Hemarina (France)

The control of inflammation and infection is crucial for periodontal wound healing and regeneration. M101, an oxygen carrier derived from Arenicola marina, was tested for its anti-inflammatory and anti-infectious potential based on its anti-oxidative and tissue oxygenation properties. In vitro, no cytotoxicity was observed in oral epithelial cells (EC) treated with M101. M101 (1 g/L) reduced significantly the gene expression of pro-inflammatory markers such as TNF-α, NF-κΒ and RANKL in P. gingivalis-LPS stimulated and P. gingivalis-infected EC. The proteome array revealed significant down-regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and IL-8) and chemokine ligands (RANTES and IP-10), and upregulation of pro-healing mediators (PDGF-BB, TGF-β1, IL-10, IL-2, IL-4, IL-11 and IL-15) and, extracellular and immune modulators (TIMP-2, M-CSF and ICAM-1). M101 significantly increased the gene expression of Resolvin-E1 receptor. Furthermore, M101 treatment reduced P. gingivalis biofilm growth over glass surface, observed with live/dead analysis and by decreased P. gingivalis 16 s rRNA expression (51.7%) (p < 0.05). In mice, M101 reduced the clinical abscess size (50.2%) in P. gingivalis-induced calvarial lesion concomitant with a decreased inflammatory score evaluated through histomorphometric analysis, thus, improving soft tissue and bone healing response. Therefore, M101 may be a novel therapeutic agent that could be beneficial in the management of P. gingivalis associated diseases.

Manipulation of blood and blood components is prohibited in sports by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This includes the use of blood substitutes to increase oxygen transport, like haemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs), which are compounds derived from haemoglobin. Despite their medical interest, the first generation of HBOCs had serious adverse effects and was abandoned. However, new studies are now exploiting the properties of marine worm haemoglobins, which circulate as giant extracellular complexes with high oxygen-binding capacities. HEMOXYCarrier® (HC), developed by Hemarina, is one of the most advanced and promising HBOCs, and HC may become a tempting doping tool for athletes in the future. Here, HC detection in plasma/serum was evaluated with the method used to detect the first HBOCs, based on electrophoresis and heme peroxidase properties. An HC-derived product was identified in human plasma up to 72 h after in vitro incubation at 37 °C. HC degradation also induced methemalbumin formation. After injecting HC at the effective dose of 200 mg/kg into mice, the HC-derived product was detected only for a few hours and no accumulation of methemalbumin was observed. Due to this limited detection window in vivo, measuring specific worm globin degradation products by mass spectrometry might be an alternative for future anti-doping analyses. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The recent availability of the whole genome of Synechococcus sp. strain WH8102 allows us to have a global view of the complex structure of the phycobilisomes of this marine picocyanobacterium. Genomic analyses revealed several new characteristics of these phycobilisomes, consisting of an allophycocyanin core and rods made of one type of phycocyanin and two types of phycoerythrins (I and II). Although the allophycocyanin appears to be similar to that found commonly in freshwater cyanobacteria, the phycocyanin is simpler since it possesses only one complete set of alpha and beta subunits and two rod-core linkers (CpcG1 and CpcG2). It is therefore probably made of a single hexameric disk per rod. In contrast, we have found two novel putative phycoerythrin-associated linker polypeptides that appear to be specific for marine Synechococcus spp. The first one (SYNW2000) is unusually long (548 residues) and apparently results from the fusion of a paralog of MpeC, a phycoerythrin II linker, and of CpeD, a phycoerythrin-I linker. The second one (SYNW1989) has a more classical size (300 residues) and is also an MpeC paralog. A biochemical analysis revealed that, like MpeC, these two novel linkers were both chromophorylated with phycourobilin. Our data suggest that they are both associated (partly or totally) with phycoerythrin II, and we propose to name SYNW2000 and SYNW1989 MpeD and MpeE, respectively. We further show that acclimation of phycobilisomes to high light leads to a dramatic reduction of MpeC, whereas the two novel linkers are not significantly affected. Models for the organization of the rods are proposed.