Expressed sequence tags from the oomycete fish pathogen Saprolegnia parasitica reveal putative virulence factors

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Experience du service de medecine nucleaire sahloul sousse dans la prise en charge des carcinomes differencies de la thyroïde a thyroglobuline elevee.

But : L’objectif de notre travail est de présenter notre expérience dans la prise en charge des cancer différencié de la thyroïde (CDT) à Thyroglobuline (Tg) élevée, tout en identifiant les paramètres modifiant l’efficacité de l’Irathérapie et la valeur seuil de la Tg permettant avec un balayage post thérapeutique négatif de conclure à une rémission.Matériels et méthodes : Il s’agit d’une étude rétrospective portant sur 150 patients opérés pour CDT, suivis entre 1990 et 2006 et présentant une Tg>2ng/ml.Résultats : Il s’agit de 122 femmes et 28 hommes. L’âge moyen était de 52 ans. La Tg ne dépendait pas du type histologique mais il existait une relation statistiquement significative entre la Tg et la taille tumorale, l’atteinte ganglionnaire, l’extension locorégionale, la présence de métastases et le stade TNM. La réponse thérapeutique des CDT avec une Tg élevée dépendait de l’âge des patients, des caractéristiques anatomopathologiques de la tumeur et des valeurs de la Tg.Conclusion : L’efficacité ablative est optimisée par des cures d’iode 131 qui doivent être prolongées tant que la Tg reste élevée. La surveillance à vie, au cours de la quelle on exige des seuils de Tg infèrieurs à 2ng/ml, est nécessaire. Mots clés : Cancers différenciés de la thyroide, Thyroglobuline, Irathérapie, Pronostic, Surveillance.Purpose: The aim of our work is to present our experience in the management of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) with high thyroglobulin (Tg) , to identify parameters changing iodine effectiveness and Tg threshold with negative post treatment scan conclude to remission.Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study of 150 patients undergoing CDT, followed between 1990 and 2006 and having a Tg > 2ng/ml .Results: Our study concerns 122 women and 28 men. The average age was 52 years . Tg value does not depend on the histological type but there was a statistically significant relationship between Tg and tumor size, lymph node involvement, locoregional , metastasis and TNM stage . The therapeutic response of CDT with a high Tg was dependent on the age of patients, the pathological characteristics of the tumor and the Tg values ofConclusion: The ablative efficiency is optimized by 131 cures iodine should be extended until the Tg remains high. Monitoring life is necessary and the thresholds Tg below 2ng/ml is required.Keywords: Differentiated thyroid Cancers, Thyroglobulin, Iodine 131, Prediction, Monitoring

A Secure Fog-based Platform for SCADA-based IoT Critical Infrastructure

The rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as smart meters and water valves, into industrial critical infrastructures and control systems has put stringent performance and scalability requirements on modern Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. While cloud computing has enabled modern SCADA systems to cope with the increasing amount of data generated by sensors, actuators and control devices, there has been a growing interest recently to deploy edge datacenters in fog architectures to secure low-latency and enhanced security for mission-critical data. However, fog security and privacy for SCADA-based IoT critical infrastructures remains an under-researched area. To address this challenge, this contribution proposes a novel security “toolbox” to reinforce the integrity, security, and privacy of SCADA-based IoTcritical infrastructure at the fog layer. The toolbox incorporates a key feature: a cryptographic-based access approach to the cloud services using identity-based cryptography and signature schemes at the fog layer. We present the implementation details of a prototype for our proposed Secure Fog-based Platform (SeFoP) and provide performance evaluation results to demonstrate the appropriateness of the proposed platform in a real-world scenario. These results can pave the way towards the development of more secured and trusted SCADA-based IoT critical infrastructure, which is essential to counter cyber threats against next-generation critical infrastructure and industrial control systems. The results from the experiments demonstrate a superior performance of SeFoP, which is around 2.8 seconds when adding 5 virtual machines (VMs), 3.2 seconds when adding 10 VMs, and 112 seconds when adding 1000 VMs compared to Multi-Level user Access Control (MLAC) platform

Cutting Edge: Lessons from fraxinus, a crowd-sourced citizen science game in genomics

In 2013, in response to an epidemic of ash dieback disease in England the previous year, we launched a Facebook-based game called Fraxinus to enable non-scientists to contribute to genomics studies of the pathogen that causes the disease and the ash trees that are devastated by it. Over a period of 51 weeks players were able to match computational alignments of genetic sequences in 78% of cases, and to improve them in 15% of cases. We also found that most players were only transiently interested in the game, and that the majority of the work done was performed by a small group of dedicated players. Based on our experiences we have built a linear model for the length of time that contributors are likely to donate to a crowd-sourced citizen science project. This model could serve a guide for the design and implementation of future crowd-sourced citizen science initiatives

A secure fog-based platform for SCADA-based IoT critical infrastructure

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The rapid proliferation of Internet of things (IoT) devices, such as smart meters and water valves, into industrial critical infrastructures and control systems has put stringent performance and scalability requirements on modern Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. While cloud computing has enabled modern SCADA systems to cope with the increasing amount of data generated by sensors, actuators, and control devices, there has been a growing interest recently to deploy edge data centers in fog architectures to secure low-latency and enhanced security for mission-critical data. However, fog security and privacy for SCADA-based IoT critical infrastructures remains an under-researched area. To address this challenge, this contribution proposes a novel security “toolbox” to reinforce the integrity, security, and privacy of SCADA-based IoT critical infrastructure at the fog layer. The toolbox incorporates a key feature: a cryptographic-based access approach to the cloud services using identity-based cryptography and signature schemes at the fog layer. We present the implementation details of a prototype for our proposed secure fog-based platform and provide performance evaluation results to demonstrate the appropriateness of the proposed platform in a real-world scenario. These results can pave the way toward the development of a more secure and trusted SCADA-based IoT critical infrastructure, which is essential to counter cyber threats against next-generation critical infrastructure and industrial control systems. The results from the experiments demonstrate a superior performance of the secure fog-based platform, which is around 2.8 seconds when adding five virtual machines (VMs), 3.2 seconds when adding 10 VMs, and 112 seconds when adding 1000 VMs, compared to the multilevel user access control platform

Specific Class I HLA Supertypes but Not HLA Zygosity or Expression Are Associated with Outcomes following HLA-Matched Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplant: HLA Supertypes Impact Allogeneic HCT Outcomes

Maximizing the probability of antigen presentation to T cells through diversity in HLAs can enhance immune responsiveness and translate into improved clinical outcomes, as evidenced by the association of heterozygosity and supertypes at HLA class I loci with improved survival in patients with advanced solid tumors treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. We investigated the impact of HLA heterozygosity, supertypes, and surface expression on outcomes in adult and pediatric patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma who underwent 8/8 HLA-matched, T cell replete, unrelated, allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) from 2000 to 2015 using patient data reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. HLA class I heterozygosity and HLA expression were not associated with overall survival, relapse, transplant-related mortality (TRM), disease-free survival (DFS), and acute graft-versus-host disease following HCT. The HLA-B62 supertype was associated with decreased TRM in the entire patient cohort (hazard ratio [HR], 0.79; 95% CI, 0.69 to 0.90; P = .00053). The HLA-B27 supertype was associated with worse DFS in patients with AML (HR = 1.21; 95% CI, 1.10 to 1.32; P = .00005). These findings suggest that the survival benefit of HLA heterozygosity seen in solid tumor patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors does not extend to patients undergoing allogeneic HCT. Certain HLA supertypes, however, are associated with TRM and DFS, suggesting that similarities in peptide presentation between supertype members play a role in these outcomes. Beyond implications for prognosis following HCT, these findings support the further investigation of these HLA supertypes and the specific immune peptides important for transplant outcomes

Natural history of Arabidopsis thaliana and oomycete symbioses

Molecular ecology of plant–microbe interactions has immediate significance for filling a gap in knowledge between the laboratory discipline of molecular biology and the largely theoretical discipline of evolutionary ecology. Somewhere in between lies conservation biology, aimed at protection of habitats and the diversity of species housed within them. A seemingly insignificant wildflower called Arabidopsis thaliana has an important contribution to make in this endeavour. It has already transformed botanical research with deepening understanding of molecular processes within the species and across the Plant Kingdom; and has begun to revolutionize plant breeding by providing an invaluable catalogue of gene sequences that can be used to design the most precise molecular markers attainable for marker-assisted selection of valued traits. This review describes how A. thaliana and two of its natural biotrophic parasites could be seminal as a model for exploring the biogeography and molecular ecology of plant–microbe interactions, and specifically, for testing hypotheses proposed from the geographic mosaic theory of co-evolution

A molecular insight into algal-oomycete warfare : cDNA analysis of Ectocarpus siliculosus infected with the basal oomycete Eurychasma dicksonii

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An essential role for decorin in bladder cancer invasiveness

Muscle-invasive forms of urothelial carcinomas are responsible for most mortality in bladder cancer. Finding new treatments for invasive bladder tumours requires adequate animal models to decipher the mechanisms of progression, in particular the way tumours interact with their microenvironment. Herein, using the murine bladder tumour cell line MB49 and its more aggressive variant MB49-I, we demonstrate that the adaptive immune system efficiently limits progression of MB49, whereas MB49-I has lost tumour antigens and is insensitive to adaptive immune responses. Furthermore, we unravel a parallel mechanism developed by MB49-I to subvert its environment: de novo secretion of the proteoglycan decorin. We show that decorin overexpression in the MB49/MB49-I model is required for efficient progression, by promoting angiogenesis and tumour cell invasiveness. Finally, we show that these results are relevant to muscle-invasive human bladder carcinomas, which overexpress decorin together with angiogenesis- and adhesion/migration-related genes, and that decorin overexpression in the human bladder carcinoma cell line TCCSUP is required for efficient invasiveness in vitro. We thus propose decorin as a new therapeutic target for these aggressive tumours.Fil: El Behi, Mohamed. Institute Curie; Francia. Centre de Recherche de I; Francia. Inserm; FranciaFil: Krumeich, Sophie. Institute Curie; Francia. Inserm; FranciaFil: Lodillinsky, Catalina. Institute Curie; Francia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Kamoun, Aurélie. Institute Curie; FranciaFil: Tibaldi, Lorenzo. Institute Curie; Francia. Inserm; FranciaFil: Sugano, Gaël. Institute Curie; Francia. Inserm; FranciaFil: de Reynies, Aurélien. Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer; FranciaFil: Chapeaublanc, Elodie. Institute Curie; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Laplanche, Agnès. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia. Institut de Cancérologie Gustave Roussy; FranciaFil: Lebret, Thierry. Hôpital Foch. Service d; Francia. Université de Versailles; FranciaFil: Allory, Yves. Inserm; FranciaFil: Radvanyi, François. Institute Curie; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Lantz, Olivier. Institute Curie; Francia. Inserm; FranciaFil: Eijan, Ana Maria. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Ángel H. Roffo"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Bernard Pierrot, Isabelle. Institute Curie; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Théery, Clotilde. Institute Curie; Francia. Inserm; Franci