Synergistic effect of mesoporous silica nanocarrier-assisted photodynamic therapy and anticancer agent activity on lung cancer cells.

Investigating combined treatment methodologies is crucial for addressing the complex nature of cancer. As an emerging strategy, nano-biotechnology encourages the design of unique nanocarriers possessing simultaneous therapeutic application properties. This study aims to explore the combined effects of photodynamic and anticancer treatments using a multifunctional nanocarrier system co-administering the photosensitizer IR780 and the anticancer agent curcumin (Cur) on lung cancer cells.

fMRIflows: A Consortium of Fully Automatic Univariate and Multivariate fMRI Processing Pipelines.

How functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data are analyzed depends on the researcher and the toolbox used. It is not uncommon that the processing pipeline is rewritten for each new dataset. Consequently, code transparency, quality control and objective analysis pipelines are important for improving reproducibility in neuroimaging studies.

From Visual Perception to Aesthetic Appeal: Brain Responses to Aesthetically Appealing Natural Landscape Movies.

During aesthetically appealing visual experiences, visual content provides a basis for computation of affectively tinged representations of aesthetic value. How this happens in the brain is largely unexplored. Using engaging video clips of natural landscapes, we tested whether cortical regions that respond to perceptual aspects of an environment (e.

Variability in the analysis of a single neuroimaging dataset by many teams.

Data analysis workflows in many scientific domains have become increasingly complex and flexible. Here we assess the effect of this flexibility on the results of functional magnetic resonance imaging by asking 70 independent teams to analyse the same dataset, testing the same 9 ex-ante hypotheses. The flexibility of analytical approaches is exemplified by the fact that no two teams chose identical workflows to analyse the data.

Continuous ratings of movie watching reveal idiosyncratic dynamics of aesthetic enjoyment.

Visual aesthetic experiences unfold over time, yet most of our understanding of such experiences comes from experiments using static visual stimuli and measuring static responses. Here, we investigated the temporal dynamics of subjective aesthetic experience using temporally extended stimuli (movie clips) in combination with continuous behavioral ratings. Two groups of participants, a rate group (n = 25) and a view group (n = 25), watched 30-second video clips of landscapes and dance performances in test and retest blocks.

The default-mode network represents aesthetic appeal that generalizes across visual domains.

Visual aesthetic evaluations, which impact decision-making and well-being, recruit the ventral visual pathway, subcortical reward circuitry, and parts of the medial prefrontal cortex overlapping with the default-mode network (DMN). However, it is unknown whether these networks represent aesthetic appeal in a domain-general fashion, independent of domain-specific representations of stimulus content (artworks versus architecture or natural landscapes). Using a classification approach, we tested whether the DMN or ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOT) contains a domain-general representation of aesthetic appeal.

Dynamics of aesthetic experience are reflected in the default-mode network.

Neuroaesthetics is a rapidly developing interdisciplinary field of research that aims to understand the neural substrates of aesthetic experience: While understanding aesthetic experience has been an objective of philosophers for centuries, it has only more recently been embraced by neuroscientists. Recent work in neuroaesthetics has revealed that aesthetic experience with static visual art engages visual, reward and default-mode networks. Very little is known about the temporal dynamics of these networks during aesthetic appreciation.

Automatized smoking-related action schemata are reflected by reduced fMRI activity in sensorimotor brain regions of smokers.

In the later stages of addiction, automatized processes play a prominent role in guiding drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior. However, little is known about the neural correlates of automatized drug-taking skills and drug-related action knowledge in humans. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while smokers and non-smokers performed an orientation affordance task, where compatibility between the hand used for a behavioral response and the spatial orientation of a priming stimulus leads to shorter reaction times resulting from activation of the corresponding motor representations.

Not all anti-T lymphocyte globulin preparations are suitable for use in aplastic anemia: significantly inferior results with jurkat cell-reactive anti-T lymphocyte globulin in clinical practice.

Background: Immunosuppressive therapy (IST) with anti-T lymphocyte globulin (ATG) plus cyclosporine (CSA) is standard therapy in patients with non-severe aplastic anemia (AA) in need of treatment and severe aplastic anemia (SAA) who do not have an available HLA-matched donor. The aim of this study was to analyze patients submitted to different ATG preparations as first-line treatment.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively analyzed adult aplastic anemia (AA) patients who received ATG as first-line treatment between 1999 and 2013 to compare hematologic response and survival.

Comparison of Myelodysplastic Syndrome Prognostic Scoring Systems.

Objective: Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a clonal hematopoietic stem cell disease. Patients are at risk of developing cytopenias or progression to acute myeloid leukemia. Different classifications and prognostic scoring systems have been developed.

Pharmacobiological Approach for the Clinical Development of Ruxolitinib in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms.

Ruxolitinib, a JAK1 and JAK2 inhibitor drug, has recently been approved for the treatment of patients with high- or intermediate-risk myelofibrosis with symptomatic splenomegaly. Ruxolitinib is the first clinically useful targeted therapy in Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). The aim of this paper is to indicate pharmacobiological aspects of ruxolitinib within the potential context of MPNs.

High frequency of autonomous T-cell proliferation compatible with T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia in patients with cytopenia of unknown etiology.

Large granular lymphocytic leukemia/lymphoproliferative disorder (LGL-L/LPD) is a heterogeneous neoplastic disease of large granular lymphocytes and is a well-known cause of cytopenias. We aimed to reveal the incidence of LGL-L/LPD in patients with cytopenia(s) of unknown etiology (CUE). Twenty-eight patients with CUE were investigated for LGL-L/LPD.

Rebound Thrombocytosis following Induction Chemotherapy is an Independent Predictor of a Good Prognosis in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients Attaining First Complete Remission.

There are very few data about the relationship between acute myeloid leukemia (AML) prognosis and bone marrow recovery kinetics following chemotherapy. In this study, we aimed to assess the prognostic importance and clinical associations of neutrophil and platelet recovery rates and rebound thrombocytosis (RT) or neutrophilia (RN) in the postchemotherapy period for newly diagnosed AML patients. De novo AML patients diagnosed between October 2002 and December 2013 were evaluated retrospectively.

Clinical and pathological correlations of marrow PUMA and P53 expressions in myelodysplastic syndromes.

p53 is a key regulator of apoptosis. p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis (PUMA) is a critical mediator of p53-dependent and independent apoptosis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship of p53 and PUMA to the prognosis of MDS.

Bone marrow fibrosis may be an effective independent predictor of the 'TKI drug response level' in chronic myeloid leukemia.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess bone marrow (BM) fibrosis and dysplasia in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients receiving the first-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), imatinib, or second-generation TKIs, dasatinib, and nilotinib. We further investigated whether CML under TKI is associated with dysplastic BM changes during the clinicopathological course of the disease.

Methods: In total, pre-treatment BM paraffin blocks of biopsy specimens were available for 41 adult patients diagnosed with chronic phase CML.

Temporary left ventricular dysfunction in mushroom poisoning: report of three cases.

Mushroom poisoning can result in acute kidney injury and fulminant hepatic failure as well as gastrointestinal and neurological disorders. The effects of mushroom poisoning on cardiac functions have not been known well. Only a few case reports have been published to date (1-3).

Co-expression of t(15;17) and t(8;21) in a Case of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia: Review of the Literature.

Unlabelled: Additional chromosomal abnormalities in acute myelogenous leukemia have been identified as one of the most important prognostic factors. Favorable chromosomal changes such as t(8;21), inv(16), and t(15;17) are associated with higher rates of complete remission and event-free survival. Translocation (15;17) characterizes acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) (French-American-British class M3) in almost all patients.

Comparative outcome of reduced intensity and myeloablative conditioning regimen in HLA identical sibling allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for acute leukemia patients: a single center experience.

Due to the high transplant related morbidity and mortality (TRM), relatively younger acute leukemia patients that have a good performance status and no comorbidity are eligible for myeloablative conditioning (MAC) followed by allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). The outcomes of 84 consecutive adult patients with ALL (n=38) or AML (n=46) who underwent allo-HSCT from their HLA-identical siblings were evaluated retrospectively. The median age at transplantation was 34 (17-58 years) for the whole patient population.

EUTOS CML prognostic scoring system predicts ELN-based 'event-free survival' better than Euro/Hasford and Sokal systems in CML patients receiving front-line imatinib mesylate.

Objectives: The validity of the three currently used chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) scoring systems (Sokal CML prognostic scoring system, Euro/Hasford CML scoring system, and the EUTOS CML prognostic scoring system) were compared in the CML patients receiving frontline imatinib mesylate.

Patients And Methods: One hundred and fourty-three chronic phase CML patients (71 males, 72 females) taking imatinib as frontline treatment were included in the study. The median age was 44 (16-82) years.

Relationship between some clinical situations, autoantibodies, and pseudothrombocytopenia.

The widespread usage of blood count autoanalyzers has led to a major improvement in cellular hematology because of quick and accurate results found in most instances. However, spurious test results also can be observed like pseudothrombocytopenia (PTCP). In our study, we aimed to evaluate the clinical and laboratory factors associated with PTCP.

Heparin platelet factor 4 antibody positivity in pseudothrombocytopenia.

Pseudothrombocytopenia (PTCP) is a laboratory event of platelet clustering related to drugs used for anticoagulation. This condition is engendered by autoantibodies against platelets in usually EDTA-anticoagulated blood. Pseudothrombocytopenia has no clinical significance but when evaluated as true thrombocytopenia, this misconception may lead to unnecessary diagnostic procedures.

Olmesartan associated with acute renal failure in a patient with bilateral renal artery stenosis.

In patients with renal artery stenosis (RAS), the inhibition of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system can cause deterioration of renal function. Here we present a 75-year-old man who developed acute renal failure after olmesartan treatment. Following discontinuation of olmesartan, his renal functions normalized.