Comprehension of the adapted Urticaria Activity Score measure and patient guidance document: qualitative interviews with adults and adolescents with chronic spontaneous urticaria.

Objective: A key component of determining that a patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure is fit-for-purpose is to ensure that respondents understand its instructions and items. Any modification to a measure should be evaluated for relevance and understandability. The objective of the study was to assess comprehension of the adapted Urticaria Activity Score (UAS) questionnaire among adolescents aged populations with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) and the modification to UAS question 2 to include patient-friendly terminology "wheals (hives).

Perceptions of the impact of individual allergic rhinitis symptoms: A survey of ARIA clinical experts.

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a highly prevalent disease. We aimed to assess the symptoms that physicians who see patients with AR perceive as the most bothersome in their patients.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study based on an online questionnaire sent to all members of the Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) initiative.

A new human autologous hepatocyte/macrophage co-culture system that mimics drug-induced liver injury-like inflammation.

The development of in vitro hepatocyte cell culture systems is crucial for investigating drug-induced liver injury (DILI). One prerequisite for monitoring DILI related immunologic reactions is the extension of primary human hepatocyte (PHH) cultures towards the inclusion of macrophages. Therefore, we developed and characterized an autologous co-culture system of PHH and primary human hepatic macrophages (hepM) (CoC1).

Impact of drug-resistant tuberculosis on socio-economic status, quality of life and psychological well-being of patients in Bucharest, Romania: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a global health challenge, with 1.3 million deaths in 2022. Ten countries in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) accounted for 88.

Urban Greening and Pollen Allergy: Balancing Health and Environmental Sustainability.

Urban living requires a careful balance between human health and environmental sustainability when selecting urban vegetation. Public gardens and green roofs offer significant environmental benefits, including air filtration, exposure to health-associated microbiota, and mitigation of the urban heat island effect. However, prioritizing allergy-friendly species is crucial to prevent the exacerbation of pollen allergies.

Real-world Effectiveness of Lanadelumab in Hereditary Angioedema: Multi-country INTEGRATED Observational Study.

Background: Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a rare genetic disease characterized by recurrent episodes of cutaneous or subcutaneous edema. There is clinical need for treatments that reduce the rate of HAE attacks in patients.

Objectives: Primary objectives were to evaluate the effectiveness of lanadelumab on attack free rate (AFR; proportion of patients who had zero HAE attacks), and on every two weeks (Q2W) and every four weeks (Q4W) adjustments on AFR.

A core genome MLST scheme for Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato improves insights into the evolutionary history of the species complex.

Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) based on eight genes has become the method of choice for Borrelia typing and is extensively used for population studies. Whole-genome sequencing enables studies to scale up to genomic levels but necessitates extended schemes. We have developed a 639-loci core genome MLST (cgMLST) scheme for Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.

Evaluating the Impact of Laundry Detergents on the Skin Microbiome of Atopic Dermatitis Patients-A Clinical Study.

Background And Aims: Remnants of laundry detergent ingredients are suspected to be in constant contact with the skin. Allergy sufferers need assurance that the chemicals in everyday products do not cause such disruption. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects and tolerability of common laundry detergents on the skin microbiome in individuals with atopic dermatitis.

Identification and development of TRPM4 antagonists to counteract neuronal excitotoxicity.

Neurodegeneration in central nervous system disorders is linked to dysregulated neuronal calcium. Direct inhibition of glutamate-induced neuronal calcium influx, particularly via N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR), has led to adverse effects and clinical trial failures. A more feasible approach is to modulate NMDAR activity or calcium signaling indirectly.

Characterization of Freshly Isolated Human Peripheral Blood B Cells, Monocytes, CD4+ and CD8+ T Cells, and Skin Mast Cells by Quantitative Transcriptomics.

Quantitative transcriptomics offers a new way to obtain a detailed picture of freshly isolated cells. By direct isolation, the cells are unaffected by in vitro culture, and the isolation at cold temperatures maintains the cells relatively unaltered in phenotype by avoiding activation through receptor cross-linking or plastic adherence. Simultaneous analysis of several cell types provides the opportunity to obtain detailed pictures of transcriptomic differences between them.

TPC2: From Blond Hair to Melanoma?

Two-pore channel 2 (TPC2) is expressed in endolysosomes throughout the human body, as well as in melanosomes of melanocytes. Melanocytes produce pigment, i.e.

TAM receptors mediate the Fpr2-driven pain resolution and fibrinolysis after nerve injury.

Nerve injury causes neuropathic pain and multilevel nerve barrier disruption. Nerve barriers consist of perineurial, endothelial and myelin barriers. So far, it is unclear whether resealing nerve barriers fosters pain resolution and recovery.

Mortality in adult patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria: A real world cohort study.

Background: Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), a common and debilitating disease, is widely held not to be life-limiting, but the mortality of CSU has not been investigated.

Objective: To assess all-cause mortality in CSU patients, risk for comorbidities that are leading causes of death and impact of guideline-recommended urticaria treatments on mortality rates.

Methods: This is a retrospective population-based cohort study of electronic health records of 272,190 adult CSU patients and 12,728,913 non-urticaria controls from the US Collaborative TriNetx Analytics Network.

Empirical estimation of disutilities and decision thresholds for composite endpoints.

Objective: The evaluation of health benefits and harms of an intervention with GRADE Evidence to Decision (EtD) frameworks includes judgments if the effects are "trivial", "small", "moderate" or "large". Such judgments ideally require the a priori establishment of decision thresholds (DTs), whose empirical derivation for single outcomes has been previously described. In this article, we provide a methodological approach to estimate DTs for composite endpoints based on disutilities.

Occupational anaphylaxis: A Position Paper of the German Society of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (DGAKI).

Background: Anaphylaxis is a systemic allergic reaction that is potentially life-threatening. Occupational anaphylaxis is an anaphylaxis that occurs in an occupational context. In this position paper, we propose diagnostic criteria for occupational anaphylaxis and provide an overview of the current state of knowledge in terms of prevalence, triggers, prevention, and management.

Augmenting small biomedical datasets using generative AI methods based on self-organizing neural networks.

Small sample sizes in biomedical research often led to poor reproducibility and challenges in translating findings into clinical applications. This problem stems from limited study resources, rare diseases, ethical considerations in animal studies, costly expert diagnosis, and others. As a contribution to the problem, we propose a novel generative algorithm based on self-organizing maps (SOMs) to computationally increase sample sizes.

Revival of recombinant IL-2 therapy - approaches from the past until today.

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) was one of the first cytokines discovered and its central role in T cell function soon led to the notion that the cytokine could specifically activate immune cells to combat cancer cells. Recombinant human IL-2 (recIL-2) belonged to the first anti-cancer immunotherapeutics that received marketing authorization and while it mediated anti-tumor effects in some cancer entities, treatment was associated with severe and systemic side effects. RecIL-2 holds an exceptional therapeutic potential, which can either lead to stimulation of the immune system - favorable during cancer treatment - or immunosuppression - used for treatment of inflammatory diseases such as autoimmunity.

Using interactive platforms to encode, manage and explore immune-related adverse outcome pathways.

This work focuses on the need for modeling and predicting adverse outcomes in immunotoxicology to improve nonclinical assessments of the safety of immunomodulatory therapies. The integrated approach includes, first, the adverse outcome pathway concept established in the toxicology field, and, second, the systems medicine disease map approach for describing molecular mechanisms involved in a particular pathology. The proposed systems immunotoxicology workflow is illustrated with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell treatment as a use case.

A helminth enzyme subverts macrophage-mediated immunity by epigenetic targeting of prostaglandin synthesis.

The molecular mechanisms by which worm parasites evade host immunity are incompletely understood. In a mouse model of intestinal helminth infection using (), we show that helminthic glutamate dehydrogenase (heGDH) drives parasite chronicity by suppressing macrophage-mediated host defense. Combining RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, and targeted lipidomics, we identify prostaglandin E (PGE) as a major immune regulatory mechanism of heGDH.

Tattoo-induced immunologic reaction to red inks.

A 43-year-old male presented with pruritic nodular lesions in the red dye area of his leg tattoo, which developed 4 weeks after its application. Patch tests were performed using a standard series, and the inks used by the tattooist were tested semi-open. Tests identified a sensitization to 2 inks containing an azo-organic dye (Pigment Red 170), diketopyrrolopyrrole (Pigment Red 254), and copper phthalocyanine (Pigment Blue 15).

Distinct Clinical Profiles of IgE and IgG Autoantibodies to Thyroid Peroxidase in Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria.

Purpose: In chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), autoimmune thyroid disease is the most common autoimmune comorbidity, and many CSU patients have immunoglobulin (Ig)E or IgG autoantibodies to thyroid peroxidase (TPO). It remains unclear how anti-TPO IgE and IgG autoantibodies are linked to each other and are associated with CSU features, activity, and therapeutic responses.

Methods: CSU patients (n = 146, 92 females, mean age 42.

Toward target 2035: EUbOPEN - a public-private partnership to enable & unlock biology in the open.

Target 2035 is a global initiative that seeks to identify a pharmacological modulator of most human proteins by the year 2035. As part of an ongoing series of annual updates of this initiative, we summarise here the efforts of the EUbOPEN project whose objectives and results are making a strong contribution to the goals of Target 2035. EUbOPEN is a public-private partnership with four pillars of activity: (1) chemogenomic library collections, (2) chemical probe discovery and technology development for hit-to-lead chemistry, (3) profiling of bioactive compounds in patient-derived disease assays, and (4) collection, storage and dissemination of project-wide data and reagents.

Efficacy of esketamine nasal spray over quetiapine extended release over the short and long term: sensitivity analyses of ESCAPE-TRD, a randomised phase IIIb clinical trial.

Background: In patients with treatment resistant depression (TRD), the ESCAPE-TRD study showed esketamine nasal spray was superior to quetiapine extended release.

Aims: To determine the robustness of the ESCAPE-TRD results and confirm the superiority of esketamine nasal spray over quetiapine extended release.

Method: ESCAPE-TRD was a randomised, open-label, rater-blinded, active-controlled phase IIIb trial.

Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation improves emotional processing.

Background: Invasive vagus nerve stimulation (iVNS) is approved for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). The limited understanding of its underlying mechanisms, however, hinders stratification and the prediction of treatment response. Given the strong projections of the afferent vagal nucleus to brain regions involved in emotional processing, we tested whether acute transauricular VNS (taVNS) can improve emotional processing that is a core deficit in MDD.