1,720,977 research outputs found
Recent advances in understanding immune phenotypes of thyroid carcinomas: prognostication and emerging therapies [version 1; referees: 2 approved]
Tumors modulate the host immune cells within their microenvironment to avoid recognition and elimination by our immune system, a phenotype called cancer immune escape. Different mechanisms responsible for cancer immune escape that result either in decreased tumor immunogenicity or in increased tumor immunosuppressive activity have been identified. Recently, various immunotherapeutic approaches have been developed with the aim to revert tumor immune escape. The aims of this review are to explore the immunological aspects of thyroid cancer and to assess whether these features can be exploited in the prognosis and treatment of advanced forms of this disease. Therefore, we will describe the immune landscape and phenotypes of thyroid cancer, summarize studies investigating the expression of immunomodulatory molecules, and finally describe the preclinical and clinical trials investigating the utility of immunotherapies in the management of thyroid cancer. The aim of this review is to explore the immunological aspects of thyroid cancer and to assess whether these features can be exploited in the prognosis and treatment of advanced forms of this disease. Therefore, we will describe the immune-landscape and phenotypes of thyroid cancer, we will summarize studies investigating the expression of immunomodulatory molecules, and we will finally describe the preclinical and clinical trials investigating the utility of immunotherapies in the management of thyroid cancer
Editorial: Further advances in understanding the endocrine cancer microenvironment
Inflammation is a physiologic process occurring in response to tissue damage. Already in 1863, Virchow (1, 2), based on the observation that leukocytes infiltrate neoplastic tissues, hypothesized a relationship between inflammation and cancer. The demonstration that inflammation promotes tumor genome instability, cell growth, survival, invasion and angiogenesis has led to the current notion that inflammation is an essential component of malignancies (1) suggesting that it could represent a target for cancer therapy.
More recently, the term tumor microenvironment (TME) was used to include both cellular and soluble components which surround and infiltrate the tumor mass (3). The TME is composed of extracellular matrix and stromal cells, including fibroblasts, vessel cells (endothelial cells, pericytes, and smooth muscle cells), and inflammatory leukocytes (lymphocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, mast cells, and neutrophils), while soluble mediators include a wide spectrum of chemokines, cytokines, and growth factors, which are secreted by both resident tumor and surrounding normal cells as well as by infiltrating immune cells (4–6).
It progressively became clear that both the phenotype and the number of infiltrating cells are strongly dependent upon specific chemokines secreted within the TME. Thus, chemokines rapidly became among the most extensively characterized molecules involved in the maintenance and progression of tumor-related inflammation (7).
In the five articles included in this Research Topic, different aspects of the most recent lines of research on the field of TME and cancer biology were addressed. The findings are here briefly overviewed with the final aim to provide a stimulating summary of the present knowledge
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The 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
Toll‐like receptor 7 mediates inflammation resolution and inhibition of angiogenesis in non‐small cell lung cancer
Pattern recognition receptors (PRR) promote inflammation but also its resolution. We demonstrated that a specific PRR—formyl peptide receptor 1 (FPR1)—sustains an inflammation resolution response with anti‐angiogenic and antitumor potential in gastric cancer. Since toll‐like receptor 7 (TLR7) is crucial in the physiologic resolution of airway inflammation, we asked whether it could be responsible for pro‐resolving and anti‐angiogenic responses in non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). TLR7 correlated directly with pro‐resolving and inversely with angiogenic mediators in NSCLC patients, as revealed by a publicly available RNAseq analysis. In NSCLC cells, depletion of TLR7 caused an upregulation of angiogenic mediators and a stronger vasculogenic response of endothelial cells compared to controls, assessed by qPCR, ELISA, protein array, and endothelial cell responses. TLR7 activation induced the opposite effects. TLR7 silencing reduced, while its activation increased, the pro‐resolving potential of NSCLC cells, evaluated by qPCR, flow cytometry, and EIA. The increased angiogenic potential of TLR7‐silenced NSCLC cells is due to the lack of pro‐resolving mediators. MAPK and STAT3 signaling are responsible for these activities, as demonstrated through Western blotting and inhibitors. Our data indicate that TLR7 sustains a pro-resolving signaling in lung cancer that inhibits angiogenesis. This opens new possibilities to be exploited for cancer treatment
Molecular dynamic simulations of the catalytic domain of BRAF in response to activating and inactivating mutations
Variations on the Author
“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
We 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
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