Taste-immune associative learning amplifies immunopharmacological effects and attenuates disease progression in a rat glioblastoma model

Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR)-signaling is one key driver of glioblastoma (GBM), facilitating tumor growth by promoting the shift to an anti-inflammatory, pro-cancerogenic microenvironment. Even though mTOR inhibitors such as rapamycin (RAPA) have been shown to interfere with GBM disease progression, frequently chaperoned toxic drug side effects urge the need for developing alternative or supportive treatment strategies. Importantly, previous work document that taste-immune associative learning with RAPA may be utilized to induce learned pharmacological placebo responses in the immune system. Against this background, the current study aimed at investigating the potential efficacy of a taste-immune associative learning protocol with RAPA in a syngeneic GBM rat model. Following repeated pairings of a novel gustatory stimulus with injections of RAPA, learned immune-pharmacological effects could be retrieved in GBM-bearing animals when re-exposed to the gustatory stimulus together with administering 10 % amount of the initial drug dose (0.5 mg/kg). These inhibitory effects on tumor growth were accompanied by an up-regulation of central and peripheral pro-inflammatory markers, suggesting that taste-immune associative learning with RAPA promoted the development of a pro-inflammatory anti-tumor microenvironment that attenuated GBM tumor growth to an almost identical outcome as obtained after 100 % (5 mg/kg) RAPA treatment. Together, our results confirm the applicability of taste-immune associative learning with RAPA in animal disease models where mTOR overactivation is one key driver. This proof-of-concept study may also be taken as a role model for implementing learning protocols as alternative or supportive treatment strategy in clinical settings, allowing the reduction of required drug doses and side effects without losing treatment efficacy

Developing guidance for companies to master current challenges in sustainability reporting : two case studies from banking and tourism in Switzerland

Sustainability reporting is an increasingly applied instrument for companies to systematically communicate about the relevant impacts of their business operations on nature, society, and the economy. Recently, both the new guideline of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI G4) and the Integrated Reporting (IR)‐framework of the International Integrated Reporting Council have been published

Developing guidance for companies to master current challenges in sustainability reporting : two case studies from banking and tourism in Switzerland

Sustainability reporting is an increasingly applied instrument for companies to systematically communicate about the relevant impacts of their business operations on nature, society, and the economy. Recently, both the new guideline of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI G4) and the Integrated Reporting (IR)‐framework of the International Integrated Reporting Council have been published

Overcoming current practical challenges in sustainability and integrated reporting : insights from a Swiss field study

A growing number of companies worldwide face practical challenges in their sustainability and integrated reporting. This is mainly due to two reasons. First, new voluntary reporting guidelines have been published, such as the Sustainability Reporting Standards of the Global Reporting Initiative, the guideline for integrated reporting by the International Integrated Reporting Council and the sector standards of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. Second, new binding reporting regulations have been adopted, such as Directive 2014/95/EU on non-financial reporting issued by the European Commission. This article analyzes current practical challenges in sustainability and integrated reporting and suggests tools to overcome them, based on desktop research, an experience-based consultancy view, and two case studies, from banking and tourism, respectively. The article is the result of a two-year research project funded by Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency. Reporting involves several major practical challenges: (i) identifying the issues with the greatest sustainability impact along the value chain, (ii) prioritizing sustainability topics in accordance with both the Global Reporting Initiative and the International Integrated Reporting Council, (iii) clarifying the sustainability context of corporate activities, and (iv) developing reports that can influence the decisions of key target groups with regard to purchasing and investments, for instance. Based on its analysis, the article makes several recommendations for the enhancement of sustainability reporting, including an analysis grid to identify sustainability issues along the value chain, a multicriteria analysis tool for the materiality criteria of the Global Reporting Initiative and International Integrated Reporting Council, and tools for target group-specific reporting. Case studies provide indicative evidence that the developed tools can help companies to enhance their sustainability reporting