Search results for "ASES"

2020

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is characterized by chronic, relapsing, pruritic skin inflammation and does not have a well-understood pathogenesis. In this study, we addressed the contribution of adipokines to AD eczema based on the assessment of blood levels of adiponectin, resistin, leptin, lipocalin-2, and vaspin in adult non-obese patients suffering from chronic extrinsic childhood-onset AD. We investigated 49 AD patients with a median age of 37 years. The control group consisted of 30 age-matched healthy subjects. Adipokines were assessed in the serum by ELISA assays and the severity of AD with the SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) index. We found that adiponectin and resistin decreased and l…

New Therapeutic Implications of Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase (eNOS) Function/Dysfunction in Cardiovascular Disease

2019

The Global Burden of Disease Study identified cardiovascular risk factors as leading causes of global deaths and life years lost. Endothelial dysfunction represents a pathomechanism that is associated with most of these risk factors and stressors, and represents an early (subclinical) marker/predictor of atherosclerosis. Oxidative stress is a trigger of endothelial dysfunction and it is a hall-mark of cardiovascular diseases and of the risk factors/stressors that are responsible for their initiation. Endothelial function is largely based on endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) function and activity. Likewise, oxidative stress can lead to the loss of eNOS activity or even “uncoupli…

Analysis of nucleophosmin–anaplastic lymphoma kinase (NPM‐ALK)‐reactive CD8+ T cell responses in children with NPM‐ALK+ anaplastic large cell lymphoma

2016

Summary Cellular immune responses against the oncoantigen anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) in patients with ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) have been detected using peptide-based approaches in individuals preselected for human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-A*02:01. In this study, we aimed to evaluate nucleophosmin (NPM)-ALK-specific CD8+ T cell responses in ALCL patients ensuring endogenous peptide processing of ALK antigens and avoiding HLA preselection. We also examined the HLA class I restriction of ALK-specific CD8+ T cells. Autologous dendritic cells (DCs) transfected with in-vitro-transcribed RNA (IVT-RNA) encoding NPM–ALK were used as antigen-presenting cells for T cell …

CCR7 on CD4+ T Cells Plays a Crucial Role in the Induction of Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

2018

Abstract Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the CNS. Myelin-specific CD4+ Th lymphocytes are known to play a major role in both MS and its animal model experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). CCR7 is a critical element for immune cell trafficking and recirculation, that is, lymph node homing, under homeostatic conditions; blocking CCR7+ central memory cells from egress of lymph nodes is a therapeutic approach in MS. To define the effect of CD4+ T cell–specific constitutive deletion of CCR7 in the priming and effector phase in EAE, we used an active EAE approach in T cell reconstituted Rag1−/− mice, as well as adoptive transfer E…

Tumor-priming converts NK cells to memory-like NK cells

2017

Fascinating earlier evidence suggests an intrinsic capacity of human natural killer (NK) cells to acquire adaptive immune features in the context of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection or pro-inflammatory cytokine stimulation. Since the role of memory NK cells in cancer has so far remained elusive and adoptive NK cell transfer in relapsing pediatric acute B cell precursor leukemia (BCP-ALL) patients awaits improvement, we asked the question whether tumor-priming could promote the generation of memory NK cells with enhanced graft-vs.-leukemia (GvL) reactivity. Here, we provide substantial evidence that priming of naive human NK cells with pediatric acute B cell leukemia or acute myeloid leukemia…

From bedside to bench: The missing brick for patients with fungal sepsis

2016

We read with great interest the article by Spec et al. [1] investigating the immunophenotype of T cells from patients with Candida spp. sepsis. This is the first observational study describing the altered immune response of patients with candidemia. The authors included non-neutropenic critically ill patients with candidemia and non-septic controls, and excluded patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection, who had undergone solid or bone marrow transplantation or with other known causes of impaired immune response. The authors hypothesized that their findings may help explain why patients with fungal sepsis show a high mortality despite appropriate antifungal therapy. In our opinio…

Dysregulated genes and their functional pathways in luteinized granulosa cells from PCOS patients after cabergoline treatment

2018

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a common reproductive disorder frequently associated with a substantial risk factor for ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). Dopamine receptor 2 (D2) agonists, like cabergoline (Cb2), have been used to reduce the OHSS risk. However, lutein granulosa cells (LGCs) from PCOS patients treated with Cb2 still show a deregulated dopaminergic tone (decreased D2 expression and low dopamine production) and increased vascularization compared to non-PCOS LGCs. Therefore, to understand the PCOS ovarian physiology, it is important to explore the mechanisms that underlie syndrome based on the therapeutic effects of Cb2. Here, LGCs from non-PCOS and PCOS patients …

TLR1 and PRKAA1 Gene Polymorphisms in the Development of Atrophic Gastritis and Gastric Cancer.

2018

Background & Aims: Previous genome-wide association studies showed that genetic polymorphisms in toll-like receptor 1 (TLR1) and protein kinase AMP-activated alpha 1 catalytic subunit (PRKAA1) genes were associated with gastric cancer (GC) or increased Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection susceptibility. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between TLR1 and PRKAA1 genes polymorphisms and H.pylori infection, atrophic gastritis (AG) or GC in the European population.Methods: Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were analysed in 511 controls, 340 AG patients and 327 GC patients. TLR1 C>T (rs4833095) and PRKAA1 C>T (rs13361707) were genotyped by the real-time po…

What is the impact of a novel MED12 variant on syndromic conotruncal heart defects? Analysis of case report on two male sibs

2020

Abstract Background Syndromic congenital heart disease accounts for 30% of cases and can be determined by genetic, environmental or multifactorial causes. In many cases the etiology remains uncertain. Many known genes are responsible for specific morphopathogenetic mechanisms during the development of the heart whose alteration can determine specific phenotypes of cardiac malformations. Case presentation We report on two cases of association of conotruncal heart defect with facial dysmorphisms in sibs. In both cases the malformations’ identification occurred by ultrasound in the prenatal period. It was followed by prenatal invasive diagnosis. The genetic analysis revealed no rearrangements …

Occupational Heat Exposure and Breast Cancer Risk in the MCC-Spain Study.

2021

Background: Mechanisms linking occupational heat exposure with chronic diseases have been proposed. However, evidence on occupational heat exposure and cancer risk is limited. Methods: We evaluated occupational heat exposure and female breast cancer risk in a large Spanish case-control study. We enrolled 1,738 breast cancer cases and 1,910 frequency-matched population controls. A Spanish job exposure matrix, MatEmEsp, was used to assign estimates of the proportion of workers exposed (P greater than or equal to 25% for at least one year) and work time with heat stress (wet bulb globe temperature ISO 7243) for each occupation. We used three exposure indices: ever vs. never exposed, lifetime c…