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Jérémy Laroche,1 Geneviève Pelletier,1 Marie-Ève Boulay,1 Andréanne Côté,1,2 Krystelle Godbout1,2 1Department of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery, Quebec Heart and Lung Institute, Laval University, Quebec City, QC, Canada; 2Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, Quebec City, QC, CanadaCorrespondence: Krystelle Godbout, Department of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery, Quebec Heart and Lung Institute, 2725 Chemin Sainte-Foy, Quebec, QC, G1V 4G5, Canada, Tel +1 418 656 4747, Fax +1 418 656 4762, Email krystelle.godbout@criucpq.ulaval.caIntroduction: Monoclonal antibodies targeting interleukin 5 (IL5) or its receptor (IL5R) are frequently used in severe asthma, in which they reduce exacerbations rate and oral corticosteroids (OCS) exposure. Anti-IL5/IL5Rs have been studied in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without convincing benefits. However, these therapies have been used in clinical practice in COPD with apparently good results.Purpose: To describe the clinical characteristics and therapeutic response of COPD patients treated with anti-IL5/IL5R in a real-world setting.Patients and Methods: This is a retrospective case series of patients followed at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute COPD clinic. Men or women, with an established diagnosis of COPD, and treated either with Mepolizumab or Benralizumab were included. Demographics, disease and exacerbation-related data, airway comorbidities, lung function, and inflammatory profile were extracted from patients’ hospital files at baseline visit and 12 months post-treatment. Therapeutic response to biologics was assessed by measuring change in annual exacerbation rate and/or OCS daily dose.Results: Seven COPD patients treated with biologics were identified (5M:2F). All were found to be OCSdependent at baseline. Radiological evidence of emphysema was found in all patients. One case was diagnosed with asthma before age 40. Residual eosinophilic inflammation was found in 5/6 patients (blood eosinophils count 237 ± 225× 106 cells/L) despite chronic OCS use. After 12 months of anti-IL5 treatment, mean OCS dose dropped from 12.0 ± 7.6 to 2.6 ± 4.3 mg/day, representing a 78% decrease. Annual exacerbations rate was reduced by 88%, from 8.2 ± 3.3 to 1.0 ± 1.2 per year.Conclusion: Chronic OCS use is a common characteristic of patients treated with anti-IL5/IL5R biological therapies in this real-world setting. In this population, it may be effective in decreasing OCS exposure and exacerbation.Keywords: COPD, treatment, anti-IL5, monoclonal antibodies, exacerbations, oral corticosteroids

Pertinence of pedological stratification of regional-scale reference systems about metallic trace elements content in soils.Walloon case studies. The natural background levels of metallic trace elements (ETM) in soils should be known in order (i) to understand the processes in which they are involved and (ii) to settle reference systems dedicated to the appraisal of agricultural or forest management practices, to the detection of contaminations, or to the time-course follow-up of regional values. A methodological framework has thus been set up to evaluate the importance of natural driving factors, also-called the pedogeochemical background, of the spatial distribution of ETM in soils. The methodology also aims at defining indicator values of the current degree of ETM contamination in agricultural soils. The spatial distributions of both ETM content and soil forming factors constitute the basement parameters of regional reference soil systems (RSS) about ETM content. The stratification of these regional reference soil systems on a pedological base, which means that soil volumes are clearly identified, appears to be valuable to refine predictions. This is shown through some case studies in the Walloon Region from Belgium. The more the regional reference systems will consider ancillary soil information as well as the geographic specificities of small natural regions, the more they will be relevant to detect local contaminations. For that reason, the digital soil map of Belgium can be considered as a potential powerfull tool for geochemical mapping, after an adaptation of its legend.

Mapping of expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) is a powerful means for elucidating the genetic architecture of gene regulation. Yet, eQTL mapping has not been applied toward investigating the regulation architecture of genes involved in the process of population divergence, ultimately leading to speciation events. Here, we conducted an eQTL mapping experiment to compare the genetic architecture of transcript regulation in adaptive traits, differentiating the recently evolved limnetic (dwarf) and benthic (normal) species pairs of lake whitefish. The eQTL were mapped in three data sets derived from an [F.sub.1] hybriddwarf backcrossed family: the entire set of 66 genotyped individuals and the two sexes treated separately. We identified strikingly more eQTL in the female data set (174), compared to both male (54) and combined (33) data sets. The majority of these genes were not differentially expressed between male and female progeny of the backcross family, thus providing evidence for a strong pleiotropic sex-linked effect in transcriptomic regulation. The subtelomeric region of a linkage group segregating in females encompassed >50% of all eQTL, which exhibited the most pronounced additive effects. We also conducted a direct comparison of transcriptomic profiles between pure dwarf and normal progeny reared in controlled conditions. We detected 34 differentially expressed transcripts associated with eQTL segregating only in sexspecific data sets and mostly belonging to functional groups that differentiate dwarf and normal whitefish in natural populations. Therefore, these eQTL are not related to interindividual variation, but instead to the adaptive and historical genetic divergence between dwarf and normal whitefish. This study exemplifies how the integration of genetic and transcriptomic data offers a strong means for dissecting the functional genomic response to selection by separating mapping family-specific effects from genetic factors under selection, potentially involved in the phenotypic divergence of natural populations.

The environmental conditions of Earth, including the climate, are determined by physical, chemical, biological, and human interactions that transform and transport materials and energy. This is the 'Earth system': a highly complex entity characterized by multiple nonlinear responses and thresholds, with linkages between disparate components. One important part of this system is the iron cycle, in which iron-containing soil dust is transported from land through the atmosphere to the oceans, affecting ocean biogeochemistry and hence having feedback effects on climate and dust production. Here we review the key components of this cycle, identifying critical uncertainties and priorities for future research., Iron is an essential nutrient for all organisms, used in a variety of enzyme systems, including those for photosynthesis, respiration, and nitrogen fixation (1, 2). However, iron is very insoluble [...]