Exploring Definitions and Predictors of Response to Biologics for Severe Asthma.

Background: Biologic effectiveness is often assessed as response, a term that eludes consistent definition. Identifying those most likely to respond in real-life has proven challenging.

Objective: To explore definitions of biologic responders in adults with severe asthma and investigate patient characteristics associated with biologic response.

Circulating tumour cells for early detection of clinically relevant cancer.

Given that cancer mortality is usually a result of late diagnosis, efforts in the field of early detection are paramount to reducing cancer-related deaths and improving patient outcomes. Increasing evidence indicates that metastasis is an early event in patients with aggressive cancers, often occurring even before primary lesions are clinically detectable. Metastases are usually formed from cancer cells that spread to distant non-malignant tissues via the blood circulation, termed circulating tumour cells (CTCs).

Neuropilin-1 interacts with VE-cadherin and TGFBR2 to stabilize adherens junctions and prevent activation of endothelium under flow.

Linear and disturbed flow differentially regulate gene expression, with disturbed flow priming endothelial cells (ECs) for a proinflammatory, atheroprone expression profile and phenotype. Here, we investigated the role of the transmembrane protein neuropilin-1 (NRP1) in ECs exposed to flow using cultured ECs, mice with an endothelium-specific knockout of NRP1, and a mouse model of atherosclerosis. We demonstrated that NRP1 was a constituent of adherens junctions that interacted with VE-cadherin and promoted its association with p120 catenin, stabilizing adherens junctions and inducing cytoskeletal remodeling in alignment with the direction of flow.

Subjective Quality of Life of Women in the Perinatal Period: A Post Covid-19 Pandemic Exploration in North Macedonia.

Subjective quality of life could be considered one of the indicators of health behavior and wellbeing of women in the perinatal period. Accordingly, the aim of this paper was to examine how women in perinatal period perceive quality of life in various domains. Its relationship to age, number of pregnancies, course of pregnancies, and method of delivery and experience with Covid-19 pandemic was investigated, as well.

CD200 cytotoxic T lymphocytes in the tumor microenvironment are crucial for efficacious anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy.

Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy, either by anti-PD-1 antibody or anti-PD-L1 antibody, has efficacy by reinvigorating tumor-infiltrating CD8 T cells in a subset of patients with cancer, but it has unequal effects on heterogeneous CD8 T cell populations. Hence, the subset crucial to efficacious PD-1 blockade therapy remains elusive. Here, we found an increase in tumor-infiltrating CD200 cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) upon PD-1/PD-L1 blockade, with higher proportions of CD200 T cells positively related to a favorable clinical outcome to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy in three independent cohorts of patients with cancer.

Dental students and COVID 19: An online multinational survey on perception and knowledge.

Background: Coronavirus is an emerging respiratory pathogen that causes coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), as per the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the state of awareness and extent of knowledge about COVID-19 among dental students from India, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.

Materials And Methods: The present descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 872 participants from December 2020 to January 2021.

App based education programme to reduce salt intake (AppSalt) in schoolchildren and their families in China: parallel, cluster randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To determine whether a smartphone application based education programme can lower salt intake in schoolchildren and their families.

Design: Parallel, cluster randomised controlled trial, with schools randomly assigned to either intervention or control group (1:1).

Setting: 54 primary schools from three provinces in northern, central, and southern China, from 15 September 2018 to 27 December 2019.

Psychopathology in psychotic disorders: Congruency between self-reported and observer-rated measures highest for affective symptoms and lowest for negative symptoms.

Considering that both observer ratings and patient self-reports on severity of psychopathological symptoms are being used in research and clinical settings, this paper aims to explore the degree of congruence between these two sources. Eighty-two adult outpatients diagnosed with psychotic disorders rated their symptoms using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Observers assessed patients' functioning using the Brief Psychiatry Rating Scale (BPRS).

Factor structure and internal consistency of the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS) on a sample of persons with psychotic disorders in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The assessment of negative symptoms is crucial for development of adequate therapeutic interventions. This is a challenging task due to complex clinical presentation and lack of reliable and valid instruments. This study examined the psychometric characteristics of the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS).

RET signalling provides tumorigenic mechanism and tissue specificity for AIP-related somatotrophinomas.

It is unclear how loss-of-function germline mutations in the widely-expressed co-chaperone AIP, result in young-onset growth hormone secreting pituitary tumours. The RET receptor, uniquely co-expressed in somatotrophs with PIT1, induces apoptosis when unliganded, while RET supports cell survival when it is bound to its ligand. We demonstrate that at the plasma membrane, AIP is required to form a complex with monomeric-intracellular-RET, caspase-3 and PKCδ resulting in PIT1/CDKN2A-ARF/p53-apoptosis pathway activation.

United European Gastroenterology (UEG) and European Society for Neurogastroenterology and Motility (ESNM) consensus on functional dyspepsia.

Background: Functional dyspepsia (FD) is one of the most common conditions in clinical practice. In spite of its prevalence, FD is associated with major uncertainties in terms of its definition, underlying pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.

Methods: A Delphi consensus was initiated with 41 experts from 22 European countries who conducted a literature summary and voting process on 87 statements.

An extra virgin olive oil-enriched chocolate spread positively modulates insulin-resistance markers compared with a palm oil-enriched one in healthy young adults: A double-blind, cross-over, randomised controlled trial.

Aims: To investigate if extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) or palm oil enriched chocolate spreads consumption leads to different results in terms of plasma ceramides concentration, glucose and lipid metabolism, inflammatory markers and appetite regulation in young healthy subjects.

Methods: In a 2-week, double-blind, cross-over, randomised controlled trial, 20 healthy, normal-weight subjects with a mean age of 24.2 years (SD: 1.

Anti-drug antibodies to antibody-based therapeutics in multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis is the major demyelinating autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Relapsing MS can be treated by a number of approved monoclonal antibodies that currently target: CD20, CD25 (withdrawn), CD49d and CD52. These all target potentially pathogenic memory B cell subsets and perhaps functionally inhibit pathogenic T cell function.

Effect of Photodynamic therapy and Er,Cr: YSGG laser on bond strength of bleached enamel to composite resin.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was bleached enamel reversal using conventional ascorbic acid (AA) and contemporary methods including Photodynamic therapy (PDT), Er, Cr: YSGG (ECL) on bond integrity to composite resin.

Material And Method: Forty sound permanent mandibular premolars were collected from a dental clinical setting and disinfected. All forty samples were mounted vertically in a rubber mold exposing only the clinical crown.

United European Gastroenterology (UEG) and European Society for Neurogastroenterology and Motility (ESNM) consensus on functional dyspepsia.

Background: Functional dyspepsia (FD) is one of the most common conditions in clinical practice. In spite of its prevalence, FD is associated with major uncertainties in terms of its definition, underlying pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.

Methods: A Delphi consensus was initiated with 41 experts from 22 European countries who conducted a literature summary and voting process on 87 statements.

Human Endogenous Retrovirus Type W Envelope from Multiple Sclerosis Demyelinating Lesions Shows Unique Solubility and Antigenic Characteristics.

In multiple sclerosis (MS), human endogenous retrovirus W family (HERV-W) envelope protein, pHERV-W ENV, limits remyelination and induces microglia-mediated neurodegeneration. To better understand its role, we examined the soluble pHERV-W antigen from MS brain lesions detected by specific antibodies. Physico-chemical and antigenic characteristics confirmed differences between pHERV-W ENV and syncytin-1.

Elastase treatment of tendon specifically impacts the mechanical properties of the interfascicular matrix.

The tendon interfascicular matrix (IFM) binds tendon fascicles together. As a result of its low stiffness behaviour under small loads, it enables non-uniform loading and increased overall extensibility of tendon by facilitating fascicle sliding. This function is particularly important in energy storing tendons, with previous studies demonstrating enhanced extensibility, recovery and fatigue resistance in the IFM of energy storing compared to positional tendons.

The utility of assessing C-peptide in patients with insulin-treated type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study.

Aims: We aimed at evaluating residual β-cell function in insulin-treated patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) while determining for the first time the difference in C-peptide level between patients on basal-bolus compared to those on the basal insulin scheme, considered as an early stage of insulin treatment, together with assessing its correlation with the presence of complications.

Methods: A total of 93 candidates with T2D were enrolled in this cross-sectional study and were categorized into two groups based on the insulin regimen: Basal-Bolus (BB) if on both basal and rapid acting insulin, and Basal (B) if on basal insulin only, without rapid acting injections. HbA1c, fasting C-peptide concentration and other metabolic parameters were recorded, as well as the patient medical history.

Pharmacological Management of Postmenopausal Osteoporosis: a Level I Evidence Based - Expert Opinion.

: Postmenopausal osteoporosis carries a high risk of fractures, which decrease quality of life and are associated with high morbidity, mortality, and economic burden. The best pharmacological treatment options to manage and prevent osteoporotic fractures remain still unclear. The present study investigated the efficacy and safety of the most commonly employed drugs in the management of postmenopausal osteoporosis.