[Psychological and cognitive interventions in end-of-life support of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A review.] / Prise en charge psychologique et cognitive au cours de l'accompagnement de fin de vie de patients atteints de sclérose latérale amyotrophique. Une revue systématique.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable disease characterized by muscle atrophy leading to complete paralysis. Once diagnosed, the average life expectancy is three to five years. In this context, palliative and end-of-life care are essential, as well as the development of cognitive and/or psychological therapies to improve the quality of life of patients. In this context, we conducted a review of the pertinent literature about psychological and cognitive interventions in end-of-life support for ALS patients. We identified 504 references out of which only four studies met our inclusion criteria. Two studies focused on dignity therapy, one study on the delay between the diagnosis and the start of psychological care in a specialized centre, and one case-report on psychological therapy combined with a computer-assisted communication system. The results of these studies, although very limited, suggest that psychological interventions may improve the management and quality of life of end-of-life ALS patients. Further studies should investigate the impact of psychological support adapted to ALS, using, for example, computer-assisted communication allowing to implement these interventions in a larger number of patients and over the long term.

La sclérose latérale amyotrophique (SLA) est une maladie neurogénérative qui se caractérise notamment par une amyotrophie progressive évoluant jusqu'à la paralysie complète du patient dont l'espérance de vie est, en moyenne, de trois à cinq ans. Les soins palliatifs et le développement de thérapies pour améliorer la qualité de vie des patients sont essentiels. Dans ce cadre, nous avons réalisé une revue de la littérature portant sur les interventions psychologiques et cognitives dans la prise en charge des patients atteins de SLA en fin de vie. Nous avons identifié 504 références dont quatre rapportant des études qui répondaient aux critères d'inclusion. Deux études portaient sur la thérapie de la dignité, une sur la rapidité d'une prise en charge psychologique dans un centre spécialisé et un rapport de cas concernait une prise en charge psychologique combinée à un système de communication assistée par ordinateur. Les résultats de ces quatre études, bien que limités, suggèrent que les interventions psychologiques pourraient améliorer la qualité de vie des patients en fin de vie. De nouvelles recherches devraient être menées pour investiguer l'impact d'une prise en charge psychologique adaptée à la SLA en utilisant, par exemple, une communication assistée afin d'implémenter ces interventions sur un plus grand nombre de patients et sur le long terme.

Loss of function mutations at the tomato SSI2 locus impair plant growth and development by altering the fatty acid desaturation pathway.

The stearoyl-ACP desaturase (SACPD) is a key enzyme in the regulation of saturated to unsaturated fatty acid ratio, playing a crucial role in regulating membrane stability and fluidity, as well as photosynthesis efficiency, which makes it an important research focus in crop species. This study reports the characterization and molecular cloning of pale dwarf (pad), a new tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) T-DNA recessive mutant, which exhibits a dwarf and chlorotic phenotype. Functional studies of the T-DNA tagged gene were conducted, including phylogenetic analysis, expression and metabolomic analyses, and generation of CRISPR/Cas9 knockout lines. The cloning of T-DNA flanking genomic sequences and a co-segregation analysis found the pad phenotype was caused by a T-DNA insertion disrupting the tomato homologue of the Arabidopsis SUPPRESSOR OF SALICYLIC ACID INSENSITIVITY 2 (SlSSI2), encoding a plastid localized isoform of SACPD. The phenotype of CRISPR/Cas9 SlSSI2 knockout lines confirmed that the morphological abnormalities in pad plants were due to SlSSI2 loss of function. Functional, metabolomic and expression analyses proved that SlSSI2 disruption causes deficiencies in 18:1 fatty acid desaturation and leads to diminished jasmonic acid (JA) content and increased salicylic acid (SA) levels. Overall, these results proved that SSI2 plays a crucial role in the regulation of polyunsaturated fatty acid profiles in tomato, and revealed that SlSSI2 loss of function results in an inhibited JA-responsive signalling pathway and a constitutively activated SA-mediated defence signalling response. This study lays the foundation for further research on tomato SACPDs and their role in plant performance and fitness.

Male flowers of Aconitum compensate for toxic pollen with increased floral signals and rewards for pollinators.

Many plants require animal pollinators for successful reproduction; these plants provide pollinator resources in pollen and nectar (rewards) and attract pollinators by specific cues (signals). In a seeming contradiction, some plants produce toxins such as alkaloids in their pollen and nectar, protecting their resources from ineffective pollinators. We investigated signals and rewards in the toxic, protandrous bee-pollinated plant Aconitum napellus, hypothesizing that male-phase flower reproductive success is pollinator-limited, which should favour higher levels of signals (odours) and rewards (nectar and pollen) compared with female-phase flowers. Furthermore, we expected insect visitors to forage only for nectar, due to the toxicity of pollen. We demonstrated that male-phase flowers emitted more volatile molecules and produced higher volumes of nectar than female-phase flowers. Alkaloids in pollen functioned as chemical defences, and were more diverse and more concentrated compared to the alkaloids in nectar. Visitors actively collected little pollen for larval food but consumed more of the less-toxic nectar. Toxic pollen remaining on the bee bodies promoted pollen transfer efficiency, facilitating pollination.

Comparison between the impacts of two different modes of salicylic acid application on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) responses to salinity.

Exogenous application of salicylic acid may improve tolerance to salinity. To investigate whether exogenous salicylic acid application had similar protective effects when applied as a priming agent or concomitantly with NaCl, tomato seedlings primed or not with 10 µM salicylic acid were further treated with 125 mM NaCl, 10 µM salicylic acid or combined treatments. Both priming and concomitant application of salicylic acid increased plant growth of salt-stressed plants but their positive impact was not additive. The endogenous salicylic acid concentration increased in the leaves after concomitant application but not in response to priming, suggesting that salicylic acid accumulated during priming was metabolized subsequently. Priming increased Na+ and K+ accumulation in leaves of salt-treated plants while concomitant application had no impact on shoot Na+ and K+ accumulation. Both priming and concomitant salicylic acid decreased osmotic potential values in salt-treated plants. Carbon isotope discrimination showed that combination of both salicylic acid application methods were required to maintain a good water use efficiency in salt-treated plants. Our work demonstrated that both procedures of salicylic acid application have positive impact on salt resistance but that the underlying properties sustaining these adaptations differ according to application methods.

Malaria and urbanization in central Africa: the example of Brazzaville. Part V: Pernicious attacks and mortality.

The current incidence of pernicious attacks and of mortality due to malaria were studied in Brazzaville. The results of this study, which concerned all the medical units of the town, were analysed in terms of previous studies on the epidemiology of malaria transmission in the various districts of the town. It was estimated that the annual incidence of pernicious attacks in children in Brazzaville is 1.15 per thousand between 0 and 4 years, 0.25 per thousand between 5 and 9 years and 0.05 per thousand between 10 and 14 years. The annual mortality due to malaria was estimated at 0.43 per thousand between 0 and 4 years and 0.08 per thousand between 5 and 9 years. These values are about 30 times lower than those expected from the results of previous studies of the mortality due to malaria in intertropical Africa. Whereas considerable differences in intensity of malaria transmission exist in the different districts of Brazzaville, the incidence of pernicious attacks and the resulting mortality are remarkably unvarying whatever the level of transmission. In particular, similar results were observed for the sector Mfilou-Ngamaba-Ngangouoni, where malaria is holoendemic with over 100 infective bites per person per year and a parasite rate of 80.95% in schoolchildren, and the central sector of Poto-Poto-Ouenze-Moungali, where malaria is hypoendemic with less than one infective bite per person every three years and a parasite rate of less than 4% in schoolchildren. These results are discussed in terms of previous observations in urban and surrounding rural areas.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Assessment of the incidence and prevalence of clinical malaria in semi-immune children exposed to intense and perennial transmission.

In order to determine the incidence and prevalence of clinical malaria in children exposed since birth to intense and perennial transmission, two successive longitudinal surveys, a weekly survey over four months and a daily survey over 10 days, were carried out in 1983-1984 among 182 children aged 5-13 years in Linzolo, Republic of the Congo, a village where malaria is holoendemic. By age group, prevalence of clinical malaria was found to be between 3.2% and 2.4% at ages 5-6 years, between 2.5% and 1.8% at ages 7-8 years, between 1.6% and 1.1% at ages 9-10 years, and between 0.5% and 0.3% at ages 11-13 years. For these four age groups, respectively, the annual incidence of clinical malaria was estimated during the first survey as 3.0, 2.1, 1.8, and 1.2 attacks, and during the second survey as 5.2, 2.7, 2.0, and 0.8 attacks. No difference was observed in the incidence of malarial attacks between children who use bed-nets and those who do not use them. Also investigated were the customs of the inhabitants of the village in the presence of febrile syndromes in the children, and the importance of antimalarial drug consumption in these cases. It was observed that almost all of these syndromes were rapidly treated with antimalarials, and that in half of the cases these drugs were administered by the parents themselves.