Autologous anti-GD2 CAR T cells efficiently target primary human glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM) remains a deadly tumor. Treatment with chemo-radiotherapy and corticosteroids is known to impair the functionality of lymphocytes, potentially compromising the development of autologous CAR T cell therapies. We here generated pre-clinical investigations of autologous anti-GD2 CAR T cells tested against 2D and 3D models of GBM primary cells. We detected a robust antitumor effect, highlighting the feasibility of developing an autologous anti-GD2 CAR T cell-based therapy for GBM patients

Reaction time inhibition from subliminal cues: is it related to inhibition of return?

Task-irrelevant visual cues with near zero visibility proved apt to retard reaction time for the detection of supraliminal visual targets presented at the cued location. The time course of the effect was similar to that of the so-called inhibition-of return (IOR), which is assumed to be due to the withdrawal of attention from the inhibited location. However the present subliminal cues consistently failed to induce an RT facilitation prior to the RT inhibition, contrary to what would be expected if the cue were able to attract attention to the cued location. Since the RT inhibition from subliminal cues could not be attributed to the withdrawal of attention from the cued location, it can be argued that such cues acted both outside of consciousness and without the influence of attention. Therefore, the RT inhibitory effect seems best accounted for by an automatic, unconscious and attention-independent self-inhibition of response tendencies instructed by irrelevant information, akin to that postulated by (Eimer, M., & Schlaghecken, F. (1998). Effects of masked stimuli on motor activation: behavioural and electrophysiological evidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception and Performance, 24, 1737-1747.) to explain the negative compatibility effect

Reliability in reporting perceptual experience: Behaviour and electrophysiology in hemianopic patients

Patients with hemianopia can present with the so called blindsight phenomenon: the ability to perform above chance in the absence of acknowledged awareness. Proper awareness reports are, thus, crucial to distinguish pure forms of blindsight from forms of conscious, yet degraded, vision. It has in fact been recently shown that 1) dichotomous and graded measures to assess awareness can lead to different behavioural results in patients with hemianopia and that 2) different grades of perceptual clarity show different electrophysiological correlates in healthy participants. Here, in hemianopic patients, we assessed awareness by means of the four-point Perceptual Awareness Scale (PAS) and investigated its neural correlates with Event Related Potentials (ERPs). Results showed that patients, in most of the cases, can rate the clarity of their perceptual experience in a graded manner. Moreover, graded perceptual experiences correlated with the amplitude of deflections in ERPs. These results call for the need to assess perceptual awareness with graded measures and for the importance to use electrophysiological data to correlate behaviour with neural processing

A Survey on Pituitary Surgery in Italy

Pituitary tumors are a heterogeneous group of lesions that are usually benign. Therefore, a proper understanding of the anatomy, physiology, and pathology is mandatory to achieve favorable outcomes. Accordingly, diagnostic tests and treatment guidelines should be determined and implemented. Thus, we decided to perform a multicenter study among Italian neurosurgical centers performing pituitary surgery to provide an actual depiction from the neurosurgical standpoint

Unruptured Aneurysms Italian Study (UAIS) background and method

Treatment of unruptured cerebral aneurysms still represents an unsettled question in neurosurgical and neuroradiological communities. Although nowadays the indication for treatment have become relatively clear, indeed uncertainity remains for what concerns the proper treatment modality (surgical or endovascular) in terms of both the risk and the mid and long-term efficacy of the two procedures. The "Unruptured Aneurysms Italian Study" is a cooperative prospective study which aims to delineate the "State of the Art" in a nation based population. It has been designed: 1) to depict the nationwide modality of treatment of Unruptured Aneurysms, 2) to assess in the most objective way the overall treatment-related mortality and morbidity as well as the surgical and endovascular risk in the respective patient populations (it is not a surgical versus endovascular study) and 3) to asses the efficacy of the different procedures in the mid and long term periods. The study started on June 2003 and to June 2006, 637 patients have been enrolled. The study will end when the 1000th patient is enrolled