Feasibility of intrafraction whole-body motion tracking for total marrow irradiation

With image-guided tomotherapy, highly targeted total marrow irradiation (TMI) has become a feasible alternative to conventional total body irradiation. The uncertainties in patient localization and intrafraction motion of the whole body during hour-long TMI treatment may pose a risk to the safety and accuracy of targeted radiation treatment. The feasibility of near-infrared markers and optical tracking system (OTS) is accessed along with a megavoltage scanning system of tomotherapy. Three near-infrared markers placed on the face of a rando phantom are used to evaluate the capability of OTS in measuring changes in the markers’ positions as the rando is moved in the translational direction. The OTS is also employed to determine breathing motion related changes in the position of 16 markers placed on the chest surface of human volunteers. The maximum uncertainty in locating marker position with the OTS is 1.5 mm. In the case of normal and deep breathing motion, the maximum marker position change is observed in anterior–posterior direction with the respective values of 4 and 12 mm. The OTS is able to measure surface changes due to breathing motion. The OTS may be optimized to monitor whole body motion during TMI to increase the accuracy of treatment delivery and reduce the radiation dose to the lungs

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field