Search

BACKGROUND: Development of new plant protection strategies has become an urgent matter in modern agriculture, in view of the evidently proved negative effect of currently used active ingredients of pesticides. In recent years, much effort has been made to eliminate the use of pesticides established to be toxic to pollinators. RESULTS: In this study, we present a group of new bifunctional ionic liquids based on dodine (N‐dodecylguanidine) cation whose physical and biological properties have been modified relative to those of the commercially available N‐dodecylguanidine acetate. The decreased level of residue of active substances in plant tissues reduces their availability to pollinators, which increases the safety of their use. Moreover, lower environmental impact in combination with high antifungal activity and an additional biological function, that is the systemic acquired resistance induction, are in line with the goals of sustainable agriculture. CONCLUSION: The presented approach shows the possibility of derivatization of commonly used fungicide into the form of bifunctional salts whose physical and biological properties can be easily modified. The paper reports successful design and synthesis of new sustainable and green chemicals for the modern agriculture, being less toxic to the environment and human health but still effective against pathogens. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have turned our attention to CEACAM6 gene, already described as deregulated in various types of cancer. By using the expression microarrays performed on the set of 16 laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) samples: 11 cell lines and 5 primary tumors we have shown downregulation of CEACAM6 gene as compared to non cancer controls from head and neck region. CEACAM6 gene downregulation, further confirmed by quantitative PCR on 25 LSCC cell lines, was observed in cell lines derived from recurrent tumors in comparison to controls. A significant gene downregulation was observed in cell lines derived from advanced, high grade tumors in comparison to controls. Intrigued by the recurrent transcriptional loss of CEACAM6 we searched for the mechanism potentially responsible for its downregulation and hence we analyzed DNA copy number changes (a-CGH), promoter DNA methylation status and occurrence of gene mutations ( in silico ). Neither the analysis of gene copy number, nor the mutation screen has shown recurrent deletions or mutations, that could contribute to the observed downregulation of the gene. However, by using bisulfite pyrosequencing, we have shown DNA hypermethylation (mean DNA methylation > 78%) of CEACAM6 promoter region in 9/25 (36%) LSCC cell lines. Importantly, the 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine-induced inhibition of DNA methylation resulted in restoration of CEACAM6 expression in the two LSCC cell lines on mRNA level. In summary, we have shown that recurrent downregulation of CEACAM6 in LSCC is dependent on the gene's promoter DNA methylation and is observed predominantly in large, poorly differentiated tumors and recurrences., Competing Interests: None.