Characterization of Gut Microbiome in Liver Transplant Recipients With Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis.

Unlabelled: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its progressive form nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are a growing problem globally and recur even after liver transplant (LT). We aim to characterize the gut dysbiosis in patients who developed recurrent NAFLD compared with patients without recurrence following LT.

Methods: Twenty-one patients who received LT for NASH and had a protocol liver biopsy performed beyond 1-y post-LT were included prospectively (January 2018-December 2018).

Neurotoxicities associated with checkpoint inhibitors: Two case reports and a review of the literature.

We report a case of nivolumab-induced delayed-onset aseptic meningitis and a case of limbic encephalitis and peripheral nerve palsy with toxicity relapse 6 months after initial presentation. The atypical presentations contribute to our knowledge of these rare events and reinforce the necessity for vigilant monitoring and a multidisciplinary treatment approach.

Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics modeling of lonafarnib in patients with chronic hepatitis delta virus infection.

The prenylation inhibitor lonafarnib (LNF) is a potent antiviral agent providing a breakthrough for the treatment of hepatitis delta virus (HDV). The current study used a maximum likelihood approach to model LNF pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) parameters and predict the dose needed to achieve 99% efficacy using data from 12 patients chronically infected with HDV and treated with LNF 100 mg twice daily (bid) (group 1) or 200 mg bid (group 2) for 28 days. The LNF-PK model predicted average steady-state LNF concentrations of 860 ng/mL and 1,734 ng/mL in groups 1 and 2, respectively, with an LNF absorption rate k = 0.

High-throughput automated scoring of Ki67 in breast cancer tissue microarrays from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium.

Automated methods are needed to facilitate high-throughput and reproducible scoring of Ki67 and other markers in breast cancer tissue microarrays (TMAs) in large-scale studies. To address this need, we developed an automated protocol for Ki67 scoring and evaluated its performance in studies from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. We utilized 166 TMAs containing 16,953 tumour cores representing 9,059 breast cancer cases, from 13 studies, with information on other clinical and pathological characteristics.

[Gastrointestinal stromal tumor].

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor, i.e., GIST is by far the most common mesenchymal tumor of the gastrointestinal tract.

Presence of Human Herpesvirus 8 Is Specific to Kaposi's Sarcoma Lesion.

Background: Human herpesvirus 8(HHV8) has previously been shown to be associated with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) skin lesions in HIV-positive and negative patients. This study was designed to test, on a microscopic level, using the microdissection technique in frozen and formalin-fixed tissue, whether HHV8 DNA is specific to the KS lesion. Methods and Results: Thirty-seven evaluable KS lesions were microdissected and DNA extracted, and HHV8-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed.

Oncogene induction of metastases.

A metastatic colony is the end result of a complex series of steps involving multiple gene products. In some cases, the augmented metastatic potential of certain tumour cells may be due to the increased expression of specific gene products which confer a selective advantage. Transfection of the c-Ha-ras oncogene into suitable recipient cells constitutes a powerful experimental model with which to identify putative gene products augmented in highly metastatic tumour cells compared to their non-metastatic counterparts.