La typographie américaine de Dany Laferrière

The following article focuses on the American Anthology by Dany Laferrière, a writer originally from Haiti who decided, following his voluntary exile in Québec, to publish exclusively in Montreal and in French and to live in Miami. "Auteur déplacé", he does not like classifications: black, Haitian, French, Quebec, etc., but is considered an American writer tout court. His Americanness, accompanied by an opaque, nomadic and wandering writing style, reveals a plural identity belonging and a hybrid cultural belonging. Montréal, Miami, New York are just his writing spaces, because for Laferrière literature is a journey and not a place of confinement. L'article suivant est axé sur l'Anthologie américaine de Dany Laferrière, écrivain originaire de Haïti qui a néanmoins décidé, à la suite de son exil volontaire au Québec, de publier exclusivement à Montréal et en français et de vivre à Miami. “Auteur déplacé”, il n'aime pas les classifications (noir, haïtien, francophone, québécois, etc.), mais il se considère comme un écrivain américain tout court. Son américanité, accompagnée d'une écriture opaque, nomade et errante, révèle une appartenance identitaire plurielle et une appartenance culturelle hybride. Montréal, Miami, New York ne sont que ses espaces d'écriture car, pour Laferrière, la littérature est un voyage et non pas une frontière

Iron capture through CD71 drives perinatal and tumor-associated Treg expansion

: Beside suppressing immune responses, regulatory T cells (Tregs) maintain tissue homeostasis and control systemic metabolism. Whether iron is involved in Treg-mediated tolerance is completely unknown. Here, we showed that the transferrin receptor CD71 was upregulated on activated Tregs infiltrating human liver cancer. Mice with a Treg-restricted CD71 deficiency spontaneously developed a scurfy-like disease, caused by impaired perinatal Treg expansion. CD71-null Tregs displayed decreased proliferation and tissue-Treg signature loss. In perinatal life, CD71 deficiency in Tregs triggered hepatic iron overload response, characterized by increased hepcidin transcription and iron accumulation in macrophages. Lower bacterial diversity, and reduction of beneficial species, were detected in the fecal microbiota of CD71 conditional knock-out neonates. Our findings indicate that CD71-mediated iron absorption is required for Treg perinatal expansion and related to systemic iron homeostasis and bacterial gut colonization. Therefore, we hypothesize that Tregs establish nutritional tolerance through competition for iron during bacterial colonization after birth

Covid-19 And Rheumatic Autoimmune Systemic Diseases: Role of Pre-Existing Lung Involvement and Ongoing Treatments

The Covid-19 pandemic may have a deleterious impact on patients with autoimmune systemic diseases (ASD) due to their deep immune-system alterations

MSLN gene silencing has an anti-malignant effect on cell lines overexpressing mesothelin deriving from malignant pleural mesothelioma

Genes involved in the carcinogenetic mechanisms underlying malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) are still poorly characterized. So far, mesothelin (MSLN) has aroused the most interest. It encodes for a membrane glycoprotein, frequently over-expressed in various malignancies such as MPM, and ovarian and pancreatic cancers. It has been proposed as a diagnostic and immunotherapeutic target with promising results. However, an alternative therapeutic approach seems to rise, whereby synthetic molecules, such as antisense oligonucleotides, could be used to inhibit MSLN activity. To date, such a gene-level inhibition has been attempted in two studies only, both on pancreatic and ovarian carcinoma cell lines, with the use of silencing RNA approaches. With regard to MPM, only one cell line (H2373) has been employed to study the effects of MSLN depletion. Indeed, the knowledge on the role of MSLN in MPM needs expanding. Accordingly, we investigated the expression of MSLN in a panel of three MPM cell lines, i.e., NCI-H28, Mero-14, and IstMes2; one non-MPM cell line was used as reference (Met5A). MSLN knock-down experiments on MSLN-overexpressing cells were also performed through silencing RNA (siRNA) to verify whether previous findings could be generalized to a different set of cell cultures. In agreement with previous studies, transient MSLN-silencing caused decreased proliferation rate and reduced invasive capacity and sphere formation in MSLN-overexpressing Mero-14 cells. Moreover, MSLN-siRNA combined with cisplatin, triggered a marked increase in apoptosis and a decrease in proliferation as compared to cells treated with each agent alone, thereby suggesting a sensitizing effect of siRNA towards cisplatin. In summary, our findings confirm that MSLN should be considered a key molecular target for novel gene-based targeted therapies of cancer

Goodbye Hartmann trial: a prospective, international, multicenter, observational study on the current use of a surgical procedure developed a century ago

Background: Literature suggests colonic resection and primary anastomosis (RPA) instead of Hartmann's procedure (HP) for the treatment of left-sided colonic emergencies. We aim to evaluate the surgical options globally used to treat patients with acute left-sided colonic emergencies and the factors that leading to the choice of treatment, comparing HP and RPA. Methods: This is a prospective, international, multicenter, observational study registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. A total 1215 patients with left-sided colonic emergencies who required surgery were included from 204 centers during the period of March 1, 2020, to May 31, 2020. with a 1-year follow-up. Results: 564 patients (43.1%) were females. The mean age was 65.9 ± 15.6 years. HP was performed in 697 (57.3%) patients and RPA in 384 (31.6%) cases. Complicated acute diverticulitis was the most common cause of left-sided colonic emergencies (40.2%), followed by colorectal malignancy (36.6%). Severe complications (Clavien-Dindo ≥ 3b) were higher in the HP group (P < 0.001). 30-day mortality was higher in HP patients (13.7%), especially in case of bowel perforation and diffused peritonitis. 1-year follow-up showed no differences on ostomy reversal rate between HP and RPA. (P = 0.127). A backward likelihood logistic regression model showed that RPA was preferred in younger patients, having low ASA score (≤ 3), in case of large bowel obstruction, absence of colonic ischemia, longer time from admission to surgery, operating early at the day working hours, by a surgeon who performed more than 50 colorectal resections. Conclusions: After 100 years since the first Hartmann's procedure, HP remains the most common treatment for left-sided colorectal emergencies. Treatment's choice depends on patient characteristics, the time of surgery and the experience of the surgeon. RPA should be considered as the gold standard for surgery, with HP being an exception

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data