Efficacy of 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine in preventing pneumonia and improving survival in nursing home residents: double blind, randomised and placebo controlled trial

Objective To determine the efficacy of a 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine in people at high risk of pneumococcal pneumonia

Intratumoral Injection of Propionibacterium acnes Suppresses Malignant Melanoma by Enhancing Th1 Immune Responses

Malignant melanoma (MM) is an aggressive cutaneous malignancy associated with poor prognosis; many putatively therapeutic agents have been administered, but with mostly unsuccessful results. Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) is an aerotolerant anaerobic gram-positive bacteria that causes acne and inflammation. After being engulfed and processed by phagocytes, P. acnes induces a strong Th1-type cytokine immune response by producing cytokines such as IL-12, IFN-γ and TNF-α. The characteristic Th2-mediated allergic response can be counteracted by Th1 cytokines induced by P. acnes injection. This inflammatory response induced by P. acnes has been suggested to have antitumor activity, but its effect on MM has not been fully evaluated

Links between Fibrogenesis and Cancer: Mechanistic and Therapeutic Challenges: Mechanistic and Therapeutic Challenges

Tissue fibrosis may occur for unknown causes or be the consequence of many pathological conditions including chronic inflammatory or infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, graft rejection, or malignancy. On the other hand, malignant tumors have been identified in fibrotic tissues decades ago, and now accumulating evidence suggests that fibrotic lesions enhance the risk of cancer in several organs such as liver, lungs, and breast. Disruption of an organ parenchymal cells and of its normal structural scaffold during tissue fibrogenesis appears to induce loss of cell polarity, promoting uncontrolled cell proliferation that may eventually lead to cancer development. Many cellular and molecular abnormalities including aberrant expression of microRNAs, genetic and epigenetic alterations, evasion or delayed apoptosis, unregulated intracellular signal pathways, and dysregulation or defective intercellular communications have been proposed to explain this link between fibrogenesis and carcinogenesis. However, the precise mechanisms of this fibrosis-to-cancer transition remain unclear. This book presents a collection of reviews and original articles summarizing recent advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms of cancer development in fibrotic organs

Chronic Fibrosis and Its Progression to Cancer

The terminal stage of many chronic inflammatory diseases is organ fibrosis [...

Chronic Fibrosis and Its Progression to Cancer

The terminal stage of many chronic inflammatory diseases is organ fibrosis [...

Is there still hope for single therapies: how do we set up experimental systems to efficiently test combination therapies?

Severe asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are chronic lung diseases with a clear need for development of new and more efficient therapy. In preclinical research, the mouse model has been instrumental in advancing our knowledge of the biology and immunology. However, it has been proven rather difficult and time consuming to develop new treatments that can impact on the clinical course of these diseases. Many challenges need to be overcome for upgrading the quality of currently available experimental disease models in order to enhance the translation rate of basic research to clinical practice. Establishment of transgenic mouse overexpressing disease-causing genes may provide tools to discover new pathological pathways and to evaluate the possibility of molecular targeted therapy in chronic lung diseases. Personalized medicine, if developed, might be the solution for disease heterogeneity' and for improving clinical outcome