Niche inheritance: a cooperative pathway to enhance cancer cell fitness though ecosystem engineering

Cancer cells can be described as an invasive species that is able to establish itself in a new environment. The concept of niche construction can be utilized to describe the process by which cancer cells terraform their environment, thereby engineering an ecosystem that promotes the genetic fitness of the species. Ecological dispersion theory can then be utilized to describe and model the steps and barriers involved in a successful diaspora as the cancer cells leave the original host organ and migrate to new host organs to successfully establish a new metastatic community. These ecological concepts can be further utilized to define new diagnostic and therapeutic areas for lethal cancers.Comment: 8 pages, 1 Table, 4 Figure

Evolution of virulence: triggering host inflammation allows invading pathogens to exclude competitors.

Virulence is generally considered to benefit parasites by enhancing resource-transfer from host to pathogen. Here, we offer an alternative framework where virulent immune-provoking behaviours and enhanced immune resistance are joint tactics of invading pathogens to eliminate resident competitors (transferring resources from resident to invading pathogen). The pathogen wins by creating a novel immunological challenge to which it is already adapted. We analyse a general ecological model of 'proactive invasion' where invaders not adapted to a local environment can succeed by changing it to one where they are better adapted than residents. However, the two-trait nature of the 'proactive' strategy (provocation of, and adaptation to environmental change) presents an evolutionary conundrum, as neither trait alone is favoured in a homogenous host population. We show that this conundrum can be resolved by allowing for host heterogeneity. We relate our model to emerging empirical findings on immunological mediation of parasite competition

A women’s worker in court: A more appropriate service for women defendants with mental health issues?

Aims Court liaison services aim to reduce mental illness in prison through early treatment and/or diversion into care of defendants negotiating their court proceedings. However, liaison services may inadvertently contribute to gender inequalities in mental health in the prison system. This is because women often do not access liaison services. This is attributed to services failing to recognise that women have different needs from men. To address this, it is essential that the needs of women in contact with the criminal justice system (CJS) are clearly articulated. However, there is a dearth of research that considers women’s needs at this stage of their journey through the CJS. This paper aims to identify these needs before women enter prison. It does so through an analysis of a pilot Women’s Support Service based at a Magistrates’ Court, a response to concerns that women were not accessing the local liaison service. Characteristics of women defendants attending the service are described, specifically their home environments, general and mental health needs. Their support needs when in contact with the CJS and the links the service must forge with local community organisations to provide this, are also presented. This knowledge will develop/ tailor existing services available to women defendants to improve their access to these and optimise the benefits they can derive from them. Methods Proformas were completed by a women specialist worker for 86 women defendants assessed in 4 months. Information was collected on characteristics including education, domestic violence, accommodation, physical and mental health.. This specialist worker recorded the range of needs identified by defendants at assessment and the services to which women were referred. Results Access to the Women’s Support Service is high, with only 11.3% of women refusing to use the service. Women attending have high levels of physical and mental health issues. Their mental health issues have not being addressed prior to accessing the service. Women often come from single households and environments high in domestic abuse. Women have multiple needs related to benefits, finance, housing, domestic abuse, education and career guidance. These are more frequent than those that explicitly link to mental health. The women’s worker providing the service referred women to 68 services from a wide variety of statutory and voluntary organisations. Conclusions The Women’s Support Service is accessed by a higher number of women, many more than access the local liaison service. It is suggested that this is due to their multiple and gender specific needs being adequately addressed by the former service and the organisations to whom they are referred. Mental health needs may also be secondary to other more basic needs, that makes the generic service provided but the Women’s support Service more appropriate than a liaison service that deals with mental health support alone

Therapy and Long-Term Prophylaxis of Vaccinia Virus Respiratory Infections in Mice with an Adenovirus-Vectored Interferon Alpha (mDEF201)

An adenovirus 5 vector encoding for mouse interferon alpha, subtype 5 (mDEF201) was evaluated for efficacy against lethal vaccinia virus (WR strain) respiratory infections in mice. mDEF201 was administered as a single intranasal treatment either prophylactically or therapeutically at doses of 106 to 108 plaque forming units/mouse. When the prophylactic treatment was given at 56 days prior to infection, it protected 90% of animals from death (100% protection for treatments given between 1–49 days pre-infection), with minimal weight loss occurring during infection. Surviving animals re-challenged with virus 22 days after the primary infection were protected from death, indicating that mDEF201 did not compromise the immune response against the initial infection. Post-exposure therapy was given between 6–24 h after vaccinia virus exposure and protection was afforded by a 108 dose of mDEF201 given at 24 h, whereas a 107 dose was effective up to 12 h. Comparisons were made of the ability of mDEF201, given either 28 or 1 day prior to infection, to inhibit tissue virus titers and lung infection parameters. Lung, liver, and spleen virus titers were inhibited to nearly the same extent by either treatment, as were lung weights and lung hemorrhage scores (indicators of pneumonitis). Lung virus titers were significantly (>100-fold) lower than in the placebo group, and the other infection parameters in mDEF201 treated mice were nearly at baseline. In contrast, viral titers and lung infection parameters were high in the placebo group on day 5 of the infection. These results demonstrate the long-acting prophylactic and treatment capacity of mDEF201 to combat vaccinia virus infections

Gravel pits support waterbird diversity in an urban landscape

We assessed the benefit of 11 gravel pits for the settlement of waterbird communities in an urbanized area lacking natural wetlands. Gravel pits captured 57% of the regional species pool of aquatic birds. We identified 39 species, among which five were regionally rare. We used the Self Organizing Map algorithm to calculate the probabilities of presence of species, and to bring out habitat conditions that predict assemblage patterns. The age of the pits did not correlate with assemblage composition and species richness. There was a positive influence of macrophyte cover on waterbird species richness. Larger pits did not support more species, but species richness increased with connectivity. As alternative wetland habitats, gravel pits are attractive to waterbirds, when they act as stepping stones that ensure connectivity between larger natural and/or artificial wetlands separated in space

Developmental Symbiosis Facilitates The Multiple Origins Of Herbivory

Developmental bias toward particular evolutionary trajectories can be facilitated through symbiosis. Organisms are holobionts, consisting of zygote‐derived cells and a consortia of microbes, and the development, physiology, and immunity of animals are properties of complex interactions between the zygote‐derived cells and microbial symbionts. Such symbionts can be agents of developmental plasticity, allowing an organism to develop in particular directions. This plasticity can lead to genetic assimilation either through the incorporation of microbial genes into host genomes or through the direct maternal transmission of the microbes. Such plasticity can lead to niche construction, enabling the microbes to remodel host anatomy and/or physiology. In this article, I will focus on the ability of symbionts to bias development toward the evolution of herbivory. I will posit that the behavioral and morphological manifestations of herbivorous phenotypes must be preceded by the successful establishment of a community of symbiotic microbes that can digest cell walls and detoxify plant poisons. The ability of holobionts to digest plant materials can range from being a plastic trait, dependent on the transient incorporation of environmental microbes, to becoming a heritable trait of the holobiont organism, transmitted through the maternal propagation of symbionts or their genes

Hierarchy Theory of Evolution and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: Some Epistemic Bridges, Some Conceptual Rifts

Contemporary evolutionary biology comprises a plural landscape of multiple co-existent conceptual frameworks and strenuous voices that disagree on the nature and scope of evolutionary theory. Since the mid-eighties, some of these conceptual frameworks have denounced the ontologies of the Modern Synthesis and of the updated Standard Theory of Evolution as unfinished or even flawed. In this paper, we analyze and compare two of those conceptual frameworks, namely Niles Eldredge’s Hierarchy Theory of Evolution (with its extended ontology of evolutionary entities) and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (with its proposal of an extended ontology of evolutionary processes), in an attempt to map some epistemic bridges (e.g. compatible views of causation; niche construction) and some conceptual rifts (e.g. extra-genetic inheritance; different perspectives on macroevolution; contrasting standpoints held in the “externalism–internalism” debate) that exist between them. This paper seeks to encourage theoretical, philosophical and historiographical discussions about pluralism or the possible unification of contemporary evolutionary biology