Publications by authors named "Blanc A"

is an understudied, gram-negative, aerobic bacterium that is widespread in the environment and increasingly a cause of opportunistic infections. Treating remains difficult, leading to an increase in disease severity and higher hospitalization rates in people with cystic fibrosis, cancer, and other immunocompromised health conditions. The lack of effective antibiotics has led to renewed interest in phage therapy; however, there remains a great need for well-characterized phages, especially against .

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Bacteriophages are an increasingly attractive option for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections, but their efficacy is difficult to discern due to the confounding effects of antibiotics. Phages are generally delivered in conjunction with antibiotics, and thus, when patients improve, it is unclear whether the phages, antibiotics, or both are responsible. This question is particularly relevant for enterococcus infections, as limited data suggest phages might restore antibiotic efficacy against resistant strains.

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Between 2009 and 2015, the Canadian health care system was estimated to be responsible for 4.6% of national carbon emissions. Determine awareness of and describe eco-initiatives that the department of pharmacy can implement to aim to reduce the carbon footprint in hospital pharmacy in an effort to 'go green'.

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Substance use affects different areas of life, including the sexual sphere. Drugs and specifically the use of alcohol and cannabis, can influence sexual experience. However, there has been little research and to date none has been carried out in Spain that compares the effect of alcohol and cannabis consumption in the same people on their sexual experience.

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An atom-economic and diazo-free strategy for the construction of novel pseudo anomeric C-1 alkenyl spirocyclopropyl sugars is described. Leveraging the 1,2-migration pathway of propargyl esters under gold(I) catalysis, easily available -glycals undergo β-selective alkenylcarbenoid insertion in moderate to excellent yields. Preferential activation of propargyl moieties and concerted [2 + 1] insertion are both favored through ligand choice and electron enrichment of esters.

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Article Synopsis
  • Rising antibiotic resistance has made treating infections from the bacterium STM difficult, especially in immunocompromised patients, leading to more severe diseases.
  • Researchers collected and characterized 18 distinct phages from California wastewater to explore their potential against STM, hypothesizing that a combined phage cocktail would be more effective than individual phages.
  • The study found that a three-phage cocktail significantly reduced bacterial growth, showed effectiveness against a large number of STM strains, and helped prevent the emergence of phage-resistant bacteria, indicating its promise as a treatment option for tough STM infections.
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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the oral health status of inmates. The secondary aims were to compare recidivists with first-time offenders and also study the impact of psychoactive drugs on the oral health status.

Design/methodology/approach: This retrospective study included 120 male inmates from a French prison.

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Given the potential discrimination faced by individuals in polyamorous relationships, understanding attitudes toward polyamory in society is crucial. To this end, instruments to measure attitudes toward polyamory with adequate psychometric properties are necessary. The aim of this study was to adapt the Attitudes Toward Polyamory Scale (ATP) to the Spanish context and analyze its psychometric properties in a sample of young adults.

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Motivation: As more behavioural assays are carried out in large-scale experiments on Drosophila larvae, the definitions of the archetypal actions of a larva are regularly refined. In addition, video recording and tracking technologies constantly evolve. Consequently, automatic tagging tools for Drosophila larval behaviour must be retrained to learn new representations from new data.

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Article Synopsis
  • Antifungal drugs are facing challenges due to increased fungal resistance, prompting the investigation of plant extracts, specifically from Phytolacca tetramera, to enhance antifungal activity and reduce side effects.
  • The study combined P. tetramera extracts and compounds like phytolaccoside B with commercial antifungals to assess their effectiveness against Candida strains and aimed at reducing doses to mitigate toxicity while also exploring anti-virulence properties to prevent drug resistance.
  • Results indicated the presence of synergistic effects when using the combinations, demonstrating a potential multi-target approach in combating fungal infections.
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The autosomal dominant Okur-Chung neurodevelopmental syndrome (OCNDS: OMIM #617062) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder first described in 2016. Features include developmental delay (DD), intellectual disability (ID), behavioral problems, hypotonia, language deficits, congenital heart abnormalities, and non-specific dysmorphic facial features. OCNDS is caused by heterozygous pathogenic variants in CSNK2A1 (OMIM *115440; NM_177559.

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Objectives: To explore the relationship between sexual orientation and specific sexual and risk behaviors, compare the number of sexual behaviors and attitudes among people of different sexual orientations, and test the mediating effect of attitudes toward sexual behaviors in the relationship between sexual orientation and the number of sexual behaviors.

Methods: A total of 2288 participants completed a checklist of sexual behaviors, indicators of sexual risk behaviors, and a scale of attitudes toward sexual behaviors.

Results: Bisexual women engaged in a greater number of sexual behaviors and had more positive attitudes toward sexual behaviors than heterosexual women.

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The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) has necessitated the development of alternative therapies to deal with this global threat. Bacteriophages (viruses that target bacteria) that kill ARB are one such alternative. Although phages have been used clinically for decades with inconsistent results, a number of recent advances in phage selection, propagation, and purification have enabled a reevaluation of their utility in contemporary clinical medicine.

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Background: Medication-related readmissions challenge healthcare systems by burdening patients, increasing costs and straining resources. However, to date, there has been no consensus study on indicators for medication-related readmissions.

Objectives: This Delphi study aimed to develop a consensus-based set of indicators for detecting patients at risk of medication-related readmission.

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With peptides increasingly favored as drugs, natural product motifs, namely the tryptathionine staple, found in amatoxins and phallotoxins, and the 2,2'-bis-indole found in staurosporine represent unexplored staples for unnatural peptide macrocycles. We disclose the efficient condensation of a 5-hydroxypyrroloindoline with either a cysteine-thiol or a tryptophan-indole to form a tryptathionine or 2-2'-bis-indole staple. Judicious use of protecting groups provides for chemoselective stapling using α-MSH, which provides a basis for investigating both chemoselectivity and affinity.

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The aromatic Cope rearrangement is an elusive transformation that has been the subject of a limited number of investigations compared to those seemingly close analogues, namely the Cope and aromatic Claisen rearrangement. Herein we report our investigations inspired by moderate success observed in the course of pioneering works. By careful experimental and theoretical investigations, we demonstrate that key substitutions on 1,5-hexadiene scaffold allow fruitful transformations.

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Antibiotic-resistant bacteria present an emerging challenge to human health. Their prevalence has been increasing across the globe due in part to the liberal use of antibiotics that has pressured them to develop resistance. Those bacteria that acquire mobile genetic elements are especially concerning because those plasmids may be shared readily with other microbes that can then also become antibiotic resistant.

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New somatostatin analogs are highly desirable for diagnosing and treating neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). Here we describe the solid-phase synthesis of a new octreotate (TATE) analog where the disulfide bond is replaced with a tryptathionine (Ttn) staple as part of an effort to prototyping a one-bead-one-compound (OBOC) library of Ttn-stapled peptides. Library design provides the potential for on- and off-bead screening.

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The emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) has necessitated the development of alternative therapies to deal with this global threat. Bacteriophages (viruses that target bacteria) that kill ARB are one such alternative. While phages have been used clinically for decades with inconsistent results, a number of recent advances in phage selection, propagation and purification have enabled a reevaluation of their utility in contemporary clinical medicine.

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In Switzerland, sex work has been legal under certain conditions since 1942, and the number of sex workers in 2011 was estimated at between 14'000 and 20'000 throughout the country, 96% of whom were migrants. These people are exposed to a wide range of vulnerabilities, both because of their profession and because of structural and institutional shortcomings. The complexity of their care has led over time to the creation of specialised structures and units, which are often unknown to healthcare professionals.

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Background: Accurate data on the receipt of essential maternal and newborn health interventions is necessary to interpret and address gaps in effective coverage. Validation results of commonly used content and quality of care indicators routinely implemented in international survey programs vary across settings. We assessed how respondent and facility characteristics influenced the accuracy of women's recall of interventions received in the antenatal and postnatal periods.

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Background: Since cannabis has been legalized in Canada for medicinal and recreational use, there has been an increased demand on pharmacists for cannabis counselling. The aim of the study was to examine typical questions posed by consumers to managers and budtenders working at licensed recreational cannabis stores in Canada and to assess how often consumers seek unlicensed medical advice to treat various conditions using cannabis.

Methods: An online survey was synthesized, consisting of 22 questions capturing demographics and Likert scale responses to survey questions, and was distributed online across Canada from January to June 2021.

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Background: Pharmacists and allied health researchers need to ensure that their practice is supported by current, evidence-based information. Critical appraisal tools have been developed to aid in this process.

Objectives: To analyze the current landscape of critical appraisal tools and to create an aid for pharmacists and other allied health researchers to use in comparing various tools and choosing the best one for each particular study design.

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α-particle emitters have recently been explored as valuable therapeutic radionuclides. Yet, toxicity to healthy organs and cancer radioresistance limit the efficacy of targeted α-particle therapy (TAT). Identification of the radiation-activated mechanisms that drive cancer cell survival provides opportunities to develop new points for therapeutic interference to improve the efficacy and safety of TAT.

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To identify biomarkers of hormonal contraceptive (HC) use in urine and saliva, we conducted a pilot study with 30 women initiating levonorgestrel (LNG) containing combined oral contraceptives (COCs) or depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) (15/group). Based on established COC pharmacokinetics, we collected serum and urine samples before COC ingestion and during Days one and three of use, or before DMPA injection and on Days 21 and 60 post-injection. We used liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to measure serum/urine LNG and MPA.

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