Journée d’études « L’exportation de l’homéopathie : le cas de l’Inde du Sud »

En novembre dernier, s’est tenue à Louvain-La-Neuve une journée entièrement consacrée à la problématique de l’exportation de l’homéopathie vers d’autres régions du monde, et plus particulièrement vers l’Inde. Cette journée clôturait l’action de recherche en réseau intitulée « Diffusion et ajustements de l’homéopathie en Inde : anthropologie comparée » ayant bénéficié du soutien de l’AUF et coordonnée par Olivier Schmitz (Université de Louvain-La-Neuve) et Laurent Pordié (Institut Français de ..

Journée d’études « L’exportation de l’homéopathie : le cas de l’Inde du Sud »

En novembre dernier, s’est tenue à Louvain-La-Neuve une journée entièrement consacrée à la problématique de l’exportation de l’homéopathie vers d’autres régions du monde, et plus particulièrement vers l’Inde. Cette journée clôturait l’action de recherche en réseau intitulée « Diffusion et ajustements de l’homéopathie en Inde : anthropologie comparée » ayant bénéficié du soutien de l’AUF et coordonnée par Olivier Schmitz (Université de Louvain-La-Neuve) et Laurent Pordié (Institut Français de ..

Les voies indiennes de l’homéopathie

Dans les sociétés occidentales, l’homéopathie occupe une place privilégiée parmi les médecines alternatives et complémentaires présentes dans le champ médical, à côté de la médecine allopathique et des remèdes traditionnels. Mais si l’on peut déjà s’étonner de sa pérennité malgré les fortes oppositions qu’elle rencontra dès sa naissance de la part du corps médical, la place qu’elle occupe aujourd’hui dans le système médical indien soulève bien d’autres questions. Nous décrivons et analysons ici l’histoire de l’introduction de l’homéopathie dans le monde indien, en identifiant, grâce aux sources historiques disponibles, les acteurs et les lieux de sa diffusion, jusqu’à sa reconnaissance légale et son intégration dans le système médical pluraliste indien.In Western societies, among other complementary and alternative medicines, homoeopathy occupies a privileged position alongside allopathy and traditional remedies. Surprisingly, although homoeopathy had to face strong opposition movements from the medical field in Europe, it seems that its introduction in India was received more positively in the long term, a point which raises many issues. In this article, we describe and analyze the introduction of homoeopathy in India and its long-term historical process, identifying actors and places of its dissemination from the 1830s until its legal recognition by the State in the 1970s and its integration in the pluralistic Indian medical system

Why Is Case Management Effective? A Realist Evaluation of Case Management for Frail, Community-Dwelling Older People: Lessons Learned from Belgium

Despite many attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of case management for frail older people, systematic reviews including experimental designs show inconsistent results. Starting from the view that case management is a complex intervention occurring in multilayered realities, we conducted a realist evaluation of case management in Belgium, where this type of intervention is new. Realist approaches are particularly well suited to evaluate complex interventions as they seek to investigate iteratively the literature and empirical data to uncover mid-range theories underpinning the intervention under study. As such, realist evaluations are works in progress which provide tools to describe how, why and for whom an intervention is supposed to work. In this paper, we describe two mid-range theories that can explain why case management can help frail older people to remain at home, through the lens of capacity and social support

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Toxic Shock Syndrome

Case ReportsLetterSCOPUS: le.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

SFPQ and Tau: critical factors contributing to rapid progression of Alzheimer's disease

Dysfunctional RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) have been implicated in several neurodegenerative disorders. Recently, this paradigm of RBPs has been extended to pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we identified disease subtype specific variations in the RNA-binding proteome (RBPome) of sporadic AD (spAD), rapidly progressive AD (rpAD), and sporadic Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (sCJD), as well as control cases using RNA pull-down assay in combination with proteomics. We show that one of these identified proteins, splicing factor proline and glutamine rich (SFPQ), is downregulated in the post-mortem brains of rapidly progressive AD patients, sCJD patients and 3xTg mice brain at terminal stage of the disease. In contrast, the expression of SFPQ was elevated at early stage of the disease in the 3xTg mice, and in vitro after oxidative stress stimuli. Strikingly, in rpAD patients' brains SFPQ showed a significant dislocation from the nucleus and cytoplasmic colocalization with TIA-1. Furthermore, in rpAD brain lesions, SFPQ and p-tau showed extranuclear colocalization. Of note, association between SFPQ and tau-oligomers in rpAD brains suggests a possible role of SFPQ in oligomerization and subsequent misfolding of tau protein. In line with the findings from the human brain, our in vitro study showed that SFPQ is recruited into TIA-1-positive stress granules (SGs) after oxidative stress induction, and colocalizes with tau/p-tau in these granules, providing a possible mechanism of SFPQ dislocation through pathological SGs. Furthermore, the expression of human tau in vitro induced significant downregulation of SFPQ, suggesting a causal role of tau in the downregulation of SFPQ. The findings from the current study indicate that the dysregulation and dislocation of SFPQ, the subsequent DNA-related anomalies and aberrant dynamics of SGs in association with pathological tau represents a critical pathway which contributes to rapid progression of AD

The unusual kinetics of lactate dehydrogenase of Schistosoma mansoni and their role in the rapid metabolic switch after penetration of the mammalian host

Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) from Schistosoma mansoni has peculiar properties for a eukaryotic LDH. Schistosomal LDH (SmLDH) isolated from schistosomes, and the recombinantly expressed protein, are strongly inhibited by ATP, which is neutralized by fructose-1,6-bisphosphate (FBP). In the conserved FBP/anion binding site we identified two residues in SmLDH (Val187 and Tyr190) that differ from the conserved residues in LDHs of other eukaryotes, but are identical to conserved residues in FBP-sensitive prokaryotic LDHs. Three-dimensional (3D) models were generated to compare the structure of SmLDH with other LDHs. These models indicated that residues Val187, and especially Tyr190, play a crucial role in the interaction of FBP with the anion pocket of SmLDH. These 3D models of SmLDH are also consistent with a competitive model of SmLDH inhibition in which ATP (inhibitor) and FBP (activator) compete for binding in a well-defined anion pocket. The model of bound ATP predicts a distortion of the nearby key catalytic residue His195, resulting in enzyme inhibition. To investigate a possible physiological role of this allosteric regulation of LDH in schistosomes we made a kinetic model in which the allosteric regulation of the glycolytic enzymes can be varied. The model showed that inhibition of LDH by ATP prevents fermentation to lactate in the free-living stages in water and ensures complete oxidation via the Krebs cycle of the endogenous glycogen reserves. This mechanism of allosteric inhibition by ATP prevents the untimely depletion of these glycogen reserves, the only fuel of the free-living cercariae. Neutralization by FBP of this ATP inhibition of LDH prevents accumulation of glycolytic intermediates when S. mansoni schistosomula are confronted with the sudden large increase in glucose availability upon penetration of the final host. It appears that the LDH of S. mansoni is special and well suited to deal with the variations in glucose availability the parasite encounters during its life cycle.</p

Long-Term Survival, Safety and Tolerability with Selexipag in Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Results from GRIPHON and its Open-Label Extension

INTRODUCTION: In the event-driven GRIPHON randomised-controlled trial, the oral prostacyclin receptor agonist selexipag significantly reduced the risk of disease progression (composite primary endpoint of morbidity/mortality), compared with placebo, in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The ongoing open-label extension study (GRIPHON OL) collects further data on long-term safety, tolerability, and survival of PAH patients treated with selexipag. METHODS: Patients randomised to selexipag or placebo in GRIPHON could enter GRIPHON OL either after experiencing a morbidity event during double-blind treatment or at the end of the study. Patients were followed for adverse events (AE) and survival from selexipag initiation up to 3&nbsp;days and 30&nbsp;days after end of treatment, respectively. Data are presented up to a cut-off date of 1 September 2019. RESULTS: Overall, 953 patients in GRIPHON and GRIPHON OL were treated with selexipag. At the time of selexipag initiation, 81.2% of patients were receiving background PAH therapy. Median (min, max) exposure to selexipag was 31.7&nbsp;months (0, 106), corresponding to a total of 3054.4 patient-years. The most frequently reported AEs were related to known prostacyclin-related effects or underlying disease. There were 305 (32.0%) patients who experienced an AE leading to treatment discontinuation. Survival during GRIPHON and GRIPHON OL was assessed for the 574 patients randomised to selexipag in GRIPHON. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates (95%CI) at 1, 3, 5 and 7&nbsp;years were 92.0% (89.4, 94.0), 79.3% (75.4, 82.6), 71.2% (66.5, 75.3) and 63.0% (57.4, 68.1), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide the longest follow-up period published to date for a PAH therapy. The safety profile of selexipag over this extended treatment period was consistent with that observed in GRIPHON. A large proportion of the population was receiving background therapy at selexipag initiation, providing further insight into the long-term safety of selexipag as part of a combination therapy regimen. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifiers: NCT01106014 and NCT01112306

CEAf – Centre d’études africaines

Nora Bouaouina, doctoranteLenita Perrier, Ulrike Zander, docteurs Réflexion croisée sur les constructions et les représentations identitaires. Séminaire DoCeaf Nous avons créé ce séminaire dans l’objectif d’explorer les enjeux liés aux constructions et aux représentations identitaires, dans un monde globalisé où les diverses filières migratoires et d’autres modes de mobilités ont fait naître de nouveaux brassages culturels et des enjeux géopolitiques. Pendant cette première année, nous avons ..