Relationship between deterrence and toxicity of plant secondary compounds for the alfalfa weevil Hypera brunneipennis

A variety of plant secondary compounds, several of which are quite widespread in nature were tested for their deterrence to the specialist coleopteran Hypera brunneipennis (Boheman) in short-term behavioral assays. The compounds were nicotine, quinine, sparteine, hordenine, linamarin, amygdalin, sinigrin, morin, juglone, chlorogenic acid, digitonin, mimosine, diosgenin, rutin and ursolic acid. Nine of these were then tested for their post-ingestional effects over one to two weeks of adult life, using fecundity as a measure of the effects. In only one case was there any indication of a detrimental effect or any trend suggesting one. The evolutionary implications of these findings are discussed.     

ALTERATIONS WITH AGING OF THE ENDOCRINE AND NEUROENDOCRINE CIRCADIAN SYSTEM IN HUMANS

This was an open-label study in 19 children aged 9–13 years, weighing 27–44 kg, with bronchial asthma. Twenty-four-hour steady-state concentrations of theophylline and its metabolites 1,3-dimethyl uric acid, 3-methyl xanthine and 1-methyl uric acid were assessed after daily dosing of 600 mg (ca18 mg/kg/day) of the sustainedrelease theophylline micro-pellet sprinkle system BY158K, for 4 days. The dosing regimen used was an unequal twice-daily dose of 200 mg in the morning after breakfast and 400 mg in the evening after dinner. Twenty-four-hour peak expiratory flow (PEF) profiles were compared before treatment and at steady-state, along with lung function parameters after bronchial provocation. Mean values±SD (n=16) of the steady-state characteristics were C_min6.8±2.1 mg/1, C_max14.5±4.8 mg/1 and C_av10.S±2.9 mg/1, the plateau time was 11.7±4.8 hr and peak-trough fluctuation and swing were 72±21 and 118±52%, respectively. There was an excellent reproducibility of theophylline pre-dose levels at corresponding time points of the 24-hr sampling period [r=0.864 (p< 0.001)]. Mean values±SD of the 24 hr average serum metabolite levels were 0.9±0.2 mg/1 for 1, 3-dimethyl uric acid, 0.6±0.1 mg/1 for 3-methyl xanthine and 0.4±0.1 mg/1 for 1-methyl uric acid. Lung function (n=17) following bronchial provocation, improved in 10 children after theophylline treatment of 4 days, remained stable in 2 patients and deteriorated in 5 patients. Serum theophylline profiles and PEF profiles ran largely in parallel over the 24-hr period. Six children exhibited typical theophylline induced side-effects, headache (n=3), nausea (n=4), dizziness (n=l), vomiting (n=4), sleep disturbances (n=1), pallor (n=1) and tremor(n=1), necessitating in 3 children one dose omission/reduction (n=2) or subsequent dose reduction (n=1). It has been shown that a twice daily dosing regimen with unequal doses of anhydrous theophylline (BY158K) is well suited to this population of fast metabolisers. The patients were well protected throughout the day, including the critical early morning hours.     

Summary and Perspectives: Sustained-Release Theophylline and Nocturnal Asthma,Once-Daily and Unequal Dosing Schedules

Many asthmatic patients experience aggravation of symptoms overnight resulting in disruption of their sleep. Sustained-release theophylline represents at this time a major bronchodilator medication which possesses a sufficient duration of activity to avert the nocturnal breathing distress of asthma. Circadian rhythm-adapted theophylline schedules consisting of unequal dosing—more or all the drug taken in the evening—have proven efficacious in clinical investigations for certain patients. Although the kinetic behavior of some formulations is affected by food, the circadian rhythm-adapted schedules represent a significant step forward toward the goal of optimizating sustained-release theophyllines for patients who experience nighttime symptoms.     

Linking carbon and nitrogen metabolism to depth distribution of submersed macrophytes using high ammonium dosing tests and a lake survey

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Sacituzumab govitecan in metastatic triple negative breast cancer (TNBC): Four design features in the ASCENT trial potentially favored the experimental arm

The ASCENT trial reports impressive results with a median overall survival (OS) increased from 6.7 months to 12.1 months with sacituzumab govitecan over single-agent chemotherapy, in metastatic triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients in second and subsequent line of therapy.We described design features in the ASCENT trial casting doubt on the extrapolation of the reported results to real world patients. First, the open-label design may exaggerate the effect of the experimental arm. Second, the choice of progression-free-survival (PFS) as a primary endpoint, debatable in metastatic TNBC, can lead to biases: early stopping rules may exaggerate efficacy results and informative censoring can bias PFS results interpretation. Third, the control arm was not a complete “physician''s choice”: it was restricted, preventing from using effective agents in this setting, and leading to a substandard control arm. Fourth and lastly, dose reduction and supportive care recommendations for the experimental drug were different between the trial protocol and the FDA labels, and favored the experimental arm as compared with the control arm.In conclusion, we described four design features in the ASCENT trial having the potential to favor the experimental arm or to penalize the control arm. It thus remains uncertain in which extent the reported outcomes will translate in the real world. Efforts should be made to avoid trial biases that will eventually prevent to conclude about their true impact in patients when applied broadly.     

Phased infectivity in Heterorhabditis megidis: the effects of infection density in the parental host and filial generation

Entomopathogenic nematodes can develop through two or more generations in the cadavers of killed insect hosts. Non-feeding infective juveniles from each generation emerge and may spend prolonged periods searching for a new host. The infectivity of the infective juveniles of Heterorhabditis megidis varies with time after emergence and may not reach a maximum until several weeks have passed. 'Phased infectivity' hypotheses propose that this pattern is adaptive, tending to reduce competition in new hosts. Here we provide further evidence that infectivity is phased in H. megidis. In addition, we show that the basic pattern is modified by infection density in the parental host and by filial generation. Two general patterns were observed: first, infective juveniles that developed under the least crowded conditions (F(1) infective juveniles produced in hosts infected with 16 parent nematodes) reached maximum infectivity after only 15 days, compared to 27 or 39 days for infective juveniles that developed under more crowded conditions (F(1) produced in hosts infected with 103 or 424 parent nematodes or F(2) infective juveniles). Second, infective juveniles had lower infectivity overall when produced under the most crowded conditions (F(2) versus F(1); highest versus lowest infection density). We propose that while lower overall infectivity is a necessary consequence of limited resource availability during infective juvenile development, the difference in the timing of peak infectivity reflects a shift in the fitness gains associated with being maximally infective either 'early' or 'late'. F(1) infective juveniles emerge several days before F(2) infective juveniles, and we suggest that filial generation and infection density in the parental host function as indicators of the potential risk of competition within new hosts.     

原位可注射壳聚糖基温敏水凝胶的制备及其在预防ESD术后食管狭窄中分阶段释药应用研究

摘要 目的：构建一种可以分阶段释放药物的原位可注射水凝胶，通过直接注射在ESD（Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection，内镜黏膜下剥离术）术后伤口处，形成水凝胶敷料，起到保护伤口的作用。同时凝胶中的两种药物通过分阶段释放的方式，更好地促进伤口的无瘢痕愈合，为ESD术后食管狭窄的预防提供一种新的参考方案。方法：在壳聚糖/β-甘油磷酸钠（CS/β-GP）温敏水凝胶的体系中加入聚多巴胺（PDA），制备壳聚糖/β-甘油磷酸钠/聚多巴胺（CS/?β-GP/PDA）水凝胶。通过在载药水凝胶中加入聚乙二醇-聚乳酸-羟基乙酸（PEG-PLGA）纳米载药微粒制备CS/β-GP/PDA/NPs双载药水凝胶，通过两种载药体系的复合，实现药物的分阶段释放。通过流变学实验测定CS/β-GP、CS/β-GP/PDA、CS/β-GP/PDA/NPs凝胶体系的相转变温度以及凝胶强度。通过高效液相色谱法检测CS/β-GP/PDA/NPs水凝胶中两种药物的释放动力学特征。通过CCK-8细胞增殖实验评价CS/β-GP/PDA、CS/β-GP/PDA/NPs温敏水凝胶的生物相容性。在体外猪食管中，模拟ESD术后创口，通过内镜辅助将水凝胶母液注射在伤口处，并通过内镜观察水凝胶的凝胶状态。结果：得到了粘附性显著增强的壳聚糖/β-甘油磷酸钠/聚多巴胺（CS/β-GP/PDA）凝胶体系。流变学实验证明聚多巴胺（PDA）的加入可以显著降低水凝胶的凝胶温度，缩短原位成胶时间。CCK-8实验显示CS/β-GP/PDA、CS/β-GP/PDA/NPs凝胶体系无潜在的细胞毒性。在体外猪食管模拟实验中，将其凝胶母液注射在伤口处后，可原位形成凝胶，且凝胶贴合伤口，具有较强的粘附性。通过体外释药速率测定，验证了CS/β-GP/PDA/NPs水凝胶中所载两种药物释放速率存在明显差异，可实现药物的分阶段释放。结论：设计的CS/β-GP/PDA/NPs凝胶体系适用于ESD术后的伤口修复，并能够实现分阶段释药，对于预防ESD术后食管狭窄具有潜在的应用价值。     

Immunogenicity of standard and extended dosing intervals of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine

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Intensity-time dependence dosing criterion in the EMF exposure guidelines in Russia

Major approaches of the Russian Federation in setting of exposure guidelines to electromagnetic fields (EMF) in occupational and public environments are discussed in this paper.

EMF exposure guidelines in Russia are based on the results of hygienic, clinical, physiological, epidemiological and experimental studies and are frequency-dependent. The concept of a threshold principle of occupational and environmental factors due to hazardous exposure effects has been used to set permissible exposure levels of different EMF frequency ranges. The data of experimental studies showed hazardous threshold levels of EMF effects. The main criteria of EMF hazardous exposure evaluated in the experimental study concerned both estimation of threshold levels of chronic (long-term) and acute exposure. Also, this paper contains some recent experimental study data on correlation of long-term radiofrequency and power-frequency EMF exposure effects with regard to time duration, the so-called time-dependence approach. It enables identification of the value of permissible EMF exposure levels depending on exposure duration. This approach is used in occupational exposure guideline setting and requires the introduction of “power exposition” (PE) and “maximal permissible level” (MPL). In general, EMF exposure guidelines are established with regard to possible duration of exposure per day.     

高强度聚焦超声换能器温度场的数值仿真

相控阵高强度聚焦超声换能器可以通过换能器上不同阵元发射超声波的时间不同来实现变焦、多焦点。该论文应用Westervelt方程的近似式,结合Pennes热传导方程,以人体乳房为例,FDTD(finite difference time domain)仿真对比研究平面阵列相控聚焦换能器与曲面阵列相控聚焦换能器形成温度场的特性,同时数值仿真研究不同占空比的正弦激励函数、不同治疗频率、声强对曲面阵列相控聚焦换能器超声温度场的影响。研究结果表明曲面阵列相控聚焦换能器能有效地减少皮肤处的温升,对皮肤的伤害较小;对于曲面阵列相控聚焦换能器,不同占空比的正弦激励函数形成的可治疗区域(60℃以上)大小差别不大,但最高温度不同;随着频率升高,形成的可治疗区域体积减小;随着输入声强的增大,可治疗区域变大,但焦距不变。