Insecticidal activity of a recombinant knottin peptide from Loxosceles intermedia venom and recognition of these peptides as a conserved family in the genus.

Loxosceles intermedia venom comprises a complex mixture of proteins, glycoproteins and low molecular mass peptides that act synergistically to immobilize envenomed prey. Analysis of a venom-gland transcriptome from L. intermedia revealed that knottins, also known as inhibitor cystine knot peptides, are the most abundant class of toxins expressed in this species. Knottin peptides contain a particular arrangement of intramolecular disulphide bonds, and these peptides typically act upon ion channels or receptors in the insect nervous system, triggering paralysis or other lethal effects. Herein, we focused on a knottin peptide with 53 amino acid residues from L. intermedia venom. The recombinant peptide, named U2 -sicaritoxin-Li1b (Li1b), was obtained by expression in the periplasm of Escherichia coli. The recombinant peptide induced irreversible flaccid paralysis in sheep blowflies. We screened for knottin-encoding sequences in total RNA extracts from two other Loxosceles species, Loxosceles gaucho and Loxosceles laeta, which revealed that knottin peptides constitute a conserved family of toxins in the Loxosceles genus. The insecticidal activity of U2 -SCTX-Li1b, together with the large number of knottin peptides encoded in Loxosceles venom glands, suggests that studies of these venoms might facilitate future biotechnological applications of these toxins.

[Evolution of antibiotic resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae: results of Alsace observatory in 2005]. / Evolution de la sensibilité de Streptococcus pneumoniae aux antibiotiques: résultats de l'observatoire du pneumocoque Alsace (année 2005).

OBJECTIVES: Between 1st January 2005 and 31st December 2005, 232 strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae were collected in the Alsace county from participating laboratories (one from university hospital, 7 from general hospitals and 12 private laboratories) to assess their susceptibility to penicillin and evaluated serogroups of strains. METHOD: The coordinating centre performed MICs by the reference agar dilution test, interpreted according to CA-SFM breakpoints. Others antibiotics (erythromycin, cotrimoxazole, tetracycline...) were tested by agar diffusion, ATB-PNEUMO gallery or VITEK gallery (BioMérieux, France) by each participating laboratory. Data were processed, using 4th dimension software. RESULTS: Strains were collected from 151 blood samples, 38 ear pus, 11 cerebrospinal fluids, 8 pleural liquids and 24 representative pulmonary samples. The prevalence of pneumococci with decreased susceptibility to penicillin G (PDSP) is 35.1% (pulmonary samples excluded). The rate of PNSP decreases for all types of samples compared with other years of surveillance 2003 (44.0%). The rate of blood samples decreases for first time between the creation of Pneumococcal Observatory. The high-level resistance tend to decrease and began low. The PDSP are rather resistant to erythromycin, cotrimoxazole and fosfomycin. Among the PDSP, the most prevalent serotypes were 14, 19, 6 and 9. CONCLUSION: Among pneumococcal strains, the rate of PDSP tend however to decrease in 2005 compared with 2003. The rate stays inferior to the observed rates in other French counties where the same decreasing is described.

Repeated-testing of place preference expression for evaluation of anti-craving-drug effects.

In addiction research, the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm is a widely used animal model of conditioned reward. Usually, CPP development is studied, while only few studies examine CPP expression. In the present study, the suitability of a schedule allowing repeated testing of CPP expression was evaluated. Two groups of rats were either conditioned with cocaine or morphine then the repeated-testing-schedule was applied. This schedule consisted of four repeated applications of a sequence of drug- (i.e. cocaine or morphine), saline- and anti-craving-drug- (i.e. acamprosate, naloxone, their joint administration or saline as internal control) tests. Methodologically, the repeated-testing-schedule produced stable CPP expression in both groups over 12 subsequent tests. In conclusion, it is suggested as a useful method to study effects of anti-craving-drugs on CPP expression, thereby reducing the overall number of experimental animals. The evaluation of the anti-craving-drug effects revealed that neither acamprosate and naloxone given separately nor their combined administration significantly reduced cocaine- or morphine-CPP expression. Thus, we suggest that these anti-craving-drugs are unlikely to be effective for relapse prevention in cocaine- or morphine-addicts.