RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits—almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Catalytic and molecular properties of rabbit liver carboxylesterase acting on 1,8-cineole derivatives

Rabbit liver carboxylesterase (rCE) was evaluated as the catalyst for the enantioselective hydrolysis of (+/-)-3-endo-acetyloxy-1,8-cineole [(+/-)-4], which yields (1S,3S,4R)-(+)-3-acetyloxy-1,8-cineole [(+)-4] and (1R,3R,4S)-(-)-3-hydroxy-1,8-cineole [(-)-3]. Enantioselective asymmetrization of meso-3,5-diacetoxy-1,8-cineol (5) gives (1S,3S,4R,5R)-(-)-3-acetyloxy-5-hydroxy-1,8-cineole (6), with high enantioselectivity. rCE has been chosen to perform both experiments and molecular modeling simulations. Docking simulations combined with molecular dynamics calculations were used to study rCE-catalyzed enantioselective hydrolysis of cineol derivatives. Both compounds were found to bind with their acetyl groups stabilized by hydrogen bond interactions between their oxygen atoms and Ser221

Catalytic and molecular properties of rabbit liver carboxylesterase acting on 1,8-cineole derivatives

Rabbit liver carboxylesterase (rCE) was evaluated as the catalyst for the enantioselective hydrolysis of (+/-)-3-endo-acetyloxy-1,8-cineole [(+/-)-4], which yields (1S,3S,4R)-(+)-3-acetyloxy-1,8-cineole [(+)-4] and (1R,3R,4S)-(-)-3-hydroxy-1,8-cineole [(-)-3]. Enantioselective asymmetrization of meso-3,5-diacetoxy-1,8-cineol (5) gives (1S,3S,4R,5R)-(-)-3-acetyloxy-5-hydroxy-1,8-cineole (6), with high enantioselectivity. rCE has been chosen to perform both experiments and molecular modeling simulations. Docking simulations combined with molecular dynamics calculations were used to study rCE-catalyzed enantioselective hydrolysis of cineol derivatives. Both compounds were found to bind with their acetyl groups stabilized by hydrogen bond interactions between their oxygen atoms and Ser221

Preservation of human placenta facilitates multicenter studies on the local immune response in normal and aberrant pregnancies

<p>Our standard procedure for phenotypic and functional analysis of immune cells present in the placenta is to isolate leukocytes from the decidua within five hours of the delivery. However, this results in logistical problems with deliveries at night, weekends or in other medical centers. Collecting placentas after complicated pregnancies is even more difficult owing to the low prevalence and the often unscheduled delivery. The aim was to investigate the possibility of preserving the human placenta before phenotypic and functional analysis of decidual lymphocytes. Placentas were obtained after uncomplicated pregnancy. The tissue was divided into two equal parts: decidual lymphocytes from one part were isolated within five hours according to our standard procedure, whereas the other part was preserved in either Celsior (R), a storage solution for solid organ preservation, or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for 24 h at 4 degrees C before isolation. Overall, the phenotype and functional capacity of decidual lymphocytes isolated within five hours was comparable to decidual lymphocytes isolated after 24-h preservation in Celsior (R) or PBS. Minor differences were found between decidual lymphocytes isolated within five hours and decidual lymphocytes isolated after 24-h preservation in Celsior (R). The results indicate that PBS is sufficient to preserve the placenta for 24h for phenotypical and functional studies. The ability to preserve the placenta will simplify the procedure for the isolation of decidual lymphocytes and makes it easier to analyze tissue from women who deliver during the night, at weekends or in other hospitals, and possibly even women with complicated pregnancies. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.</p>

Human papillomavirus genotype attribution in invasive cervical cancer: a retrospective cross-sectional worldwide study

Background Knowledge about the distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes in invasive cervical cancer is crucial to guide the introduction of prophylactic vaccines. We aimed to provide novel and comprehensive data about the worldwide genotype distribution in patients with invasive cervical cancer. Methods Paraffi n-embedded samples of histologically confirmed cases of invasive cervical cancer were collected from 38 countries in Europe, North America, central South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Inclusion criteria were a pathological confi rmation of a primary invasive cervical cancer of epithelial origin in the tissue sample selected for analysis of HPV DNA, and information about the year of diagnosis. HPV detection was done by use of PCR with SPF-10 broad-spectrum primers followed by DNA enzyme immunoassay and genotyping with a reverse hybridisation line probe assay. Sequence analysis was done to characterise HPV-positive samples with unknown HPV types. Data analyses included algorithms of multiple infections to estimate type-specifi c relative contributions. Findings 22 661 paraffi n-embedded samples were obtained from 14 249 women. 10 575 cases of invasive cervical cancer were included in the study, and 8977 (85%) of these were positive for HPV DNA. The most common HPV types were 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 45, 52, and 58 with a combined worldwide relative contribution of 8196 of 8977 (91%, 95% CI 90–92). HPV types 16 and 18 were detected in 6357 of 8977 of cases (71%, 70–72) of invasive cervical cancer. HPV types 16, 18, and 45 were detected in 443 of 470 cases (94%, 92–96) of cervical adenocarcinomas. Unknown HPV types that were identifi ed with sequence analysis were 26, 30, 61, 67, 69, 82, and 91 in 103 (1%) of 8977 cases of invasive cervical cancer. Women with invasive cervical cancers related to HPV types 16, 18, or 45 presented at a younger mean age than did those with other HPV types (50·0 years [49·6–50·4], 48·2 years [47·3–49·2], 46·8 years [46·6–48·1], and 55·5 years [54·9–56·1], respectively). Interpretation To our knowledge, this study is the largest assessment of HPV genotypes to date. HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 45, 52, and 58 should be given priority when the cross-protective eff ects of current vaccines are assessed, and for formulation of recommendations for the use of second-generation polyvalent HPV vaccines. Our results also suggest that type-specifi c high-risk HPV-DNA-based screening tests and protocols should focus on HPV types 16, 18, and 45