A Global Overview of Bio-economy Strategies and Visions

This overview provides a comparative analysis of strategies and visions for the bio-economy. It concentrates on the US, EU, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Canada and Australia. It comments on China, Russia, Brazil and Malaysia. It also briefly outlines the OECD policy agenda for the bio-economy

DNA Methylation Signatures Predict Cytogenetic Subtype and Outcome in Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease composed of clinically relevant subtypes defined by recurrent cytogenetic aberrations. The majority of the aberrations used in risk grouping for treatment decisions are extensively studied, but still a large proportion of pediatric AML patients remain cytogenetically undefined and would therefore benefit from additional molecular investigation. As aberrant epigenetic regulation has been widely observed during leukemogenesis, we hypothesized that DNA methylation signatures could be used to predict molecular subtypes and identify signatures with prognostic impact in AML. To study genome-wide DNA methylation, we analyzed 123 diagnostic and 19 relapse AML samples on Illumina 450k DNA methylation arrays. We designed and validated DNA methylation-based classifiers for AML cytogenetic subtype, resulting in an overall test accuracy of 91%. Furthermore, we identified methylation signatures associated with outcome in t(8;21)/RUNX1-RUNX1T1, normal karyotype, and MLL/KMT2A-rearranged subgroups (p < 0.01). Overall, these results further underscore the clinical value of DNA methylation analysis in AML

Growth hormone- and testosterone-dependent regulation of glutathione transferase subunit A5 in rat liver.

The class Alpha glutathione S-transferase (GST) subunit A5 is expressed in the livers of young male and female rats. After sexual maturation, this protein is no longer detectable in the livers of male rats, but is still expressed in female rats. We have previously demonstrated that the sexually dimorphic secretion of growth hormone regulates the levels of certain class Mu GSTs in rat liver, and this study was designed to investigate the hormonal regulation of GSTA5. Control and hypophysectomized rats of both sexes were used to study the role of growth hormone in the regulation of hepatic GSTA5; and the influence of testosterone on the expression of this same subunit was investigated in intact females and castrated males. Liver cytosols were subjected to SDS/PAGE and immunoblotting using antibodies directed towards rat (r)GSTA5, and to affinity purification on glutathione-Sepharose followed by reverse-phase HPLC in order to quantify the relative levels of rGSTA1, A2, A3, A4, M1 and M2 subunits. These analyses revealed that the expression of rGSTA5 is, indeed, regulated by both growth hormone and testosterone

Expression of rat aldehyde reductase AKR7A1: influence of age and sex and tissue-specific inducibility

The regulation of the aldo-keto reductase AKR7A1 was examined in the livers of male and female rats during development by using Western blots, and its contribution to carbonyl metabolism was assessed by using enzyme assays. Hepatic levels of AKR7A1 are low in fetal rats and rise to a peak at around 6 weeks of age in animals of both sexes. Higher levels of the enzyme are found in adult male rat liver than in adult female rat liver. The reductase, therefore, appears to be subject to sex-specific regulation. The effect of growth hormone in mediating this difference in expression was examined by using hypophysectomized animals whose serum growth hormone levels had been feminized by continuous administration. Results demonstrate that such treatment leads to a reduction in AKR7A1 expression. AKR7A1 was found to be constitutively expressed in rat tissues such as liver, kidney, small intestine, and testis, but it was not detected in nasal mucosa, skeletal muscle, heart, adrenal gland, brain, or spleen. However, AKR7A1 was inducible by the synthetic antioxidant ethoxyquin in liver, kidney, and small intestine, but not in the other tissues examined. These results show that levels of this important detoxication enzyme vary considerably according to age and sex and that dietary antioxidants can also influence its level in several tissues

Valorization of agricultural wastes and biorefineries: a way of heading to circular economy

In a circular economy, one tries to encompass closed loops between dif­ferent value chains introducing changes in the production and consumption pattems. Design for the environment, extended producer responsibility, critica! consumption, cleaner production, biomirnicry, degrowth, etc. are sorne of the strategies that will help to foster a circular economy. Industrial symbiosis is another effective strategy to achieve such a goal. Agro-industrial wastes provide an enormous potential to gen­erate sustainable products and bioenergy. An integrated biorefinery is tuming into a prornising solution with multiple outputs (biofuel, bioactive compounds, and bioma­terials). In this paper a couple of biorefineries are described as a way to contribute to circular economy: a biorefinery based in seeds and vegetable wastes and a biore­finery based in a cactus' fruit, Opuntia Joconostle. Also, the possible valorizations of different agricultural wastes in Mexican systems and the symbiotic systems are described. The combination of several of these synergies in the same system will lead to an industrial symbiosis system. The use of these symbiotic systems on a large scale could give a significant contribution towards a circular economy in the agricultura! sector. Most of the valorizations described have been tested or proposed by the authors in real examples in Spain and Mexico. Barriers and lessons leamed in the implementation of both biorefinery and symbiotic systems are discussedPostprint (published version