Exploration of the extracellular matrix of the red alga Chondrus crispus reveals unprecedented insights into carrageenan structures.

Carrageenans are major gel forming polysaccharides in the extracellular matrix of the red macroalga Chondrus crispus. These galactans are made of linear chains of repetitive disaccharide motifs based on d-galactose residues alternately linked by β-1,4 and α-1,3 glycosidic bonds. A definite number of disaccharide motifs are known, based on their regular sulfations and the presence of a 3,6-anhydro bridge.

Candidate genes involved in biosynthesis and degradation of the main extracellular matrix polysaccharides of brown algae and their probable evolutionary history.

Background: Brown algae belong to the Stramenopiles phylum and are phylogenetically distant from plants and other multicellular organisms. This independent evolutionary history has shaped brown algae with numerous metabolic characteristics specific to this group, including the synthesis of peculiar polysaccharides contained in their extracellular matrix (ECM). Alginates and fucose-containing sulphated polysaccharides (FCSPs), the latter including fucans, are the main components of ECMs.

Association Between Healthy Behaviors and Health Care Resource Use With Subsequent Positive Airway Pressure Therapy Adherence in OSA.

Background: The healthy adherer effect has gained increasing attention as a potential source of bias in observational studies examining the association of positive airway pressure (PAP) adherence with health outcomes in OSA.

Research Question: Is adherence to PAP associated with healthy behaviors and health care resource use prior to device prescription?

Study Design And Methods: Data from the Institut de Recherche en Santé Respiratoire (IRSR) des Pays de la Loire Sleep Cohort were linked to health administrative data to identify proxies of heathy behaviors, including adherence to cardiovascular (CV) drugs (medical possession ratio), cancer screening tests, influenza vaccination, alcohol and smoking consumption, and drowsiness-related road accidents during the 2 years preceding PAP onset in patients with OSA. Multivariable regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the association of heathy behaviors with subsequent PAP adherence.

Primary resistance to immunotherapy in patients with a dMMR/MSI metastatic gastrointestinal cancer: who is at risk? An AGEO real-world study.

Background: The outstanding efficacy of immunotherapy in metastatic dMMR/MSI gastro-intestinal (GI) cancers has led to a rapid increase in the number of patients treated. However, 20-30% of patients experience primary resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIPR) and need better characterization.

Methods: This AGEO real-world study retrospectively analyzed the efficacy and safety of ICIs and identified clinical variables associated with ICIPR in patients with metastatic dMMR/MSI GI cancers treated with immunotherapy between 2015 and 2022.

Local budesonide therapy in the management of persistent hyposmia in suspected non-severe COVID-19 patients: Results of a randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: Consequences of COVID-19 on olfactory functions remained unclear during the pandemic. We assessed the efficacy of local budesonide in addition to olfactory rehabilitation when managing non-severe COVID-19 patients with persistent hyposmia.

Methods: A multicentric, randomized, superiority trial was conducted (ClinicalTrials.

Complication of Ear Impression: Foreign Body in the Eustachian Tube Eroding the Carotid Canal.

The realization of customized earing plugs and earmolds for hearing aids requires an impression of the external auditory canal to obtain a siliconized mold. Silicone used for ear impressions is known to be safe and inert but deposition of silicone in the middle ear can middle and inner ear damages. We present a case of accidental injection of silicone in the middle ear and the Eustachian tube resulting in an erosion of the carotid canal.

Heterologous Expression and Biochemical Characterization of a New Chloroperoxidase Isolated from the Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Black Yeast Hortaea werneckii UBOCC-A-208029.

The initiation of this study relies on a targeted genome-mining approach to highlight the presence of a putative vanadium-dependent haloperoxidase-encoding gene in the deep-sea hydrothermal vent fungus Hortaea werneckii UBOCC-A-208029. To date, only three fungal vanadium-dependent haloperoxidases have been described, one from the terrestrial species Curvularia inaequalis, one from the fungal plant pathogen Botrytis cinerea, and one from a marine derived isolate identified as Alternaria didymospora. In this study, we describe a new vanadium chloroperoxidase from the black yeast H.

Efficacy of immunotherapy in mismatch repair-deficient advanced colorectal cancer in routine clinical practice. An AGEO study.

Background: Immunotherapy demonstrated remarkable efficacy in metastatic colorectal cancers (mCRCs) with mismatch repair deficiency (MMRd)/microsatellite instability (MSI). However, data regarding efficacy and safety of immunotherapy in the routine clinical practice are scarce.

Patients And Methods: This is a retrospective, multicenter study aiming to evaluate efficacy and safety of immunotherapy in routine clinical practice and to identify predictive markers for long-term benefit.

Good practice in medicine and biology: scientific integrity needs global bioethics.

We consider scientific integrity to constitute a new theory of morality of science, in a very specific deontological sense. Indeed, at least in practice, scientific integrity extends beyond scientific concerns, seeking to develop specific moral duties and/or procedures based on general moral values and/or standards, leading to common moral frameworks for usual scientific practices. This is, of course, necessary.

Bioethics after the COVID-19 pandemic: More research, fewer committees?

In the face of the pandemic, , once again, proved its scientific utility. In France, in particular, the academic approach (= peer-reviewed, scientific publications, etc.) should be given priority over the institutional approach (= public surveys, public meetings, etc.

Bio-ethical issues in oncology during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic: A qualitative study in a French hospital.

Background: Using a specific bioethical theory (=global bioethics) and method (=a posteriori), we try here to identify and evaluate the bio-ethical issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, and possible solutions, to improve the management of cancer patients at the hospital in future pandemics, before the emergence of vaccines or scientifically validated treatments.

Materials & Methods: Our work is based primarily on the clinical experience of three oncologists from the oncology department of Foch Hospital in France, who were on the frontline during the first wave of the epidemic. We compared their perceptions with published findings, to complete or nuance their views.

From a voluntary vaccination policy to mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 in cancer patients: an empirical and interdisciplinary study in bioethics.

Background: At the start of 2021, oncologists lacked the necessary scientific knowledge to adapt their clinical practices optimally when faced with cancer patients refusing or reluctant to be vaccinated against COVID-19, despite the marked vulnerability of these patients to severe, and even fatal forms of this new viral infectious disease. Oncologists at Foch Hospital were confronted with this phenomenon, which was observed worldwide, in both the general population and the population of cancer patients.

Methods: Between April and November 2021, the Ethics and Oncology Departments of Foch Hospital decided to investigate this subject, through an empirical and interdisciplinary study in bioethics.

Cancer and COVID-19: ethical issues concerning the use of telemedicine during the pandemic.

The lockdown imposed in France during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc with access to healthcare. From March 2020 onwards, the oncologists of Foch Hospital, like many others at hospitals throughout the world, were obliged to adapt to the new conditions, including, in particular, the impossibility of seeing patients in classic consultations for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Patients with cancer are particularly susceptible to this new virus, due to their immune status, and this made it difficult to carry out standard hospital visits for these patients.

Utility of urinary cytokine levels as predictors of the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of AS01-adjuvanted hepatitis B vaccine in healthy adults.

Plasma cytokines are useful indicators of the inflammatory response to vaccination, and can serve as potential biomarkers of the systemic reactogenicity and immunogenicity of vaccines. Measurement of cytokines in urine may represent a non-invasive alternative to the blood-based markers. To evaluate whether urinary cytokine levels can help predict vaccine responses to an AS01-adjuvanted vaccine, we measured concentrations of 24 cytokines in the urine from 30 hepatitis B virus (HBV)-naïve adults following administration of AS01-adjuvanted HBV surface antigen vaccine (NCT01777295).