Effect of bovine Azawak colostrum administration on plasma protein profile in red kid.

This study evaluated the impact of heterologous Azawak colostrum administration on plasma protein profile in red kids from Niger. Forty (40) newborn kids were affected to one of two treatments: control group (access to water and the mother) and colostrum group (access to the mother, water and additional 50 ml of colostrum Azawak/animal the day of birth, then 25ml/animal/day from the 2nd to 15th day). Blood samples (10ml/animal) were obtained at the age of 10 and 30 days by jugular puncture into EDTA vacutainer tubes. The quantification of total protein was performed by the Biuret method. The agarose gel electrophoresis was used to determine serum levels of albumin, ɑ-globulin, β1-globulin, β2-globulin, γ-globulin and finally the albumin/globulin ratio. In general, the average concentrations of these proteins obtained at both ages reached higher values in colostrum than in control group. At day 10, the colostrum group tended to show (P <0.07) higher levels for ɑ-globulin and showed higher values (P <0.04) for β1-globulin. At day 30, total protein and β2-globulins were higher in colostrum group. The administration of heterologous colostrum in kid seems to have positive effects on some plasma parameters. It would be worth to discriminate the plasma proteins derived from bovine and maternal colostra.Utilisation du Colostrum Bovin chez les petits ruminant

Fatty acids : nomenclature and dietary sources

Fatty acids are member of the lipid family. They are aliphatic monocarboxylic acids with or without double bond. They are classified according different nomenclatures : the international systematic name, the omega nomenclature and the trivial names. Fatty acids are major compounds of oils and fats. Among the saturated fatty acids, C12, C16 and C18 fatty acids are the most widely distributed, whereas in the unsaturated fatty acids group, C18 with 1, 2 or 3 double bonds are the most important within the vegetable and animal terrestrian products. Fatty acids with 4 or more than 4 double bonds and 20 to 24 atoms of carbon are largely represented in the marine products

Synthesis and in vitro characterization of anticancer platinum(II) coordinates: NCI Compare and FTIR spectroscopy for drug candidate profiling

Platinum-based drugs have been used for several decades to successfully treat diverse cancers. Cisplatin, the original compound of this class, is effective against various tumor types, yet it exhibits toxic side effects and tumors often develop resistance. We developed an original in vitro approach to rapidly determine whether platinum compounds could at least partially overcome these limitations by exhibiting a modified activity pattern. From preliminary studies on a twenty compounds series by our group, five compounds were selected for further investigation. After having determined their anticancer potencies through MTT growth inhibition assays, the two most potent compounds (IC50 = 2 µM) were evaluated using the 60 human tumor cell line panel from the NCI and the results were compared to those of the NCI database using the COMPARE algorithm. To complete this approach, the products were compared to cisplatin and oxaliplatin using a FTIR spectroscopy technique allowing the fingerprinting of metabolic changes arising upon drug treatment inside cells. Results interestingly show a relatively low correlation of the tested compounds to Pt(II) compounds from the NCI database (and obviously to marketed Pt drugs), although they correlate to DNA targeting compounds as expected. Beside this, FTIR experiments indicate a probably different biochemical impact on cells after treatment compared to cisplatin and oxaliplatin, which supports the correlation data from the NCI60 panel. In conclusion, this original approach may be effective for the early screening of a research compounds series and could therefore help for lead identification of new metallodrug intended for cancer treatment. In addition, a convenient synthesis of enantiopure diamines allowing the production of both diastereomeric series from the same precursors is reported

Effectiveness of the adapted bivalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines against hospitalisation in individuals aged ≥ 60 years during the Omicron XBB lineage-predominant period: VEBIS SARI VE network, Europe, February to August, 2023

Members of the European Hospital Vaccine Effectiveness Group: Portugal: Ana Paula Rodrigues, Débora Pereira, Susana Costa Maia e Silva, Paula Pinto, Cristina Bárbara, António Pais de Lacerda, Raquel Guiomar and Camila Henriques.The European Medicines Agency (EMA) authorised four adapted bivalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for use against COVID-19 in September/October 2022: Comirnaty (BNT162b2; Pfizer-BioNTech) and Spikevax (mRNA-1273; Moderna) Original/Omicron BA.1 and Original/Omicron BA.4–5 [1]. During autumn 2022, all European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries had vaccination campaigns in place to administer a booster dose, with several countries using the adapted bivalent vaccines [2]. The Omicron-descendent XBB lineage and XBB.1.5 sub-lineage became variants of interest in March 2023 [3]. We estimated the effectiveness of the COVID-19 bivalent vaccines against hospitalisation with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection among patients aged ≥ 60 years with severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) during the XBB lineage-predominant period.The ‘Vaccine Effectiveness, Burden and Impact Studies studies’ (VEBIS) is a project of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) run under the framework con tract No. ECDC/2021/016.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

New platinum (II) derivatives as anticancer agents

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe

Analyse des médicaments organiques: Partie générale: stéréoisomérie, propriétés physico-chimiques et réactivité des principales fonctions et groupements d’atomes. ULB

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Single Amino Acid Substitution N659D in HIV-2 Envelope Glycoprotein (Env) Impairs Viral Release and Hampers BST-2 Antagonism

BST-2 or tetherin is a host cell restriction factor that prevents the budding of enveloped viruses at the cell surface, thus impairing the viral spread. Several countermeasures to evade this antiviral factor have been positively selected in retroviruses: the human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) relies on the envelope glycoprotein (Env) to overcome BST-2 restriction. The Env gp36 ectodomain seems involved in this anti-tetherin activity, however residues and regions interacting with BST-2 are not clearly defined. Among 32 HIV-2 ROD Env mutants tested, we demonstrated that the asparagine residue at position 659 located in the gp36 ectodomain is mandatory to exert the anti-tetherin function. Viral release assays in cell lines expressing BST-2 showed a loss of viral release ability for the HIV-2 N659D mutant virus compared to the HIV-2 wild type virus. In bst-2 inactivated H9 cells, those differences were lost. Subtilisin treatment of infected cells demonstrated that the N659D mutant was more tethered at the cell surface. Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) experiments confirmed a direct molecular link between Env and BST-2 and highlighted an inability of the mutant to bind BST-2. We also tested a virus presenting a truncation of 109 amino acids at the C-terminal part of Env, a cytoplasmic tail partial deletion that is spontaneously selected in vitro. Interestingly, viral release assays and FRET experiments indicated that a full Env cytoplasmic tail was essential in BST-2 antagonism. In HIV-2 infected cells, an efficient Env-mediated antagonism of BST-2 is operated through an intermolecular link involving the asparagine 659 residue as well as the C-terminal part of the cytoplasmic tail

Technologies to develop new metal medicines

SCOPUS: ed.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe