Negative HER2/neu amplification using immunohistochemistry and chromogenic in situ hybridization techniques in skin melanoma cases

Background: This study was performed to evaluate the amplification of HER-2/neu in patients with melanoma. Materials and Methods: Amplification of HER-2/neu was evaluated in a group of patients with melanoma, referred to two referral centers in Tehran, using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH) techniques. Results: Forty patients with mean age 57.9±19.5 years were enrolled in this study. The most frequent type of melanoma was acral, while lower limbs were the most frequent sites. The amplification of HER2/ neu was negative in 97.5 of patients with IHC and in 100 of patients with CISH technique. Only one case (2.5) shows weak positive staining (+2) in IHC method. Fifty five percent of melanoma was ulcerative, and the most common stages of tumors were stages 4b and 3b. More than 47 of cases were in Clark level III, while the mean of Breslow thickness was 3.56±2.87 mm. The stage of the case that showed weakly positive staining (2+) in IHC was 4b. Conclusions: The amplification of HER2/neu biomarker was negative in patients with melanoma, using both CISH and IHC techniques

Subtype-specific surface proteins on adipose tissue macrophages and their association to obesity-induced insulin resistance

A chronic low-grade inflammation, originating in the adipose tissue, is considered a driver of obesity-associated insulin resistance. Macrophage composition in white adipose tissue is believed to contribute to the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases, but a detailed characterization of pro- and anti-inflammatory adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) in human obesity and how they are distributed in visceral- and subcutaneous adipose depots is lacking. In this study, we performed a surface proteome screening of pro- and anti-inflammatory ATMs in both subcutaneous- (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and evaluated their relationship with systemic insulin resistance. From the proteomics screen we found novel surface proteins specific to M1-like- and M2-like macrophages, and we identified depot-specific immunophenotypes in SAT and VAT. Furthermore, we found that insulin resistance, assessed by HOMA-IR, was positively associated with a relative increase in pro-inflammatory M1-like macrophages in both SAT and VAT.publishedVersio

A comparative study of long interspersed element-1 protein immunoreactivity in cutaneous malignancies

Background: Skin cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and commonly classified into malignant melanoma (MM) and Nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSCs), which mainly include basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The extent to which Long Interspersed Element-1 (LINE-1, L1) ORF1p is expressed in cutaneous malignancies remains to be evaluated. This study aimed to assess LINE-1 ORF1p immunoreactivity in various skin cancer subtypes. Method: The expression level of LINE-1 ORF1p was evaluated in 95 skin cancer specimens comprising 36 (37.9) BCC, 28 (29.5) SCC, and 31 (32.6) melanoma using the tissue microarray (TMA) technique. Then the association between expression of LINE-1 encoded protein and clinicopathological parameters was analyzed. Results: We showed that LINE-1 ORF1p expression level was substantially higher in BCC and SCC patients compared with melanoma samples (p 0.05). Conclusions: According to our observation, LINE-1 ORF1p immunoreactivity in various skin tumor subtypes extends previous studies of LINE-1 expression in different cancers. LINE-1ORF1p overexpression in NMSCs compared with MM can be considered with caution as a tumor-specific antigen for NMSCs. © 2020 The Author(s)

Effects of nonantibiotic feed additives on performance, nutrient retention, gut pH, and intestinal morphology of broilers fed different levels of energy.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of different feed additives on performance, nutrient retention, gut pH, and intestinal morphology of broilers fed different levels of energy. This study was a 4 × 2 factorial arrangement of 4 feed additive programs (a basal diet without any feed additive as the control, the basal diet with added organic acid, the basal diet with added prebiotic, and the basal diet with added probiotic) with recommended levels (3,150 and 3,200 kcal of ME/kg of diet for the starter and finisher diets, respectively) or low levels (90% of recommended) of energy. A total of 640 one-day-old male and female broiler chicks were randomly assigned to 8 treatments. Each treatment consisted of 4 replicate floor pens of 20 birds each. Starter and finisher diets were fed from 1 to 21 d and 21 to 42 d of age, respectively. Dietary levels of other nutrients, housing, and general management practices were similar for all treatments. Dietary inclusion of additives had no significant effects on broiler performance, intestinal villus height, crypt depth, gut pH, and dietary AME. Birds fed the low-energy diets were heavier but had inferior FCR compared with those fed the recommended-energy diets. Prebiotic and organic acid significantly (P < 0.05) improved protein digestibility. The recommended-energy diets significantly (P < 0.05) increased AME and protein digestibility. No interactions were observed for the measured parameters

DNA plasmid coding for Phlebotomus sergenti salivary protein PsSP9, a member of the SP15 family of proteins, protects against Leishmania tropica

Background: The vector-borne disease leishmaniasis is transmitted to humans by infected female sand flies, which transmits Leishmania parasites together with saliva during blood feeding. In Iran, cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is caused by Leishmania (L.) major and L. tropica, and their main vectors are Phlebotomus (Ph.) papatasi and Ph. sergenti, respectively. Previous studies have demonstrated that mice immunized with the salivary gland homogenate (SGH) of Ph. papatasi or subjected to bites from uninfected sand flies are protected against L. major infection. Methods and results: In this work we tested the immune response in BALB/c mice to 14 different plasmids coding for the most abundant salivary proteins of Ph. sergenti. The plasmid coding for the salivary protein PsSP9 induced a DTH response in the presence of a significant increase of IFN-γ expression in draining lymph nodes (dLN) as compared to control plasmid and no detectable PsSP9 antibody response. Animals immunized with whole Ph. sergenti SGH developed only a saliva-specific antibody response and no DTH response. Mice immunized with whole Ph. sergenti saliva and challenged intradermally with L. tropica plus Ph. sergenti SGH in their ears, exhibited no protective effect. In contrast, PsSP9-immunized mice showed protection against L. tropica infection resulting in a reduction in nodule size, disease burden and parasite burden compared to controls. Two months post infection, protection was associated with a significant increase in the ratio of IFN-γ to IL-5 expression in the dLN compared to controls. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that while immunity to the whole Ph. sergenti saliva does not induce a protective response against cutaneous leishmaniasis in BALB/c mice, PsSP9, a member of the PpSP15 family of Ph. sergenti salivary proteins, provides protection against L. tropica infection. These results suggest that this family of proteins in Ph. sergenti, Ph. duboscqi and Ph. papatasi may have similar immunogenic and protective properties against different Leishmania species. Indeed, this anti-saliva immunity may act as an adjuvant to accelerate the cell-mediated immune response to co-administered Leishmania antigens, or even cause the activation of infected macrophages to remove parasites more efficiently. These findings highlight the idea of applying arthropod saliva components in vaccination approaches for diseases caused by vector-borne pathogens. © 2019, Public Library of Science. All rights reserved

Metaheuristics for Transmission Network Expansion Planning

This chapter presents the characteristics of the metaheuristic algorithms used to solve the transmission network expansion planning (TNEP) problem. The algorithms used to handle single or multiple objectives are discussed on the basis of selected literature contributions. Besides the main objective given by the costs of the transmission system infrastructure, various other objectives are taken into account, representing generation, demand, reliability and environmental aspects. In the single-objective case, many metaheuristics have been proposed, in general without making strong comparisons with other solution methods and without providing superior results with respect to classical mathematical programming. In the multi-objective case, there is a better convenience of using metaheuristics able to handle conflicting objectives, in particular with a Pareto front-based approach. In all cases, improvements are still expected in the definition of benchmark functions, benchmark networks and robust comparison criteria

Millennials in the Workplace: A Communication Perspective on Millennials’ Organizational Relationships and Performance

Stereotypes about Millennials, born between 1979 and 1994, depict them as self-centered, unmotivated, disrespectful, and disloyal, contributing to widespread concern about how communication with Millennials will affect organizations and how they will develop relationships with other organizational members. We review these purported characteristics, as well as Millennials’ more positive qualities—they work well in teams, are motivated to have an impact on their organizations, favor open and frequent communication with their supervisors, and are at ease with communication technologies. We discuss Millennials’ communicated values and expectations and their potential effect on coworkers, as well as how workplace interaction may change Millennials