La fonctionnalité alimentaire : illusion aujourd’hui, réalité demain

Foods have always been considered by man as a means of ensuring his physiological needs, allowing the growth, development and preservation of the body and its tissues (nutritional value of food). To this can be added the feelings of satisfaction and well-being that food gives to its consumer, thus constituting an element that is fundamental for our physiological and mental balance (the sensorial value of food).Nevertheless, recent scientific studies have shown that over and above the ensuring of nutritional needs, eating habits can also adjust certain functions of the human organism and thus play a beneficial or harmful role on one's health (the functional value of food).The whole concept of nutrition has been enriched by the notion that eating is not only a survival reflex (satisfaction derived through eating and the avoidance of harmful effects due to eating deficiencies or excesses): eating aims to improve one's health and well-being and to reduce the risk of developing various pathologies. These new data open interesting new horizons in today's context where health is increasingly expensive and people are increasingly concerned to improve their quality of live.     

Autoimmune diseases in myelodysplastic syndrome favors patients survival: A case control study and literature review

Background

We conducted a monocentric retrospective study of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and autoimmune or inflammatory disorders (AIMs) and a literature review. We analyzed the association with subgroups of the WHO 2016 MDS classification and patient's survival in a case control study. Risk factors associated with survival were analyzed by uni- and multivariate analysis.

Generation of potent T(h)1 responses from patients with lymphoid malignancies after differentiation of B lymphocytes into dendritic-like cells

Dendritic cells (DC) are a group of potent antigen-presenting cells (APC) specialized for initiating T cell immune responses. They originate from the bone marrow and upon stimulation with bacterial products, cytokines or CD40 ligation they acquire the ability to migrate to the secondary lymphoid organs. In vitro DC can be generated from human CD34(+) bone marrow cells and CD14(+) peripheral blood monocytes after culture with different cytokine combinations. Since most leukemic cells and tumors in general are devoid of APC capacities, various strategies have been used to increase their recognition and confer the capacity of antigen presentation on them. Because of our interest in the design of vaccine immunotherapy protocols for the adjuvant treatment of patients with lymphoid malignancies (LM), we chose to explore the capacity of human acute lymphoblastic leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and plasma cell leukemia to differentiate into cells with APC and DC features. Our results among a sample of 10 patients demonstrate that such approach is feasible. Leukemic cells could be induced in the presence of IL-4 and CD40L to exhibit a DC morphology with a phenotype of mature DC-like cells. They could also induce a potent proliferative response in naive CD4(+) T cells. In addition, they expressed chemokine receptor CCR7 and CD62L, and could drive T cells towards a T(h)1 response with secretion of IFN-gamma. Our strategy leading to increased LM cell immunogenicity may have potential clinical applications and LM appear to be attracting candidates for adjuvant vaccination and adoptive immunotherapy.     

Illness cognitions and health-related quality of life in liver transplant patients related to length of stay,comorbidities and complications

Quality of Life Research - Illness cognitions regarding helplessness and acceptance are known to play a role in health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Our study examined the evolution of these...     

Influence of Amodiaquine on the Antimalarial Activity of Ellagic Acid: Crystallographic and Biological Studies

In the search for new antimalarial drugs, design of hybrid molecules is recommended to improve biological activity and to decrease the risk of parasite resistance development. Ellagic acid, as an inhibitor of Plasmodium glutathione, presents an original mode of action and thus appears as a promising antiplasmodial compound. A new complex (AQ–EA) consisting of the well‐known antimalarial drug, amodiaquine, and ellagic acid was obtained. The studied crystal structure of AQ–EA showed that the triclinic centrosymmetrical unit cell of the crystal contains two molecules of amodiaquine (AQ) and two symmetrically independent molecules of ellagic acid (EA). The packing of the molecules in the crystal is dominated by hydrogen bonds between AQ and EA. The antiplasmodial activity of the hybrid complex AQ–EA was also determined and compared with the values of IC₅₀ for AQ and EA separately. Potentiation assays between both molecules were conducted to understand the pharmacological interactions between AQ and EA against Plasmodium falciparum in vitro. The hybrid complex AQ–EA (IC₅₀ of 47 nm ) showed improved antiplasmodial activity in comparison with EA alone.     

Coexistence of vitreous and crystalline phases of H2O at ambient temperature

Formation of vitreous ice during rapid compression of water at room temperature is important for biology and the study of biological systems. Here, we show that Raman spectra of rapidly compressed water at greater than 1 GPa at room temperature exhibits the signature of high-density amorphous ice, whereas the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern is dominated by crystalline ice VI. To resolve this apparent contradiction, we used molecular dynamics simulations to calculate full vibrational spectra and diffraction patterns of mixtures of vitreous ice and ice VI, including embedded interfaces between the two phases. We show quantitatively that Raman spectra, which probe the local polarizability with respect to atomic displacements, are dominated by the vitreous phase, whereas a small amount of the crystalline component is readily apparent by XRD. The results of our combined experimental and theoretical studies have implications for detecting vitreous phases of water, survival of biological systems under extreme conditions, and biological imaging. The results provide additional insight into the stable and metastable phases of H₂O as a function of pressure and temperature, as well as of other materials undergoing pressure-induced amorphization and other metastable transitions.

Life as we know it on Earth depends on water. However, water also poses a critical challenge to life when it freezes at atmospheric pressure and low temperatures. The crystallization of H₂O to form hexagonal ice (ice Ih) under these conditions is accompanied by its well-known expansion, which has a dramatic impact on the structure and function of living cells. This crystallization of H₂O disrupts biological membranes and intracellular organization in living organisms and also displaces and concentrates salts and nutrients in the space between crystals (1). Like many liquids, however, rapid cooling of H₂O at ambient pressure to below its glass-transition temperature results in the formation of an amorphous phase known as low-density amorphous ice. Amorphous solid H₂O provides a chance for biological functions to survive where life otherwise cannot exist. Low-density amorphous ice is not the only amorphous form of H₂O. Ice I_h transforms to high-density amorphous (HDA) ice by application of ∼1 GPa of pressure at temperatures below 130 K (2, 3). In addition, a distinct, very-high-density amorphous state (vHDA) can form by isobaric heating and cooling of the HDA (4). low-density amorphous, high-density amorphous, and very-high-density amorphous state ice thus represent the three dominant, solid amorphous forms of H₂O at low temperatures.Solid amorphous phases of H₂O are broadly important in biology and biological applications. That amorphous H₂O which can exist over a broad range of temperatures, from cryogenic conditions to room temperature, is particularly interesting in the context of biological systems. Managing ice crystals is vital for extremophiles to survive damaging effects of H₂O crystallization. These organisms inhibit the growth of ice crystals and regulate the size and shape of the crystals using special antifreeze proteins (5, 6). Additionally, amorphous phases of H₂O are important in preserving biological samples in cryotomography applications. In cryotomography, the amorphous H₂O at low temperature is utilized routinely for sample preparation (7, 8), and significant efforts have been devoted to increase information obtained from cryotomography techniques. The low-temperature regime of amorphous H₂O routinely accessed in cryotomography creates challenges for light microscopy due to freezing of index-matching medium and objectives, which result in lowering the resolution of light microscopy in these applications. Room-temperature amorphous phases of H₂O are, therefore, advantageous for light microscopy applications and further development of techniques such as correlative light and electron microscopy (9–11).While formation of amorphous phases of H₂O below 200 K has been reported in many studies (2, 3, 12–16), a particularly interesting result is the observation of the Raman signature of HDA ice during fast compression of water at room temperature and moderate pressures (17). On the other hand, independent X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements of H₂O on fast compression could not verify the formation of amorphous H₂O above 200 K (18). Here, we report high-resolution micro-Raman and synchrotron XRD measurements conducted in parallel in rapidly compressed samples of water in diamond anvil cells (DACs). Our findings, that are supported by molecular dynamics simulations, shed light on the nature of the HDA ice at room temperature and reconciled conflicting previous reports.