379 research outputs found
SerpinB3 as hepatic marker of post-resective shear stress
Post-resective liver failure is a frequent complication of liver surgery and it is due to portal hyperperfusion of the remnant liver and to arterial vasoconstriction, as buffer response of the hepatic artery. In this context, splenectomy allows a reduction of portal flow and increases the survival chance in preclinical models. SerpinB3 is over-expressed in the liver in oxidative stress conditions, as a mechanism of cell defense to provide survival by apoptosis inhibition and cell proliferation. In this study, the expression of SerpinB3 was assessed as predictor of liver damage in in vivo models of major hepatic resection with or without splenectomy. Wistar male rats were divided into 4 groups: group A received 30% hepatic resection, group B > 60% resection, group C > 60% resection with splenectomy and group D sham-operated. Before and after surgery liver function tests, echo Doppler ultrasound and gene expression were assessed. Transaminase values and ammonium were significantly higher in groups that underwent major hepatic resection. Echo Doppler ultrasound showed the highest portal flow and resistance of the hepatic artery in the group with > 60% hepatectomy without splenectomy, while the association of splenectomy determined no increase in portal flow and hepatic artery resistance. Only the group of rats without splenectomy showed higher shear-stress conditions, reflected by higher levels of HO-1, Nox1 and of Serpinb3, the latter associated with an increase of IL-6. In conclusion, splenectomy controls inflammation and oxidative damage, preventing the expression of Serpinb3. Therefore, SerpinB3 can be considered as a marker of post-resective shear stress
Search of brain-enriched proteins in salivary extracellular vesicles for their use as mental disease biomarkers: A pilot study of the neuronal glycoprotein M6a
Background: Mental disorders affect millions of people worldwide. Their etiology is complex and the fact that the main effects occur in the brain hampers biochemical diagnosis. Therefore, biomarker finding in peripheral fluids such as serum or saliva is desirable. Here, we searched for biomarkers in salivary extracellular vesicles (EVs). Then, we focused on the protein M6a, related to neuronal connectivity and associated with several mood disorders to study its usefulness in saliva for the diagnosis of depression and anxiety. Methods: Biomarker candidates were searched by proteomic analysis of human salivary EVs. M6a presence in salivary EVs was validated by transmission electron microscopy and Western blot. M6a levels were measured by ELISA in saliva samples of 88 individuals classified as control, depressed or anxious. Results: We identified ten protein candidates in salivary EVs: OLIG2, PMP2, CNP, CAMK2A, SLC25A22, MLLT11, HTR2A, MAPT, ATP2B2 and M6a, all associated with emotional disorders. Salivary M6a levels positively correlated with the scores for the perceived stress scale in individuals diagnosed with depression. Furthermore, saliva samples of depressed patients treated with serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) or benzodiazepines differed in their M6a levels with respect to untreated patients. Limitations: The main limitation of this study lies in the low number of patients involved, which warrants replication. Conclusions: Salivary EVs contain promising biomarker candidates for mental disorders. Further studies will help validate them for their potential use in diagnosis. Our results lead us to propose M6a as a workable molecule to take into account as a possible stress biomarker.Fil: Monteleone, Melisa Carolina. Universidad Nacional de San MartĂn. Instituto de Investigaciones BiotecnolĂłgicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Oficina de CoordinaciĂłn Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones BiotecnolĂłgicas; ArgentinaFil: Billi, Silvia Cristina. Universidad Nacional de San MartĂn. Instituto de Investigaciones BiotecnolĂłgicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Oficina de CoordinaciĂłn Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones BiotecnolĂłgicas; ArgentinaFil: Viale, Luciano. Gobierno de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Hospital Interzonal Especializado de Agudos y Cronicos San Juan de Dios.; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San MartĂn; ArgentinaFil: Catoira, Natalia P.. Gobierno de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Hospital Interzonal Especializado de Agudos y Cronicos San Juan de Dios.; ArgentinaFil: Frasch, Alberto Carlos C.. Universidad Nacional de San MartĂn. Instituto de Investigaciones BiotecnolĂłgicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Oficina de CoordinaciĂłn Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones BiotecnolĂłgicas; ArgentinaFil: Brocco, Marcela Adriana. Universidad Nacional de San MartĂn. Instituto de Investigaciones BiotecnolĂłgicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Oficina de CoordinaciĂłn Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones BiotecnolĂłgicas; Argentin
A First Comparison Between LIGO and Virgo Inspiral Search Pipelines
This article reports on a project that is the first step the LIGO Scientific
Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration have taken to prepare for the mutual
search for inspiral signals. The project involved comparing the analysis
pipelines of the two collaborations on data sets prepared by both sides,
containing simulated noise and injected events. The ability of the pipelines to
detect the injected events was checked, and a first comparison of how the
parameters of the events were recovered has been completed.Comment: GWDAW-9 proceeding
A first comparison of search methods for gravitational wave bursts using LIGO and Virgo simulated data
We present a comparative study of 6 search methods for gravitational wave
bursts using simulated LIGO and Virgo noise data. The data's spectra were
chosen to follow the design sensitivity of the two 4km LIGO interferometers and
the 3km Virgo interferometer. The searches were applied on replicas of the data
sets to which 8 different signals were injected. Three figures of merit were
employed in this analysis: (a) Receiver Operator Characteristic curves, (b)
necessary signal to noise ratios for the searches to achieve 50 percent and 90
percent efficiencies, and (c) variance and bias for the estimation of the
arrival time of a gravitational wave burst.Comment: GWDAW9 proceeding
A comparison of methods for gravitational wave burst searches from LIGO and Virgo
The search procedure for burst gravitational waves has been studied using 24
hours of simulated data in a network of three interferometers (Hanford 4-km,
Livingston 4-km and Virgo 3-km are the example interferometers). Several
methods to detect burst events developed in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
(LSC) and Virgo collaboration have been studied and compared. We have performed
coincidence analysis of the triggers obtained in the different interferometers
with and without simulated signals added to the data. The benefits of having
multiple interferometers of similar sensitivity are demonstrated by comparing
the detection performance of the joint coincidence analysis with LSC and Virgo
only burst searches. Adding Virgo to the LIGO detector network can increase by
50% the detection efficiency for this search. Another advantage of a joint
LIGO-Virgo network is the ability to reconstruct the source sky position. The
reconstruction accuracy depends on the timing measurement accuracy of the
events in each interferometer, and is displayed in this paper with a fixed
source position example.Comment: LIGO-Virgo working group submitted to PR
Prognostic value of gender and primary tumor location in metastatic colon cancer
Sex might influence prognosis in patients affected by colorectal cancer. We retrospectively studied a cohort of patients affected by metastatic colon cancer (mCC) stratified by sex and primary tumor location. RAS mutational status was also included in the analysis. Overall, 616 patients met the eligibility criteria, 261 women and 355 men. Neither gender, nor RAS mutational status influenced overall survival (OS) in the entire population. As expected, patients with right-sided colon cancer (RCC) had a significant shorter OS compared to those with left-sided colon cancer (LCC) (21.3 vs 33.1 months, p= 0.002). When the analysis was performed stratifying for gender, RCC retained worse prognosis among men (OS 20.5 vs 33.9 months, p= 0.008), but not among women (p= 0.132). Similarly, the presence of RAS mutations had no prognostic effect in women, but was significantly associate with shorter survival in men (OS 29.5 vs 33.7 months, p= 0.046). In addition, when comparing clinical outcome of women or men according to sidedness and RAS mutational status, RCC was associated with dismal prognosis only in men with RAS mutated tumor (OS 17.2 vs 32.3 months, p= 0.008). Our study highlights the importance of gender in the outcome of patients with mCC
Recommended from our members
Circulating Cancer Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles as a Novel Biomarker for Clinical Outcome Evaluation.
The recent introduction of the "precision medicine" concept in oncology pushed cancer research to focus on dynamic measurable biomarkers able to predict responses to novel anticancer therapies in order to improve clinical outcomes. Recently, the involvement of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in cancer pathophysiology has been described, and given their release from all cell types under specific stimuli, EVs have also been proposed as potential biomarkers in cancer. Among the techniques used to study EVs, flow cytometry has a high clinical potential. Here, we have applied a recently developed and simplified flow cytometry method for circulating EV enumeration, subtyping, and isolation from a large cohort of metastatic and locally advanced nonhaematological cancer patients (N = 106); samples from gender- and age-matched healthy volunteers were also analysed. A large spectrum of cancer-related markers was used to analyse differences in terms of peripheral blood circulating EV phenotypes between patients and healthy volunteers, as well as their correlation to clinical outcomes. Finally, EVs from patients and controls were isolated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting, and their protein cargoes were analysed by proteomics. Results demonstrated that EV counts were significantly higher in cancer patients than in healthy volunteers, as previously reported. More interestingly, results also demonstrated that cancer patients presented higher concentrations of circulating CD31+ endothelial-derived and tumour cancer stem cell-derived CD133 + CD326- EVs, when compared to healthy volunteers. Furthermore, higher levels of CD133 + CD326- EVs showed a significant correlation with a poor overall survival. Additionally, proteomics analysis of EV cargoes demonstrated disparities in terms of protein content and function between circulating EVs in cancer patients and healthy controls. Overall, our data strongly suggest that blood circulating cancer stem cell-derived EVs may have a role as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in cancer
Corrigendum to “Circulating Cancer Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles as a Novel Biomarker for Clinical Outcome Evaluation”
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2019/5879616.].Peer Reviewe
Benefits of joint LIGO -- Virgo coincidence searches for burst and inspiral signals
We examine the benefits of performing a joint LIGO--Virgo search for
transient signals. We do this by adding burst and inspiral signals to 24 hours
of simulated detector data. We find significant advantages to performing a
joint coincidence analysis, above either a LIGO only or Virgo only search.
These include an increased detection efficiency, at a fixed false alarm rate,
to both burst and inspiral events and an ability to reconstruct the sky
location of a signal.Comment: 11 pages 8 figures, Amaldi 6 proceeding
Treatment of peripheral arterial disease in diabetes: a consensus of the Italian Societies of Diabetes (SID, AMD), Radiology (SIRM) and Vascular Endovascular Surgery (SICVE).
AbstractDiabetic foot (DF) is a chronic and highly disabling complication of diabetes. The prevalence of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is high in diabetic patients and, associated or not with peripheral neuropathy (PN), can be found in 50% of cases of DF. It is worth pointing out that the number of major amputations in diabetic patients is still very high. Many PAD diabetic patients are not revascularised due to lack of technical expertise or, even worse, negative beliefs because of poor experience. This despite the progress obtained in the techniques of distal revascularisation that nowadays allow to reopen distal arteries of the leg and foot. Italy has one of the lowest prevalence rates of major amputations in Europe, and has a long tradition in the field of limb salvage by means of an aggressive approach in debridement, antibiotic therapy and distal revascularisation. Therefore, we believe it is appropriate to produce a consensus document concerning the treatment of PAD and limb salvage in diabetic patients, based on the Italian experience in this field, to share with the scientific community
- …