Physical exercise in major depression: Reducing the mortality gap while improving clinical outcomes

Major depression shortens life while the effectiveness of frontline treatments remains modest. Exercise has been shown to be effective both in reducing mortality and in treating symptoms of major depression, but it is still underutilized in clinical practice, possibly due to prevalent misperceptions. For instance, a common misperception is that exercise is beneficial for depression mostly because of its positive effects on the body (\u201cfrom the neck down\u201d), whereas its effectiveness in treating core features of depression (\u201cfrom the neck up\u201d) is underappreciated. Other long-held misperceptions are that patients suffering from depression will not engage in exercise even if physicians prescribe it, and that only vigorous exercise is effective. Lastly, a false assumption is that exercise may be more harmful than beneficial in old age, and therefore should only be recommended to younger patients. This narrative review summarizes relevant literature to address the aforementioned misperceptions and to provide practical recommendations for prescribing exercise to individuals with major depression

Validation and Ecological Niche Investigation of a New Fungal Intraspecific Competitor as a Biocontrol Agent for the Sustainable Containment of Aflatoxins on Maize Fields

Crop yield and plant products quality are directly or indirectly affected by climate alterations. Adverse climatic conditions often promote the occurrence of different abiotic stresses, which can reduce or enhance the susceptibility to pests or pathogens. Aflatoxin producing fungi, in particular, whose diffusion and deleterious consequences on cereals commodities have been demonstrated to highly depend on the temperature and humidity conditions that threaten increasingly larger areas. Biological methods using intraspecific competitors to prevent fungal development and/or toxin production at the pre-harvest level are particularly promising, even if their efficacy could be affected by the ecological interaction within the resident microbial population. A previously characterized Aspergillus flavus atoxigenic strain was applied in two maize fields to validate its effectiveness as a biocontrol agent against aflatoxin contamination. At one month post-application, at the harvest stage, its persistence within the A. flavus population colonizing the maize kernels in the treated area was assessed, and its efficacy was compared in vitro with a representation of the isolated atoxigenic population. Results proved that our fungal competitor contained the aflatoxin level on maize grains as successfully as a traditional chemical strategy, even if representing less than 30% of the atoxigenic strains re-isolated, and achieved the best performance (in terms of bio-competitive potential) concerning endogenous atoxigenic isolates

The ground beetle Pseudoophonus rufipes gut microbiome is influenced by the farm management system

: Intensive conventional farm management, characterized by high agrochemicals input, could alter the composition of microbial communities with potential negative effects on both functional traits and the ecosystem services provided. In this study, we investigated the gut microbial composition of a high ecological relevance carabid Pseudoophonus rufipes, sampled in two fields subjected to conventional and organic management practices. Carabids' gut microbiota was analyzed via qPCR and NGS. Profound differences between the microbial composition of organic and conventional samples were detected: the abundance of Tenericutes and Proteobacteria was significant higher in organic and conventional samples, respectively. Spiroplasmataceae and Bifidobacteriaceae families were significantly more abundant in samples from organic management, while Enterococcaceae, Morganellaceae and Yersiniaceae were more abundant in samples from conventional management. The diverse gut microbial composition of insects between the two management systems is related to the pressure of environmental stressors and it may representing an important bioindication of ecological functions and services provided by a carabid species

PO-485 Low abundance circulating proteins in giant cell tumours of bone

Introduction Circulating low-abundance proteins/fragments generating from tumour cells and tissues, represent the most important source of cancer biomarkers useful for early diagnosis and prognosis. Giant cell tumour of bone (GCT) is a benign neoplasm occurring in the long bone and in the axial skeleton of young adults. Approximately 5% of GCT develop pulmonary metastases. Although many biomarkers have been proposed, identification of circulating low abundance molecules may be useful to predict metastasis with a non invasive method. Material and methods The hydrogel nanoparticles technique followed by mass spectrometry was used to detect low molecular weight serum proteins or protein fragments in serum of 20 GCT patients with different clinical course and in 10 healthy sera used as control. The most representative low-abundant de novo or differentially abundant proteins were submitted to String database in order to define protein-protein interaction network. Cluster analysis was performed to identify prognostic groups of patients with similar abundance of proteins that significantly discriminate between the groups. Results and discussions For the 25 low-abundant de novo or differentially abundant proteins identified, we recognised that the top interconnected pathways included protein activation cascade, wound healing, blood coagulation, cell-substrate adhesion. Proteoma cluster analysis separated metastasis-free from metastatic GCT patients in two well-defined groups where serum levels of signalling transduction mediators and regulators of kinase activity presented a high discriminatory power. Increased expression of proteins STAT5B, GRB2 and OXSR1 was related to a higher probability of metastasis. Conclusion In conclusion, using a no invasive technique, we identified differentially abundant serum biomarkers, also providing prognostic information in patients with GCT of bone. Future studies are ongoing to establish the interplay between these biomarkers in order to fully understand the mechanism involved in tumour development and to focus on the planning of tailored therapies that should be more effective and less toxic

Prognosis of follicular lymphoma: a predictive model based on a retrospective analysis of 987 cases

Patients (n-987) with a histologically confirmed diagnosis of follicular lymphoma were studied with the aim of developing a prognostic model specifically devised for this type of lymphoma. We collected information on age, sex, Ann Arbor stage, number of extranodal disease sites, bone marrow (BM) involvement, bulky disease, B symptom criteria (fever, night sweats, and weight loss), performance status (PS), serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level, serum albumin level, hemoglobin level, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). In the training sample of 429 patients with complete data, multivariate analysis showed that age, sex, number of extranodal sites, B symptoms, serum LDH level, and ESR were factors predictive for overall survival. Using these 6 variables, a prognostic model was devised to identify 3 groups at different risk. The 5- and 10-year survival rate was 90% and 65% for patients at low risk, respectively; 75% and 54% for patients at intermediate risk; and 38% and 11% for those at high risk (log-rank test, 86.62; P < .0001). The model was also predictive (P = .0001) in the validation sample of 265 patients with complete data only for the 6 variables used in the development of the model and even in the group of 210 patients from the validation sample uniformly treated with doxorubicin-containing regimens (P = .0001). The prognostic model appears to be very useful in identifying patients with follicular lymphoma at low, intermediate, or high risk

Selective inhibition of HDAC6 regulates expression of the oncogenic driver EWSR1-FLI1 through the EWSR1 promoter in Ewing sarcoma

Ewing sarcoma (EWS) is an aggressive bone and soft tissue tumor of children and young adults in which the principal driver is a fusion gene, EWSR1-FLI1. Although the essential role of EWSR1-FLI1 protein in the regulation of oncogenesis, survival, and tumor progression processes has been described in-depth, little is known about the regulation of chimeric fusion-gene expression. Here, we demonstrate that the active nuclear HDAC6 in EWS modulates the acetylation status of specificity protein 1 (SP1), consequently regulating the SP1/P300 activator complex binding to EWSR1 and EWSR1-FLI1 promoters. Selective inhibition of HDAC6 impairs binding of the activator complex SP1/P300, thereby inducing EWSR1-FLI1 downregulation and significantly reducing its oncogenic functions. In addition, sensitivity of EWS cell lines to HDAC6 inhibition is higher than other tumor or non-tumor cell lines. High expression of HDAC6 in primary EWS tumor samples from patients correlates with a poor prognosis in two independent series accounting 279 patients. Notably, a combination treatment of a selective HDAC6 and doxorubicin (a DNA damage agent used as a standard therapy of EWS patients) dramatically inhibits tumor growth in two EWS murine xenograft models. These results could lead to suitable and promising therapeutic alternatives for patients with EWS.Research in the E.D.A. lab is supported by Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC), the Ministry of Science of Spain-FEDER (CIBERONC, PI1700464, PI2000003, RD06/0020/0059)S. D.G.D. and L.H.P. are supported by CIBERONC (CB16/12/00361). D.G.D., M.J.R. and L.H.P. are PhD researchers funded by the Consejería de Salud, Junta de Andalucía (PI-0197-2016, ECAI F2-0012-2018 and PI-0013-2018, respectively).Peer reviewe