Petr Heneberg

Charles University in Prague | CUNI · 3rd Faculty of Medicine

Trends Local invasion and metastasis, rather than clonal proliferation, are the dominant features of solid cancer. However, a specific category of anti-invasion and antimetastatic drugs is missing for treatment of solid cancer We propose the term ‘migrastatics’ for drugs interfering with all modes of cancer cell invasiveness and, consequently, with...

Background Diabetes mellitus is unfavorably associated with cancer risk. The purpose of this multidisciplinary project was to evaluate a possible association of diabetes mellitus and other comorbidities and their treatment with progression of colorectal cancer. Patients and methods We investigated the correlation between pathological characteristi...

Background Hexokinases (HKs) are well-studied enzymes catalyzing the first step of glycolysis. However, non-canonical regulatory roles of HKs are still incompletely understood. Here, we hypothesized that HKs comprise one of the missing links between high-dose metformin and the inhibition of the respiratory chain in cancer. Methods We tested the is...

Significance Tissue-specific lactic acidosis in cancer stimulates and mediates tumor invasion and metastasis and is druggable. Rarely, malignancy causes systemic lactic acidosis, the role of which is poorly understood. Recent advances The understanding of the role of lactate has shifted dramatically since its discovery. Long recognized as only a wa...

Anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) autoantibodies are a hallmark of stiffperson syndrome (SPS) and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). However, patients with concurrent IDDM and SPS often manifest insulin resistance, and SPS-associated IDDM probably has heterogeneous causes. Some patients manifest IDDM associated only with high titers o...

Ants are key ecosystem service providers and can serve as important biological control agents in pest management. However, the effects of insecticides on common farmland ant species are poorly understood. We tested the effects of three commonly used insecticides on ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). The tested insecticides were acetamiprid (neonicotin...

The proper course and reproducibility of diagnostic techniques depend on narrowly defined reaction conditions, including the reaction pH. Nevertheless, numerous assays are affected by an inaccurately defined reaction pH. Buffers are sometimes suggested for use outside their useful pH ranges, which complicates the reproducibility of results because...

Protein tyrosine phosphatase, nonreceptor type 22 (PTPN22), is an archetypal non-HLA autoimmunity gene. It is one of the most prominent genetic contributors to type 1 diabetes mellitus outside the HLA region, and prevalence of its risk variants is subject to enormous geographic variability. Here, we address the genetic background of patients with t...

The diversity, host specificity, and physiological effects of endosymbiotic bacteria in spiders (Araneae) are poorly characterized. We used 16S rDNA sequencing to evaluate endosymbionts in the cephalothorax and legs of a wolf spider Pardosa agrestis. We tested the effects of feeding once or twice daily with fruit flies, aphids, or starved and compa...

To the Editor: I have read with great interest the review by Goedecke and Mendham and subsequent correspondence from Christensen et al on the causes of type 2 diabetes in sub-Saharan African populations published in Diabetologia [1, 2]. The authors correctly point out that type 2 diabetes is more prevalent among people affected by severe infectious...

Background Central European aerial insectivores are long-distance migrants that winter in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of them employ the fly-and-forage migrating strategy and differ in their food composition. The composition and structure of helminth component communities of these hosts are poorly understood, and information regarding seasonality and...

Trap nests made from stalks or stems of eudominant plants, such as Phragmites australis (reed) and Solidago canadensis (goldenrod), have been frequently used in previous studies. Nevertheless, trap nest occupancy in large stands of source plants remains poorly understood. We deployed trap nests made from stems with and stalks without parenchyma to...

The spatial distribution of parasitoids is closely linked to the distribution and ecological requirements of their hosts. Several studies have documented changes in the fauna composition of parasitoids in response to elevation, but data on parasitoids associated with spiders are missing. The koinobiont ichneumonid wasp Zatypota anomala is strictly...

Parasitoids are significant ecological elements of terrestrial food webs and have evolved within seven insect orders. Interestingly, however, associations with spiders as hosts have evolved only in two insect orders, Diptera and Hymenoptera. Here, we summarize various aspects of host utilization by dipteran flies with an emphasis on associations wi...

Galls induced by Lipara lucens on common reed are adopted by bees and wasps as a nesting cavity. Most of these species occur only in wetlands. Some of them are specialised or show strong preference to nest only in reed galls. In our manipulative study, we deployed trap nests of reed galls to 16 steppic grasslands or open sandy xerothermic habitats...

The bee genus Pseudoanthidium is represented by nine species in Europe. Of these nine species, Pseudoanthidium nanum is the most widespread, occurs mainly in xerothermic open habitats and creates nests in various cavity types. In this study, we provide information on the nest structure of this species in reed stalks and oak galls and about its para...

Exposure to numerous chemicals disrupts the spiders' locomotion. Spiders, particularly epigeic spiders, are dependent on their locomotory activities to search for prey, hide from their enemies, and perform sexual reproduction and subsequent parental care. Among the best-known compounds that inhibit the locomotion of arthropods are neonicotinoids. D...

Azole fungicides have been essential pillars of global food security since the commercialization of triadimefon. However, the potential for fungicides to induce sublethal effects on larval development and emergence from overwintering is underresearched. We hypothesized that contact exposure to field-realistic concentrations of a broad spectrum of t...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) provide crucial support for the establishment of plants in novel environments. We hypothesized that the OTU/genus richness and diversity of soil‐ and root‐associated AMF associated with alien plant species in their exotic ranges are lower than those in their native ranges. We examined the root‐associated and soil‐...

The mygalomorph spiders of the family Atypidae are among the most archaic spiders. The genus Atypus Latreille, 1804 occurs in Eurasia and northern Africa, with a single enigmatic species, Atypus snetsingeri Sarno, 1973, known only from a small area in southeastern Pennsylvania in eastern USA. A close relationship to European species could be assume...

Background: Parasitic conjunctivitis caused by Philophthalmus spp. is a common ophthalmic disease in birds, with localized outbreaks occurring worldwide. There is no consensus on treating this disease; mechanical removal is considered a standard recommendation, but is associated with disease relapses within days or weeks. Methods: From 2015 to 202...

Hexokinases (HKs) have been found amplified in primary cancer cells, with the amplification of HK1 reported commonly in ovarian cancer cells. The function of HKs extends beyond glucose phosphorylation, and HKs serve as regulatory proteins in tumorigenesis. We addressed the non-canonical roles of HK1 in ovarian cancer cells by examining the effects...

The Mygalomorph spiders of the family Atypidae are among the most archaic spiders. The genus Atypus Latreille, 1804 occurs in Eurasia and northern Africa, with a single enigmatic species, Atypus snetsingeri Sarno, 1973, restricted to a small area in southeastern Pennsylvania in Eastern USA. This study was undertaken to learn more about genetics of...

As the main component of the Gram-negative bacterial cell wall, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is well documented as an inducer of inflammation in bovine mammary cells. Lycium barbarum (goji) polysaccharides (LBP) have been used in nonruminants as prebiotics to improve growth performance, immune ability, and antioxidant capacity. We aimed to investigate...

Anthropogenic habitats that are contaminated by toxic elements were recently shown to host abundant and diverse assemblages of bees and wasps (Hymenoptera: Aculeata), including numerous threatened species. However, toxic elements adversely affect insect fitness. We address the effects of toxic elements on aculeate inquilines that occupy Lipara luce...

Abstract Background The biodiversity of farmland habitats is witnessing unprecedented change, mostly in declines and simplification of assemblages that were established during centuries of the use of traditional agricultural techniques. In Central Europe, conspicuous changes are evident in populations of common farmland birds, in strong contrast to...

Bembix rostrata (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) is a conspicuous digger wasp, which is one of the most threatened species of bees and wasps in central Europe. Its distribution is restricted to sites with grey dunes or similar habitats, which B. rostrata needs for nesting. In the years 2012–2014, we have studied the ecological factors influencing the pre...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF, Glomeromycota) are globally distributed symbionts of plant roots. Relationships with arbuscular mycorrhizae can provide crucial support for the establishment of any plant in an unfavorable environment. We hypothesized that invasions of neophytes are associated with changes in the colonization of native plants and...

Spiders were recently shown to be adversely affected by field-realistic concentrations of a broad scale of neonicotinoid insecticides. Among the reported effects of neonicotinoids on invertebrates were declines in lipid biosynthesis and upregulation of β-oxidation, while vertebrate models suggest increased adipogenesis following treatment with neon...

Adult trematodes of the genus Pygorchis Looss, 1899 (Trematoda: Philophthalmidae) parasitize the cloaca of birds. The genus contains three species, all of which are rarely reported and molecular phylogenetics of which have not been applied. The absence of reference DNA sequences limit studies of their indistinct larval forms. Based on the materials...

Larvae of Tylodelphys Diesing, 1950 are major digenean pathogens of fish and amphibians. Tylodelphys spp. may induce mass mortality of fish and increase their susceptibility to predation. Even though Tylodelphys spp. cause substantial damage to aquaculture systems, surprisingly little is known regarding the taxonomy of this commercially important g...

Turdus philomelos is a common Western Palearctic thrush species of forests and agricultural landscapes, where it relies on the presence of hedgerows, patches of trees and shrubs. In the present study, we address long-term changes in component communities of trematodes in T. philomelos across the timespan of over half a century. Based on our prelimi...

Reed beds are wetland habitats with the dominance of Phragmites australis, which are inhabited by diverse communities of organisms of high conservation value, known to be good diagnostic species for conservation measures. We studied bees and wasps associated with ten reed bed types and with the galls of frit flies of the genus Lipara in hundreds of...

Azole fungicides (benzimidazoles, triazoles and imidazoles) are among the most widely used agrochemicals in the world. Unfortunately, azole fungicides are increasingly recognized for playing the role of endocrine disruptors in non-target organisms. Previously, the fecundity of ants with semi-claustral colony founding was found to be severely decrea...

Beauverolides are hydrophobic cyclodepsipeptides that inhibit sterol O-acyltransferases and calmodulin, thereby reducing senile plaques in Alzheimer’s disease and preventing foam cell formation in atherosclerosis. Other sterol O-acyltransferase inhibitors suffer from low bioavailability,and evidence of the distribution of beauverolides in bodily fl...

Solitary bees serve as important native pollinators of wild plants and crops. Several species of bees, which form strong populations in open habitats of European landscapes, nest in empty snail shells. In the present study, we focused on shell-nesting bees in near-natural habitats neighbouring almond orchards near the town Lleida in north-east Spai...

Adult trematodes of the genera Conodiplostomum Dubois, 1937 and Neodiplostomum Railliet, 1919 (Trematoda: Diplostomidae) parasitize the intestines of birds of prey, owls and, rarely, passeriform birds. Although the family is taxonomically unsettled, molecular phylogenetics have not been applied to analyze Conodiplostomum and Neodiplostomum and the...

Neonicotinoid insecticides are associated with a decline in the diversity and distribution of bees and wasps (Hymenoptera: Aculeata). The effects of neonicotinoids on the metamorphosis of aculeates have never been addressed in detail; however, recent evidence suggests that neonicotinoids induce wing abnormalities. We hypothesized that the metamorph...

Neonicotinoid insecticides are increasingly recognized for their role as information disruptors by modifying the chemical communication system of insects and therefore decreasing the chances of reproduction in target insects. However, data from spiders are lacking. In the present study, we tested the responses of males of a common agrobiont spider,...

Correction to: Scientometrics https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-019-03144-6 In the original publication (Heneberg, 2019), Fig. 5E does not properly label the values. The Fig. 5E (similarly to subfigures 5A, 5C and 5G, which were displayed correctly) contained data on citations from Nature, Science or PNAS to the megajournals, not vice versa. The revi...

Beauverolides (beauveriolides) are abundant biologically active cyclodepsipeptides produced by many entomopathogenic fungi, including those that are used as biopesticides. Beauverolides act as cholesterol acyltransferase inhibitors in humans; thus, their mode of action has been the subject of pharmacological and clinical research. The cost-effectiv...

As host community diversity decreases, parasite diversity may also decline. The life cycles of trematodes involve multiple hosts from different orders, with many trematodes displaying narrow host specialization. In the 1960s and 2010s, we performed full-body necropsies of juvenile or first-year birds of four wetland bird species, Anas platyrhynchos...

The extent of anthropogenic habitats that support species-rich assemblages of bees and wasps is poorly understood. In the present study, we identified a previously overlooked hotspot of bee and wasp (Hymenoptera: Aculeata) biodiversity that consists of bare loess exposed by anthropogenic activities, mostly in clay pits but also in slopes of sunken...

All hitherto available evidence supports the status of E. miyagawai as a valid species. The sequences that seemingly can be used to argue against the validity of E. miyagawai originated from isolates with likely incorrect or insufficient species diagnosis as revealed by the revision of available literature provided above. Thus, the available eviden...

Observational studies have suggested that the presence of snail shells correlates with the presence of specialized adopters, particularly bees and wasps (Hymenoptera: Aculeata). However, should the empty shells be considered limiting resources once they are present in the respective habitat even if observational studies suggested low ratio of occup...

Mitochondrial (mt) DNA has been useful in revealing the phylogenetic relationship of eukaryotic organisms including flatworms. Therefore, the use of mitogenomic data for the comparative and phylogenetic purposes is needed for those families of digenetic trematodes for which the mitogenomic data are still missing. Molecular data with sufficiently ri...

Prediction methods have become an integral part of biomedical and biotechnological research. However, their clinical interpretations are largely based on biochemical or molecular data, but not clinical data. Here, we focus on improving the reliability and clinical applicability of prediction algorithms. We assembled and curated two large non-overla...

Tarantula urticating setae are modified setae located on the abdomen or pedipalps, which represent an effective defensive mechanism against vertebrate or invertebrate predators and intruders. They are also useful taxonomic tools as morphological characters facilitating the classification of New World theraphosid spiders. In the present study, the m...

Neonicotinoids are thought to have negligible repellent or anti-feeding effects. Based on our preliminary observations, we hypothesized that the contamination of spider prey with commonly used neonicotinoids has repellent or feeding deterrent effects on spiders. We tested this hypothesis by providing prey treated or not with field-realistic concent...

Neribozomální peptidové syntetasy různých druhů hub stojí za vznikem široké palety peptidů, z nichž nejznámější jsou například penicilín a cyklosporin A. V předpokládaném příspěvku se zabýváme cyklodepsipeptidy, tedy cyklickými oligomerními molekulami, v nichž jedna nebo více aminokyselin je nahrazena hydroxylovanou karboxylovou kyselinou. Z entomo...

Agroecosystems are subject to regular disturbances that cause extinction or migration of much of their fauna, followed by recolonization from surrounding refuges. In small-sized aeronaut spiders, such recolonization is potentiated by their ability to rappel and balloon. These are complex behaviors that we hypothesized to be affected by neurotoxins,...

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is a crucial substrate and energy source commonly used in enzyme reactions. However, we demonstrated that the addition of this acidic compound to enzyme assay buffers can serve as a source of unnoticed pH changes. Even relatively low concentrations of ATP (up to 5 mM) shifted pH of reaction mixtures to acidic values. Fo...

Molecular and comparative morphological analysis of central European parasitic flatworms of the superfamily Brachylaimoidea Allison, 1943 (Trematoda: Plagiorchiida) – CORRIGENDUM - Petr Heneberg, Jiljí Sitko, Jiří Bizos

Recent decades have seen increased awareness of the double-edged effects of grazing. Grazing is necessary for the long-term maintenance of relict steppic grasslands but is associated with adverse effects on arthropods. Data on spiders are conflicting, and data from steppic grasslands on igneous rocks are lacking. We performed a case study on the ef...

The rise in open access journals was followed by the proliferation of open access megajournals, which were once expected to become a major publication platform of the future. We analyzed the bibliometric parameters of 11 megajournals sensu stricto according to the definition by Björk and compared them with three control groups of gold open-access j...

Mitochondrial (mt) DNA has been useful in revealing the phylogenetic relationship of eukaryotic organisms including flatworms. Therefore, the use of mitogenomic data for the comparative and phylogenetic purposes is needed for those families of digenetic trematodes for which the mitogenomic data are still missing. Molecular data with sufficiently ri...

Deep evolutionary relationships within raptorial niche have recently been challenged. Little is known as to whether birds of the raptorial niche share congruent or host-switching communities of parasites. Here, we analyzed the helminth component communities associated with birds of prey and owls. From 1962 to 2015, we examined 1,727 birds of prey a...

Background: Peritoneal larval cestodiasis induced by Mesocestoides Vaillant, 1863 (Cyclophyllidea: Mesocestoididae) is a common cause of severe infections in domestic dogs and cats, reported also from other mammals and less frequently from birds. However, there is a limited knowledge on the taxonomy of causative agents of this disease. Results: I...

The functional relevance of microbiota is a key aspect for understanding host–microbiota interactions. Mammalian skin harbours a complex consortium of beneficial microorganisms known to provide health and immune-boosting advantages. As yet, however, little is known about functional microbial communities on avian feathers, including their co-evoluti...

1. Terrestrial snail shells can be considered partial resources for insects, and as such, the expansion of numerous snail species to anthropogenic habitats makes them increasingly available. 2. Here, we address for the first time a complete profile of insects that use empty terrestrial snail shells during the winter period in Central Europe. 3. T...