Cardiovascular risk in chronic myeloid leukaemia: A multidisciplinary consensus on screening and management

INTRODUCTION: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have become the mainstay of treatment for chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), but cardiovascular (CV) risk and exacerbation of underlying risk factors associated with TKIs have become widely debated. Real-world evidence reveals little application of CV risk factor screening or continued monitoring within UK CML management. This consensus paper presents practical recommendations to assist healthcare professionals in conducting CV screening/comorbidity management for patients receiving TKIs. METHODS: We conducted a multidisciplinary panel meeting and two iterative surveys involving 10 CML specialists: five haematologists, two cardio-oncologists, one vascular surgeon, one haemato-oncology pharmacist and one specialist nurse practitioner. RESULTS: The panel recommended that patients commencing second-/third-generation TKIs undergo formal CV risk assessment at baseline, with additional investigations and involvement of cardiologists/vascular surgeons for those with high CV risk. During treatment, patients should undergo CV monitoring, with the nature and frequency of testing dependent on TKI and baseline CV risk. For patients who develop CV adverse events, decision-making around TKI interruption, cessation or change should be multidisciplinary and balance CV and haematological risk. CONCLUSION: The panel anticipates these recommendations will support healthcare professionals in implementing CV risk screening and monitoring, broadly and consistently, and thereby help optimise TKI treatment for CML

Anarchy in the UK: Detailed genetic analysis of worker reproduction in a naturally occurring British anarchistic honeybee, Apis mellifera, colony using DNA microsatellites

Anarchistic behaviour is a very rare phenotype of honeybee colonies. In an anarchistic colony, many workers’ sons are reared in the presence of the queen. Anarchy has previously been described in only two Australian colonies. Here we report on a first detailed genetic analysis of a British anarchistic colony. Male pupae were present in great abundance above the queen excluder, which was clearly indicative of extensive worker reproduction and is the hallmark of anarchy. Seventeen microsatellite loci were used to analyse these male pupae, allowing us to address whether all the males were indeed workers’ sons, and how many worker patrilines and individual workers produced them. In the sample, 95 of 96 of the males were definitely workers’ sons. Given that ≈ 1% of workers’ sons were genetically indistinguishable from queen’s sons, this suggests that workers do not move any queen-laid eggs between the part of the colony where the queen is present to the area above the queen excluder which the queen cannot enter. The colony had 16 patrilines, with an effective number of patrilines of 9.85. The 75 males that could be assigned with certainty to a patriline came from 7 patrilines, with an effective number of 4.21. They were the offspring of at least 19 workers. This is in contrast to the two previously studied Australian naturally occurring anarchist colonies, in which most of the workers’ sons were offspring of one patriline. The high number of patrilines producing males leads to a low mean relatedness between laying workers and males of the colony. We discuss the importance of studying such colonies in the understanding of worker policing and its evolution

Antioxidant Activity of Mulberry Fruit Extracts

Phenolic compounds were extracted from the fruits of Morus nigra and Morus alba using methanol and acetone. The sugar-free extracts (SFEs) were prepared using Amberlite XAD-16 column chromatography. All of the SFEs exhibited antioxidant potential as determined by ABTS (0.75–1.25 mmol Trolox/g), DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) (EC50 from 48 μg/mL to 79 μg/mL), and reducing power assays. However, a stronger activity was noted for the SFEs obtained from Morus nigra fruits. These extracts also possessed the highest contents of total phenolics: 164 mg/g (methanolic SFE) and 173 mg/g (acetonic SFE). The presence of phenolic acids and flavonoids in the extracts was confirmed using HPLC method and chlorogenic acid and rutin were found as the dominant phenolic constituents in the SFEs

The Complete Mitochondrial Genome Sequence of the Planthopper, Sivaloka damnosus

The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequence was determined from the plant hopper, Sivaloka damnosus Chow and Lu (Hemiptera: Issidae), a representative of the insect family Issidae. The genome is a circular molecule of 15,287 bp with a total A+T content of 76.5%. The gene content, order, and structure are identical to that in Drosophila melanogaster, which is considered ancestral for insects. All 13 protein-coding genes of the S. damnosus mitogenome have a putative inframe ATR methionine or ATT isoleucine codons as start signals. The usual termination codons (TAA and TAG) were found in 11 protein-coding genes. However, atp6, and nad4 have incomplete termination codons. All tRNAs show stable canonical clover-leaf structures similar to other insect mitochondrial tRNAs, except for tRNASer(AGN), which has a reduced DHU arm. The A+T-rich region or putative control region includes two extensive repeat regions. The first repeat region is composed of two sets of complicated repeat units, and these repetitive sequences are arranged alternately; the second contains ten 20 bp tandemly repetitive sequences. In the phylogenetic analyses based on protein-coding genes, Cicadomorpha is a sister to Fulgoromorpha+Sternorrhyncha, and Heteroptera is a sister to all other Hemiptera

The Seasonal Natural History of the Ant, Dolichoderus mariae, in Northern Florida

Dolichoderus mariae Forel, (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is an uncommon, monomorphic but locally abundant, reddish-brown ant of peculiar nesting habits, whose range includes most of the eastern USA. In north Florida the ant excavates soil under wiregrass clumps or other plants with fibrous roots to form a single, large, shallow, conical or ovoid chamber broadly open to the surface around the plant base. Colonies are highly polygyne and, during the warm season, inhabit multiple nests connected only by above ground trails, over which nests exchange workers. Although monomorphic, worker size may differ significantly between colonies. The colony cycle is dominated by strong seasonal polydomy. From one or two over-wintering nests, the colonies expanded to occupy up to 60 nests by late summer, then retract once more to one or two nests by mid-winter. The worker-to-queen ratio changed greatly during this cycle, with over two thousand workers per queen during fall and winter, dropping to a low of about 300 during midsummer. Most of these summer queens probably die during the fall. Colonies reoccupy roughly the same area year to year even though they contract down to one or two nests in winter. Observation of fights in the contact zone between colonies suggested that the colonies are territorial. The ants subsist by tending aphids and scale insects for honeydew and scavenging for dead insects within their territories

Convergent development of low-relatedness supercolonies in Myrmica ants.

Many ant species have independently evolved colony structures with multiple queens and very low relatedness among nestmate workers, but it has remained unclear whether low-relatedness kin structures can repeatedly arise in populations of the same species. Here we report a study of Danish island populations of the red ant Myrmica sulcinodis and show that it is likely that such repeated developments occur. Two microsatellite loci were used to estimate genetic differentiation (F(ST)) among three populations and nestmate relatedness within these populations. The F(ST) values were highly significant due to very different allele frequencies among the three populations with relatively few common alleles and relatively many rare alleles, possibly caused by single queen foundation and rare subsequent immigration. Given the isolation of the islands and the low investment in reproduction, we infer that each of the populations was most likely established by a single queen, even though all three extant populations now have within-colony relatedness 95%), and the genetic differentiation of nests showed a significantly positive correlation with the distance between them. Both male-biased sex-ratio and genetic viscosity are expected characteristics of populations where queens have very local dispersal and where new colonies are initiated through nest-budding. Based on a comparison with other M. sulcinodis populations we hypothesise a distinct succession of population types and suggest that this may be a possible pathway to unicoloniality, ie, development towards a complete lack of colony kin structure and unrelated nestmate workers