318 research outputs found
A case of corticosteroid-dependent recurrent pericarditis with different response to two IL-1 blocking agents
Background: Recurrent pericarditis (RP) represents the most troublesome presentation of pericarditis and has a controversial pathogenesis that crosses infectious, auto-immune and auto-inflammatory pathways. It has been suggested that in some cases it might be an unrecognized auto-inflammatory disease. Recent studies have demonstrated that anakinra, an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA), represents an effective treatment for the control of corticosteroid-dependent cases.
Objectives: To describe a case of cortico-dependent recurrent pericarditis with a different response to two IL-1 blocking agents, anakinra and canakinumab.
Methods: Case report
Results: 11 years old boy who was admitted to our hospital because of acute precordial pain, orthopnea, fever and increased levels of acute phase reactants. Acute pericarditis was confirmed by echocardiography and a treatment with prednisone was started with prompt clinical improvement. Pericarditis recurred twice during steroid tapering (1mg/kg/day and 0.5mg/kg/day respectively). After exclusion of infectious origin, therapy with anakinra (2mg/kg/day) was established (to avoid long term steroid side effects) followed by dramatic clinical response and normalisation of laboratory findings despite tapering and discontinuation of prednisone. Treatment with anakinra was discontinued after 5 months with recurrence of pericarditis one week later. Anakinra was resumed with an excellent response. Five months later, while being in complete remission, anakinra was replaced with canakinumab (2mg/kg/dose) due to patient’s intolerance of daily injections. One week later, the patient experienced a new episode of pericarditis requiring corticotherapy. Two more relapses occured during steroid tapering, after 6 weeks and 2 months, in spite of the uptitration of canakinumab to 4mg/kg/dose. Anakinra was restarted with prompt clinical and biological remission and prednisone was discontinuated without recurrence of pericarditis. After further four weeks follow-up under anakinra alone, the pericarditis is still in remission.
Conclusion: We describe a case of steroid-dependent RP with a dramatic therapeutic response to IL-1RA (anakinra) but without response to IL-1β monoclonal antibody (canakinumab). This unexpected observation could suggest that Il-1α might have a role in the pathogenesis of RP. The definitive potential usefulness of each IL-1 blocking agent requires confirmation in prospective controlled trials
Ferromagnetism in Diluted Magnetic Semiconductor Heterojunction Systems
Diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMSs), in which magnetic elements are
substituted for a small fraction of host elements in a semiconductor lattice,
can become ferromagnetic when doped. In this article we discuss the physics of
DMS ferromagnetism in systems with semiconductor heterojunctions. We focus on
the mechanism that cause magnetic and magnetoresistive properties to depend on
doping profiles, defect distributions, gate voltage, and other system
parameters that can in principle be engineered to yield desired results.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, review, special issue of Semicon. Sci. Technol.
on semiconductor spintronic
Exchange anisotropy, disorder and frustration in diluted, predominantly ferromagnetic, Heisenberg spin systems
Motivated by the recent suggestion of anisotropic effective exchange
interactions between Mn spins in GaMnAs (arising as a result of
spin-orbit coupling), we study their effects in diluted Heisenberg spin
systems. We perform Monte Carlo simulations on several phenomenological model
spin Hamiltonians, and investigate the extent to which frustration induced by
anisotropic exchanges can reduce the low temperature magnetization in these
models and the interplay of this effect with disorder in the exchange. In a
model with low coordination number and purely ferromagnetic (FM) exchanges, we
find that the low temperature magnetization is gradually reduced as exchange
anisotropy is turned on. However, as the connectivity of the model is
increased, the effect of small-to-moderate anisotropy is suppressed, and the
magnetization regains its maximum saturation value at low temperatures unless
the distribution of exchanges is very wide. To obtain significant suppression
of the low temperature magnetization in a model with high connectivity, as is
found for long-range interactions, we find it necessary to have both
ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic (AFM) exchanges (e.g. as in the RKKY
interaction). This implies that disorder in the sign of the exchange
interaction is much more effective in suppressing magnetization at low
temperatures than exchange anisotropy.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
Electronic structure and magnetism of Mn doped GaN
Mn doped semiconductors are extremely interesting systems due to their novel
magnetic properties suitable for the spintronics applications. It has been
shown recently by both theory and experiment that Mn doped GaN systems have a
very high Curie temperature compared to that of Mn doped GaAs systems. To
understand the electronic and magnetic properties, we have studied Mn doped GaN
system in detail by a first principles plane wave method. We show here the
effect of varying Mn concentration on the electronic and magnetic properties.
For dilute Mn concentration, states of Mn form an impurity band completely
separated from the valence band states of the host GaN. This is in contrast to
the Mn doped GaAs system where Mn states in the gap lie very close to the
valence band edge and hybridizes strongly with the delocalized valence band
states.
To study the effects of electron correlation, LSDA+U calculations have been
performed.
Calculated exchange interaction in (Mn,Ga)N is short ranged in contrary to
that in (Mn,Ga)As where the strength of the ferromagnetic coupling between Mn
spins is not decreased substantially for large Mn-Mn separation. Also, the
exchange interactions are anisotropic in different crystallographic directions
due to the presence or absence of connectivity between Mn atoms through As
bonds.Comment: 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Temperature-dependent magnetization in diluted magnetic semiconductors
We calculate magnetization in magnetically doped semiconductors assuming a
local exchange model of carrier-mediated ferromagnetic mechanism and using a
number of complementary theoretical approaches. In general, we find that the
results of our mean-field calculations, particularly the dynamical mean field
theory results, give excellent qualitative agreement with the experimentally
observed magnetization in systems with itinerant charge carriers, such as
Ga_{1-x}Mn_xAs with 0.03 < x < 0.07, whereas our percolation-theory-based
calculations agree well with the existing data in strongly insulating
materials, such as Ge_{1-x}Mn_x. We comment on the issue of non-mean-field like
magnetization curves and on the observed incomplete saturation magnetization
values in diluted magnetic semiconductors from our theoretical perspective. In
agreement with experimental observations, we find the carrier density to be the
crucial parameter determining the magnetization behavior. Our calculated
dependence of magnetization on external magnetic field is also in excellent
agreement with the existing experimental data.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figure
Specific effects of bortezomib against experimental malignant pleural effusion: a preclinical study
BACKGROUND: We have previously shown that nuclear factor (NF)-κB activation of mouse Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) specifically promotes the induction of malignant pleural effusions (MPE) by these cells. In the present studies we hypothesized that treatment of immunocompetent mice with bortezomib tailored to inhibit cancer cell NF-κB activation and not proliferation specifically inhibits MPE formation by LLC cells. RESULTS: Treatment of LLC cells with low concentrations of bortezomib (100 ng/ml) inhibited NF-κB activation and NF-κB-dependent transcription, but not cellular proliferation. Bortezomib treatment of immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice bearing LLC-induced subcutaneous tumors and MPEs significantly blocked tumor-specific NF-κB activation. However, bortezomib treatment did not impair subcutaneous LLC tumor growth, but was effective in limiting LLC-induced MPE. This specific effect was evidenced by significant reductions in effusion accumulation and the associated mortality and was observed with both preventive (beginning before MPE formation) and therapeutic (beginning after MPE establishment) bortezomib treatment. The favorable impact of bortezomib on MPE was associated with suppression of cardinal MPE-associated phenomena, such as inflammation, vascular hyperpermeability, and angiogenesis. In this regard, therapeutic bortezomib treatment had identical favorable results on MPE compared with preventive treatment, indicating that the drug specifically counteracts effusion formation. CONCLUSIONS: These studies indicate that proteasome inhibition tailored to block NF-κB activation of lung adenocarcinoma specifically targets the effusion-inducing phenotype of this tumor. Although the drug has limited activity against advanced solid lung cancer, it may prove beneficial for patients with MPE
On-site Coulomb interaction and the magnetism of (GaMn)N and (GaMn)As
We use the local density approximation (LDA) and LDA+U schemes to study the
magnetism of (GaMn)As and (GaMn)N for a number of Mn concentrations and varying
number of holes. We show that for both systems and both calculational schemes
the presence of holes is crucial for establishing ferromagnetism. For both
systems, the introduction of increases delocalization of the holes and,
simultaneously, decreases the p-d interaction. Since these two trends exert
opposite influences on the Mn-Mn exchange interaction the character of the
variation of the Curie temperature (T) cannot be predicted without direct
calculation. We show that the variation of T is different for two systems.
For low Mn concentrations we obtain the tendency to increasing T in the
case of (GaMn)N whereas an opposite tendency to decreasing T is obtained
for (GaMn)As. We reveal the origin of this difference by inspecting the
properties of the densities of states and holes for both systems. The main body
of calculations is performed within a supercell approach. The Curie
temperatures calculated within the coherent potential approximation to atomic
disorder are reported for comparison. Both approaches give similar qualitative
behavior. The results of calculations are related to the experimental data.Comment: to appear in Physical Review
Single-Band Model for Diluted Magnetic Semiconductors: Dynamical and Transport Properties and Relevance of Clustered States
Dynamical and transport properties of a simple single-band spin-fermion
lattice model for (III,Mn)V diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) is here
discussed using Monte Carlo simulations. This effort is a continuation of
previous work (G. Alvarez, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 277202 (2002)) where the static
properties of the model were studied. The present results support the view that
the relevant regime of J/t (standard notation) is that of intermediate
coupling, where carriers are only partially trapped near Mn spins, and locally
ordered regions (clusters) are present above the Curie temperature T_C. This
conclusion is based on the calculation of the resistivity vs. temperature, that
shows a soft metal to insulator transition near T_C, as well on the analysis of
the density-of-states and optical conductivity. In addition, in the clustered
regime a large magnetoresistance is observed in simulations. Formal analogies
between DMS and manganites are also discussed.Comment: Revtex4, 20 figures. References updated, minor changes to figures and
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