Evolutionary lability of odour-mediated host preference by the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae

Many species of disease‐vector mosquitoes display vertebrate host specificity. Despite considerable progress in recent years in understanding the proximate and ultimate factors related to non‐random host selection at the interspecific level, the basis of this selection remains only partially understood. Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto, the main malaria vector in Africa, is considered a highly anthropophilic mosquito, and host odours have been shown to play a major role in the host‐seeking process of this species. Studies on host preference of An. gambiae have been either conducted in controlled conditions using laboratory reared mosquitoes and worn stockings as host‐related stimuli, or have been done in the field with methods that do not account for internal (e.g. age of sampled mosquitoes) and/or environmental effects. We explored differential behavioural responses to host odours between two populations of the same sibling species, An. gambiae in semi‐field conditions in Burkina Faso. The behavioural responses (i.e. degree of activation and strength of anemotaxis) were investigated using a Y‐olfactometer designed to accommodate whole hosts as a source of odour stimuli. Two strains of An. gambiae (3 to 4‐day‐old female) from laboratory Kisumu strain, and from field‐collected individuals were confronted to combinations of stimuli comprising calf odour, human odour and outdoor air. In dual‐choice tests, field mosquitoes chose human odour over calf odour, outdoor air over calf odour and responded equally to human and outdoor air, while laboratory mosquitoes responded equally to human and calf odour, human odour over outdoor air and calf odour over outdoor air. Overall, no effect of CO₂ exhaled by humans and calves neither on the proportion of activated mosquitoes nor on the relative attractiveness to odour stimuli was found. We report for the first time an intraspecific variation in host‐odour responses. This study clearly suggests that there may be genetic polymorphism underlying host preference and emphasizes that the highly anthropophilic label given to An. gambiae s.s. must be carefully interpreted and refer to populations rather than the whole sibling species.     

L’acte et son énigme. Entre l’indicible et l’innommable

Contiguous with social spaces, the prison is invested with a degree of secrecy. However, those who are incarcerated tolerate the space, which imprisons them with difficulty, insofar as this place, which punishes them, does not allow them to approach an act where the significance escapes. The act, which led them to this place, identifies them, more than it interrogates the “acting out of the act”, which is profoundly enigmatic and rarely questioned. The legal procedures fix behaviors by a ruling, which is hardly suitable for clarifying acts, which inhibit the significance. Based on clinical situations, we have attempted to conduct investigations concerning the act, defining the role, which the psychologist, orientated by psychoanalysis, must have in the individual work that he maintains with the prisoners. Far from numbing the significance, the aim is to articulate the statements with the contradictions, which compose them, to let an aborted word appear under appropriate discourse; the one which touches on the unspeakable. Taken literally, the significant point of the act is revealed to be less expressible than it had seemed and allows a glimpse of unsuspected areas.     

Combination protocols of cytokine therapy with interleukin-3 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor in a primate model of radiation-induced marrow aplasia

Single cytokine therapy with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) or interleukin-3 (IL-3) has been shown to be effective in decreasing the respective periods of neutropenia and thrombocytopenia following radiation- or drug-induced marrow aplasia. The combined administration of IL-3 and GM-CSF in normal primates suggested that a sequential protocol of IL-3 followed by GM-CSF would be more effective than that of GM-CSF alone in producing neutrophils (PMN). We investigated the therapeutic efficacy of two combination protocols, the sequential and coadministration of recombinant human IL- 3 and GM-CSF relative to respective single cytokine therapy, and delayed GM-CSF administration in sublethally irradiated rhesus monkeys. Monkeys irradiated with 450 cGy (mixed fission neutron:gamma radiation) received either IL-3, GM-CSF, human serum albumin (HSA), or IL-3 coadministered with GM-CSF for days 1 through 21 consecutively postexposure, or IL-3 or HSA for days 1 through 7 followed by GM-CSF for days 7 through 21. All cytokines and HSA were injected subcutaneously at a total dose of 25 micrograms/kg/d, divided twice daily. Complete blood counts (CBC) and platelet (PLT) counts were monitored over 60 days postirradiation. The respiratory burst activity of the PMN was assessed flow cytometrically, by measuring hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production. Coadministration of IL-3 and GM-CSF reduced the average 16-day period of neutropenia and antibiotic support in the control animals to 6 days (P = .006). Similarly, the average 10-day period of severe thrombocytopenia, which necessitated PLT transfusion in the control animals, was reduced to 3 days when IL-3 and GM-CSF were coadministered (P = .004). The sequential administration of IL-3 followed by GM-CSF had no greater effect on PMN production than GM-CSF alone and was less effective than IL-3 alone in reducing thrombocytopenia. PMN function was enhanced in all cytokine-treated animals.     

Severe nephropathy in three adolescents with cystic fibrosis.

Renal involvement has rarely been reported in patients with cystic fibrosis. We describe severe nephropathy with a rapidly fatal outcome in three adolescents with cystic fibrosis, and evaluate the important repercussions that the nephrotic syndrome had on the precarious clinical situation of these patients.     

Acute renal failure in a neonate due to pelviureteric candidal bezoars successfully treated with long-term systemic fluconazole

Systemic candidiasis with renal involvement is a rare but well-recognized complication during intensive care treatment in very-low-birth-weight infants. We report a term neonate who developed anuria associated with bilateral bezoar formation in the renal pelvis and candidemia. The treatment consisted of placement of a nephrostomy tube in the left kidney, short-term irrigation with amphotericin B and iv, and later, oral administration of fluconazole.