Persons With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and High Levels of Activation Improved Their Physical Activity Skills After an Educational Session.

Background: Daily physical activity is part of the self-management of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and didactic information sessions may be insufficient for the provision of these skills. Prior activation can determine sensitivity to these sessions. We evaluated whether the activation in patients with COPD, as measured by the Patient Activation Measure (PAM)-13 questionnaire, determined their responses to an educational group session on physical activity (PA), which were measured with actigraphy by the number of steps/day.

Autoimmune findings in patients with silicosis in Spain.

Background: Occupational exposure to silica is related to autoimmune diseases and features of autoimmunity, mainly autoantibodies. The study objectives were to estimate the prevalence of silicosis with associated autoimmune findings or diagnosed autoimmune diseases in Spain, and to assess the clinical and functional characteristics of affected patients.

Methods: This is a multicentre prospective study in patients diagnosed with silicosis.

Value of increased soluble suppressor tumorigenicity biomarker 2 (sST2) on admission as an indicator of severity in patients with COVID-19.

Background: Soluble suppressor of tumorigenicity-2 (sST2) is a biomarker for heart failure and pulmonary injury. We hypothesize that sST2 could help predict severity of SARS-CoV-2 infections.

Methods: sST2 was analyzed in patients consecutively admitted for SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia.

Silica crystals activate toll-like receptors and inflammasomes to promote local and systemic immune responses in zebrafish.

Silica crystals are potent activators of the inflammasome that cause a fibrotic lung disease, called silicosis, with no effective treatment available. We report here that injection of silica crystals into the hindbrain ventricle of zebrafish embryos led to the initiation of local and systemic immune responses driven through both Toll-like receptors (TLR)- and inflammasome-dependent signaling pathways, followed by induction of pro-fibrotic markers. Genetic and pharmacological analysis revealed that the Nlrp3 inflammasome regulated silica crystal-induced inflammation and pyroptotic cell death, but not emergency myelopoiesis.