Untersuchungen zur transkriptionellen Regulation des Chromogranin A Gens und seine Anwendung zum zellspezifischen therapeutischen Gentransfer in neuroendokrine Pankreastumorzellen

Die Therapieoptionen zur Behandlung metastasierter neuroendokriner Tumore sind bisher ineffektiv. Der regulierte Gentransfer könnte eine weitere Möglichkeit eröffnen, metastasierte neuroendokrine Tumore zu behandeln. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde daher die transkriptionelle Regulation von Chromogranin A als Basis zur Gentherapie durch eine regulierte Genexpression in neuroendokrinen Tumorzellen untersucht. Chromogranin A (CgA) besitzt vielfältige Funktionen in der regulierten Sekretion von Peptidhormonen und Neurotransmittern. Es wird spezifisch in nahezu allen endokrinen und neuroendokrinen Zellen exprimiert und diagnostisch als Marker bei neuroendokrinen Tumorerkrankungen eingesetzt. Zur Identifizierung wichtiger cis-regulatorischer Elemente im humanen Chromogranin A Promotor wurde die 5'-flankierende Sequenz des hCgA Gens auf putative Transkriptionsfaktorbindungsseiten untersucht und eine Interspezieshomologie des humanen, bovinen, murinen und des Rattenchromogranin A Promotors erstellt. Es fand sich eine konservierte Sequenzhomologie in den proximalen Chromogranin A Promotorbereichen mit den putativen Transkriptionsfaktor-Bindungsseiten Egr-1/Sp1, CRE und TATA-Box. Untersuchungen zur zelltypspezifischen Regulation des Chromogranin A Promotors ergaben eine starke Expression von Chromogranin A in neuroendokrinen Pankreastumorzellen BON-1 und der Lungenkarzinomzelllinie EPLC 32M1, während sich nur eine geringe Expression in nicht neuroendokrinen Zelllinien wie z.B. der Fibroblastenzelllinie MSTO-211H zeigte. Die neuroendokrin-spezifische Regulation wurde im hCgA Promotor durch das im proximalen Promotorbereich gelegene CRE vermittelt. Ebenso konnte gezeigt werden, dass Gastrin und cAMP den hCgA Promotor über das CRE regulieren. Unter Anwendung des charakterisierten hCgA Promotors konnte die funktionelle Expression des Natriumjodidsymporters unter der Kontrolle des humanen CgA Promotors in BON 1 Zellen nachgewiesen werden. Dies bildet einen vielversprechenden neuen Therapieansatz, durch einen regulierten Gentransfer neuroendokrine Tumorzellen mittels einer Radiojodtherapie in Analogie zu Schilddrüsenkarzinomen zu behandeln

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990-2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

Forouzanfar MH, Afshin A, Alexander LT, et al. Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990-2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. LANCET. 2016;388(10053):1659-1724.Background The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 provides an up-to-date synthesis of the evidence for risk factor exposure and the attributable burden of disease. By providing national and subnational assessments spanning the past 25 years, this study can inform debates on the importance of addressing risks in context. Methods We used the comparative risk assessment framework developed for previous iterations of the Global Burden of Disease Study to estimate attributable deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and trends in exposure by age group, sex, year, and geography for 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks from 1990 to 2015. This study included 388 risk-outcome pairs that met World Cancer Research Fund-defined criteria for convincing or probable evidence. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from randomised controlled trials, cohorts, pooled cohorts, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. We developed a metric that allows comparisons of exposure across risk factors-the summary exposure value. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk level, we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We decomposed trends in attributable burden into contributions from population growth, population age structure, risk exposure, and risk-deleted cause-specific DALY rates. We characterised risk exposure in relation to a Socio-demographic Index (SDI). Findings Between 1990 and 2015, global exposure to unsafe sanitation, household air pollution, childhood underweight, childhood stunting, and smoking each decreased by more than 25%. Global exposure for several occupational risks, high body-mass index (BMI), and drug use increased by more than 25% over the same period. All risks jointly evaluated in 2015 accounted for 57.8% (95% CI 56.6-58.8) of global deaths and 41.2% (39.8-42.8) of DALYs. In 2015, the ten largest contributors to global DALYs among Level 3 risks were high systolic blood pressure (211.8 million [192.7 million to 231.1 million] global DALYs), smoking (148.6 million [134.2 million to 163.1 million]), high fasting plasma glucose (143.1 million [125.1 million to 163.5 million]), high BMI (120.1 million [83.8 million to 158.4 million]), childhood undernutrition (113.3 million [103.9 million to 123.4 million]), ambient particulate matter (103.1 million [90.8 million to 115.1 million]), high total cholesterol (88.7 million [74.6 million to 105.7 million]), household air pollution (85.6 million [66.7 million to 106.1 million]), alcohol use (85.0 million [77.2 million to 93.0 million]), and diets high in sodium (83.0 million [49.3 million to 127.5 million]). From 1990 to 2015, attributable DALYs declined for micronutrient deficiencies, childhood undernutrition, unsafe sanitation and water, and household air pollution; reductions in risk-deleted DALY rates rather than reductions in exposure drove these declines. Rising exposure contributed to notable increases in attributable DALYs from high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, occupational carcinogens, and drug use. Environmental risks and childhood undernutrition declined steadily with SDI; low physical activity, high BMI, and high fasting plasma glucose increased with SDI. In 119 countries, metabolic risks, such as high BMI and fasting plasma glucose, contributed the most attributable DALYs in 2015. Regionally, smoking still ranked among the leading five risk factors for attributable DALYs in 109 countries; childhood underweight and unsafe sex remained primary drivers of early death and disability in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Interpretation Declines in some key environmental risks have contributed to declines in critical infectious diseases. Some risks appear to be invariant to SDI. Increasing risks, including high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, drug use, and some occupational exposures, contribute to rising burden from some conditions, but also provide opportunities for intervention. Some highly preventable risks, such as smoking, remain major causes of attributable DALYs, even as exposure is declining. Public policy makers need to pay attention to the risks that are increasingly major contributors to global burden. Copyright (C) The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd

Untersuchungen zur transkriptionellen Regulation des Chromogranin A Gens und seine Anwendung zum zellspezifischen therapeutischen Gentransfer in neuroendokrine Pankreastumorzellen

Die Therapieoptionen zur Behandlung metastasierter neuroendokriner Tumore sind bisher ineffektiv. Der regulierte Gentransfer könnte eine weitere Möglichkeit eröffnen, metastasierte neuroendokrine Tumore zu behandeln. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde daher die transkriptionelle Regulation von Chromogranin A als Basis zur Gentherapie durch eine regulierte Genexpression in neuroendokrinen Tumorzellen untersucht. Chromogranin A (CgA) besitzt vielfältige Funktionen in der regulierten Sekretion von Peptidhormonen und Neurotransmittern. Es wird spezifisch in nahezu allen endokrinen und neuroendokrinen Zellen exprimiert und diagnostisch als Marker bei neuroendokrinen Tumorerkrankungen eingesetzt. Zur Identifizierung wichtiger cis-regulatorischer Elemente im humanen Chromogranin A Promotor wurde die 5'-flankierende Sequenz des hCgA Gens auf putative Transkriptionsfaktorbindungsseiten untersucht und eine Interspezieshomologie des humanen, bovinen, murinen und des Rattenchromogranin A Promotors erstellt. Es fand sich eine konservierte Sequenzhomologie in den proximalen Chromogranin A Promotorbereichen mit den putativen Transkriptionsfaktor-Bindungsseiten Egr-1/Sp1, CRE und TATA-Box. Untersuchungen zur zelltypspezifischen Regulation des Chromogranin A Promotors ergaben eine starke Expression von Chromogranin A in neuroendokrinen Pankreastumorzellen BON-1 und der Lungenkarzinomzelllinie EPLC 32M1, während sich nur eine geringe Expression in nicht neuroendokrinen Zelllinien wie z.B. der Fibroblastenzelllinie MSTO-211H zeigte. Die neuroendokrin-spezifische Regulation wurde im hCgA Promotor durch das im proximalen Promotorbereich gelegene CRE vermittelt. Ebenso konnte gezeigt werden, dass Gastrin und cAMP den hCgA Promotor über das CRE regulieren. Unter Anwendung des charakterisierten hCgA Promotors konnte die funktionelle Expression des Natriumjodidsymporters unter der Kontrolle des humanen CgA Promotors in BON 1 Zellen nachgewiesen werden. Dies bildet einen vielversprechenden neuen Therapieansatz, durch einen regulierten Gentransfer neuroendokrine Tumorzellen mittels einer Radiojodtherapie in Analogie zu Schilddrüsenkarzinomen zu behandeln

Musical Emotion Categorization with Vocoders of Varying Temporal and Spectral Content

While previous research investigating music emotion perception of cochlear implant (CI) users observed that temporal cues informing tempo largely convey emotional arousal (relaxing/stimulating), it remains unclear how other properties of the temporal content may contribute to the transmission of arousal features. Moreover, while detailed spectral information related to pitch and harmony in music - often not well perceived by CI users- reportedly conveys emotional valence (positive, negative), it remains unclear how the quality of spectral content contributes to valence perception. Therefore, the current study used vocoders to vary temporal and spectral content of music and tested music emotion categorization (joy, fear, serenity, sadness) in 23 normal-hearing participants. Vocoders were varied with two carriers (sinewave or noise; primarily modulating temporal information), and two filter orders (low or high; primarily modulating spectral information). Results indicated that emotion categorization was above-chance in vocoded excerpts but poorer than in a non-vocoded control condition. Among vocoded conditions, better temporal content (sinewave carriers) improved emotion categorization with a large effect while better spectral content (high filter order) improved it with a small effect. Arousal features were comparably transmitted in non-vocoded and vocoded conditions, indicating that lower temporal content successfully conveyed emotional arousal. Valence feature transmission steeply declined in vocoded conditions, revealing that valence perception was difficult for both lower and higher spectral content. The reliance on arousal information for emotion categorization of vocoded music suggests that efforts to refine temporal cues in the CI user signal may immediately benefit their music emotion perception

Scenario-Based Testing using Symbolic Animation of B Models

International audienceThis article presents a model-based test generation technique, from user-defined scenarios, for behavioral models expressed as B machines. Scenarios are expressed using a customized formalism, based on regular expressions, that makes it possible to describe sequences of operation calls possibly reaching specific states of the system. A symbolic animation engine, simulating the execution of a model using constraint logic programming, is then exploited to play the unfolded scenarios on the model and to instantiate the test cases, providing the expected results used to establish the conformance verdict. This approach is tool-supported by a research prototype and has been successfully applied in an industrial context of a smart card applet. This tool is extended by a scenario generator, which automatically generates testing strategies for exercising user-defined properties, written using specific patterns