Tansy ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris Gaertn.) and other groundsels on cultivated land and pastures: occurrence, importance and landscape management measures

Das Jakobskreuzkraut Jacobaea vulgaris Gaertn. (syn. Senecio jacobaea L.) kann wie andere Greiskräuter auch aufgrund seiner toxischen Inhaltsstoffe, der Pyrrolizidalkaloide, zu Kontaminationen von Kulturpflanzen mit diesen Stoffen führen. Werden diese Kulturpflanzen als Lebensmittel, Futtermittel oder Arzneimittel verwendet, sind entsprechende Vorsichtsmaßnahmen bei Anbau und Ernte sowie bei der Qualitätskontrolle von Ausgangstoffen und Produkten notwendig. Zum Schutz der menschlichen Gesundheit hat der Gesetzgeber entsprechende Höchstmengen- bzw. Grenzwertregelungen geschaffen. Da Greiskräuter auch eine potenzielle Gefährdung für Weidetiere darstellen können, sind landschaftspflegerische Maßnahmen in Betracht zu ziehen, um diese Pflanzen von den Weideflächen zu entfernen. Neben der grundsätzlichen Bedeutung für die Gesunderhaltung von Mensch und Tier muss bei der Frage rigoroser Bekämpfungsmaßnahmen gegenüber Greiskräutern jedoch in jedem Einzelfall anhand einer Nutzen-Risiko-Abwägung entschieden werden, ob und welche Maßnahmen notwendig sind. Dabei müssen auch die ökologische Bedeutung der Pflanzen, die Erhaltung der Biodiversität und die Prioritäten des Naturschutzes berücksichtigt werden.Tansy ragwort Jacobaea vulgaris Gaertn. (syn. Senecio jacobaea L.), like other groundsels, can lead to contamination of crops due to its toxic ingredients, the pyrrolizidine alkaloids. If the harvested plants are used as food, feed or medicines, appropriate precautions in the cultivation and harvesting as well as in the quality control of the raw materials and the products are necessary. To protect human health the legislator has created respective maximum level or limit regulations. Since groundsels can also pose a potential threat to pasture livestock, landscape management measures should be considered in order to remove these plants from grazing land. In addition to the fundamental importance for the health of humans and animals, however, with regard to the question of rigorous control measures against groundsels, it must be decided case-by-case on the basis of a benefit-risk assessment whether and which measures are necessary. Thereby the ecological importance of the plants, the preservation of biodiversity and the priorities of nature conservation must also be taken into account

PA contamination in medicinal plants: occurrence, limits and measures

Seit mehreren Jahren wird eine mögliche Kontamination von Arzneipflanzen mit pyrrolizidinalkaloid-haltigen Beikräutern diskutiert. Die Erkenntnisse über ein solches Risiko hat die Anbauer und Lieferanten pflanzlicher Drogen und die Hersteller von pflanzlichen Arzneimitteln veranlasst, Ursachenforschung zu betreiben und Maßnahmen zur Reduktion und Vermeidung einer möglichen PA-Kontamination zu ergreifen, die u.a. zusammenfassend in einem Code of Practice beschrieben sind. Die Ergeb­nisse von Datensammlungen der Hersteller zeigen über die letzten Jahre eine deutliche Verminderung der PA-Belastung in pflanzlichen Drogen und Extrakten, die für die Herstellung pflanzlicher Arzneimittel eingesetzt werden. Es wird jedoch auch deutlich, dass das Problem einer PA-Kontamination in naher Zukunft nicht vollständig gelöst werden kann. Das Herbal Medicinal Products Committee der europäischen Zulassungsagentur EMA hat im Jahr 2016 für eine Geltungsdauer von 3 Jahren einen vorläufigen Grenzwert von 1,0 μg Pyrrolizidinalkaloiden pro Tag bezogen auf das Fer­tigarzneimittel empfohlen. Diese Frist ist im Januar 2019 um weitere zwei Jahre verlängert worden.Since 2013, a potential contamination of medicinal plants with pyrrolizidine alkaloid-containing weeds has been discussed. The knowledge about such a risk of contamination induced cultivators and suppliers of medicinal plants and manufacturers of herbal medicinal products to investigate the situation and to take action in order to reduce or avoid potential PA contamination as summarised e.g. in a Code of Practice. Over the past years, the results of data collections show a remark­able reduction of the PA burden in herbal drugs and herbal extracts used for the production of herbal medicinal products. However, it is obvious that the problem of contamination cannot be completely resolved in the near future. The Herbal Medicinal Products Committee at the European Medicines Agency recommended a transitional limit of 1.0 μg pyrrolizidine alkaloids per day related to the final product for three years which has recently been prolonged by further two years

Maternal Influenza Immunization and Reduced Likelihood of Prematurity and Small for Gestational Age Births: A Retrospective Cohort Study

In an analysis of surveillance data from the state of Georgia (US), Saad Omer and colleagues show an association between receipt of influenza vaccination among pregnant women and reduced risk of premature births

Follow-up investigations of tau protein and S-100B levels in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Background: S-100B and tau protein have a high differential diagnostic potential for the diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). So far there has been only limited information available about the dynamics of these parameters in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). However, there is a special interest in finding biochemical markers to monitor disease progression for differential diagnosis and treatment. Patients and Methods: We analyzed CSF of 45 patients with CJD and of 45 patients with other neurological diseases for tau protein and S-100B in a follow-up setting. All diagnoses of CJD were later neuropathologically verified. A ratio between tau protein differences and the time between lumbar puncture was calculated. The same was done for S-100B. Results: Tau protein levels of 34 cases were above the cut-off level for CJD (>1,300 pg/ml) in the first CSF sample. In 7 of 11 patients with lower tau levels in the first CSF sample, tau levels rose. The above-mentioned ratio was significantly higher in the CJD group than in the group with other neurological diseases. Similar results were obtained for S-100B. Conclusion: We conclude that follow-up investigations and calculation of ratios is a useful tool in the differential diagnosis of CJD. Variations in this pattern were observed in single cases. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel

Controlling the radiation dynamics of MoSe2/WSe2 interlayer excitons via in-situ tuning the electromagnetic environment

We show that the spontaneous emission rate of the interlayer excitons in a twisted WSe2-MoSe2 heterobilayer can be precisely tailored in a low-temperature open optical microcavity via the Purcell effect. We engineer the local density of optical states in our resonator structures in two complementary experimental settings. In the first approach, we utilize an ultra-low quality factor planar vertical cavity structure, which develops multiple longitudinal modes that can be consecutively brought to resonance with the broad interlayer exciton spectrum of our heterostructure. Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements reveal that the interlayer exciton lifetime can thus be periodically tuned with an amplitude of around 100 ps. The resulting oscillations of the exciton lifetime allows us to extract a free-space radiative exciton lifetime of 2.2 ns and an approximately 15 % quantum efficiency of the interlayer excitons. We subsequently engineered the local density of optical states by introducing a spatially confined and fully spectrally tunable Tamm-plasmon resonance. The dramatic redistribution of the local optical modes in this setting allows us to encounter a profound inhibition of spontaneous emission of the interlayer excitons by a factor of 3.3. Our results will further boost the cavity-mediated collective emission phenomena such as super-radiance. We expect that specifically engineering the inhibition of radiation from moire excitons is a powerful tool to steer their thermalization, and eventually their condensation into coherent condensate phases.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, DFG SPP2244 fundings, et

GWAS meta-analysis of over 29,000 people with epilepsy identifies 26 risk loci and subtype-specific genetic architecture

Epilepsy is a highly heritable disorder affecting over 50 million people worldwide, of which about one-third are resistant to current treatments. Here we report a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study including 29,944 cases, stratified into three broad categories and seven subtypes of epilepsy, and 52,538 controls. We identify 26 genome-wide significant loci, 19 of which are specific to genetic generalized epilepsy (GGE). We implicate 29 likely causal genes underlying these 26 loci. SNP-based heritability analyses show that common variants explain between 39.6% and 90% of genetic risk for GGE and its subtypes. Subtype analysis revealed markedly different genetic architectures between focal and generalized epilepsies. Gene-set analyses of GGE signals implicate synaptic processes in both excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the brain. Prioritized candidate genes overlap with monogenic epilepsy genes and with targets of current antiseizure medications. Finally, we leverage our results to identify alternate drugs with predicted efficacy if repurposed for epilepsy treatment

Genome-wide identification and phenotypic characterization of seizure-associated copy number variations in 741,075 individuals

Copy number variants (CNV) are established risk factors for neurodevelopmental disorders with seizures or epilepsy. With the hypothesis that seizure disorders share genetic risk factors, we pooled CNV data from 10,590 individuals with seizure disorders, 16,109 individuals with clinically validated epilepsy, and 492,324 population controls and identified 25 genome-wide significant loci, 22 of which are novel for seizure disorders, such as deletions at 1p36.33, 1q44, 2p21-p16.3, 3q29, 8p23.3-p23.2, 9p24.3, 10q26.3, 15q11.2, 15q12-q13.1, 16p12.2, 17q21.31, duplications at 2q13, 9q34.3, 16p13.3, 17q12, 19p13.3, 20q13.33, and reciprocal CNVs at 16p11.2, and 22q11.21. Using genetic data from additional 248,751 individuals with 23 neuropsychiatric phenotypes, we explored the pleiotropy of these 25 loci. Finally, in a subset of individuals with epilepsy and detailed clinical data available, we performed phenome-wide association analyses between individual CNVs and clinical annotations categorized through the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO). For six CNVs, we identified 19 significant associations with specific HPO terms and generated, for all CNVs, phenotype signatures across 17 clinical categories relevant for epileptologists. This is the most comprehensive investigation of CNVs in epilepsy and related seizure disorders, with potential implications for clinical practice