Mycobacteria-Specific Mono- and Polyfunctional CD4+ T Cell Profiles in Children With Latent and Active Tuberculosis: A Prospective Proof-of-Concept Study.

Current immune-based TB tests, including the tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA), have significant limitations, including the inability to distinguish between latent TB infection (LTBI) and active TB. Few biomarkers with the potential to discriminate between these two infection states have been identified. To determine whether functional profiling of mycobacteria-specific T cells can distinguish between TB-infected and -uninfected children, and simultaneously discriminate between LTBI and active TB.

Near-Infrared 1064 nm Laser Modulates Migratory Dendritic Cells To Augment the Immune Response to Intradermal Influenza Vaccine.

Brief exposure of skin to near-infrared (NIR) laser light has been shown to augment the immune response to intradermal vaccination and thus act as an immunologic adjuvant. Although evidence indicates that the NIR laser adjuvant has the capacity to activate innate subsets including dendritic cells (DCs) in skin as conventional adjuvants do, the precise immunological mechanism by which the NIR laser adjuvant acts is largely unknown. In this study we sought to identify the cellular target of the NIR laser adjuvant by using an established mouse model of intradermal influenza vaccination and examining the alteration of responses resulting from genetic ablation of specific DC populations.

Mycobacteria-Specific Cytokine Responses Detect Tuberculosis Infection and Distinguish Latent from Active Tuberculosis.

Rationale: Current immunodiagnostic tests for tuberculosis (TB), including the tuberculin skin test and IFN-γ release assay (IGRA), have significant limitations, which include their inability to distinguish between latent TB infection (LTBI) and active TB, a distinction critical for clinical management.

Objectives: To identify mycobacteria-specific cytokine biomarkers that characterize TB infection, determine their diagnostic performance characteristics, and establish whether these biomarkers can distinguish between LTBI and active TB.

Methods: A total of 149 children investigated for TB infection were recruited; all participants underwent a tuberculin skin test and QuantiFERON-TB Gold assay.

Near-infrared laser adjuvant for influenza vaccine.

Safe and effective immunologic adjuvants are often essential for vaccines. However, the choice of adjuvant for licensed vaccines is limited, especially for those that are administered intradermally. We show that non-tissue damaging, near-infrared (NIR) laser light given in short exposures to small areas of skin, without the use of additional chemical or biological agents, significantly increases immune responses to intradermal influenza vaccination without augmenting IgE.

Long-term cultivation-independent microbial diversity analysis demonstrates that bacterial communities infecting the adult cystic fibrosis lung show stability and resilience.

Background: Culture-independent analysis of the respiratory secretions of people with cystic fibrosis (CF) has identified many bacterial species not previously detected using culture in this context. However, little is known about their clinical significance or persistence in CF airways.

Methods: The authors characterised the viable bacterial communities in the sputum collected from 14 patients at monthly intervals over 1 year using a molecular community profiling technique-terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism.

CXCL12/CXCR4 blockade induces multimodal antitumor effects that prolong survival in an immunocompetent mouse model of ovarian cancer.

The chemokine CXCL12 and its receptor CXCR4 are expressed widely in human cancers, including ovarian cancer, in which they are associated with disease progression at the levels of tumor cell proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis. Here, we used an immunocompetent mouse model of intraperitoneal papillary epithelial ovarian cancer to show that modulation of the CXCL12/CXCR4 axis in ovarian cancer has multimodal effects on tumor pathogenesis associated with induction of antitumor immunity. siRNA-mediated knockdown of CXCL12 in BR5-1 cells that constitutively express CXCL12 and CXCR4 reduced cell proliferation in vitro, and tumor growth in vivo.

Does bacterial density in cystic fibrosis sputum increase prior to pulmonary exacerbation?

Background: Cystic Fibrosis (CF) lung disease is characterised by an inexorable decline in lung function, punctuated by periods of symptomatic worsening known as pulmonary exacerbations (referred to here as CFPE). Despite their clinical significance, the cause of CFPE remains undetermined. It has been suggested that an increase in bacterial density may be a trigger, although this has not been shown empirically.

Analysis of the bacterial communities present in lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis from American and British centers.

The aim of this study was to determine whether geographical differences impact the composition of bacterial communities present in the airways of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients attending CF centers in the United States or United Kingdom. Thirty-eight patients were matched on the basis of clinical parameters into 19 pairs comprised of one U.S.

Spontaneous rupture of the liver in a patient with systemic AL amyloidosis undergoing treatment with high-dose melphalan and autologous stem cell transplantation: a case report with literature review.

A 55-year-old woman with primary Immunoglobulin light chain (AL) systemic amyloidosis died due to spontaneous rupture of her liver following treatment with high-dose melphalan and autologous stem cell transplant (HDM/SCT). She was first diagnosed after developing nephrotic-range proteinuria. Spontaneous rupture of her liver occurred 10 days after treatment with HDM/SCT and was complicated by septic shock.