University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne

Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising alternative to fossil resources to produce biobased products. However, this biomass is highly recalcitrant to enzymatic processes and requires a pretreatment step to overcome it. To understand the role of lignocellulose polymers organization on recalcitrance, characterization at different scales is critical, preferentially by employing non-degradative techniques which maintain sample physical integrity. This requires to combine several techniques thus limiting their application. In this study, structural and morphological modifications caused by steam explosion pretreatment on oak, poplar and spruce wood were enlightened using a combination of advanced ¹³C solid-state NMR and time-domain NMR techniques. Over increasing pretreatment severity, hemicelluloses content was decreased and amorphous cellulose was partially depolymerized, leading to higher cellulose crystallinity: a swelling of the overall polymer matrix was thus observed. A relatively constant water mobility associated to a reduction in pore size were observed, revealing that only a specific pore range of 5-15 nm generated at middle severity pretreatment is favorable to enzyme diffusion and hydrolysis reaction. Interestingly, β-O-4 bonds content and enzymatic hydrolysis yields were highly correlated, confirming the peculiar role of lignin in recalcitrance. Overall, this work demonstrates that structural information based on NMR approaches can reveal biomass species-dependent features explaining the variable saccharification efficiency over steam explosion pretreatment severity.

Reirradiation (reRT) has become an increasingly relevant treatment option across multiple tumor sites, supported by technological advances that improve precision and safety. At the ESTRO 2025 Annual Meeting, 28 clinical studies on reRT were presented. This work provides a structured synthesis of their clinical outcomes and assesses adherence to the ESTRO-EORTC reporting recommendations.

All abstracts presented at ESTRO 2025 (n = 2,962) were screened to identify reRT studies (n = 51). Only studies reporting at least one clinical outcome were retained (n = 28). ReRT was classified as type 1 (with geometric overlap of irradiated volumes) or type 2 (without overlap but with potential OAR dose concerns). Each study was evaluated using the 10 mandatory ESTRO-EORTC reporting criteria, covering demographics, performance status, organ function, recurrence classification, target volume, technique and dose, interval since RT1, cumulative OAR doses, method for dose summation, and CTCAE toxicity. Reporting scores ranged from 0 to 10.

The 28 studies encompassed brain, head and neck, thoracic, pelvic, prostate, metastatic, and pediatric settings. Clinical outcomes were encouraging in selected series, with local control > 85 % in the phase I DESTROY-1 dose-escalation trial, median overall survival > 40 months in lung and prostate cohorts, and grade ≥ 3 toxicity generally below 10 %. Reporting quality was heterogeneous: the median score was 5/10 (IQR 4-7). Demographics, prescribed dose, and technique were consistently reported, whereas organ function, cumulative OAR doses, and methods for dose summation were often omitted. Classification as type 1 or type 2 reRT was explicitly provided in only a minority of abstracts. Items such as baseline organ function were often missing, particularly in CNS studies where standardized tests are rarely applicable.

The ESTRO 2025 abstract set illustrates both the clinical potential and methodological variability of modern reRT. While outcomes are promising across several sites, adherence to standardized reporting remains limited, underscoring the need for consistent implementation of ESTRO-EORTC recommendations to enable comparability and harmonization.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), a neglected disease prevalent in 88 countries, is commonly caused by Leishmania (L.) major in the Old World, posing significant public health concerns. Isolation from sand flies or infected mammals and in vitro cultivation of Leishmania parasites are critical for epidemiological studies, but these cultures are often compromised by bacterial and fungal contamination, especially when outsourced from vector digestive tracts. While the Leishmania parasite's natural resistance to antibiotics simplifies bacterial control, most antifungals also inhibit the parasites growth, complicating efforts to manage fungal contamination. This study aimed to identify antifungal agents that could protect Leishmania cultures from yeast contamination with minimal impact on parasite growth. Five antifungal drugs: griseofulvin (GRF), caspofungin diacetate (CSF), 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC), po(ly)vidone-iodine (PVI), and undecylenic acid (UCA) were assessed in vitro for their effects on promastigote forms of L. major. The IC₅₀ values indicated strong antileishmanial activity for 5-FC, GRF, UCA, and PVI (<13 µM), whereas CSF exhibited higher IC₅₀ value (17 µM), suggesting relatively lower toxicity to the parasites. Under continuous CSF exposure, L. major promastigotes demonstrated substantial survival, with only a modest reduction in maximum parasite growth curves (peak of 2.65 × 10⁶ parasites/mL) compared to untreated controls (4.31 × 10⁶ parasites/mL maximum growth). These findings suggest that caspofungin diacetate could be used in the field to decontaminate Leishmania cultures from yeasts without significant parasite loss, facilitating L. major isolation and epidemiological investigations in endemic regions.