Efficacy of pembrolizumab in microsatellite-stable, tumor mutational burden-high metastatic colorectal cancer: genomic signatures and clinical outcomes.

Background: Pembrolizumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI), shows significant survival benefits in patients with microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), but its efficacy in microsatellite-stable (MSS) mCRC is limited. Although ICIs are effective in tumor mutational burden-high (TMB-H) solid tumors, the impact on MSS-TMB-H mCRC, a rare subset within MSS mCRC, remains unclear.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis using clinical and genomic data from the Center for Cancer Genomics and Advanced Therapeutics (C-CAT) repository in Japan.

A practical, biomimetic, one-pot synthesis of firefly luciferin.

The bioluminescence reaction of firefly luciferase with D-luciferin has become an indispensable imaging technique in modern biology and life science experiments, but the high cost of D-luciferin is limiting its further application. Here, we report a practical, one-pot synthesis of D-luciferin from p-benzoquinone (p-BQ), L-cysteine methyl ester and D-cysteine, with an overall yield of 46%. Our route, which is six steps in length and proceeds via 2-cyano-6-hydroxybenzothiazole, is inspired by the mechanistic study of our previously reported biomimetic, non-enzymatic, one-pot formation of L-luciferin from p-BQ and L-cysteine.

Successful treatment of anti-signal recognition particle antibody-positive myositis with intravenous cyclophosphamide: A case report.

Myositis-specific autoantibodies play an important role on the disease phenotype of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs). Anti-signal recognition particle (SRP) antibody-positive patients with IIMs may present with severe myopathy and highly elevated serum creatine kinase levels. These patients are often resistant to immunosuppressive therapy, but there is no established treatment strategy.

Lymphoproliferative Disorder in an Esophageal Cancer Patient Treated with Pembrolizumab.

A 75-year-old man diagnosed with esophageal cancer and lung metastasis received a combination of fluorouracil, cisplatin, and pembrolizumab. During pembrolizumab maintenance therapy, lymphoproliferative lesions at the lips and mouth and multiple lymph node swellings appeared. Histologically, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-encoded RNA was positive, and EBV-DNA was detected in the blood.