Intestinal Anti-Endomysium Antibodies Are a Useful Tool for Diagnosing Celiac Disease in Pediatric and Adult Patients.

Intestinal anti-endomysium antibodies are a specific marker of celiac disease. The diagnostic accuracy of this marker seems high in pediatric patients and has not yet been investigated in adults, so the aim of this prospective multicentric study was to evaluate the specificity and sensitivity of this marker in childhood and adulthood. Pediatric and adult patients undergoing intestinal endoscopy for any intestinal condition were enrolled.

Predicting response to non-selective beta-blockers with liver-spleen stiffness and heart rate in patients with liver cirrhosis and high-risk varices.

Introduction: Non-selective beta-blockers (NSBB) are used for primary prophylaxis in patients with liver cirrhosis and high-risk varices (HRVs). Assessing therapeutic response is challenging due to the invasive nature of hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) measurement. This study aims to define a noninvasive machine-learning based approach to determine response to NSBB in patients with liver cirrhosis and HRVs.

A bispecific anti-PD-1 and PD-L1 antibody induces PD-1 cleavage and provides enhanced anti-tumor activity.

Combinatorial strategies, such as targeting different immune checkpoint receptors, hold promise to increase the breadth and duration of the response to cancer therapy. Here we describe the preclinical evaluation of CTX-8371, a protein construct which combines PD-1 and PD-L1 targeting in one bispecific, tetravalent antibody. CTX-8371 matched or surpassed the activity of anti-PD-1 and PD-L1 benchmark antibodies in several T cell activation assays and outperformed clinically approved benchmarks in the subcutaneous MC38 colon and the B16F10 lung metastasis mouse tumor models.

MiR-3201 as a Prognostic Blood Biomarker for Curative Treatments in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Hepatic resection, radiofrequency ablation (RF), and liver transplantation (LT) represent the only available curative treatments for early stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Various studies showed that the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate reaches ∼70% after resection and ∼60% after RF. To improve the success rate of curative therapies and consequently the OS, an improvement in patients' selection and management should be pursued.

Description of Larva and Pupa of Psorophora (Grabhamia) dimidiata (Diptera: Culicidae) and Redescription of the Adult Female and Male.

Psorophora (Grabhamia) dimidiata Cerqueira (1943) was described based on the adult female and male. Later, descriptions of the male and female genitalia were published by Lane (in Neotropical Culicidae, vols. I & II.

Role of the solvent in the activation of LiS as cathode material: a DFT study.

Lithium-sulfur batteries are considered one of the possible next-generation energy-storage solutions, but to be commercially available many drawbacks have yet to be solved. One solution with great potentiality is the use of lithium sulfide as cathode material since it can be coupled to Li-free anodes, such as graphite, Si or Sn. Nevertheless, LiS, like sulfur, is electronically and ionically insulating, with a high activation potential for its initial oxidation step.

Gonoactivity of Culex (Culex) (Diptera: Culicidae) Mosquitoes During Winter in Temperate Argentina.

The subgenus Culex L. includes species involved in summer-autumn arbovirus transmission but studies during winter are scarce in temperate Argentina. Female specimens were collected host-seeking at dry-ice-baited traps during autumn-winter-spring at two sites in Córdoba City during 2016 and 2017.

Comparison between hepatocellular carcinoma prognostic scores: A 10-year single-center experience and brief review of the current literature.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents the most common primitive liver malignancy. A relevant concern involves the lack of agreement on staging systems, prognostic scores, and treatment allocation algorithms.

Aim: To compare the survival rates among already developed prognostic scores.

The role of elastography in alcoholic liver disease: fibrosis staging and confounding factors, a review of the current literature.

Introduction: Alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) was estimated to have a prevalence of 2% among the USA population. Since severe fibrosis in compensated patients is the main predictor of long-term survival, it is of utmost importance to early detect patients with severe fibrosis before decompensation occurs. Liver elastography has been used to stage liver fibrosis.

Autochthonous circulation of Saint Louis encephalitis and West Nile viruses in the Province of La Rioja, Argentina.

St. Louis encephalitis (SLEV) and West Nile (WNV) arboviruses, which circulate in Argentina, are maintained in enzootic transmission cycles involving Culex mosquitoes (vectors) and birds belonging to orders Passeriformes and Columbiformes (amplifier hosts). The objective of this work was to determine the circulation of both viruses among wild birds in a semiarid ecosystem in the Province of La Rioja through a serologic survey.

Circulatory miRNA as a Biomarker for Therapy Response and Disease-Free Survival in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

The clinical outcome of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment remains unsatisfactory, contributing to the high mortality of HCC worldwide. Circulating miRNAs have the potential to be a predictor of therapy response. Microarray profiling was performed in serum samples of 20 HCC patients before treatment.

Gene expression response of the alga Fucus virsoides (Fucales, Ochrophyta) to glyphosate solution exposure.

Fucus virsoides is an ecologically important canopy-forming brown algae endemic to the Adriatic Sea. Once widespread in marine coastal areas, this species underwent a rapid population decline and is now confined to small residual areas. Although the reasons behind this progressive disappearance are still a matter of debate, F.

Alanine aminotransferase and spleno-portal dynamics affect spleen stiffness measured by point shear-wave elastography in patients with chronic hepatitis C in the absence of significant liver fibrosis.

Background: Spleen stiffness (SS) has gained a lot of interest in the context of liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension stratification. However, there is a paucity of data on confounding factors that may alter SS values.

Methods: Between January 2018 and October 2019, we enrolled 120 healthy subjects and 117 patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection who did not have significant liver fibrosis (i.

Evaluation of spleen stiffness in healthy volunteers using point shear wave elastography.

Introduction And Objectives: This study aims to measure the values of spleen stiffness (SS) in healthy subjects, the inter-operator agreement in SS measurement, and to detect statistically significant correlations between SS and age, sex, weight, BMI, portal vein dynamics and splenic dimensions.

Materials And Methods: The study included 100 healthy volunteers who had no substantial alcohol intake (<30g/daily for man, <20g/daily women), were negative on hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV blood serology, and had any history of lymphoproliferative disorders. Abdominal ultrasound, liver and spleen elastography were performed on each patient to search for focal splenic lesions, bile tract or portal vein dilatation, moderate/severe liver steatosis, and to measure liver and spleen stiffness.

Sema3F (Semaphorin 3F) Selectively Drives an Extraembryonic Proangiogenic Program.

Objective: Molecular pathways governing blood vessel patterning are vital to vertebrate development. Because of their ability to counteract proangiogenic factors, antiangiogenic secreted Sema3 (class 3 semaphorins) control embryonic vascular morphogenesis. However, if and how Sema3 may play a role in the control of extraembryonic vascular development is presently unknown.

Spread of Phlebotominae in temperate climates: province of Córdoba, Argentina.

We report the presence of the competent vector for Leishmania spp, Migonemyia migonei, and the Evandromyia cortelezzii-sallesi complex south of its known distribution in the central temperate region of Argentina, in the province of Córdoba. The persistence of this phlebotomine in the northern border of the province, its association with a case of cutaneous leishmaniasis, and the new record in the outskirts of the city of Córdoba, the second most populated in the country, strengthens the need for regular vector surveillance and a case detection-sensitive health system in vulnerable regions, even in temperate climates.

A Novel Factor H-Fc Chimeric Immunotherapeutic Molecule against Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the causative agent of the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea, has developed resistance to almost every conventional antibiotic. There is an urgent need to develop novel therapies against gonorrhea. Many pathogens, including N.

Novel Anti-TM4SF1 Antibody-Drug Conjugates with Activity against Tumor Cells and Tumor Vasculature.

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) represent a promising therapeutic modality for managing cancer. Here, we report a novel humanized ADC that targets the tetraspanin-like protein TM4SF1. TM4SF1 is highly expressed on the plasma membranes of many human cancer cells and also on the endothelial cells lining tumor blood vessels.

Detection of Orthobunyavirus in mosquitoes collected in Argentina.

Bunyamwera virus (BUNV) (Bunyaviridae, genus Orthobunyavirus, serogroup Bunyamwera) is considered an emerging pathogen for humans and animals in American countries. The CbaAr-426 strain of BUNV was recovered from mosquitoes Ochlerotatus albifasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae) collected in Córdoba province (Argentina), where serological studies detected high seroprevalences in humans and animals. Molecular detection of Orthobunyavirus was performed in mosquitoes collected in Córdoba province.

The functional repertoire of rabbit antibodies and antibody discovery via next-generation sequencing.

To gain insight into the functional antibody repertoire of rabbits, the VH and VL repertoires of bone marrow (BM) and spleen (SP) of a naïve New Zealand White rabbit (NZW; Oryctolagus cuniculus) and that of lymphocytes collected from a NZW rabbit immunized (IM) with a 16-mer peptide were deep-sequenced. Two closely related genes, IGHV1S40 (VH1a3) and IGHV1S45 (VH4), were found to dominate (~90%) the VH repertoire of BM and SP, whereas, IGHV1S69 (VH1a1) contributed significantly (~40%) to IM. BM and SP antibodies recombined predominantly with IGHJ4.