1,720,976 research outputs found
Mesenchymal stem cells: a new promise in anti-cancer therapy
No full textNovel cell-based and gene therapies represent promising approaches for the treatment of incurable diseases,including cancer. Following the success of the hematopoietic stem cell-based transplantation, other populationsof adult progenitor cells, including mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), have been identified as powerful therapeutictools in humans. The intrinsic capability of MSCs to migrate toward injured tissues emphasizes theirsuitability to deliver anticancer agents for new clinical applications in addition to the tissue repairing capacity.Here, we revisit the experimental history of MSCs, the most exciting features of their biology in keeping withtheir promising applications in cell-based therapeutic strategies for cancer treatment.Novel cell-based and gene therapies represent promising approaches for the treatment of incurable diseases, including cancer. Following the success of the hematopoietic stem cell-based transplantation, other populations of adult progenitor cells, including mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), have been identified as powerful therapeutic tools in humans. The intrinsic capability of MSCs to migrate toward injured tissues emphasizes their suitability to deliver anticancer agents for new clinical applications in addition to the tissue repairing capacity. Here, we revisit the experimental history of MSCs, the most exciting features of their biology in keeping with their promising applications in cell-based therapeutic strategies for cancer treatment. © 2011 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc
Bendamustine overcomes resistance to melphalan in myeloma cell lines by inducing cell death through mitotic catastrophe
No full textMelphalan has been a mainstay of multiple myeloma (MM) therapy for many years. However, following treatment
with this alkylator, malignant plasma cells usually escape both apoptosis and cell cycle control, and acquire
drug-resistance resulting in tumor progression. Bendamustine is being used inMMpatients refractory to conventional
DNA-damaging agents, although the mechanisms driving this lack of cross-resistance are still undefined.
Here, we investigated the molecular pathway of bendamustine-induced cell death in melphalan-sensitive and
melphalan-resistant MM cell lines. Bendamustine affected cell survival resulting in secondary necrosis, and
prompted cell death primarily through caspase-2 activation. Also, bendamustine blocked the cell cycle in the
G2/M phase and induced micronucleation, erratic chromosome spreading and mitotic spindle perturbations in
melphalan-resistant MM cells. In these cells, both Aurora kinase A (AURKA) and Polo-like kinase-1 (PLK-1), key
components of the spindle-assembly checkpoint,were down-regulated following incubationwith bendamustine,
whereas levels of Cyclin B1 increased as a consequence of the prolonged mitotic arrest induced by the drug. These
findings indicate that, at least in vitro, bendamustine drives cell death by promoting mitotic catastrophe in
melphalan-resistantMMcells. Hence, activation of this alternative pathway of cell death may be a novel approach
to the treatment of apoptosis-resistant myelomas
[Mesenchymal stem cells and bone regeneration]. FT Cellule staminali mesenchimali e medicina rigenerativa dell'osso.
No full textARGO 2.0: a Hybrid NLP/ML Framework for Diagnosis Standardization
No full text: A relevant problem in medicine is the standardization of the diagnosis associated with a clinical case. Although diagnosis formulation is an intrinsically subjective and uncertain process, its standardization may take benefit from digital solutions automating the routines at the basis of such a decision. In this work, we propose ARGO 2.0: a framework for the development of decision support systems for diagnosis formulation. The framework can read free-text reports and store their clinically relevant information as personalized electronic Case Report Forms. A hybrid strategy, exploiting the synergy of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning techniques, is used to automatically suggest a diagnosis in a standardized fashion. ARGO 2.0 has been designed to be template-independent and easily tailored to specific medical fields. We here demonstrate its feasibility in hemo lympho-pathology, by detailing its implementation, object of an ongoing validation campaign in a standing medical institute. ARGO 2.0 achieved an average Accuracy of 95.07%, an average precision of 94.85%, an average Recall of 96.31% and a F-Score of 95.32% onto the test set, outperforming both its embedded components, based on Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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