Animal rights | EPFL Graph Search

Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth independent of their utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the same consideration as similar interests of human beings. Broadly speaking, and particularly in popular discourse, the term "animal rights" is often used synonymously with "animal protection" or "animal liberation". More narrowly, "animal rights" refers to the idea that many animals have fundamental rights to be treated with respect as individuals—rights to life, liberty, and freedom from torture that may not be overridden by considerations of aggregate welfare. Many advocates of animal rights oppose the assignment of moral value and fundamental protections on the basis of species membership alone. They consider this idea, known as speciesism, a prejudice as irrational as any other. They maintain that animals should not be viewed as property or used as food, c

Magnetic regulation of the luminescence of hybrid lanthanide-doped nanoparticles

Jean-Claude Bünzli, Zhuo Chen

The unique optical properties of lanthanide-doped nanomaterials have made them broadly attractive to a wide range of applications in chemical, physical, and biomedical fields. As an external and real-time reg-ulation tool, the magnetic field is highly useful for modulating the luminescence of lanthanide ions by spectral splitting, wavelength shifting, and intensity variation. The dynamic regulation of the lumines-cence further endows the nanosystems with many valuable optical features, extending their versatility. Here, we analyze the magnetic regulation mechanisms of luminescence, survey the structure design of magnetooptic nanosystems, highlight their advances in imaging agents, responsive probes, nanomagnets and nanogenerators, microrobots, and miniature reactors; we also identify the challenges and future opportunities for hybrid magnetooptic nanosystems.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2022

Elezanumab, a human anti-RGMa monoclonal antibody, promotes neuroprotection, neuroplasticity, and neurorecovery following a thoracic hemicompression spinal cord injury in non-human primates

Quentin Barraud, Grégoire Courtine, Lili Huang, Xiaomeng Zhang

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition characterized by loss of function, secondary to damaged spinal neurons, disrupted axonal connections, and myelin loss. Spontaneous recovery is limited, and there are no approved pharmaceutical treatments to reduce ongoing damage or promote repair. Repulsive guidance molecule A (RGMa) is upregulated following injury to the central nervous system (CNS), where it is believed to induce neuronal apoptosis and inhibit axonal growth and remyelination. We evaluated elezanumab, a human anti-RGMa monoclonal antibody, in a novel, newly characterized non-human primate (NHP) hemicompression model of thoracic SCI. Systemic intravenous (IV) administration of elezanumab over 6 months was well tolerated and associated with significant improvements in locomotor function. Treatment of animals for 16 weeks with a continuous intrathecal infusion of elezanumab below the lesion was not efficacious. IV elezanumab improved microstructural integrity of extralesional tissue as reflected by higher fractional anisotropy and magnetization transfer ratios in treated vs. untreated animals. IV elezanumab also reduced SCI-induced increases in soluble RGMa in cerebrospinal fluid, and membrane bound RGMa rostral and caudal to the lesion. Anterograde tracing of the corticospinal tract (CST) from the contralesional motor cortex following 20 weeks of IV elezanumab revealed a significant increase in the density of CST fibers emerging from the ipsilesional CST into the medial/ventral gray matter. There was a significant sprouting of serotonergic (5-HT) fibers rostral to the injury and in the ventral horn of lower thoracic regions. These data demonstrate that 6 months of intermittent IV administration of elezanumab, beginning within 24 h after a thoracic SCI, promotes neuroprotection and neuroplasticity of key descending pathways involved in locomotion. These findings emphasize the mechanisms leading to improved recovery of neuromotor functions with elezanumab in acute SCI in NHPs.

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE2021

Selective Recruitment of Arm Motoneurons in Nonhuman Primates Using Epidural Electrical Stimulation of the Cervical Spinal Cord

Beatrice Barra, Jocelyne Bloch, Marco Capogrosso, Grégoire Courtine, Stéphanie Lacour, Camille Roux, Giuseppe Schiavone

Recovery of reaching and grasping ability is the priority for people with cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). Epidural electrical stimulation (EES) has shown promising results in improving motor control after SCI in various animal models and in humans. Notably, the application of stimulation bursts with spatiotemporal sequences that reproduce the natural activation of motoneurons restored skilled leg movements in rodent and nonhuman primate models of SCI. Here, we studied whether this conceptual framework could be transferred to the design of cervical EES protocols for the recovery of reaching and grasping in nonhuman primates. We recorded muscle activity during a reaching and grasping task in a macaque monkey and found that this task involves a stereotypical spatiotemporal map of motoneuron activation. We then characterized the specificity of a spinal implant for the delivery of EES to cervical spinal segments in the same animal. Finally, we combined these results to design a simple stimulation protocol that may reproduce natural motoneuron activation and thus facilitate upper limb movements after injury.

2018

Elezanumab, a human anti-RGMa monoclonal antibody, promotes neuroprotection, neuroplasticity, and neurorecovery following a thoracic hemicompression spinal cord injury in non-human primates

Quentin Barraud, Grégoire Courtine, Lili Huang, Xiaomeng Zhang

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE2021