Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), encompassing Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), has a significant genetic component and is increasingly prevalent due to environmental factors. Current polygenic risk scores (PRS) have limited predictive power and cannot inform time of symptom onset. Circulating proteomics profiling offers a novel, non-invasive approach for understanding the inflammatory state of complex diseases, enabling the creation of proteomic risk scores (ProRS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe baseline inflammatory microenvironment in various organs of patients, which is shaped by pre-existing conditions and circulating drugs at the time before viral antigen exposure, may affect the severity of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) infection and the nature of its complications. Inflammatory pseudotumor (IPT) of the spleen may represent one such complication that merits further investigation. We describe the case of a patient, who was under long-term treatment with a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi), for psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and developed an inflammatory mass in the spleen, accompanied by systemic manifestations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSingle-cell cytometry data are crucial for understanding the role of the immune system in diseases and responses to treatment. However, traditional methods for annotating cytometry data face challenges in scalability, robustness, and accuracy. We propose a cytometry masked autoencoder (cyMAE), which automates immunophenotyping tasks including cell type annotation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLateral lymph node dissection and its inclusion in the treatment of rectal cancer is a controversial issue, with great differences, especially between Eastern and Western countries. Studies try to highlight the superiority of resection of these lymph nodes compared to simple mesorectal resection in terms of local recurrence of the disease, the overall survival of patients, and additional postoperative complications. In this study, the modern literature was reviewed, with the ultimate goal of clarifying the exact importance of lateral lymph node dissection, in terms of oncological outcome in patients with cancer of the middle and lower rectum, by studying the involvement of this lymph node dispersion in terms of local recurrence and overall survival of patients with rectal cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLaparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) remains one of the most commonly performed procedures in adult and paediatric populations. Despite the advances made in intraoperative biliary anatomy recognition, iatrogenic bile duct injuries during LC represent a fatal complication and consist an economic burden for healthcare systems. A series of methods have been proposed to prevent bile duct injury, among them the use of indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: Intraoperative biliary anatomy recognition is crucial for safety during laparoscopic cholecystectomy, since iatrogenic bile duct injuries represent a fatal complication, occurring in up to 0.9% of patients. Indocyanine green fluorescence cholangiography (ICG-FC) is a safe and cost-effective procedure for achieving a critical view of safety and recognizing early biliary injuries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection of vaccinated individuals is increasingly common but rarely results in severe disease, likely due to the enhanced potency and accelerated kinetics of memory immune responses. However, there have been few opportunities to rigorously study early recall responses during human viral infection. To better understand human immune memory and identify potential mediators of lasting vaccine efficacy, we used high-dimensional flow cytometry and SARS-CoV-2 antigen probes to examine immune responses in longitudinal samples from vaccinated individuals infected during the Omicron wave.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) comprise a rare variety of genetic disorders, affecting all types of collagen. Herein, we describe a case of the vascular type of EDS, with coexisting segmental absence of intestinal musculature, while simultaneously performing a narrative review of the existing literature.
Case Presentation: A 23-year-old male patient with a history of multiple abdominal operations due to recurrent bowel perforations and the presence of a high-output enterocutaneous fistula was admitted to our surgical department for further evaluation and treatment.
SARS-CoV-2 infection of vaccinated individuals is increasingly common but rarely results in severe disease, likely due to the enhanced potency and accelerated kinetics of memory immune responses. However, there have been few opportunities to rigorously study early recall responses during human viral infection. To better understand human immune memory and identify potential mediators of lasting vaccine efficacy, we used high-dimensional flow cytometry and SARS-CoV-2 antigen probes to examine immune responses in longitudinal samples from vaccinated individuals infected during the Omicron wave.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSynchronous primary pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is very rare and can be formed either through multicentric carcinogenesis or intrapancreatic metastasis. We report the case of an 80-year-old man with a history of type 2 diabetes mellitus who presented with abdominal pain and weight loss. Laboratory tests showed elevated levels of blood glucose and CA 19-9, and Computed Tomography revealed two hypoenhancing lesions in the head and tail of the pancreas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Retrorectal hamartomas or tailgut cysts (TCs) are rare. In most cases, they are asymptomatic and benign; however, rarely, they undergo malignant transformation, mainly in the form of adenocarcinoma.
Case Summary: A 55-year-old woman presented to our hospital with lower back pain.
It is important to determine if severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections and SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccinations elicit different types of antibodies. Here, we characterize the magnitude and specificity of SARS-CoV-2 spike-reactive antibodies from 10 acutely infected health care workers with no prior SARS-CoV-2 exposure history and 23 participants who received SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines. We found that infection and primary mRNA vaccination elicit S1- and S2-reactive antibodies, while secondary vaccination boosts mostly S1 antibodies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBased on a publication of Tomasetti and Vogelstein in 2015, in which the risk of cancer development is postulated to be just one-third caused by genetic predisposition and environmental factors, it seemed worth focusing again on the value of test systems for screening chemicals for their carcinogenicity. This review aims to firstly summarize data on a host-mediated in vivo/in vitro assay developed by our working group to screen the tumorigenic potential of chemicals. Subsequently, in this article the importance and advantages of host-mediated in vivo/in vitro assays in general have been compared with in vivo and in vitro tests.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnti-programmed death-1 (anti-PD-1) immunotherapy reinvigorates CD8 T cell responses in patients with cancer but PD-1 is also expressed by other immune cells, including follicular helper CD4 T cells (Tfh) which are involved in germinal centre responses. Little is known, however, about the effects of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy on noncancer immune responses in humans. To investigate this question, we examined the impact of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy on the Tfh-B cell axis responding to unrelated viral antigens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe examined antibody and memory B cell responses longitudinally for ∼9-10 months after primary 2-dose SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination and 3 months after a 3rd dose. Antibody decay stabilized between 6 and 9 months, and antibody quality continued to improve for at least 9 months after 2-dose vaccination. Spike- and RBD-specific memory B cells remained durable over time, and 40%-50% of RBD-specific memory B cells simultaneously bound the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients with COVID-19 present with a wide variety of clinical manifestations. Thromboembolic events constitute a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Severe COVID-19 has been associated with hyperinflammation and pre-existing cardiovascular disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Composite paragangliomas consist of two components, paraganglioma and ganglioneuroma, representing a rare subgroup of paragangliomas. The purpose of the study is to describe a case of composite paraganglioma of the celiac trunk and a brief review of the existing literature.
Case Presentation: A 64-year-old female patient with a history of epigastric abdominal pain and a 51 mm-diameter tumor found in a Computerized Tomography of the abdomen was admitted to our surgical department for further evaluation and treatment.
Unlabelled: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has to date granted approval or emergency use authorization to three vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and coronavirus disease 2019.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSARS-CoV-2 messenger RNA vaccination in healthy individuals generates immune protection against COVID-19. However, little is known about SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine-induced responses in immunosuppressed patients. We investigated induction of antigen-specific antibody, B cell and T cell responses longitudinally in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) on anti-CD20 antibody monotherapy (n = 20) compared with healthy controls (n = 10) after BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 mRNA vaccination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCOVID-19 is associated with a wide range of clinical manifestations, including autoimmune features and autoantibody production. Here we develop three protein arrays to measure IgG autoantibodies associated with connective tissue diseases, anti-cytokine antibodies, and anti-viral antibody responses in serum from 147 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Autoantibodies are identified in approximately 50% of patients but in less than 15% of healthy controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines have shown remarkable efficacy, especially in preventing severe illness and hospitalization. However, the emergence of several variants of concern and reports of declining antibody levels have raised uncertainty about the durability of immune memory following vaccination. In this study, we longitudinally profiled both antibody and cellular immune responses in SARS-CoV-2 naïve and recovered individuals from pre-vaccine baseline to 6 months post-mRNA vaccination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines have shown remarkable clinical efficacy, but questions remain about the nature and kinetics of T cell priming. We performed longitudinal antigen-specific T cell analyses on healthy SARS-CoV-2-naive and recovered individuals prior to and following mRNA prime and boost vaccination. Vaccination induced rapid antigen-specific CD4 T cell responses in naive subjects after the first dose, whereas CD8 T cell responses developed gradually and were variable in magnitude.
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