Assessment of therapeutic responses to gametocytocidal drugs in Plasmodium falciparum malaria

Background

Effective mating between laboratory-reared males and wild females is paramount to the success of vector control strategies aiming to decrease disease transmission via the release of sterile or genetically modified male mosquitoes. However mosquito colonization and laboratory maintenance have the potential to negatively affect male genotypic and phenotypic quality through inbreeding and selection, which in turn can decrease male mating competitiveness in the field. To date, very little is known about the impact of those evolutionary forces on the reproductive biology of mosquito colonies and how they ultimately affect male reproductive fitness.

Methods

Here several male reproductive physiological traits likely to be affected by inbreeding and selection following colonization and laboratory rearing were examined. Sperm length, and accessory gland and testes size were compared in male progeny from field-collected females and laboratory strains of Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto colonized from one to over 25 years ago. These traits were also compared in the parental and sequentially derived, genetically modified strains produced using a two-phase genetic transformation system. Finally, genetic crosses were performed between strains in order to distinguish the effects of inbreeding and selection on reproductive traits.

Results

Sperm length was found to steadily decrease with the age of mosquito colonies but was recovered in refreshed strains and crosses between inbred strains therefore incriminating inbreeding costs. In contrast, testes size progressively increased with colony age, whilst accessory gland size quickly decreased in males from colonies of all ages. The lack of heterosis in response to crossing and strain refreshing in the latter two reproductive traits suggests selection for insectary conditions.

Conclusions

These results show that inbreeding and selection differentially affect reproductive traits in laboratory strains overtime and that heterotic ‘supermales’ could be used to rescue some male reproductive characteristics. Further experiments are needed to establish the exact relationship between sperm length, accessory gland and testes size, and male reproductive success in the laboratory and field settings.     

TGF‐β induces SOX2 expression in a time‐dependent manner in human melanoma cells

The sry‐related high‐mobility box (SOX)‐2 protein has recently been proven to play a significant role in progression, metastasis, and clinical prognosis spanning several cancer types. Research on the role of SOX2 in melanoma is limited and currently little is known about the mechanistic function of this gene in this context. Here, we observed high expression of SOX2 in both human melanoma cell lines and primary melanomas in contrast to melanocytic nevi. This overexpression in melanoma can, in part, be explained by extra gene copy numbers of SOX2 in primary samples. Interestingly, we were able to induce SOX2 expression, mediated by SOX4, via TGF‐β1 stimulation in a time‐dependent manner. Moreover, the knockdown of SOX2 impaired TGF‐β‐induced invasiveness. This phenotype switch can be explained by SOX2‐mediated cross talk between TGF‐β and non‐canonical Wnt signaling. Thus, we propose that SOX2 is involved in the critical TGF‐β signaling pathway, which has been shown to correlate with melanoma aggressiveness and metastasis. In conclusion, we have identified a novel downstream factor of TGF‐β signaling in melanoma, which may have further implications in the clinic.     

Simplified antimalarial therapeutic monitoring: using the day-7 drug level?

The blood concentration profiles of most antimalarial drugs vary considerably between patients. The interpretation of antimalarial drug trials evaluating efficacy and effectiveness would be improved considerably if the exposure of the infecting parasite population to the antimalarial drug treatment could be measured. Artemisinin combination treatments are now recommended as first-line drugs for the treatment of falciparum malaria. Measurement of the blood, serum or plasma concentration of the slowly eliminated partner antimalarial drug on day 7 of follow-up is simpler and might be a better determinant of therapeutic response than the area under the concentration-time curve. Measurement of the day-7 drug level should be considered as a routine part of antimalarial drug trials.     

New highly selective inhibitors of class II fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolases

Phosphoglycolo amidoxime and phosphoglycolo hydrazide, two new derivatives of phosphoglycolic acid, were synthesised and successfully tested as selective competitive inhibitors of class II FBP-aldolases.     

Insights gained from a web-based atlas of halocyprid ostracods of the Southern Ocean

Planktonic ostracods are an important, but poorly studied component of open ocean plankton communities, which inhabit all depths and play a significant role in detrital cycles. A web-based atlas (http://ocean.iopan.gda.pl/ostracoda) of the distribution of Southern Ocean planktonic ostracods has been developed compiling all extractable published data together with a considerable amount of unpublished data from samples collected during Discovery investigations (1929–1952). The northern boundary of the Southern Ocean was taken pragmatically as 52°S. The website includes information that includes distributional maps, taxonomic drawings (mostly original), size data and systematic notes on 47 species. All the data are freely downloadable as PDF files and are thus available to anyone, anywhere, with access to the web.Published data are subject to a number of errors generated by faulty identifications and changes in the taxonomy. Most, but not all, published data could be included in drawing up the maps. Not all publications have included detailed positional data and from those that included distributional maps, it was not always possible to relate the plotted distributions to the published station listings. A lack of archived data and specimens for some of the records meant dubious records could not be validated. Data are now generally archived by national oceanographic data centres, but unless supported by voucher specimens further confusion may arise for those current species which are found to include cryptic species after classical morphological studies or molecular studies.One species (Boroecia antipoda) had an apparently anomalous distribution; specimens archived in the Copenhagen Museum were reexamined and the anomalies were shown to result from the fact that some of the specimens belong to a novel species. Generally, the limits to the distributional ranges of the species showed little coherence with major oceanographic features, such as the Antarctic convergence and hence, biogeographical provinces; possible reasons are discussed. Despite these possible inherent errors, the website not only provides a resource for species identification, but is also proving to be a powerful tool for generation of hypotheses and highlighting taxonomic problems.     

Discovery of 3-hydroxy-4-cyano-isoquinolines as novel, potent, and selective inhibitors of human 11β-hydroxydehydrogenase 1 (11β-HSD1)

Derived from the HTS hit 1, a series of hydroxyisoquinolines was discovered as potent and selective 11β-HSD1 inhibitors with good cross species activity. Optimization of substituents at the 1 and 4 positions of the isoquinoline group in addition to the core modifications, with a special focus on enhancing metabolic stability and aqueous solubility, resulted in the identification of several compounds as potent advanced leads.     

Anaerobic carbon monoxide dehydrogenase diversity in the homoacetogenic hindgut microbial communities of lower termites and the wood roach

Anaerobic carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) is a key enzyme in the Wood-Ljungdahl (acetyl-CoA) pathway for acetogenesis performed by homoacetogenic bacteria. Acetate generated by gut bacteria via the acetyl-CoA pathway provides considerable nutrition to wood-feeding dictyopteran insects making CODH important to the obligate mutualism occurring between termites and their hindgut microbiota. To investigate CODH diversity in insect gut communities, we developed the first degenerate primers designed to amplify cooS genes, which encode the catalytic (β) subunit of anaerobic CODH enzyme complexes. These primers target over 68 million combinations of potential forward and reverse cooS primer-binding sequences. We used the primers to identify cooS genes in bacterial isolates from the hindgut of a phylogenetically lower termite and to sample cooS diversity present in a variety of insect hindgut microbial communities including those of three phylogenetically-lower termites, Zootermopsis nevadensis, Reticulitermes hesperus, and Incisitermes minor, a wood-feeding cockroach, Cryptocercus punctulatus, and an omnivorous cockroach, Periplaneta americana. In total, we sequenced and analyzed 151 different cooS genes. These genes encode proteins that group within one of three highly divergent CODH phylogenetic clades. Each insect gut community contained CODH variants from all three of these clades. The patterns of CODH diversity in these communities likely reflect differences in enzyme or physiological function, and suggest that a diversity of microbial species participate in homoacetogenesis in these communities.     

Ultrasonic wave spectroscopy study of sugar oligomers and polysaccharides in aqueous solutions: the hydration length concept

The determination of apparent persistence length and radius of gyration of maltodextrins in water is achievable through high-resolution ultrasonic spectroscopy measurements. Classical hydration number for those carbohydrates is characteristic of an apparent persistence degree of polymerisation of the polymer. A force-field based molecular modeling of a 10DP malto-oligomer allows measurement of the corresponding length for the lowest energetic conformation in solution. A good agreement between the apparent radii of gyration determined by this technique and the freely rotating polymer chain model is found with radii of gyration calculated from the intrinsic viscosity.     

Nef proteins from diverse groups of primate lentiviruses downmodulate CXCR4 to inhibit migration to the chemokine stromal derived factor 1

Nef proteins of primate lentiviruses promote viral replication, virion infectivity, and evasion of antiviral immune responses by modulating signal transduction pathways and downregulating expression of receptors at the cell surface that are important for efficient antigen-specific responses, such as CD4, CD28, T-cell antigen receptor, and class I and class II major histocompatibility complex. Here we show that Nef proteins from diverse groups of primate lentiviruses which do not require the chemokine receptor CXCR4 for entry into target cells strongly downmodulate the cell surface expression of CXCR4. In contrast, all human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and the majority of HIV-2 Nef proteins tested did not have such strong effects. SIVmac239 Nef strongly inhibited lymphocyte migration to CXCR4 ligand, the chemokine stromal derived factor 1 (SDF-1). SIVmac239 Nef downregulated CXCR4 by accelerating the rate of its endocytosis. Downmodulation of CXCR4 was abolished by mutations that disrupt the constitutively strong AP-2 clathrin adaptor binding element located in the N-terminal region of the Nef molecule, suggesting that Nef accelerates CXCR4 endocytosis via an AP-2-dependent pathway. Together, these results point to CXCR4 as playing an important role in simian immunodeficiency virus and possibly also HIV-2 persistence in vivo that is unrelated to viral entry into target cells. We speculate that Nef targets CXCR4 to disrupt ordered trafficking of infected leukocytes between local microenvironments in order to facilitate their dissemination and/or impair the antiviral immune response.