Predicting Mental Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Survivors Using Comparison Participants

The objective of this research is to propose a comprehensive model for the prediction of long-term mental health in breast cancer survivors diagnosed 5 to 15 years earlier, compared to female participants referring to the most stressful event that occurred within the last 20 years. Nearly 300 survivors and 132 comparison participants were consulted using a questionnaire, which evaluated personality variables, transactional variables, and current mental quality of life. Structural equation modeling was used. The transactional proposed model was able to account for long-term mental health variance in both groups but was more relevant to women with breast cancer.     

Cognition et radiothérapie dans les métastases cérébrales : un nouveau paradigme à définir

Whole-brain radiation therapy is suspected of early and late neurocognitive impairment in long-surviving patients with brain metastases. This putative whole-brain radiation therapy neurotoxicity leads to its postponing in brain metastases management, despite its well-established benefit in the brain control of the illness especially when associated with surgery or stereotactic radiosurgery. The incidence of neurocognitive impairment in patients with brain metastases and their link with tumoral progression or radiation during time are discussed in the light of recent randomized controlled trials. Therefore, we will address various options that are under investigation – despite poor data on pathophysiologic mechanisms – in an attempt to circumvent these side effects.     

Low or High Doses of Cefquinome Targeting Low or High Bacterial Inocula Cure Klebsiella pneumoniae Lung Infections but Differentially Impact the Levels of Antibiotic Resistance in Fecal Flora

The combination of efficacious treatment against bacterial infections and mitigation of antibiotic resistance amplification in gut microbiota is a major challenge for antimicrobial therapy in food-producing animals. In rats, we evaluated the impact of cefquinome, a fourth-generation cephalosporin, on both Klebsiella pneumoniae lung infection and intestinal flora harboring CTX-M-producing Enterobacteriaceae. Germfree rats received a fecal flora specimen from specific-pathogen-free pigs, to which a CTX-M-producing Escherichia coli strain had been added. K. pneumoniae cells were inoculated in the lungs of these gnotobiotic rats by using either a low (10⁵ CFU) or a high (10⁹ CFU) inoculum. Without treatment, all animals infected with the low or high K. pneumoniae inoculum developed pneumonia and died before 120 h postchallenge. In the treated groups, the low-inoculum rats received a 4-day treatment of 5 mg/kg of body weight cefquinome beginning at 24 h postchallenge (prepatent phase of the disease), and the high-inoculum rats received a 4-day treatment of 50 mg/kg cefquinome beginning when the animals expressed clinical signs of infection (patent phase of the disease). The dose of 50 mg/kg targeting the high K. pneumoniae inoculum cured all the treated rats and resulted in a massive amplification of CTX-M-producing Enterobacteriaceae. A dose of 5 mg/kg targeting the low K. pneumoniae inoculum cured all the rats and averted an outbreak of clinical disease, all without any amplification of CTX-M-producing Enterobacteriaceae. These findings might have implications for the development of new antimicrobial treatment strategies that ensure a cure for bacterial infections while avoiding the amplification of resistance genes of human concern in the gut microbiota of food-producing animals.     

Risk of herbicide mixtures as a key parameter to explain phytoplankton fluctuation in a great lake: the case of Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Mixture risk assessment predictions have rarely been confronted with biological changes observed in the environment. In this study, long-term monitoring of a European great lake, Lake Geneva, provides the opportunity to assess to what extent the predicted toxicity of herbicide mixtures explains the changes in the composition of the phytoplankton community next to other classical limnology parameters such as nutrients. To reach this goal, the gradient of the mixture toxicity of 14 herbicides regularly detected in the lake was calculated using concentration addition and response addition models. A temporal gradient of toxicity was observed which decreased from 2004 to 2009. Redundancy analysis and partial redundancy analysis showed that this gradient explains a significant portion of the variation in phytoplankton community composition with and without having removed the effect of all other co-variables. Moreover, species that are significantly influenced, positively or negatively, by the decrease of toxicity in the lake over time are highlighted. It can be concluded that the herbicide mixture toxicity is one of the key parameters to explain phytoplankton changes in Lake Geneva.     

Le goût : physiologie,rôles et dysfonctionnements

The sense of taste involves multimodal sensory activation to detect and identify many flavors. Today, five primary tastes have been identified (sweet, salt, sour, bitter and umami). These are often combined to form complex tastes. The physiology of gustatory pathways is complex. The activation of gustatory receptors located in the mouth leads to an ascendant pathway through the neurons of the solitary nucleus in the brainstem and the neurons located in the thalamus. After the thalamus, the gustative signal modulates the ipsilateral primary taste cortex and then the secondary taste area. The secondary taste cortex, which combines representations of taste and smell, allows cortical processing and the convergence of the different sensory pathways. The other sensory modalities, such as somatosensory, olfactory, visual and hearing modalities, also interact with gustation at different stages of gustative integration. The sense of taste has three main roles: to detect and identify foods that can be eaten, to provide information in the decision to ingest or reject the food, and to trigger the digestion, absorption and storage of food. Taste problems are frequent and not diagnosed often enough. If physicians do not take them into account, they can worsen the underlying disease by causing malnutrition. Many drugs and diseases can cause gustatory loss. The underlying mechanisms are various and often unknown. Increasing our knowledge of taste physiology could improve our understanding of taste pathology. The main aim is to treat taste problems in order to avoid malnutrition and aggravation of the underlying disease.     

6-Substituted 2-oxo-2H-1-benzopyran-3-carboxylic acid derivatives in a new approach of the treatment of cancer cell invasion and metastasis

Novel 6-substituted 2-oxo-2H-1-benzopyran-3-carboxylic acid derivatives were synthesized and their potency in reducing the invasive behaviour of HT 1080 fibrosarcoma cells was evaluated. Structure-activity relationships were deduced from biological results and will be used in further design of new active compounds. In particular, the acetoxymethyl substituent found at the 6-position of previously described active compounds can be replaced by an acetamidomethyl substituent without loss of potency; while the presence of an aryl ester function at the 3-position was preferred to a thioester or an amide function to induce marked biological activity. This work confirms the interest of aryl esters of 6-substituted coumarin-3-carboxylic acids as potential new anti-cancer agents.