Pembrolizumab ± paricalcitol in metastatic pancreatic cancer postmaximal cytoreduction.

Lessons Learned: Intravenous paricalcitol did not improve the efficacy of pembrolizumab, likely related to the short half-life.

Background: Immunotherapy has limited benefit in the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer with the tumor microenvironment playing a key role in immune resistance. In preclinical studies, vitamin D receptor (VDR) agonists have been shown to sensitize pancreatic tumors to PD-1 blockade.

Controlled interkingdom cell-cell communication between and using quorum-sensing peptides.

Understanding communication among microorganisms through the array of signal molecules and establishing controlled signal transfer between different species is a major goal of the future of biotechnology, and controlled multispecies bioreactor cultivations will open a wide range of applications. In this study, we used two quorum-sensing peptides from - namely, the competence and sporulation factor (CSF) and (PhrF)-to establish a controlled interkingdom communication system between prokaryotes and eukaryotes. For this purpose, we engineered as a reporter capable of detecting the CSF and PhrF peptides heterologously produced by the yeast .

Combination Therapy Is Not Associated with Decreased Mortality in Infectious Endocarditis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Untreated infective endocarditis (IE) is uniformly fatal. The practice of combination antibiotic therapy for IE is recommended by treatment guidelines but largely unsupported by high-quality evidence. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of combination antibiotic therapy compared to monotherapy in IE through a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Magnetic resonance imaging of tumor response to stroma-modifying pegvorhyaluronidase alpha (PEGPH20) therapy in early-phase clinical trials.

Pre-clinical and clinical studies have shown that PEGPH20 depletes intratumoral hyaluronic acid (HA), which is linked to high interstitial fluid pressures and poor distribution of chemotherapies. 29 patients with metastatic advanced solid tumors received quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI) in 3 prospective clinical trials of PEGPH20: HALO-109-101 (NCT00834704), HALO-109-102 (NCT01170897), and HALO-109-201 (NCT01453153). Apparent Diffusion Coefficient of water (ADC), T1, k, v, v, and iAUC maps were computed from qMRI acquired at baseline and ≥ 1 time point post-PEGPH20.

Habitat conditions and not moss composition mediate microbial community structure in Swiss peatlands.

Peatlands, one of the oldest ecosystems, globally store significant amounts of carbon and freshwater. However, they are under severe threat from human activities, leading to changes in water, nutrient and temperature regimes in these delicate systems. Such shifts can trigger a substantial carbon flux into the atmosphere and diminish the water-holding capacity of peatlands.