5,791 research outputs found

    Evolution of studies of HLA class I antigen processing machinery (APM) components in malignant cells

    No full text
    Following a description of the way studies of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I antigen expression by tumor cells have evolved through the years, the literature related to the frequency of defects in HLA class I antigen processing machinery (APM) component expression in various types of malignancies is reviewed. In addition, the clinical significance of defects in HLA class I APM components as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms are described. Lastly, potential strategies to overcome the defects in HLAclass I APM component expression and function are discussed. The information presented indicates a revival of the interest in the characterization of HLA class I APM component expression by tumor cells since these molecules may play an important role in the outcome of immunotherapy with inhibitory checkpoint molecule-specific monoclonal antibodies in patients with malignant disease. Furthermore, they may represent a useful prognostic biomarker to select patients who might benefit from these types of immunotherapy

    Diskussion mit Cristina Morales

    No full text
    Invitation to an informal lunch talk with the the seventeenth Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor, the Spanish author and activist Cristina Morales. We will prepare soups with bread and hope for lively discussions and food for thought

    Cristina Bautista, colombiana e indígena, lideresa social y tejedora de pensamiento y comunidad / Cristina Bautista, a Colombian and indigenous social leader, community thinker, and weaver of thoughts

    No full text
    This is a tribute to&#160;activist,&#160;Cristina Bautista&#160;in Colombia. She was an indigenous woman working on the rights of women in her community and on land rights. The author traces Cristina&#39;s life and the&#160;Hilando pensamientos (Weaving Thoughts), the Nasa women&#39;s movement. Her activism was powerful, and Cristina was killed in 2019 by armed actors.&#160; </html

    Novel tumor antigen-specific monoclonal antibody-based immunotherapy to eradicate both differentiated cancer cells and cancer-initiating cells in solid tumors

    No full text
    A growing body of experimental and clinical evidence strongly suggests that the resistance of cancer-initiating cells (CICs) to conventional therapies represents a major obstacle to the successful treatment of a malignant disease. To overcome this limitation a novel combinatorial tumor antigen (TA)-specific monoclonal antibody (mAb) strategy has been developed. In this strategy TA-specific mAbs are combined with chemotherapeutic agents and/or small molecules that inhibit aberrantly activated signaling pathways in cancer cells and especially in CICs. The in vitro results we have obtained indicate that this strategy is very effective in eradicating both differentiated cancer cells and CICs in several types of malignant disease. If the in vitro results have in vivo relevance, the strategy we have designed may have an impact on the treatment of malignant diseases

    ‘La casa de la escritura’: entrevista con Cristina Siscar Buenos Aires, 13 de marzo 2009

    No full text
    This is an interview with the Argentinian author, Cristina Siscar

    Emerging BRAF inhibitors for melanoma

    No full text
    Introduction: The clinical activity of BRAF inhibitor (BRAF-I) therapy is a major breakthrough in the treatment of metastatic melanoma carrying BRAF mutations. However, the therapeutic efficacy of BRAF-I therapy is limited due to the onset of intrinsic and acquired drug resistance. Areas covered: The role of wild-type BRAF in melanocytes and of the mutated BRAF in the pathogenesis of melanoma is described in this article. The results obtained with BRAF-I in patients with mutated BRAF are reviewed. The mechanisms driving the intrinsic and acquired BRAF-I resistance, the development of combinatorial strategies designed to overcome them and their potential limitations are discussed. Lastly, the many questions that have to be addressed to optimize therapy with BRAF-I are listed. Expert opinion: Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer characterized by poor prognosis and high mortality. The discovery of BRAF mutations which drive melanoma tumorigenesis and the development of agents which selectively inhibit mutant-activated BRAF represent a major breakthrough in the treatment of metastatic melanoma. However, the development of drug resistance underlies the need of more effective and individualized combinatorial treatments to counteract the multiple escape mechanisms utilized by BRAF-mutant melanoma. Although combinatorial strategies using agents which target different protumorigenic signaling pathway components have been shown to increase the clinical efficacy of BRAF-I, novel strategies which utilize different antitumor mechanisms are needed. © Informa UK, Ltd

    "A Stony Language: Zukofsky's Zadkine", in The Idea and The Thing in Modernist American Poetry (editor Cristina Giorcelli) - "Preface" to The Idea and The Thing in Modernist American Poetry (ed. Cristina Giorcelli).

    No full text
    In the "Preface" -- the editor and author of an essay-- Cristina Giorcelli explains how, thanks to Heidegger's, Schopenhauer's and Wittgenstein's categories, Modernist American poets gave visual, phonetic, and iconic relevance and, thus, "concreteness" to language in order, on the one hand, to avoid Romantic sentimentalism and Symbolic conventionalism, and, on the other, to enhance the word's semantics and polyhedrical value. The volume is eminently interdisciplinary in that poetry is studied in relation to: philosophy, the visual arts, history, and the world of classic myth. In her essay (pp.109-139) on "A Stony Language: Zukofsky's Zadkine," Cristina Giorcelli examines a long composition by the "objectivist" poet, Louis Zukofsky who -- at a crucial time in his highly innovative career -- wrote an ekphrasis centered on a sculpture by the Russian expatriate and political refugee in the United States, Ossip Zadkine, entitled "La Prisonniere." The poem has never been examined before. The essay is a close, learned analysis of the way in which Zadkine's sculpture -- with its distortions and reversals, its cleavages, and its spatial-dynamic relationship between mass and volume -- is rendered by Zukofsky's words, rhymes, rhythm, etymological and cross-linguistic puns, metonymies, anagrams, echoes, and mythological references. Furthermore, while this analysis traces Zadkine's tie to Vladimir Tatlin's aesthetics, it illustrates Zukofsky's bond to Apollinaire, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein, while also showing Zukofsky's extraordinary and long lasting originality and impact on contemporary poets (paramount among them, the so called L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poets)

    Translational Research in Cutaneous Melanoma: New Therapeutic Perspectives

    No full text
    Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer characterized by poor prognosis and high mortality. The development of targeted agents based on the discovery of driver mutations as well as the implementation of checkpoint inhibitor-based immunotherapy represent a major breakthrough in the treatment of metastatic melanoma. However, in both cases the development of drug resistance and immune escape mechanisms as well as the lack of predictive biomarkers limit their extraordinary clinical efficacy. In this article, we summarize the available therapeutic options for patients with metastatic melanoma, outline the mechanisms implicated in the resistance to both targeted agents and immunotherapy, discuss potential predictive biomarkers and outline future therapeutic approaches under investigation
    corecore