Prognostic model for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma treated with dual PD-1 and angiogenesis blockade therapy.

Background And Aims: Dual programmed death 1 (PD-1) and angiogenesis blockade therapy is a frontline treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). An accepted model for survival prediction and risk stratification in individual patients receiving this treatment is lacking. Aimed to develop a simple prognostic model specific to these patients.

Host's innate immune response to fungal and bacterial agents in vitro: up-regulation of interleukin-15 gene expression resulting in enhanced natural killer cell activity.

Natural killer (NK) cells play an important role in the first line of defence against viral infections. We have shown earlier that exposure of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) to viruses results in rapid up-regulation of NK cell activity via interleukin-15 (IL-15) induction, and that this mechanism curtails viral infection in vitro. By using Candida albicans, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, we now show here that exposure of PBMC to fungi and bacteria also results in an immediate increase of NK cytotoxicity.

Comparison of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-specific infection-enhancing and -inhibiting antibodies in AIDS patients.

The humoral immune response of the human host against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 (HIV-1) envelope glycoproteins comprises virus-neutralizing antibodies (NAs), antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity-mediating (ADCC) antibodies, and infection-enhancing antibodies (IEAs). Because of their potential significance for the outcome of infection with this virus, we have studied the relative prevalence of NAs, ADCC antibodies, and IEAs in the sera of patients infected with HIV. Our results demonstrate that while >or=60% of serum samples are positive for NAs or ADCC antibodies, 72% of these serum samples mediate the enhancement of infection in the presence of complement.

Preferential localization of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) oncoprotein LMP-1 to nuclei in human T cells: implications for its role in the development of EBV genome-positive T-cell lymphomas.

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-encoded latent membrane protein-1 (LMP-1) is thought to play a role in the EBV-induced B-cell transformation and immortalization. EBV has also been implicated in certain human T-cell lymphomas; however, the phenotypic effects of the expression of this oncoprotein in T cells are not known. To learn whether LMP-1 also induces phenotypic changes in T cells, we stably expressed it in human cell lines of T and B lineages and 25 LMP-1-expressing T-cell clones and 7 B-cell clones were examined.