UPWr scientists receive MINIATURA 5 awards

• As part of her project, Dr. Katarzyna Morka will check whether belonging to a biotype is important for the survival and pathogenicity of the Yersinia enterocolitica bacteria in a concentrate of red blood cells
• Bee caves and a queen bee mannequin – Dr. Ewa Popiela will use these methods to check how global warming can affect the fertility and mating behaviour of bees
• Thanks to the funding, Dr. Angelika Sysak will conduct research in the search for new immunomodulating drugs with lower toxicity
• Prostate cancer occurs only in humans and dogs – Dr. Maciej Zacharski is looking for the reasons behind its formation conducting research on the identification of genes, which products are related to the pathogenesis of canine prostate cancer
• Dr. Anna Pudło will obtain valuable bio-components from by-products of the meat industry, such as skin, including collagen and glycosaminoglycans

On 1 December the National Science Centre published the latest ranking list of the MINIATURA 5 competition. Scientists who have not managed NCN grants so far could take part. Five scientists from the UPWr are among the awarded, and will receive a total of almost PLN 250,000 for their research.

What do transfusion and sepsis have in common?

Dr. Katarzyna Morka from the Department of Food Hygiene and Consumer Health Protection received a grant from the MINIATURA 5 competition for research on Yersinia enterocolitica. In the awarded project she wants to check whether belonging to a biotype is important for the survival and pathogenicity of this bacterium in a concentrate of red blood cells.

Red blood cell transfusion is the most frequently performed medical procedure, often saving patients' lives. However, prior to concentrate transfusion, it is not routinely tested for the presence of microorganisms, and although transfusions with microbially contaminated red blood cells are rare, when it occurs it can lead to severe or even fatal complications. The source of infection can be both bacteria found in the human body and strains of bacteria that cause zoonoses, e.g. Y. enterocolitica, which causes intestinal yersiniosis. Many people go on to develop bacteremia, a bacterial infection of the blood, which often goes undetected.

The bacilli of this bacterium are responsible for 46% cases of sepsis after transfusion of red blood cell concentrate. Studies have shown that despite the refrigeration of blood, Y. enterocolitica multiplies intensively in all tested red blood cell concentrates. Other pathogens need a source of contamination, such as colonised hospital environments, blood bags, and test tubes to multiply. However, in the case of Y. enterocolitica, it has been confirmed that blood donors are the primary source of infection.

The species Y. enterocolitica comprises six biotypes with different levels of pathogenicity towards humans. Until now, it was assumed that all strains of Y. enterocolitica reproduce in the same way in red blood cell concentrate, and the possibility of biotype influence on the ability of bacteria to survive in this environment was not taken into account. Dr. Katarzyna Morka will study strains belonging to the highly pathogenic bioserotype I B/O:8, the pathogenic bioserotype 4/0:3 and 2/0:9 and the strains of the non-pathogenic biotype IA.

Her observations indicate that the strains of these biotypes differ in the time of reproduction in microbiological media. This could in the future become an identifier of differences in their metabolism, which could influence their growth in red blood cell concentrate.

Global warming versus fertility and the mating behaviour of bees

Dr. Ewa Popiela from the ASc4Future Lead Research Team receiveda grant in the MINIATURA 5 competition for research on the impact of thermal stress on fertility and the mating behaviour of honey bee drones.

Bees are extremely important to humans and the entire ecosystem, not only because they produce honey, but most of all because they pollinate the plants that we grow for food production. However, they are threatened by climate change, which negatively affects the life of the colony. Changing thermal conditions, which disrupt their allocation of resources to thermoregulation, the duration of brood rearing or intensify parasitic invasions, are a significant stressor for the development of bee colonies are.

The direct effects of temperature increase on developing and adult bees can have serious consequences. The ability of drones and dams to mate and produce fertile offspring is particularly sensitive to thermal stress, because gametes are easily damaged, and failed or sterile mating flights can kill the entire colony.

Therefore, Dr. Popiela decided to examine the conditions of rearing drones at different temperatures, the quality of their sperm, and their cognitive abilities. Her research will cover subjecting drones to tests in a bee cave regarding determining their response to visual stimuli. The bee cave is a microplanetarium-like device that displays virtual reality by testing bees' ability to fly. Using five video projectors, integrated with special animation software, it projects 270° of the visual environment. Among others, it is used for testing the speed of reaction to changes in the optical stream, as well as for recording, for example, flight speed.

Using the queen's dummy with a pheromone bait, in turn, Dr. Ewa Popiela will quantify the share of drones, subjected and not subjected to thermal stress, in mating comets under conditions similar to natural, collecting drones from mating comets attracted by the bait and comparing the number of marked drones from different temperature regimes.

Her research will contribute to a better understanding of how climate change affects bee colonies.

Less toxic immunomodulating drugs

As part of the grant, Dr. Angelika Sysak, a scientist from the WET-PPH Lead Research Team, will conduct research in the search for new immunomodulatory drugs with lower toxicity, studying the immunomodulatory activity in vitro and the mechanism of action of two groups of compounds that differ in the presence of aliphatic or aromatic substituents, including the same place of the molecule. It turns out that slight differences in the structure of the molecule can change the direction of the immunomodulatory action of oxazolopyrimidine derivatives.

The chemistry of heterocyclic compounds has become an important field in the search for substances with practical applications, including potential therapeutic purposes. One of the most promising heterocyclic structures is the five-membered isoxazole ring containing nitrogen and oxygen. It is present in both compounds of natural origin and synthetic compounds used in medicine, such as, valdecoxib, which belongs to a group of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, leflunomide, which is an anti-rheumatic drug, or cloxacillin – a semi-synthetic penicillin antibiotic.

It is therefore important to search for new candidates for drugs, which basic feature will be the lowest possible toxicity, and the isoxazole derivatives with which Dr. Sysak works most often have low cytotoxicity and exhibit antibacterial, antiviral, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic and immunomodulatory properties. The possibilities to pharmacologically control the internal mechanisms of the human and animal immune systems lead to significant advances in the therapy of many diseases with an immune basis. Treatment of this type of disease usually requires long-term use of drugs, which often causes side effects, so research into new, less toxic substances is important.

In her project, Dr. Sysak plans to conduct more detailed studies on the immunomodulatory effects of the most active oxazolopyrimidine derivatives. She believes that the differences in the structure of these compounds strictly affects the direction of their activity. The results of her research will help to identify the population of cells most affected by the immunomodulatory effect of the studied isoxazole derivatives, as well as expand the knowledge about the mechanism of their action and the relationship between the structure of compounds and the direction of their action. This should allow to select an appropriate, more advanced animal model in the future and plan further research determining the therapeutic potential of these derivatives.

Why does prostate cancer only occur in humans and dogs?

Another scientist from the Wrocław University of Environmental & Life Sciences awarded in the MINIATURA 5 competition is Dr. Maciej Zacharski from the Leading Research Team of WET-PPH, who conducts research on the identification of genes, which products are related to the pathogenesis of canine prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer in dogs is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage, and the only therapeutic measure is life-prolonging and comforting prostatectomy. Interestingly, apart from in dogs and humans, prostate cancer is not found in other mammals. In dogs, however, it is quite rare, while in the case of men it is one of the most frequently diagnosed neoplasms – in Poland it is the second most common cause of death for men, right after lung cancer.

In both species, this type of cancer is characterised by a similar disease development and clinical symptoms. As companion animals, dogs are exposed to the same environmental factors as humans, and the similarity of the human and canine genomes make canine prostate cancer a good research model for scientists to better understand the processes that lead to prostate cancer in humans.

The research results of Dr. Zacharski will allow for selecting genes, which expression at the protein level in prostate cancer tissues differs in the level of expression from samples isolated from prostate tissue with benign hypertrophy. Based on these results, the scientist will develop another research project financed by the National Science Centre. Its aim will be to investigate the function and significance of prostate cancer pathophysiology based on genetically modified human and canine cancer cell models obtained using, among others, proprietary cell lines.

Research by Dr. Zacharski presents the possibility of carrying out analogous analyses on human material in the future. This will allow to identify common dog and human gene expression profiles of prostate cancer.

Everything can be recycled – even collagen

The fifth scientist from the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences awarded with a grant from the MINIATURA 5 programme is Dr. Anna Pudło – a member of the DroPOWER Lead Research Team, who conducts research in the discipline of food and nutrition technology. The research for which she received funding concerns the restoration of collagen fibers in the presence of proteoglycans and keratan sulphate.

Cartilage, bone and skin are the main by-products of the meat industry. They contain valuable bio-components worth recovering – including collagen and glycosaminoglycans, e.g. chondroitin sulfate and keratan sulfate, responsible e.g. for maintaining bone and joint health. Obtaining these ingredients from waste is a modern form of recycling, and the most advanced technology of collagen management is the formation of fibers by native forms of this protein in in vitro conditions. This is largely due to the interaction of the protein with glycosaminoglycans.

In her research activity financed under the MINIATURA 5 competition, Dr. Pudło plans to obtain collagen proteins (including type II collagen) in a native form from by-products of the meat industry, proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans (mainly keratan sulphate), as well as recognise their physicochemical properties. He also wants to conduct and study the interaction of collagen with keratan sulfate in the process of restoring native collagen fibers.

The research of Dr. Anna Pudło will enable getting to know the detailed characteristics and functional properties of the obtained complex ingredients. This data will be the basis for constructing the assumptions of new projects regarding the creation and analysis of collagen hydrogels and keratan sulphate and other glycosaminoglycans, including building matrices used in tissue engineering, medicine and food.

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