Abatacept in IgG4-related disease: a prospective, open-label, single-arm, single-centre, proof-of-concept study.

Background: There is strong rationale for interference with T cell co-stimulation in IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD), but the literature to evaluate this is limited to a single case report.

Methods: We conducted a ten-subject proof-of-concept trial of abatacept in active IgG4-RD. All subjects met the ACR/EULAR Classification Criteria for IgG4-RD.

Cortical plasticity in phantom limb pain: A fMRI study on the neural correlates of behavioral clinical manifestations.

The neural mechanism of phantom limb pain (PLP) is related to the intense brain reorganization process implicating plasticity after deafferentation mostly in sensorimotor system. There is a limited understanding of the association between the sensorimotor system and PLP. We used a novel task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) approach to (1) assess neural activation within a-priori selected regions-of-interested (motor cortex [M1], somatosensory cortex [S1], and visual cortex [V1]), (2) quantify the cortical representation shift in the affected M1, and (3) correlate these changes with baseline clinical characteristics.

The multiple-demand system but not the language system supports fluid intelligence.

A set of frontoparietal brain regions - the multiple-demand (MD) system [1, 2] - has been linked to fluid intelligence in brain imaging [3, 4] and in studies of patients with brain damage [5-7].For example, the amount of damage to frontal or parietal, but not temporal, cortices predicts fluid intelligence deficit [5]. However, frontal and parietal lobes are structurally [8] and functionally [9, 10] heterogeneous.

Tunable nanostructured coating for the capture and selective release of viable circulating tumor cells.

A layer-by-layer gelatin nanocoating is presented for use as a tunable, dual response biomaterial for the capture and release of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from cancer patient blood. The entire nanocoating can be dissolved from the surface of microfluidic devices through biologically compatible temperature shifts. Alternatively, individual CTCs can be released through locally applied mechanical stress.

Systemic chemotherapy decreases brain glucose metabolism.

Objective: Cancer patients may experience neurologic adverse effects, such as alterations in neurocognitive function, as a consequence of chemotherapy. The mechanisms underlying such neurotoxic syndromes remain poorly understood. We here describe the temporal and regional effects of systemically administered platinum-based chemotherapy on glucose metabolism in the brain of cancer patients.

PET radiopharmaceuticals for probing enzymes in the brain.

Biologically important processes in normal brain function and brain disease involve the action of various protein-based receptors, ion channels, transporters and enzymes. The ability to interrogate the location, abundance and activity of these entities in vivo using non-invasive molecular imaging can provide unprecedented information about the spatio-temporal dynamics of brain function. Indeed, positron emission tomography (PET) imaging is transforming our understanding of the central nervous system and brain disease.