Effect of Infliximab on Radiation-Induced Submandibular Gland Dysfunction in Rats.

Inflammatory response is one of the essential parts of various pathogenic mechanisms of radiation-induced salivary dysfunction. The effect of decreasing the levels of inflammatory cytokines on alleviating submandibular gland injuries after irradiation is unclear. This study aimed to explore the effect of the antibody against tumor necrosis factor-alpha, infliximab, on radiation-induced submandibular gland dysfunction in rats.

scCURE identifies cell types responding to immunotherapy and enables outcome prediction.

A deep understanding of immunotherapy response/resistance mechanisms and a highly reliable therapy response prediction are vital for cancer treatment. Here, we developed scCURE (single-cell RNA sequencing [scRNA-seq] data-based Changed and Unchanged cell Recognition during immunotherapy). Based on Gaussian mixture modeling, Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, and mutual nearest-neighbors criteria, scCURE can faithfully discriminate between cells affected or unaffected by immunotherapy intervention.

Gut bacteria selectively promoted by dietary fibers alleviate type 2 diabetes.

The gut microbiota benefits humans via short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production from carbohydrate fermentation, and deficiency in SCFA production is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We conducted a randomized clinical study of specifically designed isoenergetic diets, together with fecal shotgun metagenomics, to show that a select group of SCFA-producing strains was promoted by dietary fibers and that most other potential producers were either diminished or unchanged in patients with T2DM. When the fiber-promoted SCFA producers were present in greater diversity and abundance, participants had better improvement in hemoglobin A1c levels, partly via increased glucagon-like peptide-1 production.