Ongoing and future COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials: challenges and opportunities.

Large-scale deployment of COVID-19 vaccines will seriously affect the ongoing phases 2 and 3 randomised placebo-controlled trials assessing SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates. The effect will be particularly acute in high-income countries where the entire adult or older population could be vaccinated by late 2021. Regrettably, only a small proportion of the population in many low-income and middle-income countries will have access to available vaccines.

Thoughtful selection and use of scientific terms in clinical research: the case of 'pragmatic' trials.

Clinical research is a discipline prone to the use of technical terms that may be particularly at risk for misunderstanding given the complex interpretation that is required. In this century, what is happening with the word 'pragmatic' when describing a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with medicines deserves a public reflection. Explanatory trials are conducted in ideal conditions to assess the comparative efficacy of interventions and are useful to explain whether interventions work.

Apparent but unconfirmed digenism in an Iranian consanguineous family with syndromic Retinal Disease.

Background: Bardet-Biedl syndrome is an autosomal recessive disease characterized by rod-cone dystrophy, postaxial polydactyly, kidney defects, obesity, mental retardation and hypogonadism. Here, we report different genotypes in two Bardet-Biedl syndrome affected sisters with a different clinical phenotype regarding severity.

Materials And Methods: The proband of the family was examined by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) using clinical exome and filtering by syndromic and non-syndromic genes associated with retinal dystrophies.

Urinary Cyclophilin A as Marker of Tubular Cell Death and Kidney Injury.

Despite the term acute kidney injury (AKI), clinical biomarkers for AKI reflect function rather than injury and independent markers of injury are needed. Tubular cell death, including necroptotic cell death, is a key feature of AKI. Cyclophilin A (CypA) is an intracellular protein that has been reported to be released during necroptosis.

Investigation on the Role of PALB2 Gene in CDH1-Negative Patients With Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer.

Introduction: Not all patients with hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) are found to carry germline pathogenic variants in the associated gene CDH1, which translates into a challenging clinical management and poor cancer prevention. Thus, several studies have searched for other candidate genes, among which stands PALB2. Our work explores the implication of this known cancer gene in HDGC.

TWEAK-Fn14 as a common pathway in the heart and the kidneys in cardiorenal syndrome.

There is a complex relationship between cardiac and renal disease, often referred to as the cardiorenal syndrome. Heart failure adversely affects kidney function, and both acute and chronic kidney disease are associated with structural and functional changes to the myocardium. The pathological mechanisms and contributing interactions that surround this relationship remain poorly understood, limiting the opportunities for therapeutic intervention.

The Match between Molecular Subtypes, Histology and Microenvironment of Pancreatic Cancer and Its Relevance for Chemoresistance.

In the last decade, several studies based on whole transcriptomic and genomic analyses of pancreatic tumors and their stroma have come to light to supplement histopathological stratification of pancreatic cancers with a molecular point-of-view. Three main molecular studies: Collisson et al. 2011, Moffitt et al.

Intraperitoneal collagenase as a novel therapeutic approach in an experimental model of colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis.

The usefulness of local collagenase in therapeutic approaches to solid tumors has been tested recently. In this study, we evaluate the safety and efficacy of intraperitoneal collagenase associated or not to mitomycin for treatment of colorectal peritoneal metastases in an experimental rat model. Using a fixed-dose procedure, we found that a dose of collagenase of 37 IU/mL administered for 15 min with a hyperthermia pump at 37.

Liquid biopsy in peritoneal fluid and plasma as a prognostic factor in advanced colorectal and appendiceal tumors after complete cytoreduction and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy.

Background: Positive cytology has been identified as an independent negative prognostic factor in patients with peritoneal metastases (PM) of colorectal origin. Liquid biopsy in plasma may detect increasing levels of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and could help predict systemic relapse in patients with colorectal cancer, but little is known about the role of liquid biopsy in peritoneal fluid. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of peritoneal fluid and plasma liquid biopsy in patients undergoing complete cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CC-HIPEC).

Exofucosylation of Adipose Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Alters Their Secretome Profile.

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) constitute the cell type more frequently used in many regenerative medicine approaches due to their exclusive immunomodulatory properties, and they have been reported to mediate profound immunomodulatory effects . Nevertheless, MSCs do not express essential adhesion molecules actively involved in cell migration, a phenotypic feature that hampers their ability to home inflamed tissues following intravenous administration. In this study, we investigated whether modification by fucosylation of murine AdMSCs (mAdMSCs) creates Hematopoietic Cell E-/L-selectin Ligand, the E-selectin-binding CD44 glycoform.

Cigarette Smoke Directly Promotes Pulmonary Arterial Remodeling and Kv7.4 Channel Dysfunction.

Cigarette smoke is considered the chief leading cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Its impact on the progressive deterioration of airways has been extensively studied, but its direct effects on the pulmonary vasculature are less known. To prove that pulmonary arterial remodeling in patients with COPD is not just a consequence of alveolar hypoxia but also due to the direct effects of cigarette smoke on the pulmonary vascular bed.

Ellagic Acid as a Tool to Limit the Diabetes Burden: Updated Evidence.

Oxidative stress contributes not only to the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes (T2D) but also to diabetic vascular complications. It follows that antioxidants might contribute to limiting the diabetes burden. In this review we focus on ellagic acid (EA), a compound that can be obtained upon intestinal hydrolysis of dietary ellagitannins, a family of polyphenols naturally found in several fruits and seeds.