Evidence of the impacts of pharmaceuticals on aquatic animal behaviour: a systematic map protocol

Background: Globally, there is growing concern over the impacts of pharmaceuticals and drug manufacturing on aquatic animals, and pharmaceuticals are now recognized as contaminants of emerging environmental concern. In recent years, scientists, environmental managers, and policymakers have been interested in using behavioural endpoints for chemical regulation, given their importance for ftness and survival. The body of research on whether and how pharmaceutical exposure alters the behaviour of aquatic animals has grown exponentially, making it diffcult to get an overview of the results. With an international spotlight on the management of these environmental threats, synthesizing the currently available data is vital to inform managers and policymakers, as well as highlighting areas where more research is needed. This is a protocol for a systematic evidence map (SEM) and serves as an a priori record of our objectives and methodological decisions. Our objectives are to identify, catalogue, and present primary research articles on the efects of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals on aquatic animal behaviour. Methods: The literature search will be conducted using two electronic databases: Web of Science and Scopus, and we will supplement these searches with additional sources. The search string has been developed using a Population–Exposure–Comparison–Outcome (PECO) framework, to capture articles that used an aquatic organism (P, population) to test the efects of a pharmaceutical (E, exposure) on behaviour (O, outcome). Eligible articles must also have a control group (C, comparison). Articles will be screened in two stages, title and abstract, followed by full-text screening before data extraction. Decision trees have been designed a priori to appraise articles for eligibility at both stages of screening. At both stages, screening each article will be completed by two independent reviewers. Study validity will be appraised but not used as a basis for article inclusion. The information extracted from the eligible articles, along with bibliometric data, will be mapped and displayed. All data associated with this SEM will be publicly available through the Open Science Framework (OSF) and a future project webpage

Anti-protozoal activity of aporphine and protoberberine alkaloids from Annickia kummeriae (Engl. & Diels) Setten & Maas (Annonaceae)

BACKGROUND: Malaria, trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis have an overwhelming impact in the poorest countries in the world due to their prevalence, virulence and drug resistance ability. Currently, there is inadequate armory of drugs for the treatment of malaria, trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis. This underscores the continuing need for the discovery and development of new anti-protozoal drugs. Consequently, there is an urgent need for research aimed at the discovery and development of new effective and safe anti-plasmodial, anti-trypanosomal and anti-leishmanial drugs. METHODS: Bioassay-guided chromatographic fractionation was employed for the isolation and purification of antiprotozoal alkaloids. RESULTS: The methanol extract from the leaves of Annickia kummeriae from Tanzania exhibited a strong anti-plasmodial activity against the multi-drug resistant Plasmodium falciparum K1 strain (IC50 0.12 +/- 0.01 mug/ml, selectivity index (SI) of 250, moderate activity against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense STIB 900 strain (IC50 2.50 +/- 0.19 mug/ml, SI 12) and mild activity against Leishmania donovani axenic MHOM-ET-67/82 strain (IC50 9.25 +/- 0.54 mug/ml, SI 3.2). Bioassay-guided chromatographic fractionation led to the isolation of four pure alkaloids, lysicamine (1), trivalvone (2), palmatine (3), jatrorrhizine (4) and two sets of mixtures of jatrorrhizine (4) with columbamine (5) and palmatine (3) with (-)-tetrahydropalmatine (6). The alkaloids showed low cytotoxicity activity (CC50 30 - <90 mug/ml), strong to moderate anti-plasmodial activity (IC50 0.08 +/-

Foodborne Botulism in Canada, 1985–2005

During 1985–2005, a total of 91 laboratory-confirmed outbreaks of foodborne botulism occurred in Canada; these outbreaks involved 205 cases and 11 deaths. Of the outbreaks, 75 (86.2%) were caused by Clostridium botulinum type E, followed by types A (7, 8.1%) and B (5, 5.7%). Approximately 85% of the outbreaks occurred in Alaska Native communities, particularly the Inuit of Nunavik in northern Quebec and the First Nations population of the Pacific coast of British Columbia. These populations were predominantly exposed to type E botulinum toxin through the consumption of traditionally prepared marine mammal and fish products. Two botulism outbreaks were attributed to commercial ready-to-eat meat products and 3 to foods served in restaurants; several cases were attributed to non-Native home-prepared foods. Three affected pregnant women delivered healthy infants. Improvements in botulism case identification and early treatment have resulted in a reduction in the case-fatality rate in Canada

Guidelines for standardizing T-cell cytometry assays to link biomarkers, mechanisms, and disease outcomes in type 1 diabetes

Cytometric immunophenotyping is a powerful tool to discover and implement T-cell biomarkers of type 1 diabetes (T1D) progression and response to clinical therapy. Although many discovery-based T-cell biomarkers have been described, to date, no such markers have been widely adopted in standard practice. The heterogeneous nature of T1D and lack of standardized assays and experimental design across studies is a major barrier to the broader adoption of T-cell immunophenotyping assays. There is an unmet need to harmonize the design of immunophenotyping assays, including those that measure antigen-agnostic cell populations, such that data collected from different clinical trial sites and T1D cohorts are comparable, yet account for cohort-specific features and different drug mechanisms of action. In these Guidelines, we aim to provide expert advice on how to unify aspects of study design and practice. We provide recommendations for defining cohorts, method implementation, as well as tools for data analysis and reporting by highlighting and building on selected successes. Harmonization of cytometry-based T-cell assays will allow researchers to better integrate findings across trials, ultimately enabling the identification and validation of biomarkers of disease progression and treatment response in T1D