An Interspecific Nicotiana Hybrid as a Useful and Cost-Effective Platform for Production of Animal Vaccines

The use of transgenic plants to produce novel products has great biotechnological potential as the relatively inexpensive inputs of light, water, and nutrients are utilised in return for potentially valuable bioactive metabolites, diagnostic proteins and vaccines. Extensive research is ongoing in this area internationally with the aim of producing plant-made vaccines of importance for both animals and humans. Vaccine purification is generally regarded as being integral to the preparation of safe and effective vaccines for use in humans. However, the use of crude plant extracts for animal immunisation may enable plant-made vaccines to become a cost-effective and efficacious approach to safely immunise large numbers of farm animals against diseases such as avian influenza. Since the technology associated with genetic transformation and large-scale propagation is very well established in Nicotiana, the genus has attributes well-suited for the production of plant-made vaccines. However the presence of potentially toxic alkaloids in Nicotiana extracts impedes their use as crude vaccine preparations. In the current study we describe a Nicotiana tabacum and N. glauca hybrid that expresses the HA glycoprotein of influenza A in its leaves but does not synthesize alkaloids. We demonstrate that injection with crude leaf extracts from these interspecific hybrid plants is a safe and effective approach for immunising mice. Moreover, this antigen-producing alkaloid-free, transgenic interspecific hybrid is vigorous, with a high capacity for vegetative shoot regeneration after harvesting. These plants are easily propagated by vegetative cuttings and have the added benefit of not producing viable pollen, thus reducing potential problems associated with bio-containment. Hence, these Nicotiana hybrids provide an advantageous production platform for partially purified, plant-made vaccines which may be particularly well suited for use in veterinary immunization programs

Fully automated attractor analysis of cyanobacteria models

© 2018 IEEE. Complex dynamics arising in biological systems can be characterised by various kinds of attractors. To that end, the task of determining attractors becomes important in modern systems analysis. Biological systems are typically formalised as highly parametrised continuous-time ODE models. Such models can be abstracted in the form of parametrised graphs. In such abstractions, attractors are observed in the form of terminal strongly connected components (tSCCs). In this paper, we demonstrate a novel method for detecting tSCCs in parametrised graphs on several models of cyanobacteria taken from the domain-specific online platform e-cyanobacterium.org

Factors of Interest in Extended-Release Buprenorphine: Comparisons Between Incarcerated and Non-Incarcerated Patients with Opioid Use Disorder

Mathieu Chappuy,1– 3 Fadi Meroueh,4 Benoit Trojak,5,6 Jérôme Bachellier,7 Patrick Bendimerad,8 Margaux Kosim,9,10 Peter Hjelmström,11 Philippe Nubukpo,12,13 Georges Brousse,14,15 Benjamin Rolland1,2,16 1Service Universitaire d’Addictologie de Lyon (SUAL), CH Le Vinatier, Bron, 69500, France; 2Service d’Addictologie, Groupement Hospitalier Centre, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France; 3CSAPA, Groupement Hospitalier Nord, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France; 4UCSA, CHU Lapeyronie, Montpellier, France; 5Service Hospitalo-Universitaire d’Addictologie, CHU de Dijon, Dijon, France; 6INSERM U1093, UFR Staps, Université de Bourgogne Franche Comté, Dijon, France; 7Service Universitaire d’Addictologie de Tours, CHU Bretonneau, Tours, France; 8Service d’Addictologie, Groupe Hospitalier de La Rochelle-Ré-Aunis, La Rochelle, France; 9Consultations de Médecine-Alcoologie PASS, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié Salpêtrière, Paris, France; 10Camurus SAS, Paris, France; 11Camurus AB, Ideon Science Park, Lund, Sweden; 12Service d’Addictologie, Centre Hospitalier Esquirol, Limoges, France; 13INSERM UMR 1094, Université de Limoges, Limoges, France; 14Service de Psychiatrie B et d’Addictologie, CHU de Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France; 15Équipe d’Accueil 7280, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France; 16INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR 5292, CRNL, Université de Lyon, UCBL1, Bron, FranceCorrespondence: Benjamin RollandService Universitaire d’Addictologie, CH Le Vinatier, Pôle MOPHA, 95 Bd Pinel, Bron, 69500, FranceTel +33 437 915 555Fax +33 437 915 556Email [email protected]: Extended-release buprenorphine (XR-BUP) covers a range of formulations of buprenorphine-based treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD) that release the medication over a period of one week, one month, or six months. OUD is particularly prevalent among incarcerated populations, and previous findings have shown that incarcerated subjects were not less interested in XR-BUP than non-incarcerated subjects. However, no study has ever investigated whether the factors of interest in XR-BUP were similar in incarcerated and non-incarcerated populations.Patients and Methods: We carried out post-hoc analyses using data from the “AMBRE” survey, which was conducted among 366 individuals with OUD, that were recruited in 68 French addiction settings, including six prison medical centers. The reasons for interest in XR-BUP were compared between incarcerated and non-incarcerated interviewees, using logistic regressions models, which provided raw and adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Adjustment variables were gender, age category, level of education, and type of current medication for OUD, respectively.Results: Data from 317 participants (ie, 221 non-incarcerated, and 96 incarcerated individuals) were included in the analyses. Adjusted comparisons found that “no longer taking a daily treatment” (aOR= 2.91; 95% CI= 1.21– 6.98) and “having a more discreet medication” (aOR= 1.76; 95% CI= 1.01– 3.10) were reasons that appealed more to incarcerated participants than to non-incarcerated ones. On the other hand, the potential reduction of withdrawal symptoms (aOR= 0.54; 95% CI= 0.29– 0.99) or the risk of misuse (aOR= 0.56; 95% CI= 0.34– 0.94) associated with XR-BUP treatment were considered more important by non-incarcerated individuals than by incarcerated ones.Conclusion: Incarcerated interviewees were interested in XR-BUP for different reasons than those outside prison. In particular, incarcerated patients were more interested in practicability and discretion features, and less in improving recovery or reducing misuse than non-incarcerated patients.Keywords: prison, opioid use disorder, buprenorphine, preference

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in behavioral and food addiction: a systematic review of efficacy, technical, and methodological issues

Behavioral addictions (BA) are complex disorders for which pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments have shown their limits. Non-invasive brain stimulation, among which transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), has opened up new perspectives in addiction treatment. The purpose of this work is to conduct a critical and systematic review of tDCS efficacy, and of technical and methodological considerations in the field of BA

Type A personality is not associated with poor glycaemic control: Data from cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys of people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

IF 4.101International audienc