Characterizing practices and the sanitary status of farms of Creole and Creole-like pigs in Martinique

Notice à reprendre pas de clé UT au 27 juin 2019The study aimed at characterizing the management of 27 pig farms in the frame-work of a conservation program of the Creole pig of Martinique. Blood samples were collected on 67 pigs for serological analysis. A multivariate analysis dis-criminated six groups of farms: group 1 (n = 9) consisted of family farms with fewer than three boars and a higher age of replacement of reproducers than the other farms (6.2 vs 5.0 years, p < 0.01); group 2 (n = 5) consisted of small farms with two matings per sow per yearand with more than two livestock species; group 3 (n = 5) consisted of farms with more than four boars and more than four sows, with batch management and a feeding diet mainly based on industrial concentrates; group 4 (n = 4) consisted of family farms with pigs reared outdoors and a feeding diet mainly based on local resources (50 to 100% of the total diet content); group 5 (n = 3) consisted of mixed farming systems with more than three boars and more than 10 sows; and group 6 consisted of a farm with a high number of females without batch management. The analysis of serological data showed that, regardless of the farming system (outdoor, semi outdoor, indoor), the sanitary status of pig farms in Martinique was good, with no identified con-tagious disease. The typology obtained and the results on the sanitary status of farms are encouraging signs to pursue the project aiming at the conservation of Creole pigs by exchange of healthy reproducers between farmers and the devel-opment of a niche market around heritage values

A united statement of the global chiropractic research community against the pseudoscientific claim that chiropractic care boosts immunity.

BACKGROUND: In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) posted reports claiming that chiropractic care can impact the immune system. These claims clash with recommendations from the World Health Organization and World Federation of Chiropractic. We discuss the scientific validity of the claims made in these ICA reports. MAIN BODY: We reviewed the two reports posted by the ICA on their website on March 20 and March 28, 2020. We explored the method used to develop the claim that chiropractic adjustments impact the immune system and discuss the scientific merit of that claim. We provide a response to the ICA reports and explain why this claim lacks scientific credibility and is dangerous to the public. More than 150 researchers from 11 countries reviewed and endorsed our response. CONCLUSION: In their reports, the ICA provided no valid clinical scientific evidence that chiropractic care can impact the immune system. We call on regulatory authorities and professional leaders to take robust political and regulatory action against those claiming that chiropractic adjustments have a clinical impact on the immune system

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

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

Characterizing practices and the sanitary status of farms of Creole and Creole-like pigs in Martinique

Notice à reprendre pas de clé UT au 27 juin 2019The study aimed at characterizing the management of 27 pig farms in the frame-work of a conservation program of the Creole pig of Martinique. Blood samples were collected on 67 pigs for serological analysis. A multivariate analysis dis-criminated six groups of farms: group 1 (n = 9) consisted of family farms with fewer than three boars and a higher age of replacement of reproducers than the other farms (6.2 vs 5.0 years, p < 0.01); group 2 (n = 5) consisted of small farms with two matings per sow per yearand with more than two livestock species; group 3 (n = 5) consisted of farms with more than four boars and more than four sows, with batch management and a feeding diet mainly based on industrial concentrates; group 4 (n = 4) consisted of family farms with pigs reared outdoors and a feeding diet mainly based on local resources (50 to 100% of the total diet content); group 5 (n = 3) consisted of mixed farming systems with more than three boars and more than 10 sows; and group 6 consisted of a farm with a high number of females without batch management. The analysis of serological data showed that, regardless of the farming system (outdoor, semi outdoor, indoor), the sanitary status of pig farms in Martinique was good, with no identified con-tagious disease. The typology obtained and the results on the sanitary status of farms are encouraging signs to pursue the project aiming at the conservation of Creole pigs by exchange of healthy reproducers between farmers and the devel-opment of a niche market around heritage values