Publications by authors named "Pol J"

Cholesterol serves as a vital lipid that regulates numerous physiological processes. Nonetheless, its role in regulating cell death processes remains incompletely understood. In this study, we investigated the role of cholesterol trafficking in immunogenic cell death.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Apoptosis, necroptosis and pro-inflammatory NF-κB-dependent signaling are repressed by receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 1 (RIPK1). A recent paper in describes a small molecule inducing the proteolytic degradation of RIPK1. In preclinical experiments, this RIPK1 inhibitor improved the anticancer efficacy of radiotherapy, immunotherapy (with PD-1 blockade) and radioimmunotherapy (with CTLA-4 blockade).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Undifferentiated arthritis (UA) is a term used to describe patients with inflammatory arthritis that has not differentiated into a specific rheumatic disease. UA may be a pre-stage of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or another inflammatory disease or remain undifferentiated, but a substantial proportion of patients may also achieve spontaneous remission. As UA may be an early presentation of RA, rheumatologists often start methotrexate (or another csDMARD) as early as possible.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Adipocyte is a predominant component of the omental adipose tissue that influences the tumor microenvironment and increases the risk of endometrial cancer progression (EC), however, little is known about the underlying mechanism. In this study, using a co-culture model, we found that the adipocyte-EC cell interaction promoted SIRT1 signaling in vitro and in vivo xenograft mice models. Furthermore, immunostaining of SIRT1 protein showed significantly higher expression of SIRT1 in endometrial cancer patients than in normal endometria.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Higher plasma levels of ACBP/DBI, linked to age and obesity, are associated with an increased risk of cancer, especially in patients with genetic predispositions like BRCA1/2 or TP53 mutations.
  • In studies, elevated ACBP/DBI levels were predictive of future cancer development, particularly lung cancer, while neutralization of ACBP/DBI slowed tumor growth and enhanced the effects of chemoimmunotherapy in animal models.
  • The research suggests that ACBP/DBI functions as an immune suppressor and indicates that targeting it may improve cancer immunotherapy outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A transfeminine patient is a 79-year-old with past medical history significant for type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, gender dysphoria, chronic kidney disease, dyslipidemia, total left hip replacement, and recent provoked deep venous thromboembolism (DVT). She was seen by a pharmacist in a primary care clinic after her discharge from a skilled nursing facility. The patient was experiencing symptoms of gender dysphoria after discontinuation of her estradiol in setting of her DVT.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Doxorubicin is a prototypical inducer of immunogenic cell death (ICD) that sensitizes to subsequent immunotherapy by PD-1 blockade. However, this systemic drug combination fails against glioblastoma, hidden behind the blood-brain barrier (BBB). A recent work delineates a biophysical method for BBB permeabilization that yields effective preclinical effects of chemoimmunotherapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hybrid PET-MRI systems are being used more frequently. One of the drawbacks of PET-MRI imaging is its inferiority in detecting lung nodules, so it is often combined with a computed tomography (CT) of the chest. However, chest CT often detects additional, indeterminate lung nodules.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tigilanol tiglate is an oncolytic small molecule that is undergoing clinical trials. A recent study revealed the capacity of this pyroptosis inducer to elicit hallmarks of immunogenic cell death. In addition, intratumoral injection of tigilanol tiglate can sensitize subcutaneous cancers to subsequent immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting CTLA-4 alone or in combination with PD-1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * The development of OV therapies involves three key phases: designing the virus, producing it, and conducting preclinical tests to assess its effectiveness before clinical trials.
  • * Factors influencing OV selection include the type of cancer, the virus's safety and effectiveness, and logistical issues in research and treatment settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To assess whether prednisone use and/or disease activity score (DAS) are associated with the development of hyperglycaemia and diabetes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: We included 504 non-diabetic early RA patients from the BeSt study (Dutch acronym for treatment strategies). Patients were randomised to four DAS-steered treatment arms and followed for 10 years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: A 2D image navigator (iNAV) based 3D whole-heart sequence has been used to perform MRI and PET non-rigid respiratory motion correction for hybrid PET/MRI. However, only the PET data acquired during the acquisition of the 3D whole-heart MRI is corrected for respiratory motion. This study introduces and evaluates an MRI-based respiratory motion correction method of the complete PET data.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Cardiac amyloidosis (CA), particularly the transthyretin-related type (ATTR-CA), has become a significant concern in cardiology, with bone scintigraphy (BS) being a primary tool for screening.
  • A study from Maastricht University Medical Center analyzed 2,738 routine BS scans from May 2012 to August 2020 and found 40 positive scans for CA, but almost all (95%) were not recognized by specialists as indicating the disease.
  • Follow-up revealed that nearly half of these patients underwent cardiac evaluations without a CA diagnosis, highlighting a need for increased awareness and skill among healthcare providers to properly identify and manage CA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: The need for an interval between the administration of long-acting Somatostatin Receptor Analogues (SSA) and the [Ga]Ga-DOTA-TATE PET has been questioned based on recent literature in the new EANM guidelines. Here an earlier studies showed that SSA injection immediately before SSTR PET had minimal effect on normal organ and tumor uptake (1). However, data are scarce and there are (small) differences between [Ga]Ga-DOTA-TATE and [Ga]Ga-DOTA-TOC binding affinity, and it remains unknown whether these findings can be directly translated to scans with [Ga]Ga-DOTA-TOC as well.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Xp11 translocation renal cell carcinoma (XPTRCC) is a very rare kidney neoplasm, which has been predominantly reported in young patients. Sarcomatoid transformation in renal cell carcinomas is known. However, its occurrence in XPTRCC is unreported so far in the literature.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tissue-resident and recruited immune cells are essential mediators of natural and therapy-induced immunosurveillance of liver neoplasia. This idea has been recently reinforced by the clinical approval of immune checkpoint inhibitors for the immunotherapy of hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma. Such research progress relies on the in-depth characterization of the immune populations that are present in pre-neoplastic and neoplastic hepatic lesions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The text discusses the early process of liver cancer development where specific liver cells become pre-cancerous due to a lack of effective immune defense against tumors.
  • It also presents a detailed protocol for isolating primary hepatocytes and non-parenchymal cells using a two-step collagenase perfusion technique, which improves the yield and viability of these cells for research purposes.
  • Finally, it highlights the challenges in isolating immune cells from the liver, noting that this may affect the study of their role in liver cancer progression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a malignancy affecting the epithelial cells that line the bile ducts. This cancer shows a poor prognosis and current treatments remain inefficient. Orthotopic CCA mouse models are useful for the development of innovative therapeutic strategies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Medication regimens using conditioning via variable reinforcement have shown similar or improved therapeutic effects as full pharmacological treatment, but evidence in patient populations is scarce. This proof-of-principle double-blind randomized clinical trial examined whether treatment effects in recent-onset rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can be optimized through pharmacological conditioning. After four months of standardized treatment ( = 46), patients in clinical remission ( = 19) were randomized to the Control group (C), continuing standardized treatment ( = 8), or the Pharmacological Conditioning (PC) group, receiving variable treatment according to conditioning principles ( = 11).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Trees structure the Earth's most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF