Validation of the American Joint Committee on Cancer new prognostic stage groups for HER2-positive breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy and trastuzumab in the prospective ShortHER trial

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CONFECÇÃO DE PEÇA ANATÔMICA DE CRÂNIO HUMANO SECO

O Laboratório de Anatomia Humana da Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul, desenvolve trabalho visando auxiliar e facilitar o aprendizado e o desempenho dos acadêmicos, dos cursos da área da saúde. O crânio humano é complexo e formado por diversos ossos, em sua maioria de forma irregular, além de terem inúmeros acidentes. A identificação dos ossos que o compõe e suas características são de grande valia para compreender a anatomia do mesmo. Foram desenvolvidos trabalhos em peças anatômicas secas que possibilitaram melhor visualização de suas estruturas. Utilizou-se crânios humanos, secos em bom estado de conservação, e a técnica adotada foi a de colorir, conforme Kapit e Elson (2002). As cores utilizadas, inicialmente para pintar os ossos foram escolhidos de forma aleatória, e o padrão inicial foi respeitado na seqüência de todas as peças. Na primeira etapa do projeto as características anatômicas da superfície dos crânios foram identificadas com setas, numeradas e relacionadas em fichas. As fichas foram coloridas com as respectivas cores utilizadas na pintura dos ossos do crânio. Já na segunda etapa, foi observado o trabalho desenvolvido em sala de aula, ou seja, a produção do conhecimento dos acadêmicos, quando comparam o estudo em peças não coloridas com as coloridas. Os crânios pintados irão integrar o material didático, de anatomia humana, permanecendo disponíveis para estudo em salas de aula e também para estudo em horário “extra-aula”, juntamente com as demais peças anatômicas, no Ossário do Laboratório de Anatomia Humana (UNISC)

DGK and DZHK position paper on genome editing: basic science applications and future perspective

For a long time, gene editing had been a scientific concept, which was limited to a few applications. With recent developments, following the discovery of TALEN zinc-finger endonucleases and in particular the CRISPR/Cas system, gene editing has become a technique applicable in most laboratories. The current gain- and loss-of function models in basic science are revolutionary as they allow unbiased screens of unprecedented depth and complexity and rapid development of transgenic animals. Modifications of CRISPR/Cas have been developed to precisely interrogate epigenetic regulation or to visualize DNA complexes. Moreover, gene editing as a clinical treatment option is rapidly developing with first trials on the way. This article reviews the most recent progress in the field, covering expert opinions gathered during joint conferences on genome editing of the German Cardiac Society (DGK) and the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK). Particularly focusing on the translational aspect and the combination of cellular and animal applications, the authors aim to provide direction for the development of the field and the most frequent applications with their problems

The Effect of Influent Characteristics and Operational Conditions over the Performance and Microbial Community Structure of Partial Nitritation Reactors

Nitrogen is a main contaminant of wastewater worldwide. Novel processes for nitrogen removal have been developed over the last several decades. One of these is the partial nitritation process. This process includes the oxidation of ammonium to nitrite without the generation of nitrate. The partial nitritation process has several advantages over traditional nitrification-denitrification processes for nitrogen removal from wastewaters. In addition, partial nitritation is required for anammox elimination of nitrogen from wastewater. Partial nitritation is affected by operational conditions and substances present in the influent, such as quinolone antibiotics. In this review, the impact that several operational conditions, such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen concentration, hydraulic retention time and solids retention time, have over the partial nitritation process is covered. The effect of quinolone antibiotics and other emerging contaminants are discussed. Finally, future perspectives for the partial nitritation process are commented upon

PROSPECÇÃO TECNOLÓGICA SOBRE MÉTODOS ELETROQUÍMICOS PARA DETERMINAÇÃO DE ÍNDICE DE ACIDEZ EM BIODIESEL DE BABAÇU

O biodiesel é um recurso renovável e não poluente, mas para sua utilização necessita-se de um bom controle de qualidade do produto e matéria prima. Um dos parâmetros de qualidade do biodiesel é o teor de ácidos graxos livres (AGL) que é medido por meio do índice de acidez (IA); uma vez que uma elevada acidez do óleo dificulta a reação de produção do biodiesel. Este trabalho tem como objetivo a busca de anterioridade para determinação de índice de acidez em biodiesel através do desenvolvimento de métodos eletroquímicos. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida através do mapeamento de patentes em diferentes bases de dados, bem como em bancos de dados de artigos científicos. Observou-se que há poucos números de patentes nas bases pesquisadas e em publicações de artigos científicos direcionados ao tema proposto, o que mostra ser este assunto promissor para investimentos de pesquisa, desenvolvimento e apropriação de tecnologia

Precision Nutrition in Chronic Inflammation

The molecular foundation of chronic in fl ammatory diseases (CIDs) can differ markedly between individuals. As our understanding of the biochemical mechanisms underlying individual disease manifestations and progressions expands, new strategies to adjust treatments to the patient ’ s characteristics will continue to profoundly transform clinical practice. Nutrition has long been recognized as an important determinant of in fl ammatory disease phenotypes and treatment response. Yet empirical work demonstrating the therapeutic effectiveness of patient-tailored nutrition remains scarce. This is mainly due to the challenges presented by long-term effects of nutrition, variations in inter-individual gastrointestinal microbiota, the multiplicity of human metabolic pathways potentially affected by food ingredients, nutrition behavior, and the complexity of food composition. Historically, these challenges have been addressed in both human studies and experimental model laboratory studies primarily by using individual nutrition data collection in tandem with large- scale biomolecular data acquisition (e.g. genomics, metabolomics, etc.). This review highlights recent fi ndings in the fi eld of precision nutrition and their potential implications for the development of personalized treatment strategies for CIDs. It emphasizes the importance of computational approaches to integrate nutritional information into multi- omics data analysis and to predict which molecular mechanisms may explain how nutrients intersect with disease pathways. We conclude that recent fi ndings point towards the unexhausted potential of nutrition as part of personalized medicine in chronic in fl ammation

PIK3CA Mutation in the ShortHER Randomized Adjuvant Trial for Patients with Early HER2\ufe Breast Cancer: Association with Prognosis and Integration with PAM50 Subtype.

Purpose: We explored the prognostic effect of PIK3CA mutation in HER2\ufe patients enrolled in the ShortHER trial. Patients and Methods: The ShortHER trial randomized 1,253 patients with HER2\ufe breast cancer to 9 weeks or 1 year of adjuvant trastuzumab combined with chemotherapy. PIK3CA hotspot mutations in exon 9 and 20 were analyzed by pyrosequencing. Expression of 60 genes, including PAM50 genes was measured using the nCounter platform. Results: A mutation of the PIK3CA gene was detected in 21.7% of the 803 genotyped tumors. At a median follow-up of 7.7 years, 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rates were 90.6% for PIK3CA mutated and 86.2% for PIK3CA wild-type tumors [HR, 0.84; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.56\u20131.27; P \ubc 0.417]. PIK3CA mutation showed a favorable prognostic impact in the PAM50 HER2-enriched subtype (n \ubc 232): 5-year DFS 91.8% versus 76.1% (log-rank P \ubc 0.049; HR, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.21\u20131.02). HER2-enriched/PIK3CA mutated versus wild-type tumors showed numerically higher tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and significant upregulation of immune-related genes (including CD8A, CD274, PDCD1, and MYBL2, a proliferation gene involved in immune processes). High TILs as well as the upregulation of PDCD1 and MYBL2 were associated with a significant DFS improvement within the HER2-enriched subtype (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.68\u20130.99; P \ubc 0.039 for 10% TILs increment; HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.65\u20130.99; P \ubc 0.049 for PDCD1 expression; HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.53\u20130.99; P \ubc 0.042 for MYBL2 expression). Conclusions: PIK3CA mutation showed no prognostic impact in the ShortHER trial. Within the HER2-enriched molecular subtype, patients with PIK3CA mutated tumors showed better DFS versus PIK3CA wild-type, which may be partly explained by upregulation of immune-related genes