1,720,989 research outputs found
Editorial: CAR T-cells: novel therapeutic approaches in the new era of cancer immunotherapy
Full text linkImmunotherapy has emerged as one of the most effective treatments capable of overcoming tumor resistance mechanisms due to its ability to modulate the patient’s immune response against cancer. Personalized anti-tumor therapy based on T cells engineered to express a cancer-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) acts directly on the immune system of patients. Specifically, this therapy enhances the recognition of cancer cells by T lymphocytes, thus promoting their elimination. In this Research Topic several aspects of CAR T-cell therapy, with particular emphasis on novel findings aimed at ameliorating the effectiveness of CAR T-cell-based immunotherapy and reducing side effects, are described (Figure 1)
Novel insights into cancer stem cells targeting: CAR-T therapy and epigenetic drugs as new pillars in cancer treatment
Full text linkCancer stem cells (CSCs) represent the most aggressive subpopulation present in the tumor bulk retaining invasive capabilities, metastatic potential and high expression levels of drug efflux pumps responsible for therapy resistance. Cancer is still an incurable disease due to the inefficacy of standard regimens that spare this subpopulation. Selective targeting of CSCs is still an unmet need in cancer research field. Aberrant epigenetic reprogramming promotes the initiation and maintenance of CSCs, which are able to escape the immune system defense. Promising therapeutic approaches able to induce the selective inhibition of this stem-like small subset include immunotherapy alone or in combination with epigenetic compounds. These strategies are based on the specific expression of epitopes and/or epigenetic alterations present only in the CSC and not in the other cancer cells or normal cells. Thus, the combined approach utilizing CAR-T immunotherapy along with epigenetic probes may overcome the barriers of treatment ineffectiveness towards a more precision medicine approach in patients with known specific alterations of CSCs. In this perspective article we will shed new lights on the future applications of epi-immunotherapy in tumors enriched in CSCs, along with its potential side-effects, limitations and the development of therapy resistance
Cancer Stem Cells: From Birth to Death
No full textAbstract Conspicuous investigations have proven the role of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in the onset and progression of a plethora of liquid and solid neoplasms.
CSCs are endowed with the capability of initiating tumor growth and becoming dormant at distant organ sites just waiting for optimal conditions amenable for metastatic outgrowth. This cancer subpopulation is inherently resistant to anticancer therapeutics, and its targeting could avoid metastatic disease, which is largely incurable, and clinical relapses. CSCs are considered the Achilles heel of cancer. However, many efforts are necessary to identify univocal CSC markers as well as specific CSC biomarkers of therapeutic response.
Here, we summarize CSCs’ peculiarities and highlight novel anticancer compounds coping with the hallmarks of CSCs, comprising the resistance to cell death,
their quiescent state, the immune suppression, the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), and their metabolic adaptation to a hostile microenvironment
Editorial: The effects of chemotherapy towards the tumor microenvironment
Full text link3 p.-1 fig.The work in the author’s laboratories was partially supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2019-105404RB-I00 financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) to JAGS.Peer reviewe
Meeting the Challenge of Targeting Cancer Stem Cells
Full text linkNotwithstanding cancer patients benefit from a plethora of therapeutic alternatives, drug resistance remains a critical hurdle. Indeed, the high mortality rate is associated with metastatic disease, which is mostly incurable due to the refractoriness of metastatic cells to current treatments. Increasing data demonstrate that tumors contain a small subpopulation of cancer stem cells (CSCs) able to establish primary tumor and metastasis. CSCs are endowed with multiple treatment resistance capabilities comprising a highly efficient DNA damage repair machinery, the activation of survival pathways, enhanced cellular plasticity, immune evasion and the adaptation to a hostile microenvironment. Due to the presence of distinct cell populations within a tumor, cancer research has to face the major challenge of targeting the intra-tumoral as well as inter-tumoral heterogeneity. Thus, targeting molecular drivers operating in CSCs, in combination with standard treatments, may improve cancer patients' outcomes, yielding long-lasting responses. Here, we report a comprehensive overview on the most significant therapeutic advances that have changed the known paradigms of cancer treatment with a particular emphasis on newly developed compounds that selectively affect the CSC population. Specifically, we are focusing on innovative therapeutic approaches including differentiation therapy, anti-angiogenic compounds, immunotherapy and inhibition of epigenetic enzymes and microenvironmental cues
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
- …
