Cytokine profile of bronchoalveolar lavage in patients with and without checkpoint inhibitor pneumonitis.

Background: Checkpoint inhibitor pneumonitis (CIP) that develops following immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment can be difficult to distinguish from other common etiologies of lung inflammation in cancer patients. Here, we evaluate the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) for potential biomarkers specific to CIP.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of patients who underwent standard of care bronchoscopy to compare the cytokines of interest between patients with and without CIP and with and without immune-mediated pulmonary diseases.

The prohibitin complex regulates macrophage fatty acid composition, plasma membrane packing, and lipid raft-mediated inflammatory signaling.

Prohibitins (PHB1 and PHB2) are ubiquitously expressed proteins which play critical roles in multiple biological processes, and together form the ring-like PHB complex found in phospholipid-rich cellular compartments including lipid rafts. Recent studies have implicated PHB1 as a mediator of fatty acid transport as well as a membrane scaffold mediating B lymphocyte and mast cell signal transduction. However, the specific role of PHBs in the macrophage have not been characterized, including their role in fatty acid uptake and lipid raft-mediated inflammatory signaling.

The effects of tricaine mesylate on arthropods: crayfish, crab and Drosophila.

Tricaine mesylate, also known as MS-222, was investigated to characterize its effects on sensory neurons, synaptic transmission at the neuromuscular junction, and heart rate in invertebrates. Three species were examined: Drosophila melanogaster, blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), and red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii). Intracellular measures of action potentials in motor neurons of the crayfish demonstrated that MS-222 dampened the amplitude, suggesting that voltage-gated Na + channels are blocked by MS-222.