A Long-Term Follow-Up of Angiolymphoid Hyperplasia with Eosinophilia Treated by Corticosteroids: When a Traditional Therapy is Still Up-to-Date

Angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia (ALHE) is a rare and idiopathic vascular disorder. It is characterized by red to brown papules or nodules dislocated in the dermis or subcutaneous tissue. These lesions are typically localized on the head and neck, particularly around the ear as singular or multiple nodules. Although ALHE is a benign disease, lesions are often persistent and difficult to eradicate. ALHE can occur in all races, but it is reported more frequently in Asians. Young to middle-aged women are more commonly affected. The histological examination corresponds to a florid vascular proliferation with atypical endothelial cells surrounded by a lymphocytic and eosinophilic infiltrate. We describe the case of a 67-year-old Caucasian man with a nodular lesion in the right postauricular region for 3 years. The histological examination was consistent with ALHE. Monthly intralesional corticosteroid injections were performed for 6 months, and complete remission was achieved. After 10 years of follow-up, the patient is free of recurrence

Polymorphic Light Eruption: What's New in Pathogenesis and Management

Polymorphic light eruption is the commonest photosensitive disorder, characterized by an intermittent eruption of non-scarring erythematous papules, vesicles or plaques that develop within hours of ultraviolet radiation exposure of patient skin. Together with the lesions, a terrible itch starts and increases with the spreading of the disease, sometimes aggravated by a sort of burning sensation. Clinical picture and symptoms can improve during the rest of the summer with further solar exposures. In the last years many advances have been performed in the knowledge of its pathogenesis and some news have been proposed as preventive, as well as therapeutic options. All this has been discussed in the current mini review

Fohotodermatoses and Skin Cancer

Preface Skin cancer is one of the most common types of tumors in Western countries. In the United States only, more than one million people are diagnosed with skin cancer each year. Although the absolute number of skin cancer patients is increasing, the death is inversely decreasing, due to the early detection and treatment. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and melanoma are three major types of skin cancer. BCC and SCC rarely have metastasis; over 95 percent BCC and SCC patients can be cured. Melanoma only accounts for a small percentage of skin cancer, but it causes 75 percent death of this disease. In this book, we invited a number of experts to present their latest accomplishments on skin cancer research. Although the topics are varied, the authors did great work to help readers better understand skin cancer and learn the knowledge to prevent this disease. There are three sections in this book, starting with etiology. Ultraviolet (UV) light exposure is overwhelmingly believed to be the most frequent cause of skin cancer. In this section, the association between UV and photodermatoses, as well as skin cancer is discussed. Desmosomal cadherins are important molecules in tumor cell adhesion and invasion, and their important roles in BCC are also presented in details. In the diagnosis and treatment section, a few new methodologies are described. As known, the outcome of malignant melanoma greatly depends on the thickness of the tumor at the time of treatment. Accurate determination of melanoma lateral and depth of margins using non-invasive imaging technologies is of importance when making sound decisions for treatment and evaluating a five year survival rate. A novel method named differential scanning calorimetry is capable of predicting metastasis of melanoma patients by monitoring the temperature changes of plasma. Electronic miniature X-ray brachytherapy is introduced as a new technology to treat nonmelanoms skin cancer. Although its potential has not yet been fully realized, chemoprevention, in terms of using chemical agents that naturally occur in foods, or are administered as pharmaceuticals to retard or reverse the process of carcinogenesis and progression of cancer, has been recognized to benefit individuals with precancerous lesions or genetic susceptibilities to cancer. In the prevention section, two chapters summarized the most recognized dietary phytochemicals and their potential application in skin cancer. X Preface This book would not have been possible without the contributions of all authors and the support from the publisher. Especially, I will convey my sincere appreciation to Ms. Tajana Jevtic, who has always been available and supportive of me to accomplish this project. Yaguang Xi, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Oncologic Sciences, University of South Alabama, US

Probing Lorentz-violating electrodynamics with CMB polarization

We perform a comprehensive study of the signatures of Lorentz violation in electrodynamics on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies. In the framework of the minimal Standard Model Extension (SME), we consider effects generated by renormalizable operators, both CPT-odd and CPT-even. These operators are responsible for sourcing, respectively, cosmic birefringence and circular polarization. We propagate jointly the effects of all the relevant Lorentz-violating parameters to CMB observables and provide constraints with the most recent CMB datasets. We bound the CPT-even coefficient to $k_{F,E+B} < 2.31 \times 10^{-31}$ at 95\% CL. This improves previous CMB bounds by one order of magnitude. The limits we obtain on the CPT-odd coefficients, i.e. $|k_{(V)00}^{(3)}| < 1.54 \times 10^{-44} \; {\rm GeV}$ and $|\mathbf{k_{AF}}| < 0.74 \times 10^{-44} \; {\rm GeV}$ at 95\% CL, are respectively one and two orders of magnitude stronger than previous CMB-based limits, superseding also bounds from non-CMB searches. This analysis provides the strongest constraints to date on CPT-violating coefficients in the minimal SME from CMB searches

Effectiveness and safety of secukinumab in Italian patients with psoriasis: an 84 week, multicenter, retrospective real-world study

Background: Long term data on the real-life use of secukinumab are scant. The aim of this study was to investigate the real-life effectiveness, safety and treatment persistence of secukinumab in patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis. Research design and methods: This 84-week, multicenter (n = 7) retrospective study analyzed data from patients who initiated and received at least 6 months of secukinumab treatment between June 2016 and June 2018 in the Campania region of Italy. Patient demographic and treatment characteristics, duration of treatment and reasons for discontinuation as well as Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), Body Surface Area (BSA), and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) scores were assessed. Results: 324 patients (63% male, mean age 50.2 years) were enrolled and received a mean 11.7 months of secukinumab treatment. Overall, 9.5% discontinued secukinumab, including 5.2% who discontinued due to secondary inefficacy and 1.8% due to adverse events. PASI, BSA and DLQI scores were significantly improved from baseline at every follow-up visit (p < 0.001) and mean PASI decreased from 15.3 ± 6.3 at baseline to 0.5 ± 1.0 at week 84. Secukinumab had comparable effectiveness in biologic naïve and non-naïve patients. Conclusions: This study confirmed the effectiveness and safety of secukinumab in real-world patients with psoriasis

Cannabidiol exerts multitarget immunomodulatory effects on PBMCs from individuals with psoriasis vulgaris

IntroductionThe involvement of endocannabinoid system (ECS) in the inflammatory cascade, and the ability of phytocannabinoids, endocannabinoids and their synthetic analogues to modulate it has become an interesting research area for new therapeutic approaches in inflammatory skin diseases. Cannabidiol (CBD) appears to be the most promising among phytocannabinoids, due to the lack of psychotropic effects and low toxicity profile. Its anti-inflammatory action has been highlighted in different preclinical models, ranging from experimental colitis to arthritis and neuroinflammation. Our aim was to evaluate CBD immune-modulatory effects in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of psoriasis individuals with particular attention to both innate and adaptative immune arms.MethodsWe performed in vitro immune functional experiments to analyze CBD action on various immune cells active in psoriatic lesions.ResultsThe results showed that CBD produced a shift from Th1 to Th2 response, while boosting cytotoxic activity of Natural Killer (NK) cells. Furthermore, it also exerted a potent action on monocyte differentiation as, after CBD treatment, monocytes from psoriatic individuals were unable to migrate in response to inflammatory stimuli and to fully differentiate into mature dendritic cells. Finally, a M2 skewing of monocyte-derived macrophages by CBD also contributed to the fine tuning of the magnitude of immune responses.ConclusionsThese data uncover new potential immunomodulatory properties of this cannabinoid suggesting a possible therapeutic action in the treatment of multiple inflammatory skin diseases

AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery