Breakthrough of the year. It's all about me

Along with the flood of discoveries in human genetics, 2007 saw the birth of a new industry: personal genomics. But researchers worry that these services open up a Pandora's box of ethical issues.     

Complex Toxin Profile of French Mediterranean Ostreopsis cf. ovata Strains,Seafood Accumulation and Ovatoxins Prepurification

Ostreopsis cf. ovata produces palytoxin analogues including ovatoxins (OVTXs) and a putative palytoxin (p-PLTX), which can accumulate in marine organisms and may possibly lead to food intoxication. However, purified ovatoxins are not widely available and their toxicities are still unknown. The aim of this study was to improve understanding of the ecophysiology of Ostreopsis cf. ovata and its toxin production as well as to optimize the purification process for ovatoxin. During Ostreopsis blooms in 2011 and 2012 in Villefranche-sur-Mer (France, NW Mediterranean Sea), microalgae epiphytic cells and marine organisms were collected and analyzed both by LC-MS/MS and hemolysis assay. Results obtained with these two methods were comparable, suggesting ovatoxins have hemolytic properties. An average of 223 μg·kg⁻¹ of palytoxin equivalent of whole flesh was found, thus exceeding the threshold of 30 μg·kg⁻¹ in shellfish recommended by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Ostreopsis cells showed the same toxin profile both in situ and in laboratory culture, with ovatoxin-a (OVTX-a) being the most abundant analogue (~50%), followed by OVTX-b (~15%), p-PLTX (12%), OVTX-d (8%), OVTX-c (5%) and OVTX-e (4%). Ostreopsis cf. ovata produced up to 2 g of biomass per L of culture, with a maximum concentration of 300 pg PLTX equivalent cell⁻¹. Thus, an approximate amount of 10 mg of PLTX-group toxins may be produced with 10 L of this strain. Toxin extracts obtained from collected biomass were purified using different techniques such as liquid-liquid partition or size exclusion. Among these methods, open-column chromatography with Sephadex LH20 phase yielded the best results with a cleanup efficiency of 93% and recovery of about 85%, representing an increase of toxin percentage by 13 fold. Hence, this purification step should be incorporated into future isolation exercises.     

Development and characterization of a monoclonal antibody against porcine CD205

The aim of this work was to develop mAbs against porcine CD205 and to conduct a comparative analysis of the CD205 protein expression on lymphoid tissues, monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) and DCs isolated from the porcine skin. To conduct this study, we generated a monoclonal antibody, designated 1.F6F6, against the C-type lectin-like domain-5 of the porcine CD205 and showed that it recognizes a protein band of ～200 kDa by Western Blot analysis in mesenteric lymph nodes cells. Flow cytometric analysis showed that the mAb 1.F6F6 recognized 28.5%, 28.1% and 34.1% of cells from tonsil, inguinal and mesenteric lymph nodes, respectively, and 6% of cells from thymus. Analysis of monocyte-derived DCs showed that approximately 20% were positive and activation of the cells with LPS increased the positive population to 36%. Analysis of DCs isolated from the porcine skin showed that approximately 70% of the cell population expressed the CD205 receptor. The development of a monoclonal antibody capable of recognizing the CD205 receptor in swine opens up possibilities of applying new strategies for enhancing vaccine efficacy by using the anti-CD205 antibody for DC antigen-targeting to enhance priming of immune responses.