1,720,978 research outputs found
Theranostic Nanoengineered Lymphocyte-Based System for Melanoma Treatment
No full textMelanoma is a type of cancer that develops from melanocytes and typically occurs in the skin but may occur also in the mouth, intestine, or eye. Melanoma is recognized to be the most dangerous type of skin cancer. Globally, in 2012, it newly occurred in 232,000 people while in 2015 within 3.1 million people with active disease, 59,800 died. Apart from the surgical removal of the melanoma tissue, several pharmaceutical treatments are available: some of these include Vemurafenib, Dabrafenib, Trametinib, Ipilimumab, Pembrolizumab, Nivolumab, alone or in combination. New experimental approaches include the use of nanoparticles capable of carrying drugs or causing hyperthermia in the cancer area, however the side effects caused by toxicity of nanoparticles and their accumulation in non-specific tissues and organs has limited further development of this treatment. Another interesting approach is represented by the autologous transplant of anti-melanoma specific immune cells, bringing to a reduction of the melanoma with good tolerability property. Within the INSIDE (Development of diagNostic and theranoStic targeting systems, based on nano-systems and/or nanoengineered lymphocytes for the early Diagnosis and treatment of mElanoma and multiple sclerosis) consortium the idea to combine the use of nanoparticles and immune approaches was thought to be a good chance to develop a new approach to melanoma treatment. Poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid polyethylene glycol (PLGA-PEG) -magnetite and PLAGA-PEG-gold nanorod nanoparticles were included inside specific T lymphocytes from patients, proliferated and activated in vitro against the MAGE antigens, expressed by melanoma (A375 melanoma cell line). The nanoparticles containing lymphocytes could reach specifically the tumor site and eventual metastasis, where the lymphocytes can play their cytotoxic role, while the nanoparticles can be used as a tracing tool, or be radio-induced to produce a hyper-thermic effect on the specific area or even to deliver conjugated drugs. The first step of the investigation of this new approach was represented by checking the biodistribution of nanoparticles containing lymphocytes. The biodistribution was evaluated in a newly set-up in vivo mouse model of human melanoma: nude mice were inoculated with A375 melanoma cell line and, after 14 days, 8.0x106 specifically nanoengineered T-lymphocytes were administered to the animals. The dose of lymphocyte was calculated after in vitro experiments as the number of engineered lymphocytes needed to increase the temperature up to 43-44°C (in 20 minutes when subjected to radio- hyperthermia). After 24 and 48 hours from lymphocyte inoculum, the animals were sacrificed and the tumor and other organs were removed to check the lymphocytes infiltration using flow cytometry. The preliminary results confirmed that nanoparticles loaded lymphocytes specifically accumulated into the tumor site with a higher percentage respect to other organs. Additional experiments to confirm the possibility to use the approach also as an imaging platform (by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Photo Acoustic imaging (PA) were performed with the support of National Research Council (CNR) of Pisa including 5.0x107 lymphocytes as improvement: these preliminary results supported the possibility to use the new platform as MRI and PA imaging system. Moreover, experiments to demonstrate the efficacy of the system in reducing the tumor size after radio-hyperthermia were executed on the generated mouse model. In two of the experimental groups (N=8), magnetite nanoparticles were conjugate to curcumin, which has been demonstrated to be effective in inducing melanoma cells apoptosis in vitro. Preliminary findings on groups of 8 animals demonstrated the efficacy of the curcumin-conjugated magnetite nanoparticles, either subjected to radio-hyperthermia or not, to reduce the tumor growth respect to the non-loaded lymphocyte group, in a 21-day experimental window.
This new approach could represent a useful instrument to diagnose and treat melanoma patients in short times, as well as discover recurrencies, saving lives and avoiding side effects of current therapies
Neisseria meningitidis infection: Who, when and where?
No full textNeisseria meningitidis is a Gram-negative β-proteobacterium responsible for an endemic worldwide infection. The epidemiology and serogroup distribution can change very quickly. The incidence of meningitis infection varies from very rare to more than 1000 cases per 100,000 of the population yearly. The carriage of N. meningitidis, which represents an exclusive human commensal, is asymptomatic, but in rare cases bacteria proliferate in the CNS and rapidly lead to the death of the affected subjects. Host genetic factors, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms, can promote meningococcal disease, being able to influence the individual predisposition to the pathology. Although a reduction in meningococcal disease has been observed in Europe, a continuous surveillance is necessary to control any possible outbreaks of new hypervirulent clones into populations that could modify the epidemiology of meningococcal infections and the clinical spectrum of affected subjects
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
Immunogenicity and Safety of the New Inactivated Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine Vaxigrip Tetra: Preliminary Results in Children ≥6 Months and Older Adults
Full text linkSince the mid-1980s, two lineages of influenza B viruses have been distinguished. These can co-circulate, limiting the protection provided by inactivated trivalent influenza vaccines (TIVs). This has prompted efforts to formulate quadrivalent influenza vaccines (QIVs), to enhance protection against circulating influenza B viruses. This review describes the results obtained from seven phase III clinical trials evaluating the immunogenicity, safety, and lot-to-lot consistency of a new quadrivalent split-virion influenza vaccine (Vaxigrip Tetra®) formulated by adding a second B strain to the already licensed TIV. Since Vaxigrip Tetra was developed by means of a manufacturing process strictly related to that used for TIV, the data on the safety profile of TIV are considered supportive of that of Vaxigrip Tetra. The safety and immunogenicity of Vaxigrip Tetra were similar to those of the corresponding licensed TIV. Moreover, the new vaccine elicits a superior immune response towards the additional strain, without affecting immunogenicity towards the other three strains. Vaxigrip Tetra is well tolerated, has aroused no safety concerns, and is recommended for the active immunization of individuals aged ≥6 months. In addition, preliminary data confirm its immunogenicity and safety even in children aged 6–35 months and its immunogenicity in older subjects (aged 66–80 years)
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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