Coleophora sirella Tabell & Mutanen, sp. n. from Finland (Lepidoptera: Coleophoridae)

 Coleophora sirella Tabell & Mutanen, sp. n. from Finland is described as new. The species resemblesmost closely C. glitzella O. Hofmann, 1869, C. murinella Tengström, 1848 and C. juncicolella Stainton, 1851 but has diagnostic differences in its life history, external appearance, genitalmorphology as well as DNA barcode. The new species feeds on Empetrum nigrum L. Adultmale and female, their genitalia as well as larval case are illustrated, and the known distribution range is given.DNAbarcodes are provided for the new species and its closestEuropean relatives

Discovery of biomarkers for glycaemic deterioration before and after the onset of type 2 diabetes: rationale and design of the epidemiological studies within the IMI DIRECT Consortium

Aims/hypothesis The DIRECT (Diabetes Research on Patient Stratification) Study is part of a European Union Framework 7 Innovative Medicines Initiative project, a joint undertaking between four industry and 21 academic partners throughout Europe. The Consortium aims to discover and validate biomarkers that: (1) predict the rate of glycaemic deterioration before and after type 2 diabetes onset; (2) predict the response to diabetes therapies; and (3) help stratify type 2 diabetes into clearly definable disease subclasses that can be treated more effectively than without stratification. This paper describes two new prospective cohort studies conducted as part of DIRECT. Methods Prediabetic participants (target sample size 2,200-2,700) and patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes (target sample size similar to 1,000) are undergoing detailed metabolic phenotyping at baseline and 18 months and 36 months later. Abdominal, pancreatic and liver fat is assessed using MRI. Insulin secretion and action are assessed using frequently sampled OGTTs in non-diabetic participants, and frequently sampled mixed-meal tolerance tests in patients with type 2 diabetes. Biosamples include venous blood, faeces, urine and nail clippings, which, among other biochemical analyses, will be characterised at genetic, transcriptomic, metabolomic, proteomic and metagenomic levels. Lifestyle is assessed using high-resolution triaxial accelerometry, 24 h diet record, and food habit questionnaires. Conclusinos/interpretation DIRECT will yield an unprecedented array of biomaterials and data. This resource, available through managed access to scientists within and outside the Consortium, will facilitate the development of new treatments and therapeutic strategies for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes

Coleophora sirella Tabell & Mutanen, sp. n. from Finland (Lepidoptera: Coleophoridae)

Abstract Coleophora sirella Tabell & Mutanen, sp. n. from Finland is described as new. The species resemblesmost closely C. glitzella O. Hofmann, 1869, C. murinella Tengström, 1848 and C. juncicolella Stainton, 1851 but has diagnostic differences in its life history, external appearance, genitalmorphology as well as DNA barcode. The new species feeds on Empetrum nigrum L. Adultmale and female, their genitalia as well as larval case are illustrated, and the known distribution range is given. DNA barcodes are provided for the new species and its closest European relatives

Multicenter immunoassay validation of cerebrospinal fluid neurofilament light: A biomarker for neurodegeneration

Aim: Neurofilament light (NfL) chain, a putative cerebrospinal fluid biomarker, can support neurodegenerative disease diagnosis and indicate disease severity and prognosis. Universal validation protocols when used to measure biomarkers can reduce pre and analytical laboratory variation, thus increasing end-user confidence in the consistency of validation data across sites. Methodology: Here, a commercially available NfL ELISA (UmanDiagnostics, Umeå, Sweden) was validated in a multicentered setting using comprehensive newly developed standard operating procedures. Results: The data showed good assay sensitivity and intra and interassay precision. Interlaboratory precision was, however, suboptimal. Conclusion: The UmanDiagnostics assay is suitable for the quantification of NfL in human cerebrospinal fluid. However, sources of interlaboratory variation in the data require further investigation

Discovery of biomarkers for glycaemic deterioration before and after the onset of type 2 diabetes: Rationale and design of the epidemiological studies within the IMI DIRECT Consortium

Aims/hypothesis: The DIRECT (Diabetes Research on Patient Stratification) Study is part of a European Union Framework 7 Innovative Medicines Initiative project, a joint undertaking between four industry and 21 academic partners throughout Europe. The Consortium aims to discover and validate biomarkers that: (1) predict the rate of glycaemic deterioration before and after type 2 diabetes onset; (2) predict the response to diabetes therapies; and (3) help stratify type 2 diabetes into clearly definable disease subclasses that can be treated more effectively than without stratification. This paper describes two new prospective cohort studies conducted as part of DIRECT. Methods: Prediabetic participants (target sample size 2,200-2,700) and patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes (target sample size ~1,000) are undergoing detailed metabolic phenotyping at baseline and 18 months and 36 months later. Abdominal, pancreatic and liver fat is assessed using MRI. Insulin secretion and action are assessed using frequently sampled OGTTs in non-diabetic participants, and frequently sampled mixed-meal tolerance tests in patients with type 2 diabetes. Biosamples include venous blood, faeces, urine and nail clippings, which, among other biochemical analyses, will be characterised at genetic, transcriptomic, metabolomic, proteomic and metagenomic levels. Lifestyle is assessed using high-resolution triaxial accelerometry, 24 h diet record, and food habit questionnaires. Conclusions/interpretation: DIRECT will yield an unprecedented array of biomaterials and data. This resource, available through managed access to scientists within and outside the Consortium, will facilitate the development of new treatments and therapeutic strategies for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes. © 2014 The Author(s)

Metabolomic response to Nordic foods

Introduction: Several studies have tested metabolic risk factors following dietary intervention with Nordic diets. The SYSDIET study tested a healthy Nordic diet according to the Nordic Nutrition Recommendation (NNR) in five different countries while the SHOPUS study in Denmark tested the “New Nordic Diet” designed to meet NNR while also being sustainable and palatable. Objectives: To investigate whether metabolic profiles 1) reflect Nordic diets, 2) are improved by data fusion and 3) reflect dietary compliance. Methods: Plasma and urine samples from both studies were profiled by one or several metabolomics platforms (LC-MS, GC-MS, NMR) and the data analysed by PLS-DA. Results: Metabolic profiles of both urine and plasma reflected the Nordic or control diets with varying degree of performance, depending on the analytical platform used. The best ROC-curves for the SHOPUS study had AUC’s above 0.8. Data fusion across platforms or sample types did not improve these models. The metabolic profiles from SYSDIET also discriminated between the countries and centres where the samples had been collected. There was only about 10% overlap between the volunteers identified as potentially non-compliant based on their most discriminating urine or plasma profiles. This may reflect that relatively many volunteers are only occasionally non-compliant while only few are more consistently non-compliant. For this latter group the marker patterns included markers of several foods that were clearly not part of the diet they were supposed to follow, supporting the interpretation that these subjects were in fact non-compliant and not just having individual characteristics of metabolism placing them outside the main pattern. Conclusion: Dietary patterns with Nordic foods are reflected with good accuracy by metabolomics at the group level, but patterns of several samples from each volunteer may be needed to identify the more consistently non-compliant participants. Data fusion did not improve the models in this study