1,720,973 research outputs found
Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Shapes Healthy Monocytes into An Immunosuppressive Phenotype
No full textBackground/Aims: The physiological phenotype of individuals can influence and shape reallife phenomena in that it can contribute to the development of specific characteristics that can affect the immune response to specific stimuli. In this study we aimed to understand whether the sphingosine/sphingosine-1-phoshate (S1P) axis can modulate the immunotype of circulating cells. Methods: To pursue this goal, we performed bioinformatic analyses of public datasets. Results: The transcriptomic profile of healthy subjects of GSE192829 dataset identified two clusters with different transcriptional repertoire. Cluster 1 expressed higher levels of enzymes for S1P formation than cluster 0 which was characterized by enzymes that lead to ceramide formation, which represent the opposite metabolic direction. Inference analysis showed that cluster 1 was higher populated by monocytes, CD4 + T and B cells than cluster 0. Of particular interest was the phenotype of the monocytes in cluster 1 which showed an immunosuppressive nature compared to those in cluster 0. The role of S1P signature in healthy PBMCs was confirmed with other dataset analyses, supporting that circulating monocytes positive to the ceramidase, unlike the negative ones, had an immunosuppressive phenotype characterized by hub immunosuppressive markers (i.e. TYROBP, FCER1G, SYK, SIRPA, CSF1R, AIF1, FCGR2A, CLEC7A, LYN, PLCG2, LILRs, HCK, GAB2). This hub genes well discriminated the immunotype of healthy subjects. Conclusion: In conclusion this study highlights that S1P-associated hub markers can be useful to discriminate subjects with pronounced immunosuppression. (c) 2024 The Author(s). Published by Cell Physiol Biochem Press GmbH&Co. K
A lesson from a saboteur: High-MW kininogen impact in coronavirus-induced disease 2019
No full textThe newly identified coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that spread from China is causing the pandemic COVID-19 with a fatality rate from 5-15%. It causes fever, cough, myalgia, fatigue up to dyspnoea, responsible for hospitalization and artificial oxygenation. SARS-CoV-2 infects human cells using ACE2, the transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) and the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro). Once bound to ACE2 and the other two proteases in concert they allow the virus replication and spread throughout the body. Our attention has been focused on the role of ACE2 as its binding to by the virus increases bradykinin and its metabolites, which facilitate inflammation in the lung (causing cough and fever), coagulation and the complement system. These three systems are involved in angioedema, cardiovascular dysfunction and sepsis, pathologies which occur in COVID-19 patients. Thus, we propose that blocking the kallikrein–kinin system with lanadelumab, approved for hereditary angioedema, will prevent facilitation of these 3 systems
Role of the inflammasome in cancer
No full textHigh serum concentrations of IL-1β and IL-18 are correlated to malignancies with low-rate survival from time of diagnosis. The multimeric complex of the inflammasome is responsible for IL-1β/IL-18 synthesis/release. A number of endogenous (damage-associated molecular patterns, DAMPs) and exogenous (pathogen-associated molecular patterns, PAMPs) stimuli can provide signals for inflammasome activation in cancer. These stimuli can behave as tumor promoters by inducing chronic inflammation that, rather than providing a protective response to loss of tissue homeostasis, aberrantly facilitate tumor development. This point of view is in contrast with what was reported in some cancer animal models in which the activation of some inflammasome complexes is associated with tumor protection. Therefore, more studies are needed to understand the biology of the inflammasome in cancer and hence, explore its therapeutic potential
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
Role of plasmacytoid dendritic cells in cancer
No full textIn the last decade, several studies have provided evidence that plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) actively participate in a wide spectrum of human diseases including infection, autoimmunity, and cancer. In particular, human neoplasms are populated by pDCs, whose presence is related to a poor prognosis. However, the role of tumor-associated pDCs (TApDCs) remains controversial. Various studies indicate that pDCs play an immunosuppressive role and facilitate tumor progression in both animal and human models. In contrast, others have found that the presence of activated pDCs results in tumor regression in mice. Given these findings, it is clear that pDC function plays a critical role in tumor biology. Understanding pDC biology in cancer represents an important necessity and will pave the road to novel therapeutic strategies to fight malignancies. In this chapter we will discuss novel findings about the therapeutic tools which are based on the pharmacological manipulation of tumor-associated pDCs
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
- …
