽管关于诱集植物的研究已有近160年历史, 但有关高效诱集植物的筛选、诱集植物与主栽作物的优化配置模式与配套种植技术、诱集植物对靶标病虫害的作用机理、诱集植物在农业生产中的生态风险评估等仍不清楚, 且诱集植物仍具有较大开发潜力和应用价值, 如(1)开发应用诱集植物的环境污染修复功能及相关技术; (2)开发应用诱集植物的景观生态与休闲旅游功能及相关技术; (3)开发利用诱集植物对土壤的养分转化与固持提升功能(如固氮、固碳、固土功能等)、生物质能源功能、节能减排功能及相关技术; (4)开发应用诱集植物及其废弃物的经济产品功能及其可持续生产技术。论文综述了近年来国内外有关诱集植物的相关研究与实践应用, 旨在为诱集植物在农业生产中进行病虫害防治研究和应用提供相关参考。     

Xylem traits of peatland Scots pines reveal a complex climatic signal: A study in the Eastern Italian Alps

Long-term climate reconstructions are frequently based on tree-ring high-resolution proxies extracted from subfossil peatland trees. Peatlands are peculiar ecosystems characterized by high moisture in the upper soil part which creates a harsh living environment for trees. The climate mostly indirectly influences tree growth determining seasonal variations in the water table level. Within this framework, the aim of this study was to investigate climate responses of trees (Pinus sylvestris L.) growing inside and outside a Southern Alpine peat bog, by using tree-ring and wood anatomical traits (e.g. tracheid number and dimension, cell-wall thickness). Our results showed differences in the xylem structure and climate signal recorded by peatland and mineral soil trees. Peatland trees were characterized by narrow rings and tracheids with thinner cell wall. Summer temperature and precipitation were the major drivers of xylem formation in peatland trees. At intra-annual level wood anatomical traits revealed a complex within-ring signal during the growing season. The multi-parameters approach together with the high-resolution gained by using tree-ring sectors allowed us to obtain new detailed information on the xylem development of peatland trees and climate drivers that influenced it.     

CPOP: An open source C++ cell POPulation modeler for radiation biology applications

PurposeMulticellular tumor spheroids are realistic in-vitro systems used in radiation biology research to study the effect of anticancer drugs or to evaluate the resistance of cancer cells under specific conditions. When combining the modeling of spheroids together with the simulation of radiation using Monte Carlo methods, one could estimate cell and DNA damage to be compared with experimental data. We developed a Cell Population (CPOP) modeler combined to Geant4 simulations in order to tackle how energy depositions are allocated to cells, especially when enhancing radiation outcomes using high-Z nanoparticles. CPOP manages to model large three-dimensional cell populations with independent deformable cells described with their nucleus, cytoplasm and membranes together with force law systems to manage cell–cell interactions.MethodsCPOP is an opensource platform written in C++. It is divided into two main libraries: a “Modeler” library, for cell geometry modeling using meshes, and a Multi Agent System (MAS) library, simulating all agent (cell) interactions among the population. CPOP is fully interfaced with the Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit and is able to directly launch Geant4 simulations after compilation.We modeled a full and realistic 3D cell population from SK-MEL28 melanoma cell population cultured experimentally. The spheroid diameter of 550 ± 40 µm corresponds to a population of approximately 1000 cells having a diameter of 17.2 ± 2.5 µm and a nucleus diameter of 11.2 ± 2.0 µm. We decided to reproduce cell irradiations performed with a X-RAD 320 Biological Irradiator (Precision XRay Inc., North Branford, CT).ResultsWe simulated the energy spectrum of secondary particles generated in the vicinity of the spheroid and plotted the different energy spectra recovered internally to the spheroid. We evaluated also the impact of AGuIX (Gadolinium) nanoparticles modeled into the spheroid with their corresponding secondary energy spectra.ConclusionsWe succeeded into modeling cell populations and combined them with Geant4 simulations. The next step will be to integrate DNA geometrical models into cell nuclei and to use the Geant4-DNA physics and radiolysis modeling capabilities in order to evaluate early strand breaks induced on DNA.     

Floral fungal-bacterial community structure and co-occurrence patterns in four sympatric island plant species

Flowers’ fungal and bacterial communities can exert great impacts on host plant wellness and reproductive success—both directly and indirectly through species interactions. However, information about community structure and co-occurrence patterns in floral microbiome remains scarce. Here, using culture-independent methods, we investigated fungal and bacterial communities associated with stamens and pistils of four plant species (Scaevola taccada, Ipomoea cairica, Ipomoea pes-caprae, and Mussaenda kwangtungensis) growing together under the same environment conditions in an island located in South China. Plant species identity significantly influenced community composition of floral fungi but not bacteria. Stamen and pistil microbiomes did not differ in community composition, but differed in co-occurrence network topological features. Compared with the stamen network, pistil counterpart had fewer links between bacteria and fungi and showed more modular but less concentrated and connected structure. In addition, degree distribution of microbial network in each host species and each microhabitat (stamen or pistil) followed a significant power-law pattern. These results enhance our understanding in the assembly principles and ecological interactions of floral microbial communities.     

网隔栽培法对生姜姜瘟病防治及产量的影响

姜瘟病是由青枯雷尔氏菌(Ralstoniasolanacearum)引起的一种细菌性病害,被称为生姜种植产业的“癌症”.本试验设计了一种“网隔栽培法”,并探索其对土传姜瘟病发病率和生姜产量的影响.结果表明,经过连续3年的田间验证,相比传统栽培法,“网隔栽培法”种植可显著降低姜瘟病的发病率,平均减少了6.08个百分点,平均防治效果达到了48.33%;同时,生姜产量平均增加了13.21%.这种“短行播种、纵横开沟、深沟隔病”的“网隔栽培法”为姜瘟病的绿色防控提供了新方案,也为其他蔬菜、中药材等植物的土传病害防治提供了新的借鉴思路.     

Toxicity of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs): A review

Gold nanoparticles are a kind of nanomaterials that have received great interest in field of biomedicine due to their electrical, mechanical, thermal, chemical and optical properties. With these great potentials came the consequence of their interaction with biological tissues and molecules which presents the possibility of toxicity. This paper aims to consolidate and bring forward the studies performed that evaluate the toxicological aspect of AuNPs which were categorized into in vivo and in vitro studies. Both indicate to some extent oxidative damage to tissues and cell lines used in vivo and in vitro respectively with the liver, spleen and kidney most affected. The outcome of these review showed small controversy but however, the primary toxicity and its extent is collectively determined by the characteristics, preparations and physicochemical properties of the NPs. Some studies have shown that AuNPs are not toxic, though many other studies contradict this statement. In order to have a holistic inference, more studies are required that will focus on characterization of NPs and changes of physical properties before and after treatment with biological media. So also, they should incorporate controlled experiment which includes supernatant control Since most studies dwell on citrate or CTAB-capped AuNPs, there is the need to evaluate the toxicity and pharmacokinetics of functionalized AuNPs with their surface composition which in turn affects their toxicity. Functionalizing the NPs surface with more peculiar ligands would however help regulate and detoxify the uptake of these NPs.