Survey 2016 of the Residue Situation in Turkish Organic Products

Since December 2011, ETO and FiBL are jointly implementing the German-Turkish Bilateral Cooperation - Organic Agriculture. The overall aim of this project is to effectively and efficiently ensure the quality of Turkish organic food produced for the European market. Information from a representative sample of selected private operators of the organic supply chains together with official data from competent authorities about unwanted residues detected in organic products from Turkey have been determined as a major indicator for the extent of reaching the project aim. For this reason, a survey was conducted in late 2013 among German and Turkish trading companies, control bodies and the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE). The study concluded that 50 % of respondents believed that the residue situation had improved significantly since 2011. Moreover, the EU's Rapid Alert System for 2013 showed no abnormalities for Turkish organic products. Interviews during the GFA project progress audit in Turkey in June 2015 confirmed the significant reduction of residue findings and of other suspected cases in Turkish imported organic products. To hedge these findings, a further opinion poll among Central European and Turkish trading companies and institutions was carried out in the present exit phase of the project (early 2016). The same questions were used in both surveys. However, minor changes were made in 2016, to adjust to the different project phase. The objective of the second survey was to collect up-to-date data which can be used for the performance review of the project and for developments beyond the scope of the project. The second survey covered the years 2014 – 15 (after the improvement measures of the project were implemented). As a reference, the year 2011 (before the project activities were started) was also included in the second survey

A Well-Controlled Experimental System to Study Interactions of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes with Tumor Cells.

While T cell-based immunotherapies are steadily improving, there are still many patients who progress, despite T cell-infiltrated tumors. Emerging evidence suggests that T cells themselves may provoke immune escape of cancer cells. Here, we describe a well-controlled co-culture system for studying the dynamic T cell - cancer cell interplay, using human melanoma as a model. We explain starting material, controls, and culture parameters to establish reproducible and comparable cultures with highly heterogeneous tumor cells. Low passage melanoma cell lines and melanoma-specific CD8+ T cell clones generated from patient blood were cultured together for up to 3 days. Living melanoma cells were isolated from the co-culture system by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. We demonstrate that the characterization of isolated melanoma cells is feasible using flow cytometry for protein expression analysis as well as an Agilent whole human genome microarray and the NanoString technology for differential gene expression analysis. In addition, we identify five genes (ALG12, GUSB, RPLP0, KRBA2, and ADAT2) that are stably expressed in melanoma cells independent of the presence of T cells or the T cell-derived cytokines IFNγ and TNFα. These genes are essential for correct normalization of gene expression data by NanoString. Further to the characterization of melanoma cells after exposure to CTLs, this experimental system might be suitable to answer a series of questions, including how the affinity of CTLs for their target antigen influences the melanoma cell response and whether CTL-induced gene expression changes in melanoma cells are reversible. Taken together, our human T cell - melanoma cell culture system is well suited to characterize immune-related mechanisms in cancer cells

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

Risiken beim Einsatz von Fremdmaschinen

Durch den Einsatz fremder Maschinen können Verunreinigungen aus nicht-biologischer Produktion in den Betriebskreislauf gelangen. Das Merkblatt zeigt, worauf beim Einsatz fremder Maschinen zu achten ist, und welche Vorsichtsmassnahmen gegen die Einfuhr von Rückständen und gentechnisch veränderten Organismen (GVO) getroffen werden müssen

Les risques de l'utilisation des machines d'autrui

Cette fiche technique montre à quoi il faut faire attention et quelles précautions il faut prendre lorsqu'on utilise les machines de quelqu'un d'autre

Résidus dans les cucurbitacées

Les plantes de la famille des cucurbitacées absorbent très facilement les pesticides organochlorés. Si les cucurbitacées poussent dans des sols pollués, les teneurs en POC peuvent être tellement élevées dans les produits récoltés qu'il dépassent les teneurs maximales tolérées. Bio Suisse et Demeter recommandent, avant de cultiver pour la première fois des cucurbitacées, de clarifier les risques de contamination par des POC et en cas de risques de faire une fois préventivement une analyse de terre. La fiche technique offre toutes les informations nécessaires pour évaluer les risques, prélever les échantillons de terre et d'apprécier les résultats d'analyse

Rückstände in Kürbisgewächsen

Kürbisgewächse nehmen besonders leicht Organochlorpestizide auf. Wachsen Biokürbisgewächse auf belasteten Böden, kann der Pestizidgehalt den zulässigen Grenzwert überschreiten. Bio Suisse und Demeter empfehlen deshalb, vor dem ersten Anbau von Kürbisgewächsen das Risiko einzuschätzen und im Risikofall den Boden untersuchen zu lassen. Das Merkblatt liefert alle nötigen Informationen zu Risikoabschätzung, Probenahme und Beurteilung der Analyse

New lidar systems at the German Aerospace Center

This work gives an overview of the lower-, middle and upper atmosphere lidar projects at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The Temperature Lidar for Middle Atmosphere research (TELMA) is a combined sodium/Rayleigh/Brillouin-lidar integrated into an 8-foot container. It will provide temperature profiles with high temporal and spatial resolution from near ground level up to approximately 110 km altitude. The lidar system is designed for remote/autonomous operation. First observations with the Rayleigh-lidar were carried out during the DEEPWAVE campaign in New Zealand in 2014. The CORAL (Compact Rayleigh Autonomous Lidar) instrument is derived from an upgraded version of the Rayleigh-lidar originally developed for the TELMA project. It is also integrated into an 8-foot container and features an improved software package for autonomous operation. Making use of extensive self-monitoring and fault protection algorithms, no human intervention is needed to initiate start-up of the lidar, monitoring of system parameters, or shutdown of the lidar. These capabilities make CORAL the first instrument of a new class of truly automatic mesospheric lidar systems. CORAL and TELMA serve as prototypes and technology testbeds for ALIMA, the Airborne Lidar for studying the Middle Atmosphere. ALIMA makes use of a novel laser to generate the large output power required for very high resolution measurements of temperature, vertical wind and iron density at 372 nm wavelength. The lidar system will be able to resolve horizontal wavelengths down to 10 km during flight. Used as ground-based instrument, ALIMA will enable momentum flux measurements with unprecedented precision. First flight of ALIMA on the DLR Falcon aircraft is planned for 2017

An athymic rat model of cutaneous radiation injury designed to study human tissue-based wound therapy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Purpose</p> <p>To describe a pilot study for a novel preclinical model used to test human tissue-based therapies in the setting of cutaneous radiation injury.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A protocol was designed to irradiate the skin of athymic rats while sparing the body and internal organs by utilizing a non-occlusive skin clamp along with an x-ray image guided stereotactic irradiator. Each rat was irradiated both on the right and the left flank with a circular field at a 20 cm source-to-surface distance (SSD). Single fractions of 30.4 Gy, 41.5 Gy, 52.6 Gy, 65.5 Gy, and 76.5 Gy were applied in a dose-finding trial. Eight additional wounds were created using the 41.5 Gy dose level. Each wound was photographed and the percentage of the irradiated area ulcerated at given time points was analyzed using ImageJ software.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No systemic or lethal sequelae occurred in any animals, and all irradiated skin areas in the multi-dose trial underwent ulceration. Greater than 60% of skin within each irradiated zone underwent ulceration within ten days, with peak ulceration ranging from 62.1% to 79.8%. Peak ulceration showed a weak correlation with radiation dose (r = 0.664). Mean ulceration rate over the study period is more closely correlated to dose (r = 0.753). With the highest dose excluded due to contraction-related distortions, correlation between dose and average ulceration showed a stronger relationship (r = 0.895). Eight additional wounds created using 41.5 Gy all reached peak ulceration above 50%, with all healing significantly but incompletely by the 65-day endpoint.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We developed a functional preclinical model which is currently used to evaluate human tissue-based therapies in the setting of cutaneous radiation injury. Similar models may be widely applicable and useful the development of novel therapies which may improve radiotherapy management over a broad clinical spectrum.</p