To respond or not to respond - a personal perspective of intestinal tolerance

For many years, the intestine was one of the poor relations of the immunology world, being a realm inhabited mostly by specialists and those interested in unusual phenomena. However, this has changed dramatically in recent years with the realization of how important the microbiota is in shaping immune function throughout the body, and almost every major immunology institution now includes the intestine as an area of interest. One of the most important aspects of the intestinal immune system is how it discriminates carefully between harmless and harmful antigens, in particular, its ability to generate active tolerance to materials such as commensal bacteria and food proteins. This phenomenon has been recognized for more than 100 years, and it is essential for preventing inflammatory disease in the intestine, but its basis remains enigmatic. Here, I discuss the progress that has been made in understanding oral tolerance during my 40 years in the field and highlight the topics that will be the focus of future research

An Overview of the 2014 ALMA Long Baseline Campaign

A major goal of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is to make accurate images with resolutions of tens of milliarcseconds, which at submillimeter (submm) wavelengths requires baselines up to ~15 km. To develop and test this capability, a Long Baseline Campaign (LBC) was carried out from September to late November 2014, culminating in end-to-end observations, calibrations, and imaging of selected Science Verification (SV) targets. This paper presents an overview of the campaign and its main results, including an investigation of the short-term coherence properties and systematic phase errors over the long baselines at the ALMA site, a summary of the SV targets and observations, and recommendations for science observing strategies at long baselines. Deep ALMA images of the quasar 3C138 at 97 and 241 GHz are also compared to VLA 43 GHz results, demonstrating an agreement at a level of a few percent. As a result of the extensive program of LBC testing, the highly successful SV imaging at long baselines achieved angular resolutions as fine as 19 mas at ~350 GHz. Observing with ALMA on baselines of up to 15 km is now possible, and opens up new parameter space for submm astronomy.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters; this version with small changes to affiliation

Right drug, right patient, right time: aspiration or future promise for biologics in rheumatoid arthritis?

Individualising biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) to maximise outcomes and deliver safe and cost-effective care is a key goal in the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Investigation to identify predictive tools of bDMARD response is a highly active and prolific area of research. In addition to clinical phenotyping, cellular and molecular characterisation of synovial tissue and blood in patients with RA, using different technologies, can facilitate predictive testing. This narrative review will summarise the literature for the available bDMARD classes and focus on where progress has been made. We will also look ahead and consider the increasing use of ‘omics’ technologies, the potential they hold as well as the challenges, and what is needed in the future to fully realise our ambition of personalised bDMARD treatment

Effective biomodulation by leucovorin of high-dose infusion fluorouracil given as a weekly 24-hour infusion: results of a randomized trial in patients with advanced colorectal cancer

PURPOSE: To determine whether high-dose infusional fluorouracil (FU) is effectively modulated by leucovorin (LV), interferon (IFN) alpha-2b, or both when given to patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients (n = 236) with progressive, measurable disease were randomized to three groups and received FU 2,600 mg/m2 as a 24-hour continuous infusion (CI) weekly for 6 weeks with 2 weeks rest (FU24h) and LV 500 mg/m2 as a 2-hour infusion before FU or IFN 3 x 10(6) U subcutaneously 3 times weekly or both. Treatment continued until progressive disease or unacceptable toxicity was observed. Pairs of treatment arms were analyzed sequentially to detect equivalence or a 25% difference in response rates. RESULTS: The rate of objective remission in patients who received FU24h/LV (44%; 40 of 91) was significantly higher than in patients who received FU24h/IFN (18%; 16 of 90; P < .05). The response rates of patients who received FU24h/LV versus FU24h/LV/IFN (27%; 13 of 49) were statistically equivalent. Significant differences were observed for time to tumor progression (TTP) (FU24h/LV, 7.1 months; FU24h/IFN, 3.9 months; FU24h/LV/IFN, 6.3 months; global P value < .009) and survival (16.6 months, 12.7 months, 19.6 months, respectively; global P value < .04). Unpredictable and life-threatening toxicity in the FU24h/LV/IFN arm required dose reduction of FU to 2,000 mg/m2/day and early stoppage of this arm. Toxicity was manageable in patients who received both FU24h/LV (grade 3 to 4 diarrhea, 21%) and FU24h/IFN (grade 3 to 4 diarrhea, 15%). CONCLUSION: Response rate, TTP, and overall survival were superior for LV-containing regimens compared with IFN modulation alone. The addition of IFN to high-dose infusional FU plus LV offers no advantage and may increase toxicity. The regimen of high-dose infusional FU24h/LV warrants further evaluation in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer