Exploring Post-acute Care Challenges and Opportunities in Spinal Cord Injuries: Perspectives from 3 Distinct Countries: Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

This article describes the differences and similarities in post-acute care for patients with spinal cord injuries in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. It provides a comprehensive description of the current state of spinal cord injury post-acute care in each country, including the prevalent practices, rehabilitation continuum of care, as well as challenges and opportunities related to clinical services, psychosocial factors, economic considerations, and cultural influences.

Microencapsulation of therapeutic bispecific antibodies producing cells: immunotherapeutic organoids for cancer management.

Regardless of the important therapeutic advances developed over the last years for the management of cancer, the fact is that many patients still suffer from a tremendous reduction on their quality of life due to lack of complete selectivity of conventionally administered chemotherapeutic drugs. In the search of more efficacious tumor-targeted therapies, the use of bispecific antibodies (bsAbs) capable of simultaneous binding to tumor-associated antigens and to an activating receptor, such as CD3, has emerged as a promising approach. With the intention to complementing and improving this cancer immunotherapy, human HEK-293 cells have been genetically modified ex vivo to secrete a recombinant anti-CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen) × anti-CD3 bsAb.

Selective attenuation of Toll-like receptor 2 signalling may explain the atheroprotective effect of sphingosine 1-phosphate.

Aims: Vascular inflammation is a major atherogenic factor and Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2 ligands, including bacterial and serum lipoproteins, seem to be involved in atherogenesis. On this basis, we analysed the effect of lipoproteins and different lipid components on TLR2-dependent signalling.

Methods And Results: In TLR2-transfected human embryonic kidney 293 cells and human monocytes, oxidized low-density lipoproteins inhibited nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB-driven transcriptional activity and chemokine gene expression in response to TLR2 ligands.

Francisella tularensis LPS induces the production of cytokines in human monocytes and signals via Toll-like receptor 4 with much lower potency than E. coli LPS.

Francisella tularensis is a virulent Gram-negative intracellular pathogen. To address the signaling routes involved in the response of host cells to LPS from F. tularensis live vaccine strain (LVS), experiments were performed in transiently transfected 293 cells.

A new pharmacological effect of salicylates: inhibition of NFAT-dependent transcription.

The anti-inflammatory effects of salicylates, originally attributed to inhibition of cyclooxygenase activity, are currently known to involve additional mechanisms. In this study we investigated the possible modulation by salicylates of NFAT-mediated transcription in lymphocytic and monocytic cell lines. RNase protection assays showed that 2-acetoxy-4-trifluoromethylbenzoic acid (triflusal) inhibited, in a dose-dependent manner, mRNA expression of several cytokine genes, most of which are NFAT-regulated and cyclosporin A (CsA)-sensitive.