The Accuracy of Computed Tomography in the Pretreatment T and N Staging of Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer is one of the most frequent cancers around the world. Multimodality therapies are used for colorectal cancer including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted therapy. Correct treatment plan depends greatly on the accurate pretreatment staging. Computed tomography (CT) is a widely used detection and staging modality for colorectal cancer patients in clinical practice. The role of CT in assessing the patients with colorectal cancer has been well established, but the accuracy of evaluating and staging colorectal cancer by CT varies in different reports. With the development of CT techniques, some reformations such as multi-detector CT, CT with water enema or air insufflations, multiple planner reconstruction help to give us higher resolution images in shorter time. CT is playing an increasingly important role in pretreatment staging of colorectal cancer, though magnetic resonance imaging and endorectal ultrasound may provide more precise images and evaluation of local T and N staging of rectal cancer. Finally, positron emission tomography (PET) or PET/CT have not shown significant improvement over CT after completion of standard pretreatment evaluation

First report of Antigastra catalaunalis on sesame in Greece.

In August 2016, severe infestations of sesame crops by the sesame leaf webber and capsule borer, Antigastra catalaunalis (Duponchel) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), were recorded in rural areas of the Regional Unit of Drama, Northern Greece. Larval feeding-damage symptoms were observed on leaves and capsules. Infestations were recorded in all of the inspected sesame fields. The infestation levels were considerable high resulting in significant economic loss. To our knowledge, this is the first report of A. catalaunalis severe infestation on sesame in Greece

Alternative platelet differentiation pathways initiated by nonhierarchically related hematopoietic stem cells

Rare multipotent stem cells replenish millions of blood cells per second through a time-consuming process, passing through multiple stages of increasingly lineage-restricted progenitors. Although insults to the blood-forming system highlight the need for more rapid blood replenishment from stem cells, established models of hematopoiesis implicate only one mandatory differentiation pathway for each blood cell lineage. Here, we establish a nonhierarchical relationship between distinct stem cells that replenish all blood cell lineages and stem cells that replenish almost exclusively platelets, a lineage essential for hemostasis and with important roles in both the innate and adaptive immune systems. These distinct stem cells use cellularly, molecularly and functionally separate pathways for the replenishment of molecularly distinct megakaryocyte-restricted progenitors: a slower steady-state multipotent pathway and a fast-track emergency-activated platelet-restricted pathway. These findings provide a framework for enhancing platelet replenishment in settings in which slow recovery of platelets remains a major clinical challenge

Human Bone Marrow Organoids for Disease Modeling, Discovery, and Validation of Therapeutic Targets in Hematologic Malignancies

A lack of models that recapitulate the complexity of human bone marrow has hampered mechanistic studies of normal and malignant hematopoiesis and the validation of novel therapies. Here, we describe a step-wise, directed-differentiation protocol in which organoids are generated from induced pluripotent stem cells committed to mesenchymal, endothelial, and hematopoietic lineages. These 3D structures capture key features of human bone marrow— stroma, lumen-forming sinusoids, and myeloid cells including proplatelet-forming megakaryocytes. The organoids supported the engraftment and survival of cells from patients with blood malignancies, including cancer types notoriously difficult to maintain ex vivo. Fibrosis of the organoid occurred following TGFβ stimulation and engraftment with myelofibrosis but not healthy donor–derived cells, validating this platform as a powerful tool for studies of malignant cells and their interactions within a human bone marrow–like milieu. This enabling technology is likely to accelerate the discovery and prioritization of novel targets for bone marrow disorders and blood cancers. SIGNIFICANCE: We present a human bone marrow organoid that supports the growth of primary cells from patients with myeloid and lymphoid blood cancers. This model allows for mechanistic studies of blood cancers in the context of their microenvironment and provides a much-needed ex vivo tool for the prioritization of new therapeutics.</p

A blood atlas of COVID-19 defines hallmarks of disease severity and specificity.

Treatment of severe COVID-19 is currently limited by clinical heterogeneity and incomplete description of specific immune biomarkers. We present here a comprehensive multi-omic blood atlas for patients with varying COVID-19 severity in an integrated comparison with influenza and sepsis patients versus healthy volunteers. We identify immune signatures and correlates of host response. Hallmarks of disease severity involved cells, their inflammatory mediators and networks, including progenitor cells and specific myeloid and lymphocyte subsets, features of the immune repertoire, acute phase response, metabolism, and coagulation. Persisting immune activation involving AP-1/p38MAPK was a specific feature of COVID-19. The plasma proteome enabled sub-phenotyping into patient clusters, predictive of severity and outcome. Systems-based integrative analyses including tensor and matrix decomposition of all modalities revealed feature groupings linked with severity and specificity compared to influenza and sepsis. Our approach and blood atlas will support future drug development, clinical trial design, and personalized medicine approaches for COVID-19

Abstracts from the 20th International Symposium on Signal Transduction at the Blood-Brain Barriers

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138963/1/12987_2017_Article_71.pd

The polymorphism of cytochrome P450 CYP2C19 and resistance to clopidogrel.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of CYP2C19 polymorphism on the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events in patients treated with clopidogrel and detection of potential prognostic factors predictive of resistance factors to clopidogrel have not been clearly elucidated