Parasites are ubiquitous, and the ability to defend against these is of paramount importance. One way to fight diseases is self-medication, which occurs when an organism consumes biologically active compounds to clear, inhibit, or alleviate disease symptoms. Here, we show for the first time that ants selectively consume harmful substances (reactive oxygen species, ROS) upon exposure to a fungal pathogen, yet avoid these in the absence of infection. This increased intake of ROS, while harmful to healthy ants, leads to higher survival of exposed ants. The fact that ingestion of this substance carries a fitness cost in the absence of pathogens rules out compensatory diet choice as the mechanism, and provides evidence that social insects medicate themselves against fungal infection, using a substance that carries a fitness cost to uninfected individuals.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/evo.12752 | DOI Listing |
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int
January 2025
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
On October 11, 2018, in the Ulytau region of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle carrying a crewed MS-10 spacecraft failed. It resulted in the release into the fragile arid ecosystems of rocket propellants, i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArch Dis Child
January 2025
Pediatric Emergency Department, Cruces University Hospital Paediatric Emergencies, Barakaldo, Spain
Introduction: Although the administration of activated charcoal (AC) is considered safe, the associated risk of pulmonary aspiration explains certain reluctance of physicians to use this procedure. The objective of this study was to analyse the rate of pulmonary aspiration in children receiving AC after accidental ingestion of a toxic substance.
Methods: We carried out a substudy of a multicentre prospective registry-based cohort study including children presenting with acute poisoning to 58 paediatric emergency department (EDs) members of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Emergency Medicine between 2008 and 2022 on certain previously designated days.
Foods
December 2024
Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia.
Unlike the mandatory information that must be provided on a food supplement label, health claims are voluntary. This study assesses the regulatory compliance of omega-3 fatty acid (ω-3-FA) supplement label claims. Of the 97 supplements, 76 (78.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCrit Rev Toxicol
January 2025
Product Stewardship, Science & Regulatory, Shell Global Solutions International B.V. The Hague, the Netherlands.
Xylene substances have wide industrial and consumer uses and are currently undergoing dossier and substance evaluation under Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) for further toxicological testing including consideration of an additional neurotoxicological testing cohort to an extended one-generation reproduction toxicity (EOGRT) study. New repeated dose study data on xylenes identify the thyroid as a potential target tissue, and therefore a weight of evidence review is provided to investigate whether or not xylene-mediated changes on the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis are secondary to liver enzymatic induction and are of a magnitude that is relevant for neurological human health concerns. Multiple published studies confirm xylene-mediated increases in liver weight, hepatocellular hypertrophy, and liver enzymatic induction the oral or inhalation routes, including an increase in uridine 5'-diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase (UDP-GT) activity, the key step in thyroid hormone metabolism in rodents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFToxicol Res (Camb)
January 2025
Biochemistry Science and Technology, Gaziantep University, 27310, Sehitkamil, Gaziantep, Türkiye.
Aclonifen is a diphenyl ether herbicide being included in the list of priority substances. Nevertheless, the data related to its sublethal effects on fish are limited. Therefore, the present study has been carried out to investigate the toxic effects of aclonifen in juvenile following 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours of application to sublethal concentrations of 12.
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