Morphology of first seven larval stages of the striped soldier shrimp, Plesionika edwardsii (Brandt, 1851) (Crustacea: Decapoda: Pandalidae) from laboratory reared material

With the idea of starting a research program for the biological study of Plesionika edwardsii, eight ovigerous females were collected with artisanal bottom traps at 220 m depth in the Southwest of Gran Canaria island, north-western Africa (27º43.864´N 15º47.822´W), for laboratory larval cultures. The first seven zoeal stages of Plesionika edwardsii were obtained for 20 days after hatching at 23.4 ± 0.4ºC, 10ºC above adult habitat temperature. The zoeal stages are described and illustrated, constituting the first detailed larval description of the genus Plesionika. The larval morphology is compared with previous larval descriptions attributed to Plesionika spp. collected in plankton tows and with descriptions of the first stage of development of Plesionika acanthonotus reared in laboratory

Description of the first five larval stages of Plesionika narval (Fabricius, 1787) (Crustacea, Decapoda, Pandalidae) obtained under laboratory conditions.

The first five zoeal stages of Plesionika narval were obtained from 15 days of laboratory culture. All larval stages are described and illustrated in detail. Zoeal characters are compared with the previous described larvae of Plesionika acanthonotus and Plesionika edwardsii and with undetermined zoeas of Pandalidae from plankton samples

ICOS costimulation at the tumor site in combination with CTLA-4 blockade therapy elicits strong tumor immunity

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) blockade therapy is able to induce long-lasting antitumor responses in a fraction of cancer patients. Nonetheless, there is still room for improvement in the quest for new therapeutic combinations. ICOS costimulation has been underscored as a possible target to include with CTLA-4 blocking treatment. Herein, we describe an ICOS agonistic aptamer that potentiates T cell activation and induces stronger antitumor responses when locally injected at the tumor site in combination with anti-CTLA-4 antibody in different tumor models. Furthermore, ICOS agonistic aptamer was engineered as a bi-specific tumor-targeting aptamer to reach any disseminated tumor lesions after systemic injection. Treatment with the bi-specific aptamer in combination with CTLA-4 blockade showed strong antitumor immunity, even in a melanoma tumor model where CTLA-4 treatment alone did not display any significant therapeutic benefit. Thus, this work provides strong support for the development of combinatorial therapies involving anti-CTLA-4 blockade and ICOS agonist tumor-targeting agents

Altered multisensory temporal integration in obesity

Eating is a multisensory behavior. The act of placing food in the mouth provides us with a variety of sensory information, including gustatory, olfactory, somatosensory, visual, and auditory. Evidence suggests altered eating behavior in obesity. Nonetheless, multisensory integration in obesity has been scantily investigated so far. Starting from this gap in the literature, we seek to provide the first comprehensive investigation of multisensory integration in obesity. Twenty male obese participants and twenty male healthy-weight participants took part in the study aimed at describing the multisensory temporal binding window (TBW). The TBW is defined as the range of stimulus onset asynchrony in which multiple sensory inputs have a high probability of being integrated. To investigate possible multisensory temporal processing deficits in obesity, we investigated performance in two multisensory audiovisual temporal tasks, namely simultaneity judgment and temporal order judgment. Results showed a wider TBW in obese participants as compared to healthy-weight controls. This holds true for both the simultaneity judgment and the temporal order judgment tasks. An explanatory hypothesis would regard the effect of metabolic alterations and low-grade inflammatory state, clinically observed in obesity, on the temporal organization of brain ongoing activity, which one of the neural mechanisms enabling multisensory integration

Description of the first five larval stages of Plesionika narval (Fabricius, 1787) (Crustacea, Decapoda, Pandalidae) obtained under laboratory conditions.

The first five zoeal stages of Plesionika narval were obtained from 15 days of laboratory culture. All larval stages are described and illustrated in detail. Zoeal characters are compared with the previous described larvae of Plesionika acanthonotus and Plesionika edwardsii and with undetermined zoeas of Pandalidae from plankton samples