Allostery and Evolution: A Molecular Journey Through the Structural and Dynamical Landscape of an Enzyme Super Family.

Allosteric regulation is a powerful mechanism for controlling the efficiency of enzymes. Deciphering the evolutionary mechanisms by which allosteric properties have been acquired in enzymes is of fundamental importance. We used the malate (MalDH) and lactate deydrogenases (LDHs) superfamily as model to elucidate this phenomenon.

Neuropsychological Profile in Older Adults with End-Stage Kidney Disease during Kidney Transplantation Evaluation.

Background: End-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant concern for older adults and is often associated with cognitive impairment (CI). The origin of this CI is multifactorial, involving vascular and metabolic factors. Additionally, renal treatments, including dialysis, may affect cognition.

Aspergillus fumigatus is responsible for inflammation in a murine model of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation.

Background: In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a sensitization to A. fumigatus has been related to a decline in lung function, but the role of fungal agents in the disease pathogenesis remains unclear. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate whether cell inflammation could worsen after exposure to A.

Infection Reinforces the Defense Reactions in - Roots to the Detriment of Nodules.

, able to establish symbiosis with mutualistic bacteria of the genus , is one of the main species in European riparian environments, where it performs numerous biological and socio-economic functions. However, riparian ecosystems face a growing threat from , a highly aggressive waterborne pathogen causing severe dieback in . To date, the tripartite interaction between the host plant, the symbiont and the pathogen remains unexplored but is critical for understanding how pathogen-induced stress influences the nodule molecular machinery and so on the host-symbiont metabolism.

Photodegradation of naphthalene-derived particle oxidation products.

While photochemical aging is known to alter secondary organic aerosol (SOA) properties, this process remains poorly constrained for anthropogenic SOA. This study investigates the photodegradation of SOA produced from the hydroxyl radical-initiated oxidation of naphthalene under low- and high-NO conditions. We used state-of-the-art mass spectrometry (MS) techniques, including extractive electrospray ionization and chemical ionization MS, for the in-depth molecular characterization of gas and particulate phases.

Use of assistive technology to assess distal motor function in subjects with neuromuscular disease.

Unlabelled: Among the 32 items of the Motor Function Measure scale, 3 concern the assessment of hand function on a paper-based support. Their characteristics make it possible to envisage the use of a tablet instead of the original paper-based support for their completion. This would then make it possible to automate the score to reduce intra- and inter-individual variability.

Scaling up morphological differentiation of pangolin scales: Serial, ontogenetic and evolutionary variation.

Pangolins are the most heavily trafficked mammals in the world, largely because of the high demand for their keratinous scales from the traditional Chinese medicine market. While seizures of pangolin material are largely composed of isolated scales, efficient approaches to reach species-level identification are missing. This mostly originates from the lack of comparative studies on the shape of pangolin scales, resulting in knowledge gaps on the imbricated effects of serial, ontogenetic, and evolutionary variations.

Influence of phase and dominance on ground reaction forces and upper extremity muscle activity during the modified-Closed Kinetic Chain Upper Extremity Stability Test.

Background: The Closed Kinetic Chain Upper Extremity Stability Test (CKCUEST) is a physical performance test designed to assess the upper extremity (UE) stability. However, only one outcome measure is provided for both UEs, limiting its application if the UEs are not similarly involved. Moreover, the changes in loads sustained by the support UE throughout the movement may influence the support UE stability.

Establishing a living biobank of pediatric high-grade glioma and ependymoma suitable for cancer pharmacology.

Background: Brain tumors are the deadliest solid tumors in children and adolescents. Most of these tumors are glial in origin and exhibit strong heterogeneity, hampering the development of effective therapeutic strategies. In the past decades, patient-derived tumor organoids (PDT-O) have emerged as powerful tools for modeling tumoral cell diversity and dynamics, and they could then help defining new therapeutic options for pediatric brain tumors.

CDK4 inactivation inhibits apoptosis via mitochondria-ER contact remodeling in triple-negative breast cancer.

The energetic demands of proliferating cells during tumorigenesis require close coordination between the cell cycle and metabolism. While CDK4 is known for its role in cell proliferation, its metabolic function in cancer, particularly in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), remains unclear. Our study, using genetic and pharmacological approaches, reveals that CDK4 inactivation only modestly impacts TNBC cell proliferation and tumor formation.

Delivery of Prime editing in human stem cells using pseudoviral NanoScribes particles.

Prime Editing can rewrite genes in living cells by allowing point mutations, deletions, or insertion of small DNA sequences with high precision. However, its safe and efficient delivery into human stem cells remains a technical challenge. In this report, we engineer Nanoscribes, virus-like particles that encapsidate ribonucleoprotein complexes of the Prime Editing system and allow their delivery into recipient cells.

Right-censored models by the expectile method.

Based on the expectile loss function and the adaptive LASSO penalty, the paper proposes and studies the estimation methods for the accelerated failure time (AFT) model. In this approach, we need to estimate the survival function of the censoring variable by the Kaplan-Meier estimator. The AFT model parameters are first estimated by the expectile method and afterwards, when the number of explanatory variables can be large, by the adaptive LASSO expectile method which directly carries out the automatic selection of variables.

Assessing the prevalence of anticholinergic and sedative medications to avoid in older adults from the French Health Data System.

Background: In older people, medications with anticholinergic or sedative properties are associated with falls, frailty, and functional and cognitive impairment. These medications are often described as a subset of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs). We examined the prevalence of anticholinergic or sedative medications to avoid in older people in France in 2023.

Microstrip plastic scintillating detector system for quality assurance in synchrotron microbeam radiotherapy.

Synchrotron microbeam radiotherapy (MRT), which has entered the clinical transfer phase, requires the development of appropriate quality assurance (QA) tools due to very high dose rates and spatial hyperfractionation. A microstrip plastic scintillating detector system with associated modules was proposed in the context of real-time MRT QA. A prototype of such a system with 105 scintillating microstrips was developed and tested under MRT conditions.

Stable Convergent Polyneuronal Innervation and Altered Synapse Elimination in Muscles from Patients with Blepharospasm Responding Poorly to Recurrent Botulinum Type-A Neurotoxin Injections.

Botulinum neurotoxin type-A (BoNT/A), which blocks quantal acetylcholine (ACh) release at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), has demonstrated its efficacy in the symptomatic treatment of blepharospasm. In 3.89% of patients treated for blepharospasm at Tenon Hospital, BoNT/A was no longer effective in relieving the patient's symptoms, and a partial upper myectomy of the muscle was performed.

Multifunctional dietary approach reduces intestinal inflammation in relation with changes in gut microbiota composition in subjects at cardiometabolic risk: the SINFONI project.

The development of cardiometabolic (CM) diseases is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation, partly linked to alterations of the gut microbiota (GM) and reduced intestinal integrity. The SINFONI project investigates a multifunctional (MF) nutritional strategy's impact combining different bioactive compounds on inflammation, GM modulation and CM profile. In this randomized crossover-controlled study, 30 subjects at CM-risk consumed MF cereal-products, enriched with polyphenols, fibers, slowly-digestible starch, omega-3 fatty acids or Control cereal-products (without bioactive compounds) for 2 months.

Phase II randomized study of dostarlimab alone or with bevacizumab versus non-platinum chemotherapy in recurrent gynecological clear cell carcinoma (DOVE/APGOT-OV7/ENGOT-ov80).

Background: Recurrent gynecological clear cell carcinoma (rGCCC) has a low objective response rate (ORR) to chemotherapy. Previous preclinical and clinical data suggest a potential synergy between immune checkpoint inhibitors and bevacizumab in rGCCC. Dostarlimab, a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), combined with the anti-angiogenic bevacizumab, presents a novel therapeutic approach.

[Implementation of geriatric oncology in a remote hospital in French Guiana].

Introduction: The aim was to analyze the implementation of the Onco-Geriatrics model in a remote ultramarine territory: West-French Guiana. The population is socially precarious in terms of income, social coverage and administrative status, and most often speaks a non-French language and has a non-Western culture.

Methods: Narrative description of the implementation and retrospective study of anonymized data from the database of older patients managed for cancer between September 2014 and December 2020.

Impact of pH on sodium caseinate binding and structural changes on montmorillonite surface.

The immobilization of proteins onto clay surfaces has proven beneficial for pharmaceutical and environmental applications. This study examines the adsorption of sodium caseinate (Cas), an amphiphilic protein widely used in pharmaceutical formulations, onto sodium montmorillonite (Mt). Adsorption isotherms and kinetics were examined at two pHs, above and below Cas isoelectric point (IEP).

Validation of a screening test based on symbols visual search to detect visuo-attentionnal reading difficulties.

Objective: Visuo-attentional dyslexia has been associated with impaired simultaneous visual processing of multiple items made of separable features (i.e. symbols).

A modular machine learning tool for holistic and fine-grained behavioral analysis.

Artificial intelligence techniques offer promising avenues for exploring human body features from videos, yet no freely accessible tool has reliably provided holistic and fine-grained behavioral analyses to date. To address this, we developed a machine learning tool based on a two-level approach: a first lower-level processing using computer vision for extracting fine-grained and comprehensive behavioral features such as skeleton or facial points, gaze, and action units; a second level of machine learning classification coupled with explainability providing modularity, to determine which behavioral features are triggered by specific environments. To validate our tool, we filmed 16 participants across six conditions, varying according to the presence of a person ("Pers"), a sound ("Snd"), or silence ("Rest"), and according to emotional levels using self-referential ("Self") and control ("Ctrl") stimuli.

Does what we find depend on how we sample? Measured streambed microplastic concentrations can be affected by the choice of sampling method.

Microplastics (MPs) are prevalent in rivers worldwide and can adversely impact riverine ecosystems. To sample for MPs in streambeds, a variety of different sampling techniques is applied, including (i) scooping, (ii) coring, (iii) freeze coring, (iv) resuspension method, and (v) piezometer sampling. These common sampling techniques capture different parts of the streambed and different sampling volumes.