Hallmark discoveries in the biology of non-Wilms tumour childhood kidney cancers.

Approximately 20% of paediatric and adolescent/young adult patients with renal tumours are diagnosed with non-Wilms tumour, a broad heterogeneous group of tumours that includes clear-cell sarcoma of the kidney, congenital mesoblastic nephroma, malignant rhabdoid tumour of the kidney, renal-cell carcinoma, renal medullary carcinoma and other rare histologies. The differential diagnosis of these tumours dates back many decades, when these pathologies were identified initially through clinicopathological observation of entities with outcomes that diverged from Wilms tumour, corroborated with immunohistochemistry and molecular cytogenetics and, subsequently, through next-generation sequencing. These advances enabled near-definitive recognition of different tumours and risk stratification of patients.

Advances in Protein Structure Prediction Highlight Unexpected Commonalities Between Gram-positive and Gram-negative Conjugative T4SSs.

Despite recent advances in our understanding of the structure and function of conjugative Type 4 Secretion Systems (T4SSs), there is still only very scarce data available for the ones from Gram-positive (G) bacteria. This is a problem, as conjugative T4SSs are main drivers for the spread of antibiotic resistance genes and virulence factors. Here, we aim to increase our understanding of G systems, by using bioinformatic approaches to identify proteins that are conserved in all conjugative T4SS machineries and reviewing the current knowledge available for these components.

Longitudinal trajectories of digital upper limb biomarkers for multiple sclerosis.

Background: Upper limb dysfunction is a common debilitating feature of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). We aimed to examine the longitudinal trajectory of the iPad®-based Manual Dexterity Test (MDT) and predictors of change over time.

Methods: We prospectively enrolled RRMS patients (limited to Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) < 4).

Autoimmune-Like Mechanism in Heart Failure Enables Preventive Vaccine Therapy.

Background: Heart failure (HF) is strongly associated with inflammation. In pressure overload (PO)-induced HF, cardiac stress triggers adaptive immunity, ablation or inhibition of which blocks disease progression. We hypothesized that PO-HF might fulfill the often-used criteria of autoimmunity: if so, the associated adaptive immune response would be not only necessary but also sufficient to induce HF; it should also be possible to identify self-antigens driving the autoimmune response.

Early immune profiling reveals distinct inflammatory responses between children and adults few days after primary SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Background: To date, it is still not clear why during the COVID-19 pandemic children generally developed no or milder symptoms compared to adults. As innate immune responses are crucial in the early defense against pathogens, we aimed at profiling these responses from both adults and children with a primary SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Methods: In the first months of the pandemic, PBMCs and serum were collected from peripheral blood of adults and children at different time points after testing SARS-CoV-2 PCR positive (PCR+).