Exosomes and immune response in cancer: Friends or foes?

Exosomes are a type of extracellular vesicle whose study has grown exponentially in recent years. This led to the understanding that these structures, far from being inert waste by-products of cellular functioning, are active players in intercellular communication mechanisms, including in the interactions between cancer cells and the immune system. The deep comprehension of the crosstalk between tumors and the immune systems of their hosts has gained more and more importance, as immunotherapeutic techniques have emerged as viable options for several types of cancer. In this review, we present a comprehensive, updated, and elucidative review of the current knowledge on the functions played by the exosomes in this crosstalk. The roles of these vesicles in tumor antigen presentation, immune activation, and immunosuppression are approached as the relevant interactions between exosomes and the complement system. The last section of this review is reserved for the exploration of the results from the first phase I to II clinical trials of exosomes-based cell-free cancer vaccines.The laboratory is supported by FEDER—Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020—Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by FCT— Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia/Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia e Inovacao in the framework of the projects “Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences” (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274), (PTDC/BIM-ONC/2754/2014), and (PTDC/BIM-MEC/2834/2014); and by Norte Portugal Regional Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the project NORTE- 01-0145-FEDER-000029. SM is supported by FCT (IF/00543/2013)

Influencia do material de origem, superficies geomorficas e posição na vertente nos atributos de solos da região dos Campos Gerais, PR

Resumo: A falta de informação à cerca da gênese dos solos da região dos Campos Gerais-PR, motivou a realização deste trabalho. A pesquisa foi conduzida em uma área de 375 ha, cujo material de origem dos solos é constituido essencialmente por sedimentos clásticos do período devoniano. As superfícies geomórfícas e unidades de mapeamento de solos foram identificadas, caracterizadas e mapeadas. Procedeu-se também à compartimentação das vertentes em segmentos. Foram traçadas seis transeções, nas quais 135 pontos foram amostrados em superfície e subsuperfície, material com o qual foram realizadas análises granulométricas e químicas de rotina. Foram ainda efetuadas análises da mineralogía e micromorfologia em amostras de cinco perfis, localizados em pontos estratégicos . Os atributos físicos e químicos dos solos foram comparados nas dez unidades de mapeamento de solos e quatro superfícies geomórfícas identificadas. Nestas também foram inferidas suas idades relativas. Elaborou-se uma seqüência hipotética para a evolução da paisagem e formação das superfícies geomórfícas. Observou-se maior variabilidade de solos nas superfícies mais jovens e erosionáis do que nas mais antigas e deposicionais. Os segmentos de vertente meia encosta e topo, foram os que apresentaram maior e menor diferenciação de solos, respectivamente. Detectou-se a ocorrência de um depósito superficial recobrindo a formação Furnas, em posição de cimeira, formado à partir de material retrabalhado das formações Ponta Grossa e Furnas, responsável pelo comportamento diferenciado de vários atributos. Houve decréscimo regular nos valores de pH, % de argila e saturação por bases, e, elevação, da % de areia, saturação por alumínio, CTC/100g de argila e da relação silte/argila, da superfície geomórfica mais antiga para a mais recente. Observou-se que a tendência do comportamento de vários atributos dos solos, pode ser quantitativamente estimada através de equações de regressão com o parâmetro DT (distância do topo). A identificação de alguns fatores, tais como; mudança no material de origem, tipo de superfícies geomórfícas e suas idades relativas, posição ocupada pelos solos na vertente, formação de crostas ferruginosas em subsuperfície; facilitaram a compreensão da organização espacial dos solos na paisagem

Ten years of METEOR (an international rheumatoid arthritis registry): development, research opportunities and future perspectives

OBJECTIVES: Ten years ago, the METEOR tool was developed to simulate treatment-to-target and create an international research database. The development of the METEOR tool and database, research opportunities and future perspectives are described. METHODS: The METEOR tool is a free, online, internationally available tool in which daily practice visits of all rheumatoid arthritis patients visiting a rheumatologist can be registered. In the tool, disease characteristics, patient- and physician-reported outcomes and prescribed treatment could be entered. These can be subsequently displayed in powerful graphics, facilitating treatment decisions and patient-physician interactions. An upload facility is also available, by which data from local electronic health record systems or registries can be integrated into the METEOR database. This is currently being actively used in, among other countries, the Netherlands, Portugal and India. RESULTS: Since an increasing number of hospitals use electronic health record systems, the upload facility is being actively used by an increasing number of sites, enabling them to benefit from the benchmark and research opportunities of METEOR. Enabling a connection between local registries and METEOR is a well established but time-consuming process for which an IT-specialist of METEOR and the local registry are necessary. However, once this process has been finished, data can be uploaded regularly and relatively easily according to a pre-specified format. The METEOR database currently contains data from >39,000 patients and >200,000 visits, from 32 different countries and is ever increasing. Continuous efforts are being undertaken to increase the quality of data in the database. CONCLUSIONS: Since METEOR was founded 10 years ago, many rheumatologists worldwide have used the METEOR tool to follow-up their patients and improve the quality of care they provide to their patients. Combined with uploaded data, this has led to an extensive growth of the database. It now offers a unique opportunity to study daily practice care and to perform research regarding cross-country differences in a large, worldwide setting, which could provide important knowledge about disease and its treatment in different geographic and clinical settings

Noise in an Intensive Care Nursery/Newborn Unit

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Periodontitis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the association between periodontitis (PD) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A systematic search was conducted through the following electronic databases: Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, LILACS, CINAHL and SIGLE (System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe) for relevant publications up to September 2020 with no language restriction. The association between PD and SLE was assessed by the prevalence of PD in SLE patients (both sex and females only) as the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included differences in common gingival parameters including probing pocket depth (PPD), clinical attachment level (CAL), disease activity index (SLEDAI) scores of SLE patients with or without PD. A total of 1183 citations and 22 full text articles were screened. Eighteen articles were included in the qualitative synthesis, and 13 in the quantitative analysis. SLE diagnosis was associated with greater odds of PD (OR = 1.33, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.20–1.48), but these were non-significant when examined in females (OR = 3.20, 95%CI: 0.85–12.02). Patients with SLE exhibited no differences in PPD (SMD: −0.09 mm, 95%CI: −0.45–0.27) and CAL (SMD: 0.05 mm, 95%CI: −0.30–0.40) when compared with systemically healthy controls. PD diagnosis was, however, associated with higher SLEDAI scores in patients suffering from SLE (SMD: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.03–1.32). PD and SLE are both inflammatory diseases and their association could be bi-directional. This review suggested that the patients with SLE have greater odds of suffering with PD. Further investigations are required to assess the association between PD and SLE

Is there a bidirectional association between rheumatoid arthritis and periodontitis? A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND Several lines of evidence suggest a bi-directional association between Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Periodontitis (PD). Our aim was to systematically appraise the evidence on the association between RA and PD in terms of clinical and laboratory outcomes. METHODS An electronic search of several databases (PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, LILACS, CINHL, Scopus, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, OpenGrey and Google Scholar) was conducted up to March 2019 (PROSPERO CRD42018107817) by two independent reviewers. Observational studies included in the review were quality-appraised using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) tool. Random effects models were used for quantitative analyses. RESULTS A total of 8 case-control studies were identified after the final search of 1491 titles. Following quality assessment, 2 studies were excluded due to the high risk of bias, while the remaining 6 were further analysed. Meta-analyses revealed no substantial effect of RA on the Probing Pocket Depth (PPD) and Clinical Attachment Level (CAL) of patients with PD when compared to controls but high degree of study heterogeneity was found. To the contrary, PD was associated with substantially worse RA disease activity as assessed by an increase in the DAS28 score of 0.74 (0.25–1.24, 95%CI, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION There is consistent evidence suggesting that PD is associated with worse RA clinical activity as assessed by DAS28 scores whereas, RA patients do not have worsen PD clinical outcomes

Periodontitis and circulating blood cell profiles: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease with local and systemic implications. Evidence suggests consistent hematologic changes associated with periodontitis. Our aim was to critically appraise the available evidence on hemogram, leukogram, and thrombogram alterations in otherwise healthy patients suffering from periodontitis when compared with controls. For this systematic review (SR), we searched MEDLINE, Web of Science, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library (CENTRAL) for studies published up to June 2020. Both observational and interventional studies with baseline standard hematologic levels were included. Outcomes of interest were baseline hemogram, leukogram, and thrombogram values and the impact of periodontitis treatment on these outcomes. Upon risk of bias assessment, data extraction and both qualitative and quantitative (standardized mean differences) analyses were performed. Random-effects meta-analyses were performed to provide pooled estimates. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed (PROSPERO Reg. No. CRD42020164531). A total of 45 studies, eight intervention and 37 case–control studies, were identified after the final search of 3,012 titles. Following quality assessment, 43 articles were deemed to have low risk of bias, and two articles moderate risk. Meta-analyses confirmed that periodontitis was associated with both white and red cell lineages. Severe chronic periodontitis was associated with greater white blood cell counts (mean difference [MD] = 0.53, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.26–0.79) when compared with controls. Periodontitis was associated with a larger number of neutrophils (MD = 7.16%, 95% CI: 5.96–8.37) and lower mean platelet volume (MD = 0.30 fL, 95% CI: 0.49 to −0.10) compared with healthy participants. Nonsurgical periodontal treatment was associated with a decrease in white blood cell (WBC) levels (MD = 0.28 10 9/L, 95% CI: −0.47 to −0.08) in patients with chronic periodontitis. Periodontitis is associated with hematologic changes (Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy [SORT] A recommendation). Higher WBC levels, higher neutrophil levels, higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and lower mean platelet volumes are the most common blood count findings. The association between periodontitis and WBC could be causal in nature. Further assessment to determine whether periodontitis causes changes in circulating blood cells and to identify the molecular mechanisms underlying these associations is warranted

Metals impact into the Paranaguá Estuarine Complex (Brazil) during the exceptional flood of 2011

Abstract Particulate and dissolved metal concentrations were determined after the largest flood in the last 30 years on the east-west axis of the Paranaguá Estuarine Complex (PEC) and compared to the those of the dry period at two stations. Results confirmed that the flood greatly affected riverine outflows and the behavior of metals in the PEC. In particular, a sharp decrease in salinity was followed by extremely high SPM concentrations leading to a decrease in DO concentrations at both stations. For the dissolved phase, ANOSIM analysis showed a significant dissimilarity at each station between the sampled periods, whereas for the particulate phase this dissimilarity was found only for the samplings taken at the Antonina Station. KD values suggested dissolved Cu behavior was related to the presence of organic complexes and dissolved Mn had sediment resuspension of redox sediments and or/pore water injection as sources. Metal concentrations were lower than in polluted estuaries, though high enrichment factors found after the flood pointed to the influence of anthropogenic sources. In conclusion, the flood's influence was more evident at the Antonina Station, due to its location in the upper estuary, whereas in Paranaguá a high SPM content with low metal concentration was found, following the common pattern generally found in other marine systems subject to heavy rainfall events

Development of antimicrobial protein-based polymers for biomedical applications

Inspired in naturally occurring fibrous proteins and composed of amino acid building blocks commonly found in structural proteins, protein-based polymers (PBPs) are a group of materials with unique chemical, physical and biological properties. Coventional recombinant DNA technology allows the biological synthesis of recombinant protein-based polymers (rPBPs) with precise control over its size and composition and the incorporation of functional bioactive domains such as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Owing to the unique balance between their mechanical properties, biocompatibility, biodegradability and thermostability, elastin-like recombinamers (ELRs) and silk-elastin like proteins (SELPs) are two of the most remarkable families of rPBP for biotechnological applications. Here, we describe the functionalization of a SELP and an ELR with different antimicrobial peptides that showed promising results against several Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains. This will provide the basis for the development of advanced biomaterials processed into different types of structures (e.g. hydrogels, films, fibers, particles) suitable for biomedical applications