Daily fluctuation of levels of circulating cathodic antigen levels in urine of children infected with Schistosoma mansoni in Brazil

The fluctuation of circulating cathodic antigen (CCA) levels in urine was studied in 69 Brazilian school-children infected with Schistosoma mansoni and compared to egg counts. Faeces and urine samples were simultaneously collected at 7 times during a period of 2 weeks. CCA was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and could be detected in 96% of the urine samples; the individual mean CCA level ranged from 609 to 350,700 pg/mL. 90% of the faecal samples contained S. mansoni eggs and the individual mean egg output ranged from 9 to 5510 eggs/g. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient between these individual means was 0.69. Kendall's coefficient of concordance (W) was 0.88 for CCA levels and 0.80 for egg counts

Dissecting the treatment-naive ecosystem of human melanoma brain metastasis.

Melanoma brain metastasis (MBM) frequently occurs in patients with advanced melanoma; yet, our understanding of the underlying salient biology is rudimentary. Here, we performed single-cell/nucleus RNA-seq in 22 treatment-naive MBMs and 10 extracranial melanoma metastases (ECMs) and matched spatial single-cell transcriptomics and T cell receptor (TCR)-seq. Cancer cells from MBM were more chromosomally unstable, adopted a neuronal-like cell state, and enriched for spatially variably expressed metabolic pathways. Key observations were validated in independent patient cohorts, patient-derived MBM/ECM xenograft models, RNA/ATAC-seq, proteomics, and multiplexed imaging. Integrated spatial analyses revealed distinct geography of putative cancer immune evasion and evidence for more abundant intra-tumoral B to plasma cell differentiation in lymphoid aggregates in MBM. MBM harbored larger fractions of monocyte-derived macrophages and dysfunctional TOX <sup>+</sup> CD8 <sup>+</sup> T cells with distinct expression of immune checkpoints. This work provides comprehensive insights into MBM biology and serves as a foundational resource for further discovery and therapeutic exploration

Dissecting the treatment-naive ecosystem of human melanoma brain metastasis

Melanoma brain metastasis (MBM) frequently occurs in patients with advanced melanoma; yet, our understanding of the underlying salient biology is rudimentary. Here, we performed single-cell/nucleus RNA-seq in 22 treatment-naive MBMs and 10 extracranial melanoma metastases (ECMs) and matched spatial single-cell transcriptomics and T cell receptor (TCR)-seq. Cancer cells from MBM were more chromosomally unstable, adopted a neuronal-like cell state, and enriched for spatially variably expressed metabolic pathways. Key observations were validated in independent patient cohorts, patient-derived MBM/ECM xenograft models, RNA/ATAC-seq, proteomics, and multiplexed imaging. Integrated spatial analyses revealed distinct geography of putative cancer immune evasion and evidence for more abundant intra-tumoral B to plasma cell differentiation in lymphoid aggregates in MBM. MBM harbored larger fractions of monocyte-derived macrophages and dysfunctional TOX+CD8+ T cells with distinct expression of immune checkpoints. This work provides comprehensive insights into MBM biology and serves as a foundational resource for further discovery and therapeutic exploration