Antidiabetic thiazolidinediones induce ductal differentiation but not apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells

AIM: Thiazolidinediones (TZD) are a new class of oral antidiabetic drugs that have been shown to inhibit growth of same epithelial cancer cells. Although TZD were found to be ligands for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), the mechanism by which TZD exert their anticancer effect is presently unclear. In this study, we analyzed the mechanism by which TZD inhibit growth of human pancreatic carcinoma cell lines in order to evaluate the potential therapeutic use of these drugs in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. METHODS: The effects of TZD in pancreatic cancer cells were assessed in anchorage-independent growth assay. Expression of PPARgamma was measured by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and confirmed by Western blot analysis. PPARgamma activity was evaluated by transient reporter gene assay. Flow cytometry and DNA fragmentation assay were used to determine the effect of TZD on cell cycle progression and apoptosis respectively. The effect of TZD on ductal differentiation markers was performed by Western blot. RESULTS: Exposure to TZD inhibited colony formation in a PPARgamma-dependent manner. Growth inhibition was linked to G1 phase cell cycle arrest through induction of the ductal differentiation program without any increase of the apoptotic rate. CONCLUSION: TZD treatment in pancr

Proposal for a New Score-Based Approach To Improve Efficiency of Diagnostic Laboratory Workflow for Acute Bacterial Meningitis in Adults

Microbiological tests on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) utilize a common urgent-care procedure that does not take into account the chemical and cytological characteristics of the CSF, resulting sometimes in an unnecessary use of human and diagnostic resources. The aim of this study was to retrospectively validate a simple scoring system (bacterial meningitis-Careggi score [BM-CASCO]) based on blood and CSF sample chemical/cytological parameters for evaluating the probability of acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) in adults. BM-CASCO (range, 0 to 6) was defined by the following parameters: CSF cell count, CSF protein levels, CSF lactate levels, CSF glucose-to-serum glucose ratio, and peripheral neutrophil count. BM-CASCO was retrospectively calculated for 784 cases of suspected ABM in adult subjects observed during a four-and-a-half-year-period (2010 to 2014) at the emergency department (ED) of a large tertiary-care teaching hospital in Italy. Among the 28 confirmed ABM cases (3.5%), Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most frequent cause (16 cases). All ABM cases showed a BM-CASCO value of ≥3. Most negative cases (591/756) exhibited a BM-CASCO value of ≤1, which was adopted in our laboratory as a cutoff to not proceed with urgent microbiological analysis of CSF in cases of suspected ABM in adults. During a subsequent 1-year follow-up, the introduction of the BM-CASCO in the diagnostic workflow of ABM in adults resulted in a significant decrease in unnecessary microbiological analysis, with no false negatives. In conclusion, BM-CASCO appears to be an accurate and simple scoring system for optimization of the microbiological diagnostic workflow of ABM in adults

Give the planet a chance if we want our patients to have a future

Climate changes have never been as dramatically apparent in our everyday life as now. It is urgent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the consequences of climate changes both on the planet and on human health. The indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources and the lack of shared rules are among the major causes. Recently, some economists have called for a radical change in the present economic model towards a 'social solidarity economy' model. G.Giraud, a French economist, called for an ecological and social transition in order to reduce the ecological footprint and deal concretely with the problem of global warming. The good news is that the solutions are there and do not have to be punitive. Health consequences of climate changes have already caused serious draw backs on public health. Doctors and scientific institutions can and must contribute to help mitigate the effects of climate change through increasing commitment and support to goodenvironmental policies. Climate emergency requires the extension of ethics and medical practice beyond their traditional mission to involve the relationship between patients, doctors and society. We propose that medical scientific institutions quickly promote the birth of task forces dedicated to addressing this problem

an international multi center serum protein electrophoresis accuracy and m protein isotyping study part i factors impacting limit of quantitation of serum protein electrophoresis

AbstractBackgroundSerum protein electrophoresis (SPEP) is used to quantify the serum monoclonal component or M-protein, for diagnosis and monitoring of monoclonal gammopathies. Significant imprecision and inaccuracy pose challenges in reporting small M-proteins. Using therapeutic monoclonal antibody-spiked sera and a pooled beta-migrating M-protein, we aimed to assess SPEP limitations and variability across 16 laboratories in three continents.MethodsSera with normal, hypo- or hypergammaglobulinemia were spiked with daratumumab, Dara (cathodal migrating), or elotuzumab, Elo (central-gamma migrating), with concentrations from 0.125 to 10 g/L (n = 62) along with a beta-migrating sample (n = 9). Provided with total protein (reverse biuret, Siemens), laboratories blindly analyzed samples according to their SPEP and immunofixation (IFE) or immunosubtraction (ISUB) standard operating procedures. Sixteen laboratories reported the perpendicular drop (PD) method of gating the M-protein, while 10 used tangent skimming (TS). A mean percent recovery range of 80%–120% was set as acceptable. The inter-laboratory %CV was calculated.ResultsGamma globulin background, migration pattern and concentration all affect the precision and accuracy of quantifying M-proteins by SPEP. As the background increases, imprecision increases and accuracy decreases leading to overestimation of M-protein quantitation especially evident in hypergamma samples, and more prominent with PD. Cathodal migrating M-proteins were associated with less imprecision and higher accuracy compared to central-gamma migrating M-proteins, which is attributed to the increased gamma background contribution in M-proteins migrating in the middle of the gamma fraction. There is greater imprecision and loss of accuracy at lower M-protein concentrations.ConclusionsThis study suggests that quantifying exceedingly low concentrations of M-proteins, although possible, may not yield adequate accuracy and precision between laboratories

Inhibition of PARP activity by PJ-34 leads to growth impairment and cell death associated with aberrant mitotic pattern and nucleolar actin accumulation in M14 melanoma cell line

The capability of PARP activity inhibitors to prevent DNA damage recovery suggested the use of these drugs as chemo- and radio-sensitisers for cancer therapy. Our research, carried out on cultured human M14 melanoma cells, was aimed to examine if PJ-34, a potent PARP activity inhibitor of second generation, was per se able to affect the viability of these cancer cells without any DNA damaging agents. Using time-lapse videomicroscopy, we evidenced that 10?µM PJ-34 treatment induced severe mitotic defects leading to dramatic reduction of cell proliferation and to cell death. PJ-34 cytotoxic effect was further confirmed by analysis of cell viability and clonogenic assay. Absence of canonic apoptosis markers allowed us to exclude this kind of cell death. No single and/or double stranded DNA damage was evidenced. Immunofluorescence analysis showed an aberrant mitotic scenario in several cells and subsequent multinucleation suggesting an atypical way for cells to die: the mitotic catastrophe. The detection of aberrant accumulation of polymerised actin inside the nucleolus was noteworthy. Taken toghether, our results demonstrate that, targeting PARP activity by PJ-34, cancer cell survival is affected independently of DNA damage repair. Two findings are remarkable: (a) cisplatin concentration can be reduced by three quarters if it is followed by treatment with 10?µM PJ-34 for 24?h to obtain the same citotoxic effect; (b) effects dependent on PJ-34 treatment are reversible. Our data suggest that, to reduce the harm done to non-tumour cells during chemotherapy with cisplatin, the latter could be coupled with PJ-34 treatment