Publications by authors named "Pesce S"

Oral leukoplakia is classified among oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) by the World Health Organization (WHO). The visual oral examination (VOE) is the most used method for identifying lesions in their early stages. Given that the diagnosis of oral cancer is often late, there is an urgent need for early detection and examination of oral lesions.

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Natural killer (NK) cells and dendritic cells (DCs) are critical mediators of anti-cancer immune responses. In addition to their individual roles, NK cells and DCs are involved in intercellular crosstalk which is essential for the initiation and coordination of adaptive immunity against cancer. However, NK cell and DC activity is often compromised in the tumor microenvironment (TME).

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Plant protection products (PPPs) have historically been one of the classes of chemical compounds at the frontline of raising scientific and public awareness of the global nature of environmental pollution and the role of trophic interactions in shaping the impacts of chemicals on ecosystems. Despite increasingly strong regulatory measures since the 1970s designed to avoid unintentional effects of PPPs, their use is now recognised as a driver of biodiversity erosion. The French Ministries for the Environment, Agriculture and Research commissioned a collective scientific assessment to synthesise the current science and knowledge on the impacts of PPPs on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

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Compassion, a complex response aimed at alleviating suffering, plays a crucial role in healthcare professionals' (HCPs) patient care, especially in palliative settings. This study explored compassion in Italian palliative care HCPs using focus groups. A total of 52 palliative care HCPs participated in this study across five focus groups.

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This review focuses on the immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in the context of breast cancer (BC) management. These innovative treatments, by targeting proteins expressed on both tumor and immune cells, aim to overcome tumor-induced immune suppression and reactivate the immune system. The potential of this approach is the subject of numerous clinical studies.

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Natural Killer (NK) cells are integral to the innate immune system, renowned for their ability to target and eliminate cancer cells without the need for antigen presentation, sparing normal tissues. These cells are crucial in cancer immunosurveillance due to their diverse array of activating and inhibitory receptors that modulate their cytotoxic activity. However, the tumor microenvironment can suppress NK cell function through various mechanisms.

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Environmental compartments are contaminated by a broad spectrum of plant protection products (PPPs) that are currently widely used in agriculture or, for some of them, whose use was banned many years ago. The aim of this study is to draw up an overview of the levels of contamination of soils, continental aquatic environments, seawaters and atmosphere by organic PPPs in France and the French overseas territories, based on data from the scientific publications and the grey literature. It is difficult to establish an exhaustive picture of the overall contamination of the environment because the various compartments monitored, the monitoring frequencies, the duration of the studies and the lists of substances are not the same.

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The significance of spirituality in navigating the meaning of illness and death has been well-established. However, healthcare professionals working with palliation also grapple with their own spiritual dimensions when confronted with these circumstances. This study aimed to explore spirituality from a subjective standpoint among a sample of palliative care professionals, investigating its role and associated needs.

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Article Synopsis
  • Natural killer (NK) cell immunotherapy shows promise for treating cancers, and this study aims to identify genes that affect NK cell effectiveness.
  • A genome-wide CRISPR screen revealed important genes related to NK cell regulation, including those involved in immune signaling and the identification of cancer cells.
  • The study highlights the role of the TIM-3 receptor and phosphatidylserine in NK cell activity, suggesting that targeting this interaction could enhance cancer immunotherapy.
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Copper-based plant protection products (PPPs) are widely used in both conventional and organic farming, and to a lesser extent for non-agricultural maintenance of gardens, greenspaces, and infrastructures. The use of copper PPPs adds to environmental contamination by this trace element. This paper aims to review the contribution of these PPPs to the contamination of soils and waters by copper in the context of France (which can be extrapolated to most of the European countries), and the resulting impacts on terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity, as well as on ecosystem functions.

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Introduction: More than one third of adults in the United States (US) meet the clinical criteria for a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome, but often diagnosis is challenging due to healthcare access, costs and discomfort with the process and invasiveness associated with a standard medical examination. Less invasive and more accessible approaches to collecting biometric data may have utility in identifying individuals at risk of diagnoses, such as metabolic syndrome or dyslipidemia diagnoses. Body composition is one such source of biometric data that can be non-invasively acquired in a home or community setting that may provide insight into an individual's propensity for a metabolic syndrome diagnosis.

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Preserving biodiversity against the adverse effects of plant protection products (PPPs) is a major environmental and societal issue. However, despite intensive investigation into the ecotoxicological effects of PPPs, the knowledge produced remains fragmented given the sheer diversity of PPPs. This is due, at least in part, to a strong streetlight effect in the field of ecotoxicology.

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Neonicotinoids are the most widely used class of insecticides in the world, but they have raised numerous concerns regarding their effects on biodiversity. Thus, the objective of this work was to do a critical review of the contamination of the environment (soil, water, air, biota) by neonicotinoids (acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiacloprid, thiamethoxam) and of their impacts on terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity. Neonicotinoids are very frequently detected in soils and in freshwater, and they are also found in the air.

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There is growing scientific and societal consciousness that the environmental risks and impacts of plant protection products (PPPs) cannot be properly assessed without considering ecosystem services. However, the science on this issue remains incomplete and fragmented, as recently illustrated in a collective scientific assessment that pointed out the limited knowledge on the risks and impacts of PPPs on soil ecosystem services, which are clearly overlooked. Beside soil ecosystem services, certain key players involved in these services are largely overlooked in the scientific literature on the risks and impacts of PPPs, namely soil microbial photosynthetic communities.

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Despite the results achieved with the evolution of conventional chemotherapy and the inclusion of targeted therapies in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), survival is still not satisfying, in particular in the setting of relapsed/refractory (R/R) disease or elderly/unfit patients. Among the most innovative therapeutic options, cellular therapy has shown great results in different hematological malignancies such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphomas, with several products already approved for clinical use. However, despite the great interest in also expanding the application of these new treatments to R/R AML, no product has been approved yet for clinical application.

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Background: we evaluated the concordance between immunohistochemical p53 staining and TP53 mutations in a series of HGSOC. Moreover, we searched for prognostic differences between p53 overexpression and null expression groups.

Methods: patients affected by HGSOC were included.

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Objectives: Patients with cancer at the end of life may suffer from high psychological distress, a sense of demoralization, and a lack of dignity related to their medical condition. The This Is ME (TIME) Questionnaire and the Patient Dignity Question (PDQ) are clinical tools developed to achieve comprehensive and personalized patient care and to deepen our understanding of personhood. The objective of this study was to translate and validate the TIME Questionnaire, which contains the PDQ, into Italian to evaluate patient satisfaction of the Italian version of these tools and to identify essential themes elicited by the tools.

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Background: The natural killer (NK) complex (NKC) harbors multiple genes such as KLRC1 (encoding NKG2A) and KLRK1 (encoding NKG2D) that are central to regulation of NK cell function. We aimed at determining to what extent NKC haplotypes impact on NK cell repertoire and function, and whether such gene variants impact on outcome of IL-2-based immunotherapy in acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Methods: Genotype status of NKG2D rs1049174 and NKG2A rs1983526 was determined using the TaqMan-Allelic discrimination approach.

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There is growing interest in using the ecosystem services framework for environmental risk assessments of chemicals, including plant protection products (PPPs). Although this topic is increasingly discussed in the recent scientific literature, there is still a substantial gap between most ecotoxicological studies and a solid evaluation of potential ecotoxicological consequences on ecosystem services. This was recently highlighted by a collective scientific assessment (CSA) performed by 46 scientific experts who analyzed the international science on the impacts of PPPs on biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and ecosystem services.

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Terminally ill cancer patients often experience demoralization and loss of dignity, which undermines their spiritual wellbeing, which could, however, be supported by the presence of other factors such as self-transcendence and religious coping strategies. To assess self-transcendence and religious coping strategies and how they influence spirituality, we studied 141 end-stage cancer patients (64.3% male; mean age 68.

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Introduction: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) accounts for approximately 90% of oral malignancies and has a 5-year mortality rate close to 50%. A consistent part (70%) of all oral cancers is diagnosed at an advanced stage since available screening techniques are ineffective. Therefore, it would be urgent to improve them.

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Background: Natural Killer cells (NKs) represent the innate counterpart of TCRαβ lymphocytes and are characterized by a high anti-tumor and an anti-viral cytotoxic activity. Recently, it has been demonstrated that NKs can express PD-1 as an additional inhibitory receptor. Specifically, PD-1 was identified on a subpopulation of terminally differentiated NKs from healthy adults with previous HCMV infection.

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Preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services is critical for sustainable development and human well-being. However, an unprecedented erosion of biodiversity is observed and the use of plant protection products (PPP) has been identified as one of its main causes. In this context, at the request of the French Ministries responsible for the Environment, for Agriculture and for Research, a panel of 46 scientific experts ran a nearly 2-year-long (2020-2022) collective scientific assessment (CSA) of international scientific knowledge relating to the impacts of PPP on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

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Chronic kidney disease is a complex phenotype that results from the association of underlying kidney disease and environmental and genetic factors. In addition to the traditional risk factors, genetic factors are involved in the etiology of renal disease, including single nucleotide polymorphisms which could account for the increased mortality from cardiovascular disease of our hemodialysis patients. The genes that influence the development and rate of progression of kidney disease deserve to be better defined.

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