Novel time-synchronized immune-guided partial tumor irradiation: Proof of principle trial.

Background And Purpose: Radiotherapy for bulky tumors often results in palliation with suboptimal outcomes. The prognosis is worsened by immunosuppression caused by radio-chemotherapy, negatively impacting on survival. Novel Partial Tumor Irradiation (PTI) was designed to spare the Peritumoral Immune Microenvironment (PIM) and to be delivered synchronously with immune activity peaks, thus enhancing both local and distant tumor control through immunostimulation.

Antibody-mediated enzyme formation: Its legacy at age fifty-four.

Antibody-mediated enzyme formation is a phenomenon first described in 1968 and further studied by molecular Immunologists and Biochemists over the following five decades. The present review is made mainly by analyzing the 27 articles concerned with AMEF that appeared over the course of 47 years, commenting 16 original figures selected to be re-printed in AMEF's Legacy. We, the reviewers, started by revisiting our own "insider's" experience of discovery, and followed by considering all results, our own and of members of other AMEF Labs.

Immunogenicity and Safety of COVID-19 Vaccine BNT162b2 for Patients with Solid Cancer: A Large Cohort Prospective Study from a Single Institution.

Purpose: We assessed the immunogenicity and safety of the BNT162b2 vaccine in a large cohort of patients with cancer (CP).

Experimental Design: From March 1, 2021 to March 20, 2021, this prospective cohort study included 816 CP afferent to our institution and eligible for the vaccination. A cohort of 274 health care workers (HCW) was used as age- and sex-matched control group.

Mono-institutional phase 2 study of innovative Stereotactic Body RadioTherapy targeting PArtial Tumor HYpoxic (SBRT-PATHY) clonogenic cells in unresectable bulky non-small cell lung cancer: profound non-targeted effects by sparing peri-tumoral immune microenvironment.

Background: Radiotherapy-induced lymphopenia may be limiting the success of therapy and could also negatively affect the ability of immune system in mediating the bystander (BE) and abscopal effects (AE). A novel SBRT-based PArtial Tumor irradiation of HYpoxic clonogenic cells (SBRT-PATHY) for induction of the tumoricidal BE and AE by sparing the peritumoral immune microenvironment and regional circulating lymphocytes has been developed to enhance the radiotherapy therapeutic ratio of advanced lung cancer. The aim of this retrospective review of prospectively collected mono-institutional phase 2 study was to compare the outcomes between unconventional SBRT-PATHY and standard of care in unresectable stage IIIB/IV bulky NSCLC.

The physics of open systems for the simulation of complex molecular environments in soft matter.

Molecular dynamics (MD) has become one of the most powerful tools of investigation in soft matter. Despite such success, simulations of large molecular environments are mostly run using the approximation of closed systems without the possibility of exchange of matter. Due to the molecular complexity of soft matter systems, an optimal simulation strategy would require the application of concurrent multiscale resolution approaches such that each part of a large system can be considered as an open subsystem at a high resolution embedded in a large coarser reservoir of energy and particles.

Estimating the risk of Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika outbreaks in a large European city.

Outbreaks of arbovirus infections vectored by invasive Aedes albopictus have already occurred and are predicted to become increasingly frequent in Southern Europe. We present a probabilistic model to assess risk of arbovirus outbreaks based on incident cases worldwide, on the probability of arrival of infected travelers, and on the abundance of the vector species. Our results show a significant risk of Chikungunya outbreak in Rome from mid June to October in simulations with high human biting rates (i.

The Challenges of Nutritional Assessment in Cirrhosis.

Purpose Of Review: Nutritional status in patients with cirrhosis is very frequently associated with macro- and micronutrient deficiencies. Cirrhosis itself is the cause of malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies but these conditions have to be identified and addressed properly as they can worsen the prognosis of cirrhosis. The goals of this review are to 1) identify and describe the challenges associated with nutritional assessment in cirrhosis and 2) describe recent advancements when using clinical, laboratory, and instrumental tools in the evaluation of malnourished patients with liver diseases.

Nanostructured luminescently labeled nucleic acids.

Important and emerging trends at the interface of luminescence, nucleic acids and nanotechnology are: (i) the conventional luminescence labeling of nucleic acid nanostructures (e.g. DNA tetrahedron); (ii) the labeling of bulk nucleic acids (e.

Bacillomycin D and its combination with amphotericin B: promising antifungal compounds with powerful antibiofilm activity and wound-healing potency.

Aims: In this study, we evaluated the ability of the lipopeptide bacillomycin D and the antifungal drug amphotericin B as well as their combination, to inhibit Candida albicans biofilm formation and to accelerate keratinocyte cell migration.

Methods And Results: The antibiofilm activity of bacillomycin D and its combination with amphotericin B was carried out by crystal violet colorimetric method. Our results have shown that, when combined together at low concentrations nontoxic to mammalian cells, corresponding to 1/32 MIC (0·39 μg ml(-1) ) and 1/4 MIC (0·06 μg ml(-1) ) for bacillomycin D and amphotericin B, respectively, a clear antibiofilm activity is manifested (95% inhibition of biofilm formation) along with a clear inhibition of germ tube formation.

Standard dose and prolonged administration of azacitidine are associated with improved efficacy in a real-world group of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome or low blast count acute myeloid leukemia.

Objective: Azacitidine is the standard of care for higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). We evaluated factors affecting the outcome of azacitidine treatment in 196 'real-world' patients, retrospectively collected by two Italian cooperative groups.

Methods: The study included 184 MDS and 12 low blast count acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

The future of laboratory medicine - a 2014 perspective.

Predicting the future is a difficult task. Not surprisingly, there are many examples and assumptions that have proved to be wrong. This review surveys the many predictions, beginning in 1887, about the future of laboratory medicine and its sub-specialties such as clinical chemistry and molecular pathology.

Genomics into Healthcare: the 5th Pan Arab Human Genetics Conference and 2013 Golden Helix Symposium.

The joint 5th Pan Arab Human Genetics conference and 2013 Golden Helix Symposium, "Genomics into Healthcare" was coorganized by the Center for Arab Genomic Studies (http://www.cags.org.

[Waardenburg Syndrome: a review of literature and case reports].

Waadernburg syndrome (WS) is an autosomal dominant disease clinically and genetically heterogeneous. It is characterized by non-progressive sensorineuronal hearing loss of variable degree and anomalous pigmentation (of the eyes, skin and stria vascularis of cochlear duct) caused by melanocytes absence. The syndrome is caused by mutations in genes that regulate the melanocytes differentiation from the neural crest during embriogenetic development.

Dipyridamole versus verapamil for treatment of no-reflow during primary angioplasty.

Background: No previous study has assessed the possible role of dipyridamole for treatment of no-reflow during acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Methods And Results: Forty-six consecutive patients (age 64 ± 13 years, 37 men) with no reflow during primary percutaneous coronary intervention were randomized to initial treatment with either dipyridamole (0.56 mg/kg i.

[Quality of life assessment in patients on hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis].

Assessment of the quality of life (QoL) of patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing replacement therapy is very important. The aim of our study was to assess the QoL of patients on hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD). To determine the state of health of the patients as well as psychological aspects we used two international questionnaires: the Health-Related Short Form (SF-36) and the Psychological General Well-being Index (PGWBI).

Comparative analysis of different approaches for dealing with candidate regions in the context of a genome-wide association study.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) test hundreds of thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for association to a trait, treating each marker equally and ignoring prior evidence of association to specific regions. Typically, promising regions are selected for further investigation based on p-values obtained from simple tests of association. However, loci that exert only a weak, low-penetrant role on the trait, producing modest evidence of association, are not detectable in the context of a GWAS.

Collective thermal diffusion of silica colloids studied by nonlinear optics.

We investigate the collective thermal diffusion of silica charged spheres in Sulpho-Rhodamine B/water solution at different concentrations by measuring time-dependent thermal and Soret lensings. We show a significant concentration-dependence of the thermal diffusion coefficient D(T), not previously reported. Moreover, the results clearly show that both mass diffusion and Soret coefficient are collective quantities being strongly dependent on the particles' packing fraction.

Assembly kinetics in binary mixtures of strongly attractive colloids.

The early stages of aggregation kinetics in a binary mixture of asymmetric colloids, aggregating irreversibly via biotin-streptavidin bonds, are experimentally and numerically studied. Experiments are performed by DLS methods, and data are analyzed in terms of a Smoluchowski-like coagulation equation. Focus is on the case of small (S) biotin-covered particles interacting with large (L) streptavidin-covered ones.

Theoretical characterization of temperature and density dependence of liquid water electronic excitation energy: comparison with recent experimental data.

In a recent paper [Aschi et al., ChemPhysChem 6, 53 (2005)], we characterized, by means of theoretical-computational procedures, the electronic excitation of water along the typical liquid state isochore (55.32 mol/l) for a large range of temperature.

[The renal pathology in light chain deposition disease].

Light Chain Deposition Disease (LCDD) is a relatively frequent renal disease associated with dysproteinemia. Although the light chain deposits can be widespread, the kidney is the most frequently involved organ, and renal involvement can dominate the clinical condition. The morphological features of LCDD can be recognized by light microscopy; however, the diagnosis can be made certain only by immunofluorescence microscopy, using antisera to kappa and lambda chains, and by electron microscopy.

Phenotypic and functional characterization of lymphocytes in autoimmune thyroiditis and in papillary carcinoma.

Background: Infiltrates of lymphocytes are found in both autoimmune thyroid disease and papillary cancer and are responsible for thyroid destruction in autoimmune disease. Their role in neoplastic transformation is not yet clear.

Materials And Methods: Phenotypic studies and the capacity to undergo apoptosis were assessed on peripheral and gland infiltrating lymphocytes from patients with autoimmune thyroiditis and papillary carcinoma.

Negative prognostic value of glutathione S-transferase (GSTM1 and GSTT1) deletions in adult acute myeloid leukemia.

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are enzymes involved in the detoxification of several environmental mutagens, carcinogens, and anticancer drugs. GST polymorphisms resulting in decreased enzymatic activity have been associated with several types of solid tumors. We determined the prognostic significance of the deletion of 2 GST subfamilies genes, M1 and T1, in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).