Significant Advancements and Evolutions in Chimeric Antigen Receptor Design.

Recent times have witnessed remarkable progress in cancer immunotherapy, drastically changing the cancer treatment landscape. Among the various immunotherapeutic approaches, adoptive cell therapy (ACT), particularly chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, has emerged as a promising strategy to tackle cancer. CAR-T cells are genetically engineered T cells with synthetic receptors capable of recognising and targeting tumour-specific or tumour-associated antigens.

The use of dermal templates in dermato-surgery and patient perspectives.

Acellular dermal matrices currently represent a useful reconstructive method in onco-dermatologic surgery. Nevertheless, they have some limitations, especially in terms of costs and outpatient post-operative wound care. While some studies on their cost-to-benefit ratio in breast surgery have already been issued, evidence is currently lacking in onco-dermatological surgery.

Improving hidradenitis suppurativa management: consensus statements from physicians and patients' perspectives.

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a frequent chronic inflammatory skin condition primarily affecting areas rich in apocrine sweat glands, presenting with comedones, papules, nodules, and abscesses, as well as tunnels and hypertrophic scarring. Despite its prevalence and impact on quality of life, the pathogenesis of HS remains incompletely understood. Notably, its diagnosis often suffers from delays and misidentification, therefore an improved education for healthcare providers is mandatory.

Delay in Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma Diagnosis Due to Interrupted Services Is Associated with Worse Prognoses and Modified Surgical Approaches.

Background: The delayed diagnosis of skin tumors is associated with a worsened prognosis. The impact of the interruption of clinical and surgical health services during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns has been documented among many pathologies. The impact of delayed diagnoses on patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (cSCCs) is poorly defined.

Retinal Microvascular Alterations in Hidradenitis Suppurativa Patients: A Pilot Study Using Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography.

: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a relapsing-remitting inflammatory disease characterized by the progression of asymptomatic nodules to deep-seated lesions and fistula formation that leads to suppuration and scarring. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a new non-invasive imaging technique that carefully analyzes retinal microvasculature networks with high-resolution imaging. Recent studies have demonstrated that retinal vessel density and retinal perfusion reflect systemic inflammatory responses.

Allele-specific CRISPR-Cas9 editing of dominant epidermolysis bullosa simplex in human epidermal stem cells.

Epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS) is a rare skin disease inherited mostly in an autosomal dominant manner. Patients display a skin fragility that leads to blisters and erosions caused by minor mechanical trauma. EBS phenotypic and genotypic variants are caused by genetic defects in intracellular proteins whose function is to provide the attachment of basal keratinocytes to the basement membrane zone and most EBS cases display mutations in keratin 5 (KRT5) and keratin 14 (KRT14) genes.

Researching the level of agreement among experts on terms used to describe wounds: An international study.

Establishing a common language that allows univocal and objective communication in describing wounds and their healing is of utmost importance in defining the diagnostic hypothesis and proper wound management. To measure the level of agreement on the description of wounds, an international study was performed among experts of different professional backgrounds on several common terms used to describe ulcerative lesions. A panel of 27 wound care experts anonymously completed a multiple-choice questionnaire on 100 images of 50 ulcerative lesions.

Metabolic Profile of Whole Unstimulated Saliva in Patients with Sjögren's Syndrome.

Primary Sjögren's Syndrome (pSS) is a multi-system autoimmune disease that involves the exocrine glands. Lymphocytes infiltrate the gland tissue, leading to anatomical modification and hypofunction. Even if the prognosis of pSS is favorable, quality of life is typically reduced due to the diverse manifestations of the disease.

Obesity and Wound Healing: Focus on Mesenchymal Stem Cells.

Chronic wounds represent nowadays a major challenge for both clinicians and researchers in the regenerative setting. Obesity represents one of the major comorbidities in patients affected by chronic ulcers and therefore diverse studies aimed at assessing possible links between these two morbid conditions are currently ongoing. In particular, adipose tissue has recently been described as having metabolic and endocrine functions rather than serving as a mere fat storage deposit.

Wound Healing after Acellular Dermal Substitute Positioning in Dermato-Oncological Surgery: A Prospective Comparative Study.

Background: MatriDerm and Integra are both widely used collagenic acellular dermal matrices (ADMs) in the surgical setting, with similar characteristics in terms of healing time and clinical indication. The aim of the present study is to compare the two ADMs in terms of clinical and histological results in the setting of dermato-oncological surgery.

Methods: Ten consecutive patients with medical indications to undergo surgical excision of skin cancers were treated with a 2-step procedure at our Dermatologic Surgery Unit.

Comparative study of in-vitro autofluorescence of normal versus non-melanoma-skin-cancer cells at different excitation wavelengths.

In this experimental study the autofluorescence of squamous carcinoma cells, stimulated by 6 different excitation wavelengths in the range 280-533 nm, has been compared with the autofluorescence of normal control keratinocytes. Skin cells were cultivated in vitro, to isolate their characteristic autofluorescence form the more complex one that would be originated by the complete skin tissue. Autofluorescence spectra in the visible range were complemented by absorption measurements.

Orange juice intake by obese and insulin-resistant subjects lowers specific plasma triglycerides: A randomized clinical trial.

Background & Aims: Dyslipidaemia is usually common in obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Clinical trials suggest that orange juice may have a positive impact on lipid metabolism and blood lipid profiles; however conflicting results have been reported. Here, we applied a combined untargeted/targeted lipidomic analysis of plasma to examine the impact of orange (Citrus sinensis) juice intake on the lipidome profile of obese and insulin-resistant subjects.

The Dark Side of Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in Cutaneous Oncology: Roles, Expectations, and Potential Pitfalls.

Adipose-derived stromal cells (ADSCs) have well-established regenerative and immunomodulatory properties. For such reasons, ADSCs are currently under investigation for their use in the setting of both regenerative medicine and autoimmune diseases. As per dermatological disorders, mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC)-based strategies represent potential therapeutic tools not only for chronic ulcers and wound healing, but also for immune-mediated dermatoses.

Current Knowledge in Skin Metabolomics: Updates from Literature Review.

Metabolomic profiling is an emerging field consisting of the measurement of metabolites in a biological system. Since metabolites can vary in relation to different stimuli, specific metabolic patterns can be closely related to a pathological process. In the dermatological setting, skin metabolomics can provide useful biomarkers for the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of cutaneous disorders.

Mesenchymal stromal cells promote the proliferation of basal stem cells and efficient epithelization in organotypic models of wound healing.

Adipose derived mesenchymal stromal cells (ADSCs) represent a fascinating tool in the scenario of wound healing and regenerative medicine. Recent data already demonstrated that ADSCs could exert a stimulatory action on epithelial cells through secretion of soluble factors. The aim of the present study was to assess how ADSCs guide wound re-epithelization in vitro in the presence of keratinocytes.

Surgical management and oncological follow-up of cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas arising in epidermolysis bullosa patients.

Background: Hereditary epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a rare genodermatosis characterized by skin fragility and blistering of the skin and mucous membranes in reaction to minimal traumas. The development of cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (cSCCs) is one of the most common medical complications in junctional and dystrophic forms of the disease. Complete surgical excision of cutaneous tumors represents the gold standard of treatment.

In Vivo Melanoma Cell Morphology Reflects Molecular Signature and Tumor Aggressiveness.

Melanoma is the deadliest type of skin cancer characterized by high cellular heterogeneity, which contributes to therapy resistance and unpredictable disease outcome. Recently, by correlating reflectance confocal microscopy morphology with histopathological type, we identified four distinct melanoma subtypes: dendritic cell, round cell, dermal nest, and combined-type melanomas. In this study, each reflectance confocal microscopy melanoma subtype expressed a specific biomolecular profile and biological behavior in vitro.

Metabolomic Analysis of Actinic Keratosis and SCC Suggests a Grade-Independent Model of Squamous Cancerization.

Background-Actinic keratoses (AKs) are the most common sun-induced precancerous lesions that can progress to squamocellular carcinoma (SCC). Recently, the grade-independent association between AKs and SCC has been suggested; however, the molecular bases of this potential association have not been investigated. This study has assessed the metabolomic fingerprint of AK I, AK II, AK III and SCC using high resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in order to evaluate the hypothesis of grade-independent association between AK and SCC.

Use of confocal microscopy imaging for in vitro assessment of adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells seeding on acellular dermal matrices: 3D reconstruction based on collagen autofluorescence.

Background: Both mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) and acellular dermal matrices (ADMs) represent fascinating therapeutic tools in the wound healing scenario. Strategies aimed at combining these two treatment modalities are currently under investigation. Moreover, scarcity of quantitative, nondestructive techniques for quality assessment of engineered tissues poses great limitations in regenerative medicine and collagen autofluorescence-based imaging techniques are acquiring great importance in this setting.

Hologene 5: A Phase II/III Clinical Trial of Combined Cell and Gene Therapy of Junctional Epidermolysis Bullosa.

Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a group of devastating genetic diseases characterized by skin and mucosal fragility and formation of blisters, which develop either spontaneously or in response to minor mechanical trauma. There is no definitive therapy for any form of EB. Intermediate junctional EB (JEB) caused by mutations in the gene has been the first genetic skin disease successfully tackled by gene therapy.

Correlation between Autofluorescence Intensity and Histopathological Features in Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer: An Ex Vivo Study.

Non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is the most common malignant tumor affecting fair-skinned people. Increasing incidence rates of NMSC have been reported worldwide, which is an important challenge in terms of public health management. Surgical excision with pre-operatively identified margins is one of the most common and effective treatment strategies.

Integrated metabolomic analysis and cytokine profiling define clusters of immuno-metabolic correlation in new-onset psoriasis.

The association between the metabolic profile and inflammatory cytokines in psoriasis is poorly understood. We analyzed the metabolic and cytokine/chemokine profiles in serum and skin from patients with new-onset psoriasis and healthy subjects (n = 7/group) by HR-MAS NMR and Bio-Plex immunoassay. Immuno-metabolic correlation matrix was analyzed in skin and serum to identify a potential immune-metabolic signature.