Characterizing the Immune Phenotype of Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Renal Cell Carcinoma

Cancer immunotherapy has advanced with the introduction of anti-PD-1 therapy. Anti-PD-1 therapy blocks the inhibitory immune checkpoint receptor PD-1, and allows T cells to regain their cytotoxic potentials in response to cancerous cells. Amongst the cytotoxic lymphocytes other than T cells, natural killer (NK) cells have not been fully explored regarding anti-PD-1 treatment. With this in mind, our aim was to characterize the immunophenotype of the immune cells in patients diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and separate their corresponding tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). Altogether, we analyzed the immunophenotype of the T and NK cells and RCC tumor cells from 13 RCC patients using flow cytometry. In addition, we tested the function of NK cells against RCC cells using various cell line models (NK-92 and RCC cell lines), and monitored the cytotoxicity in real time using a cell impedance assay. Based on the results, we suggest that patients diagnosed with RCC possess unique immune profiles depending on the individual, but also share characteristics regarding the tumor. In addition, NK cells have the potential to activate a cytotoxic response to RCC cells. By phenotyping the TILs, potential novel biomarkers for immuno-oncological (IO) therapy could be detected, which could aid in determining which patients would most likely benefit from immunological therapies such as anti-PD-1 treatment

Highly efficient source for frequency-entangled photon pairs generated in a 3rd order periodically poled MgO-doped stoichiometric LiTaO3 crystal

We present a highly efficient source for discrete frequency-entangled photon pairs based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion using 3rd order type-0 quasi-phase matching in a periodically poled MgO-doped stoichiometric LiTaO3 crystal pumped by a 355.66 nm laser. Correlated two-photon states were generated with automatic conservation of energy and momentum in two given spatial modes. These states have a wide spectral range, even under small variations in crystal temperature, which consequently results in higher discreteness. Frequency entanglement was confirmed by measuring two-photon quantum interference fringes without any spectral filtering.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Optics Letter

Hot electron effects and electric field scaling near the metal-insulator transition in multilayer MoS2

The layered transition metal dichalcogenides have emerged as valuable platforms to study the challenging problem of metal-insulator transition in two dimensions. It was demonstrated that multilayer MoS2 exhibits clearly distinctive metallic and insulating behaviors in conductivity in response to both temperature and the electric field. Here, we report on the scaling analyses of conductivity for the electric field in addition to the temperature, which is performed with the consideration of electron-electron interactions for multilayer MoS2. Based on the analysis of hot electron effects in the electric field, we find that scaling for the electric field is relevant for the metallic phase in the high-field regime, enabling one to extract the dynamical critical exponent z close to 1. This result supports that the metal-insulator transition in multilayer MoS2 is a true quantum critical phenomenon, in which strong interactions induce the transition. ©2020 American Physical Society11sciescopu

ON SEMIDEFINITE LINEAR FRACTIONAL OPTIMIZATION PROBLEMS (Study on Nonlinear Analysis and Convex Analysis)

Recently, semidefinite optimization problems have been intensively studied since many optimization problems can be changed into the problems and the problems are very tractable ([5]). In this paper, we review the duality results for semidefinite linear fractional optimization problems in the paper ([3] On duality theorems for semidefinite linear fractional optimization problems, Journal of Nonliner and Convex Analysis, volume 20, 2019, 1907-1912)

Back Extensor Strengthening Exercise and Backpack Wearing Treatment for Camptocormia in Parkinson's Disease: A Retrospective Pilot Study

Objective To investigate the effect of a conservative treatment regime in Parkinson's disease patients with camptocormia. Methods Nine patients with Parkinson's disease were included in a retrospective pilot study of the value of back extensor strengthening exercise. Six inpatients received a 30-minute treatment, twice daily for 5 weeks, being treated on average for 34 days; while three outpatients visited the clinic and were educated for home exercise and backpack wearing treatment. Outpatients should be scheduled to visit the outpatient department to check physical status every 2–4 weeks for an average of 3 months. Results All patients except one showed statistically significant improvements in activities of daily living (ADL) and motor symptoms, as measured by flexion angle at standing posture, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) II and III, and modified Hoehn-Yahr staging. Conclusion Conservative treatment is effective in postural correction of camptocormia in Parkinson's disease, as well as improvement in ADL and motor symptoms

Bis[μ-N-(pyridin-2-ylmeth­yl)pyridin-2-amine-κ2 N:N′]disilver(I) bis(trifluoro­methane­sulfonate)

In the binuclear title compound, [Ag2(C11H11N3)2](CF3O3S)2, the complex cation is centrosymmetric, with the unique Ag+ cation coordinated by two pyridine N atoms from two symmetry-related N-(pyridin-2-ylmeth­yl)pyridin-2-amine ligands in a geometry slightly distorted from linear [N—Ag—N 161.02 (7)°]. This set-up leads to the formation of a 14-membered cyclic dimer. The two pyridine rings coordinated to the Ag+ cation are tilted by 80.19 (7)° with respect to each other. Inter­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter­actions between the cyclic dimer and the anion exist. A two-dimensional network parallel to the ac plane is constructed by three weak Ag⋯(O,N) inter­actions as well as an F⋯F contact of 2.890 (4) Å

Current Advances in Retroviral Gene Therapy

There have been major changes since the incidents of leukemia development in X-SCID patients after the treatments using retroviral gene therapy. Due to the risk of oncogenesis caused by retroviral insertional activation of host genes, most of the efforts focused on the lentiviral therapies. However, a relative clonal dominance was detected in a patient with β-thalassemia Major, two years after the subject received genetically modified hematopoietic stem cells using lentiviral vectors. This disappointing result of the recent clinical trial using lentiviral vector tells us that the current and most advanced vector systems does not have enough safety. In this review, various safety features that have been tried for the retroviral gene therapy are introduced and the possible new ways of improvements are discussed. Additional feature of chromatin insulators, co-transduction of a suicidal gene under the control of an inducible promoter, conditional expression of the transgene only in appropriate target cells, targeted transduction, cell type-specific expression, targeted local administration, splitting of the viral genome, and site specific insertion of retroviral vector are discussed here