Active regulatory T-cells contribute to broadened T-cell repertoire diversity in ivIg-treated SLE patients

Octapharma

Bright spots as climate‐smart marine spatial planning tools for conservation and blue growth

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Broadened T-cell Repertoire Diversity in ivIg-treated SLE Patients is Also Related to the Individual Status of Regulatory T-cells

Intravenous IgG (ivIg) is a therapeutic alternative for lupus erythematosus, the mechanism of which remains to be fully understood. Here we investigated whether ivIg affects two established sub-phenotypes of SLE, namely relative oligoclonality of circulating T-cells and reduced activity of CD4 + Foxp3+ regulatory T-cells (Tregs) reflected by lower CD25 surface density.Octapharma research funding; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia postdoctoral fellowships: (SFRH/BPD/20806/2004, SFRH/BPD/34648/2007); FCT Programa Pessoa travel grant

Materiais poliméricos para tratamento de água oleosa: utilização, saturação e regeneração Oily water treatment using polymeric material: use, saturation and regeneration

Resinas poliméricas vêm sendo usadas como materiais alternativos para tratamento de águas oleosas, provenientes da indústria de petróleo, as quais já tenham sido tratadas por métodos convencionais. O objetivo deste trabalho é avaliar o grau de purificação de águas oleosas sintéticas, quando tratadas em colunas de leito fixo empacotadas com resinas poliméricas constituídas por segmentos hidrofílicos e lipofílicos. Foram preparadas águas oleosas sintéticas e a fluorimetria foi utilizada para determinar o teor total de óleos e graxas (TOG) nas amostras de água recém-preparada e após eluição pela coluna. Os resultados mostraram que amostras de água tratadas com a coluna apresentaram valor de TOG não superior a 1% do valor de TOG da água oleosa preparada. Um estudo cinético mostrou que a eficiência de remoção dos contaminantes depende ligeiramente da vazão de eluição do sistema, sendo que valores de desempenho ótimos foram alcançados a uma vazão de 7,0 mL/min. A passagem de um volume de água oleosa de 11.087 vezes o volume do leito da coluna não foi suficiente para atingir a completa saturação do sistema. Ensaios preliminares de regeneração e reutilização da coluna mostraram seu potencial de uso em mais de 1 ciclo de tratamento de água oleosa.Polymeric resins have been used as alternative materials for treating oily waters from the petroleum industry, which have already been treated by conventional methods. The objective of this work was to evaluate the purification degree of synthetic oily waters when treated in fixed bed columns packed with hydrophilic/lipophilic resins. Synthetic oily waters were prepared and fluorimetry was used to determine the total grease and oil content (TGOC) of the fresh oily water and the oily water eluted by the column. The results showed that the treated oily water presented a TGOC close to zero ppm. The kinetic study showed that the contaminant removal efficiency slightly depends on the system elution flow rate; optimum removal values were reached at a 7.0 mL/min flow rate. The passage of a water volume 11,087 times the volume of the column bed was not sufficient to observe its complete saturation. Preliminary tests of column regeneration and re-use showed its potential to be used for more than 1 cycle of oily water treatment

Bright spots as climate‐smart marine spatial planning tools for conservation and blue growth

Marine spatial planning that addresses ocean climate-driven change ('climate-smart MSP') is a global aspiration to support economic growth, food security and ecosystem sustainability. Ocean climate change ('CC') modelling may become a key decision-support tool for MSP, but traditional modelling analysis and communication challenges prevent their broad uptake. We employed MSP-specific ocean climate modelling analyses to inform a real-life MSP process; addressing how nature conservation and fisheries could be adapted to CC. We found that the currently planned distribution of these activities may become unsustainable during the policy's implementation due to CC, leading to a shortfall in its sustainability and blue growth targets. Significant, climate-driven ecosystem-level shifts in ocean components underpinning designated sites and fishing activity were estimated, reflecting different magnitudes of shifts in benthic versus pelagic, and inshore versus offshore habitats. Supporting adaptation, we then identified: CC refugia (areas where the ecosystem remains within the boundaries of its present state); CC hotspots (where climate drives the ecosystem towards a new state, inconsistent with each sectors' present use distribution); and for the first time, identified bright spots (areas where oceanographic processes drive range expansion opportunities that may support sustainable growth in the medium term). We thus create the means to: identify where sector-relevant ecosystem change is attributable to CC; incorporate resilient delivery of conservation and sustainable ecosystem management aims into MSP; and to harness opportunities for blue growth where they exist. Capturing CC bright spots alongside refugia within protected areas may present important opportunities to meet sustainability targets while helping support the fishing sector in a changing climate. By capitalizing on the natural distribution of climate resilience within ocean ecosystems, such climate-adaptive spatial management strategies could be seen as nature-based solutions to limit the impact of CC on ocean ecosystems and dependent blue economy sectors, paving the way for climate-smart MSP

DNA methylation profiles in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients treated with chemoimmunotherapy

Background: In order to gain insight into the contribution of DNA methylation to disease progression of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), using 450K Illumina arrays, we determined the DNA methylation profiles in paired pre-treatment/relapse samples from 34 CLL patients treated with chemoimmunotherapy, mostly (n = 31) with the fludarabine-cyclophosphamide-rituximab (FCR) regimen. Results: The extent of identified changes in CLL cells versus memory B cells from healthy donors was termed "epigenetic burden" (EB) whereas the number of changes between the pre-treatment versus the relapse sample was termed "relapse changes" (RC). Significant (p < 0.05) associations were identified between (i) high EB and short time-to-first-treatment (TTFT); and, (ii) few RCs and short time-to-relapse. Both the EB and the RC clustered in specific genomic regions and chromatin states, including regulatory regions containing binding sites of transcription factors implicated in B cell and CLL biology. Conclusions: Overall, we show that DNA methylation in CLL follows different dynamics in response to chemoimmunotherapy. These epigenetic alterations were linked with specific clinical and biological features