Screening and confirmatory analysis of recombinant human erythropoietin for racing camels' doping control.

Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) belongs to the therapeutic class of erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs) due to its implication in the creation pathway of red blood cells and thus enhancement of oxygenation. Because of this bioactivity, rHuEPO has been considered as a major doping agent in sports competitions for decades. Over the years, doping control laboratories designed several analytical strategies applied to human and animal samples to highlight any misuse. Even though multiple analytical approaches have been reported, none has yet been dedicated to racing camels. Here, we describe an analytical strategy to test camel plasma samples at screening using an ELISA assay and a targeted nano-liquid chromatography-high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry for confirmatory analysis. The method was validated and has been successfully applied to post-race samples, allowing the detection of a positive case of rHuEPO administration.

Interlaboratory trial for the measurement of total cobalt in equine urine and plasma by ICP-MS.

Cobalt is an essential mineral micronutrient and is regularly present in equine nutritional and feed supplements. Therefore, cobalt is naturally present at low concentrations in biological samples. The administration of cobalt chloride is considered to be blood doping and is thus prohibited. To control the misuse of cobalt, it was mandatory to establish an international threshold for cobalt in plasma and/or in urine. To achieve this goal, an international collaboration, consisting of an interlaboratory comparison between 5 laboratories for the urine study and 8 laboratories for the plasma study, has been undertaken. Quantification of cobalt in the biological samples was performed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Ring tests were based on the analysis of 5 urine samples supplemented at concentrations ranging from 5 up to 500 ng/mL and 5 plasma samples spiked at concentrations ranging from 0.5 up to 25 ng/mL. The results obtained from the different laboratories were collected, compiled, and compared to assess the reproducibility and robustness of cobalt quantification measurements. The statistical approach for the ring test for total cobalt in urine was based on the determination of percentage deviations from the calculated means, while robust statistics based on the calculated median were applied to the ring test for total cobalt in plasma. The inter-laboratory comparisons in urine and in plasma were successful so that 97.6% of the urine samples and 97.5% of the plasma samples gave satisfactory results. Threshold values for cobalt in plasma and urine were established from data only obtained by laboratories involved in the ring test. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Caspase cleavage of the transcription factor FLI-1 during preB leukemic cell death.

Programmed cell death (apoptosis) is a complex phenomenon that is mediated in mammals mainly via the selective cleavage of intracellular proteins by the large family of cysteine aspartate protease caspases. Apoptosis is tightly regulated by the competitive effect of numerous proteins displaying either pro-apoptotic or anti-apoptotic activity. The ETS-family transcription factor FLI-1, frequently associated with malignant transformation, has been shown to display anti-apoptotic activity in several cell types including avian erythroblasts, mouse fibroblasts or lymphoid cells. We show here that apoptosis of murine preB leukemic cells is accompanied with the specific cleavage of FLI-1 by a caspase-like activity. We also demonstrate that the two isoforms of FLI-1 are indeed cleaved at three conserved sites by caspase 3 in vitro. The conservation of these cleavage sites among species suggests that the caspase cleavage of the anti-apoptotic transcription factor FLI-1 may represent a critical step to ensure irreversible cell death.

Cloning and expression of the surfeit locus member Surf-6 during embryogenesis in Xenopus laevis.

The Surf-6 gene, already characterized in fish (Fugu rubripes), mouse and man, is a member of the surfeit locus and encodes a nucleolar-matrix protein, which is ubiquitously expressed. This gene has been isolated in Xenopus laevis and shows high sequence similarity to its orthologues in other species. The putative protein is 342 amino acids long and several motifs are conserved, particularly a potential nuclear localization signal. During embryogenesis, after an initial decrease in the expression of the maternal Surf-6 RNA, the level increases to reach a maximum at hatching. The global level of the Surf-6 transcript at early neurula is enhanced by the overexpression of fli, a member of the ets gene family.

[Certification of health-related websites in France]. / Certification des sites dédiés à la santé en France.

The 2004 statute that created the French National Authority for Health (HAS, Haute Autorité de Santé) required it to establish a procedure for the certification of health-related web sites. The HAS established a procedure based on the HONcode certification scheme set up by the Health On the Net Foundation, with which HAS has a partnership agreement. The HONcode includes eight principles that govern the quality of online heath information and its presentation (quality of the production process). The collaboration between HAS and HON has already led to improvements in a large number of web sites in France and to their certification. The main advantages of certification for site publishers are better site quality and enhanced credibility rather than a larger audience. Quality certification has little impact on the choice of site by Internet users as they tend to use search engines to find health-related information. Future development of the procedure should work to increase the value of certification both by improving the quality of sites and in signaling quality to Internet users.