Fiber Qualities of Pretreated Betung Bamboo (Dendrocalamusasper) by Mixed Culture of White-rot Fungi with Respect to Its Use for Pulp/paper

Previous research on anatomical structures of pretreated large (betung) bamboo (Dendrocalamusasper) using single culture of white-rot fungi has been investigated, which revealed that the pretreatment caused the decrease in the Runkel ratioas well as the coefficient rigidity and the increase in the flexibility ratio of their corresponding bamboo fibers. However, there is no study reported on the anatomical structure changes of them caused by pretreatment using mixed culture of white-rot fungi. This paper reports the results of the research on paper/pulp quality after different treatments. Pretreatment that used Trametes versicolor fungi and lasted for 45 days inflicted intensive fiber damages compared with those of untreated bamboo (control). Fresh and barkless large (betung) bamboo chips of 2 year's old, and 1.6 cm in length, were inoculated by 10% of mixed culture of white-rot fungi inoculums stock for 30 and 45 days in room temperature. There were four treatment groups of mixed culture, i.e T. versi color and P. ostreatus (TVPO); P. ostreatus and P. chrysosporium (POPC); P. chrysosporium and T.versi color (PCTV); and P.chrysosporium, T.versicolorand P.ostreatus (TVPCPO).After the inoculation period, the chips weremacerated into separate fibers using Scultze method to analyze the fiber dimension and its derived values. The fibers were then observed regarding their macro and microscopic structures by optical microscope. Mixed culture pretreatment of white-rot fungi accelerated improvement of fiber morphology and fiber derived value characteristics, except for Muhlsteph ratio. The fiber derived values oftreated bamboo tended to improve compared to those of untreated bamboo, there by requiring milder pulping conditions. Accordingly, the treated bamboo would indicatively produce a good quality pulp (grade I) based on FAO and LPHH (Forest Product Research Report) requirements. Co-culture treatment using P. chrysosporium and P. ostreatus for 45 days produced the best fiber dimension and its derived value properties. The fungi hypae colonized on the surface area of bamboo followed by mycelium penetration into substrate (bamboo-inner structure). The partial degradation caused by delignification indicatively attributed to the fungi activity was shown in the macroscopic images

Biological Pretreatment of Oil Palm Frond Fiber Using White-Rot Fungi for Enzymatic Saccharification

Oil palm frond is one type of lignocellulosic biomass abundantly and daily available in Indonesia. It contains cellulose which can be converted to glucose, and further processed to produce different kinds of value –added products. The aim of this research is to study the effects of biological pretreatment of oil palm frond (OPF) fiber using Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Trametes versicolor on the enzymatic saccharification of the biomass. The OPF fiber (40-60 mesh sizes) was inoculated with cultures of the two fungi and incubated at 27 °C for 4 weeks. The samples were taken after 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks of incubation. Chemical components of the biomass after pretreatment were analyzed. The saccharification of the pretreated samples using cellulase and β-glucosidase was performed in a water bath shaker at 50 °C for 48 hours. The concentration of reducing sugar increased with increasing of incubation time, either in those pretreated with culture of P. chrysosporium or with T. versicolor. Pretreatment of OPF fiber using single culture of T. versicolor for 4 weeks gave the highest reducing sugar yield (12.61% of dry biomass)

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

The Pretreatment Effect of Single Culture White Rot Fungi on the Anatomical Structure of Betung Bamboo

This study was to investigate the changes of morphological, macroscopic and microscopic characteristic on betung bamboo fiber during single culture of white rot fungi pretreatment. Fresh, and bark less 2 years old betung bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper) chips, 1.6 cm in length were inoculated by 10% of white-rot fungi inoculums stock for 30 and 45 days in room temperature. This study used three kinds of fungi i.e Trametes versicolor, Pleurotus ostreatus and Phanerochaete chrysosporium. After the incubation period was finished the chips were separated by maceration process (Schutze method) to analyze the fiber dimension and its derived value. The fibers were then observed the macroscopic and microscopic structure by optical microscope. The pretreatment caused the decreasing of fiber length, cell wall thicknesses, while the lumen and fiber diameter were since in versa. The improvement on fiber derived value except muhlsteph ratio was found in this study. Bamboo pretreated by T. versicolor for 30 days showed the best fiber dimension and fiber derived value and the treated bamboos were predicted to produce pulp with superior grade quality (grade I)

Pemanfaatan Lignin Hasil Isolasi Dari Lindi Hitam Proses Biopulping Bambu Betung (Dendrocalamus Asper) Sebagai Media Selektif Jamur Pelapuk Putih

Lindi hitam merupakan limbah industri pulp yang belum termanfaatkan dengan baik. Pemanfaatan lignin dari lindi hitam selama ini biasanya hanya digunakan sebagai perekat. Dalam bidang mikrobiologi lignin dari lindi hitam dapat dimanfaatkan sebagai media selektif untuk isolasi jamur pelapuk putih. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui manfaat lignin hasil isolasi proses biopulping sebagai media selektif untuk jamur pelapuk putih. Lignin dari lindi hitam hasil biopulping bambu, dengan proses pemasakan soda dan kraft, diisolasi dengan penambahan asam. Padatan lignin kemudian dimurnikan menggunakan larutan dioksan dan ditimbang berat serta dianalisa secara kualitatif menggunakan spektrofotometer. Lignin hasil isolasi ditambahkan pada media agar untuk uji selektifitas jamur pelapuk putih Phanerochaete crysosporium dan Trametes versicolor. Pretreatment bambu pada 30 hari inkubasi menghasilkan lignin yang lebih tinggi jika dibandingkan dengan inkubasi selama 45 hari. Padatan lignin yang diperoleh dari hasil biopulping proses kraft juga lebih tinggi jika dibandingkan pada proses soda. Pengujian selektifitas jamur pada media alkali lignin menunjukkan bahwa fungi T. versicolor mensekresi enzim lebih cepat daripada P. chrysosporium

Kraft and Soda Pulping of White Rot Pretreated Betung Bamboo

This research was conducted to study the effects of pre-treatment with white-rot fungi on pulp properties of betung bamboo. Inoculum stocks of white-rot fungi (25 ml) were injected into polybags contained barkless fresh bamboo chips. Each polybag contained 214.9–286.8 g oven dry weight of chips. Bamboo chips in the polybags were inoculated by Pleurotus ostreatus and Trametes versicolor. Both of them were then incubated for 30 and 45 days at room temperature. Bamboo chips were cooked using soda and Kraft processes. The cooked bamboo chips were then defiberize using disc refiner for 3 times. Pulp yield, kappa number and degree of freeness of the pulp were then analyzed. The treatment of two white rot fungi, gave different effects on the characteristic of betung bamboo pulp. The effects of fungi treatment on kappa number and degree of freeness can be seen only at samples cooked using kraft process. Incubation time did not affect pulp yield of bamboo treated with both fungi, but it affected kappa number and degree of freeness of bamboo pulp cooked using kraft process. Bamboo treated with T. versicolor incubated for 45 days and cooked using kraft process produced the best pulp quality with high pulp yield

Identification of seven new prostate cancer susceptibility loci through a genome-wide association study

Prostate cancer (PrCa) is the most frequently diagnosed male cancer in developed countries. To identify common PrCa susceptibility alleles, we have previously conducted a genome-wide association study in which 541, 129 SNPs were genotyped in 1,854 PrCa cases with clinically detected disease and 1,894 controls. We have now evaluated promising associations in a second stage, in which we genotyped 43,671 SNPs in 3,650 PrCa cases and 3,940 controls, and a third stage, involving an additional 16,229 cases and 14,821 controls from 21 studies. In addition to previously identified loci, we identified a further seven new prostate cancer susceptibility loci on chromosomes 2, 4, 8, 11, and 22 (P=1.6×10−8 to P=2.7×10−33)