Institutionalizing Experimental Places for Inclusive Social Innovation: From Utopias to Heterotopias.

This essay embraces a notion of critical scholarship concerned with proposing normative and actionable alternatives that can create more inclusive societies and focuses on the role of institutionalizing experimental places for inclusive social innovation as a bottom-up strategic response to welfare state reforms. By mobilizing the notions of utopias and heterotopias in Foucault, the paper sheds light on the opportunity to move from policy utopias to democratic heterotopias, discussing the politics embedded in this cognitive shift and the democratic nature of social innovation changing social and governance relations by interacting with politico-administrative systems. Some obstacles to institutionalizing social innovation are highlighted, as well as some key governance mechanisms that can be activated either by public and/or social purpose organizations to try to overcome those obstacles. Finally, we discuss the importance of linking inclusive social innovation with democratic, rather than market logics

Effects of Single or Combined Treatments with Radiation and Chemotherapy on Survival and Danger Signals Expression in Glioblastoma Cell Lines

The success of chemo-and radiotherapy in glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and lethal primary brain tumour, could rely on the induction of immunogenic tumour cell death and on the induction of anticancer immune response. In this study we investigated cell survival to single treatments or combination of X-rays and temozolomide in glioblastoma cell lines (T98G and U251MG) and we attempted to identify danger signals (HMGB1 and HSP70) released by dying cells in the microenvironment that could activate antitumour immunity contributing to the therapeutic efficacy of conventional treatments. Our data suggest that HSP70 translocates from cytoplasm to extracellular environment after an increase in radiation dose and HMGB1 translocates from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and subsequently is released into the extracellular space, confirming a role of these proteins as signals released after radiation-induced damage in glioblastoma cells. We also could state that TMZ had limited effectiveness in activating HMGB1 and HSP70 signalling and, instead, an adjuvant effect was observed in some combined treatments, depending on schedule, cell line, and timing. A big challenge in tumour therapy is, therefore, to identify the most beneficial combination and chronology of multiple treatment options to contribute to the improvement of the therapeutic outcome

NMR as evaluation strategy for cellular uptake of nanoparticles

Advanced nanostructured materials, such as gold nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles, and multifunctional materials, are nowadays used in many state-of-the-art biomedical application. However, although the engineering in this field is very advanced, there remain some fundamental problems involving the interaction mechanisms between nanostructures and cells or tissues. Here we show the potential of 1H NMR in the investigation of the uptake of two different kinds of nanostructures, that is, maghemite and gold nanoparticles, and of a chemotherapy drug (Temozolomide) in glioblastoma tumor cells. The proposed experimental protocol provides a new way to investigate the general problem of cellular uptake for a variety of biocompatible nanostructures and drugs. © 2014 American Chemical Society

Intrinsic Resistance to MEK Inhibition in KRAS Mutant Lung and Colon Cancer through Transcriptional Induction of ERBB3

Summary There are no effective therapies for the ∼30% of human malignancies with mutant RAS oncogenes. Using a kinome-centered synthetic lethality screen, we find that suppression of the ERBB3 receptor tyrosine kinase sensitizes KRAS mutant lung and colon cancer cells to MEK inhibitors. We show that MEK inhibition results in MYC-dependent transcriptional upregulation of ERBB3, which is responsible for intrinsic drug resistance. Drugs targeting both EGFR and ERBB2, each capable of forming heterodimers with ERBB3, can reverse unresponsiveness to MEK inhibition by decreasing inhibitory phosphorylation of the proapoptotic proteins BAD and BIM. Moreover, ERBB3 protein level is a biomarker of response to combinatorial treatment. These data suggest a combination strategy for treating KRAS mutant colon and lung cancers and a way to identify the tumors that are most likely to benefit from such combinatorial treatment

Application of the DSM-5 Criteria for Major Neurocognitive Disorder to Vascular MCI Patients

Aims: The DSM-5 introduced the term "major neurocognitive disorders" (NCDs) to replace the previous term "dementia." However, psychometric and functional definitions of NCDs are missing. We aimed to apply the DSM-5 criteria for diagnosing the transition to NCD to patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and small vessel disease (SVD), and to define clinically significant thresholds for this transition. Methods: The functional and cognitive features of the NCD criteria were evaluated as change from baseline and operationalized according to hierarchically ordered psychometric rules. Results: According to the applied criteria, out of 138 patients, 44 were diagnosed with major NCD (21 with significant cognitive worsening in ≥1 additional cognitive domain), 84 remained stable, and 10 reverted to normal. Single-domain MCI patients were the most likely to revert to normal, and none progressed to major NCD. The amnestic multiple-domain MCI patients had the highest rate of progression to NCD. Conclusion: We provide rules for the DSM-5 criteria for major NCD based on cognitive and functional changes over time, and define psychometric thresholds for clinically significant worsening to be used in longitudinal studies. According to these operationalized criteria, one-third of the MCI patients with SVD progressed to major NCD after 2 years, but only within the multiple-domain subtypes

A Revamped Rat Reference Genome Improves the Discovery of Genetic Diversity in Laboratory Rats

The seventh iteration of the reference genome assembly for Rattus norvegicus-mRatBN7.2-corrects numerous misplaced segments and reduces base-level errors by approximately 9-fold and increases contiguity by 290-fold compared with its predecessor. Gene annotations are now more complete, improving the mapping precision of genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomics datasets. We jointly analyzed 163 short-read whole-genome sequencing datasets representing 120 laboratory rat strains and substrains using mRatBN7.2. We defined ∼20.0 million sequence variations, of which 18,700 are predicted to potentially impact the function of 6,677 genes. We also generated a new rat genetic map from 1,893 heterogeneous stock rats and annotated transcription start sites and alternative polyadenylation sites. The mRatBN7.2 assembly, along with the extensive analysis of genomic variations among rat strains, enhances our understanding of the rat genome, providing researchers with an expanded resource for studies involving rats

Real-time monitoring shows substantial excess all-cause mortality during second wave of COVID-19 in Europe, October to December 2020.

The European monitoring of excess mortality for public health action (EuroMOMO) network monitors weekly excess all-cause mortality in 27 European countries or subnational areas. During the first wave of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Europe in spring 2020, several countries experienced extraordinarily high levels of excess mortality. Europe is currently seeing another upsurge in COVID-19 cases, and EuroMOMO is again witnessing a substantial excess all-cause mortality attributable to COVID-19.Funding statement: The EuroMOMO network hub at Statens Serum Institut receives funding from European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Solna, Sweden, through a framework contract 2017-2020.S

The landscape of somatic copy-number alteration across human cancers

available in PMC 2010 August 18.A powerful way to discover key genes with causal roles in oncogenesis is to identify genomic regions that undergo frequent alteration in human cancers. Here we present high-resolution analyses of somatic copy-number alterations (SCNAs) from 3,131 cancer specimens, belonging largely to 26 histological types. We identify 158 regions of focal SCNA that are altered at significant frequency across several cancer types, of which 122 cannot be explained by the presence of a known cancer target gene located within these regions. Several gene families are enriched among these regions of focal SCNA, including the BCL2 family of apoptosis regulators and the NF-κΒ pathway. We show that cancer cells containing amplifications surrounding the MCL1 and BCL2L1 anti-apoptotic genes depend on the expression of these genes for survival. Finally, we demonstrate that a large majority of SCNAs identified in individual cancer types are present in several cancer types.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Pacific Northwest Prostate Cancer SPOREs, P50CA90578)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Pacific Northwest Prostate Cancer SPOREs, R01CA109038))National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Pacific Northwest Prostate Cancer SPOREs, R01CA109467)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Pacific Northwest Prostate Cancer SPOREs, P01CA085859)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Pacific Northwest Prostate Cancer SPOREs, P01CA 098101)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Pacific Northwest Prostate Cancer SPOREs, K08CA122833

Lopinavir/Ritonavir and Darunavir/Cobicistat in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: Findings From the Multicenter Italian CORIST Study

Background: Protease inhibitors have been considered as possible therapeutic agents for COVID-19 patients. Objectives: To describe the association between lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) or darunavir/cobicistat (DRV/c) use and in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients. Study Design: Multicenter observational study of COVID-19 patients admitted in 33 Italian hospitals. Medications, preexisting conditions, clinical measures, and outcomes were extracted from medical records. Patients were retrospectively divided in three groups, according to use of LPV/r, DRV/c or none of them. Primary outcome in a time-to event analysis was death. We used Cox proportional-hazards models with inverse probability of treatment weighting by multinomial propensity scores. Results: Out of 3,451 patients, 33.3% LPV/r and 13.9% received DRV/c. Patients receiving LPV/r or DRV/c were more likely younger, men, had higher C-reactive protein levels while less likely had hypertension, cardiovascular, pulmonary or kidney disease. After adjustment for propensity scores, LPV/r use was not associated with mortality (HR = 0.94, 95% CI 0.78 to 1.13), whereas treatment with DRV/c was associated with a higher death risk (HR = 1.89, 1.53 to 2.34, E-value = 2.43). This increased risk was more marked in women, in elderly, in patients with higher severity of COVID-19 and in patients receiving other COVID-19 drugs. Conclusions: In a large cohort of Italian patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in a real-life setting, the use of LPV/r treatment did not change death rate, while DRV/c was associated with increased mortality. Within the limits of an observational study, these data do not support the use of LPV/r or DRV/c in COVID-19 patients