Guidelines on the use of extracorporeal photopheresis Knobler, R.; Berlin, G.; Calzavara-Pinton, P. ...
JEADV. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology/Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology,
January 2014, Letnik:
28, Številka:
s1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Background
After the first investigational study on the use of extracorporeal photopheresis for the treatment of cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma was published in 1983 with its subsequent recognition by the ...FDA for its refractory forms, the technology has shown significant promise in the treatment of other severe and refractory conditions in a multi‐disciplinary setting. Among the major studied conditions are graft versus host disease after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, systemic sclerosis, solid organ transplant rejection and inflammatory bowel disease.
Materials and methods
In order to provide recognized expert practical guidelines for the use of this technology for all indications the European Dermatology Forum (EDF) proceeded to address these questions in the hands of the recognized experts within and outside the field of dermatology. This was done using the recognized and approved guidelines of EDF for this task.
Results and conclusion
These guidelines provide at present the most comprehensive available expert recommendations for the use of extracorporeal photopheresis based on the available published literature and expert consensus opinion.
Considerable uncertainty exists about the defining brain changes associated with bipolar disorder (BD). Understanding and quantifying the sources of uncertainty can help generate novel clinical ...hypotheses about etiology and assist in the development of biomarkers for indexing disease progression and prognosis. Here we were interested in quantifying case-control differences in intracranial volume (ICV) and each of eight subcortical brain measures: nucleus accumbens, amygdala, caudate, hippocampus, globus pallidus, putamen, thalamus, lateral ventricles. In a large study of 1710 BD patients and 2594 healthy controls, we found consistent volumetric reductions in BD patients for mean hippocampus (Cohen's d=-0.232; P=3.50 × 10
) and thalamus (d=-0.148; P=4.27 × 10
) and enlarged lateral ventricles (d=-0.260; P=3.93 × 10
) in patients. No significant effect of age at illness onset was detected. Stratifying patients based on clinical subtype (BD type I or type II) revealed that BDI patients had significantly larger lateral ventricles and smaller hippocampus and amygdala than controls. However, when comparing BDI and BDII patients directly, we did not detect any significant differences in brain volume. This likely represents similar etiology between BD subtype classifications. Exploratory analyses revealed significantly larger thalamic volumes in patients taking lithium compared with patients not taking lithium. We detected no significant differences between BDII patients and controls in the largest such comparison to date. Findings in this study should be interpreted with caution and with careful consideration of the limitations inherent to meta-analyzed neuroimaging comparisons.
Because of their toxic properties, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are designated as priority pollutants. The low solubility and strong sorption of PAHs in soil often limits bioremediation. ...To increase PAH bioavailability and enhance microbial degradation, surfactants are often added to contaminated soils. However, the effects of surfactants on the PAH degradation capacities of soil microbes are generally neglected. In this study, 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing was used to evaluate changes in the soil microbial community after the application of rhamnolipid biosurfactant or Brij-35 surfactant and Mycobacterium vanbaalenii PYR-1 bioaugmentation over a 50-d mineralization study in two soils contaminated with pyrene at 10 mg kg−1. The introduction of pyrene in both soils resulted in an increase in Firmicutes and a decrease in microbial richness and Shannon diversity index. Amendment of rhamnolipid at 1,400 μg g−1 to the native clay soil resulted in a decrease in Bacillus from 48% to 2%, which was accompanied with an increase in Mycoplana that accounted for 67% of the total genera relative abundance. Phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states was used to predict the activity of functional genes involved in the PAH degradation KEGG pathway and determined that M. vanbaalenii PYR-1 bioaugmentation resulted in an increased number of functional genes utilized in PAH biodegradation. Results of this study provide a better understanding of the soil microbial dynamics in response to surfactant amendments in addition to bioaugmentation of a PAH-degrading microbe. This knowledge contributes to successful and efficient surfactant-enhanced bioremediation of PAH-contaminated soils.
•Pyrene addition in both untreated soils increased Firmicutes relative abundance.•Bacillus, a known PAH-degrading soil microbe, accounted for the majority of Firmicutes.•Mycoplana preferentially utilized rhamnolipid as carbon source instead of pyrene.
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We know a great deal about the genes used by the model pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium to cause disease, but less about global gene regulation. New tools for studying transcripts at ...the single nucleotide level now offer an unparalleled opportunity to understand the bacterial transcriptome, and expression of the small RNAs (sRNA) and coding genes responsible for the establishment of infection. Here, we define the transcriptomes of 18 mutants lacking virulence-related global regulatory systems that modulate the expression of the SPI1 and SPI2 Type 3 secretion systems of S. Typhimurium strain 4/74. Using infection-relevant growth conditions, we identified a total of 1257 coding genes that are controlled by one or more regulatory system, including a sub-class of genes that reflect a new level of cross-talk between SPI1 and SPI2. We directly compared the roles played by the major transcriptional regulators in the expression of sRNAs, and discovered that the RpoS (σ38) sigma factor modulates the expression of 23% of sRNAs, many more than other regulatory systems. The impact of the RNA chaperone Hfq upon the steady state levels of 280 sRNA transcripts is described, and we found 13 sRNAs that are co-regulated with SPI1 and SPI2 virulence genes. We report the first example of an sRNA, STnc1480, that is subject to silencing by H-NS and subsequent counter-silencing by PhoP and SlyA. The data for these 18 regulatory systems is now available to the bacterial research community in a user-friendly online resource, SalComRegulon.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Serious contamination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) occurs at outdoor shooting ranges due to the accumulation of clay target fragments containing coal tar or petroleum pitch. These ...contaminated sites are characterized with high-molecular-weight PAHs that are low in bioavailability and recalcitrant to bioremediation. We evaluated the effectiveness of different remediation strategies, used individually or in combinations, to decontaminate PAHs in a shooting range soil. The treatments included vegetation with bermudagrass Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers or switchgrass Panicum virgatum), bioaugmentation of Mycobacterium vanbaalenii PYR-1, and addition of surfactants (Brij-35, rhamnolipid biosurfactant, or Brij-35/sodium dodecyl sulfate mixture). The initial total PAH concentration in the shooting range soil was 373 mg/kg and consisted of primarily high-molecular-weight PAHs (84%). Planting of bermudagrass and switchgrass resulted in 36% and 27% ∑16PAH reduction compared to the non-vegetated control, respectively. Bermudagrass enhanced soil dehydrogenase activity and both vegetation treatments also increased polyphenol oxidase activity. Bioaugmentation of M. vanbaalenii PYR-1 had a significant effect only on the dissipation of high-molecular-weight PAHs, leading to a 15% decrease (∑10PAH) compared to the control. In the non-vegetated soil, Brij-35/sodium dodecyl sulfate mixture increased PAH degradation compared to the no surfactant control. The increased PAH biodegradation in the vegetated and bioaugmented treatments improved lettuce Lactuca sativa seed germination, suggesting reduced toxicity in the treated soils. Phytoremediation using bermudagrass or switchgrass with bioaugmentation of M. vanbaalenii PYR-1 was an effective in situ remediation option for shooting range soils with heavy PAH contamination.
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•Bermudagrass and switchgrass increased LMW and HMW PAH degradation after 8 months.•Mycobacterium vanbaalenii PYR-1 bioaugmentation enhanced HMW PAH dissipation.•Bermudagrass growth enhanced dehydrogenase and polyphenol oxidase enzyme activity.•Vegetation and bioaugmentation enhanced lettuce seed germination compared to control.
Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2010; 32: 1228–1239
Summary
Background Adalimumab induces and maintains remission in adults with Crohn’s disease.
Aim To evaluate safety, fistula healing, quality of life and ...work productivity in adalimumab‐treated patients who failed infliximab, including primary nonresponders.
Methods After a ≥8‐week infliximab washout, patients with moderate‐to‐severe Crohn’s disease received open‐label adalimumab as induction (160/80 mg at weeks 0/2) and maintenance (40 mg every other week) therapies. At/after 8 weeks, patients with flare/nonresponse could receive weekly therapy. Minimum study duration was 8 weeks, continuing until the commercial availability of adalimumab for Crohn’s disease.
Results Of 673 patients enrolled, 17% were infliximab primary nonresponders and 83% were initial responders. Three percent of patients had serious infections (mainly abscesses). Complete fistula healing was achieved by 34/88 (39%) patients with baseline fistulas. Improvements in quality of life and work productivity were sustained from week 4 to week 24 for all patients, as well as the subgroup of primary nonresponders.
Conclusions Blinded clinical trials have shown adalimumab to be both an effective first‐line therapy for anti‐TNF‐naïve patients and an important treatment option for infliximab‐refractory or ‐intolerant patients. This trial presents open‐label experience to support further the safety and effectiveness of adalimumab in patients who failed infliximab therapy, including primary nonresponders (NCT00338650).
Ecological processes in arid lands are often described by the pulse-reserve paradigm, in which rain events drive biological activity until moisture is depleted, leaving a reserve. This paradigm is ...frequently applied to processes stimulated by one or a few precipitation events within a growing season. Here we expand the original framework in time and space and include other pulses that interact with rainfall. This new hierarchical pulse-dynamics framework integrates space and time through pulse-driven exchanges, interactions, transitions, and transfers that occur across individual to multiple pulses extending from micro to watershed scales. Climate change will likely alter the size, frequency, and intensity of precipitation pulses in the future, and arid-land ecosystems are known to be highly sensitive to climate variability. Thus, a more comprehensive understanding of arid-land pulse dynamics is needed to determine how these ecosystems will respond to, and be shaped by, increased climate variability.
Abstract
We detail a new fast radio burst (FRB) survey with the Molonglo Radio Telescope, in which six FRBs were detected between 2017 June and 2018 December. By using a real-time FRB detection ...system, we captured raw voltages for five of the six events, which allowed for coherent dedispersion and very high time resolution (10.24 $\mu$s) studies of the bursts. Five of the FRBs show temporal broadening consistent with interstellar and/or intergalactic scattering, with scattering time-scales ranging from 0.16 to 29.1 ms. One burst, FRB181017, shows remarkable temporal structure, with three peaks each separated by 1 ms. We searched for phase-coherence between the leading and trailing peaks and found none, ruling out lensing scenarios. Based on this survey, we calculate an all-sky rate at 843 MHz of $98^{+59}_{-39}$ events sky−1 d−1 to a fluence limit of 8 Jy ms: a factor of 7 below the rates estimated from the Parkes and ASKAP telescopes at 1.4 GHz assuming the ASKAP-derived spectral index α = −1.6 (Fν ∝ να). Our results suggest that FRB spectra may turn over below 1 GHz. Optical, radio, and X-ray follow-up has been made for most of the reported bursts, with no associated transients found. No repeat bursts were found in the survey.
Transcription activator-like (TAL) effectors from Xanthomonas citri subsp. malvacearum (Xcm) are essential for bacterial blight of cotton (BBC). Here, by combining transcriptome profiling with TAL ...effector-binding element (EBE) prediction, we show that GhSWEET10, encoding a functional sucrose transporter, is induced by Avrb6, a TAL effector determining Xcm pathogenicity. Activation of GhSWEET10 by designer TAL effectors (dTALEs) restores virulence of Xcm avrb6 deletion strains, whereas silencing of GhSWEET10 compromises cotton susceptibility to infections. A BBC-resistant line carrying an unknown recessive b6 gene bears the same EBE as the susceptible line, but Avrb6-mediated induction of GhSWEET10 is reduced, suggesting a unique mechanism underlying b6-mediated resistance. We show via an extensive survey of GhSWEET transcriptional responsiveness to different Xcm field isolates that additional GhSWEETs may also be involved in BBC. These findings advance our understanding of the disease and resistance in cotton and may facilitate the development cotton with improved resistance to BBC.
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