Dupilumab efficacy and safety in adults with uncontrolled persistent asthma despite use of medium-to-high-dose inhaled corticosteroids plus a long-acting β2 agonist: a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled pivotal phase 2b dose-ranging trial.

Background: Dupilumab, a fully human anti-interleukin-4 receptor α monoclonal antibody, inhibits interleukin-4 and interleukin-13 signalling, key drivers of type-2-mediated inflammation. Adults with uncontrolled persistent asthma who are receiving medium-to-high-dose inhaled corticosteroids plus a long-acting β2 agonist require additional treatment options as add-on therapy. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of dupilumab as add-on therapy in patients with uncontrolled persistent asthma on medium-to-high-dose inhaled corticosteroids plus a long-acting β2 agonist, irrespective of baseline eosinophil count.

Maintenance of murine embryonic stem cells' self-renewal and pluripotency with increase in proliferation rate by a bovine granulosa cell line-conditioned medium.

Murine embryonic stem cells (mESCs) are pluripotent cells that can be propagated in an undifferentiated state in continuous culture on a feeder layer or without feeders in the presence of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). Although there has been a great advance since their establishment, ESC culture is still complex and expensive. Therefore, finding culture conditions that maintain the self-renewal of ESCs, preventing their differentiation and promoting their proliferation, is still an area of great interest.

Two compound heterozygous mutations (c.215delA/c.2422T-->C and c.387delC/c.1159G-->A) in the thyroid peroxidase gene responsible for congenital goitre and iodide organification defect.

Background: Iodide organification defects are frequently but not always associated with mutations in the thyroid peroxidase (TPO) gene and characterized by a positive perchlorate discharge test. These mutations phenotypically produce a congenital goitrous hypothyroidism, with an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance.

Objectives: In the present study we extended our initial molecular studies in six unrelated patients heterozygous for the TPO mutations, in order to identify the second mutation in this autosomal recessive disease.