TGFβ2 Induces the Soluble Isoform of CTLA-4 - Implications for CTLA-4 Based Checkpoint Inhibitor Antibodies in Malignant Melanoma.

Malignant melanoma is an aggressive form of cancer, which can be treated with anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor antibodies but while anti-CTLA-4 antibodies have clear benefits for some patients with melanoma, productive responses are difficult to predict and often associated with serious immune related adverse events. Antibodies specific to CTLA-4 bind two major isoforms of CTLA-4 in humans, the receptor isoform and a second naturally secretable, soluble isoform - sCTLA-4. The primary aim here was to examine the effect of selectively blocking the function of sCTLA-4 on immune responses from volunteer healthy or melanoma patient PBMC samples.

The management of acne vulgaris in pregnancy.

Acne vulgaris is a common condition in adolescence and also for many women of childbearing age. The management of acne in pregnancy is complicated by the lack of clinical studies and pharmacokinetic data in this patient population and safety concerns regarding retinoid use in pregnancy. Of primary concern to both patients and clinicians is the safety profile of medications used during pregnancy.

Patient preferences for psoriasis treatment: process characteristics considered more important than outcome attributes.

In a recent paper by Schaarschmidt et al., patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis completed a conjoint analysis survey (discrete choice experiment) to determine which factors had influenced their choice of treatment, and the relative importance of each factor. They also assessed how socioeconomic and demographic factors affected patient choice.