Notes

Anti-parasitic drug treatments regulate the actual non-selective stations created through connexins or even pannexins.
PURPOSE To evaluate the utility of widefield optical coherence tomography angiography (WF-OCTA) compared with clinical examination in grading diabetic retinopathy in patients diagnosed clinically with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) or severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR). DESIGN This retrospective observational case series included patients diagnosed clinically with PDR or severe NPDR. Patients underwent standard clinical examination and WF-OCTA imaging (PLEX Elite 9000, Carl Zeiss Meditec AG) using 12×12 montage scans between August 2018 and January 2019. Two trained graders identified neovascularisation at the disc (NVD) and neovascularisation elsewhere (NVE) on WF-OCTA which were compared with the clinical examination, and to ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography (UWFA) when available. RESULTS Seventy-nine eyes of 46 patients were evaluated. Of those, 57 eyes were diagnosed clinically with PDR, and 22 with severe NPDR. NVD was detected on OCTA-B scan as preretinal hyperreflective material (PRHM) in 39 eyes (100%) with evident flow signals in 79.5% compared with 51.3% detected clinically. We further classified NVD on OCTA into four subtypes and found that subtypes 1 and 2 could not be seen on clinical examination alone. WF-OCTA detected NVE in 81% of the cases compared with 55.7% detected clinically. Using WF-OCTA resulted in a higher percentage of PDR grading (88.6%) than on clinical examination (72.2%). When available, UWFA confirmed the WF-OCTA diagnosis in the majority of cases. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that WF-OCTA has a higher detection rate of PDR than clinical examination. This suggests that this modality could be used non-invasively for the purpose of early detection and characterisation of neovascularisation. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.BACKGROUND Fusion imaging is a new diagnostic method that integrates MRI and ultrasound. It may improve the detection and staging of locally advanced cervical cancer. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of fusion imaging in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. METHODS Patients with suspicion of locally advanced cervical cancer at clinical examination and/or imaging, who were candidates for neoadjuvant treatment (chemotherapy or chemoradiation) followed by surgery, were prospectively enrolled between March and November 2018. MRI, ultrasound, and fusion images were obtained before and after neoadjuvant treatment. Feasibility, success of the fusion examination, and time needed to perform fusion studies were evaluated. The rates of concordance between MRI and ultrasound before and after performing fusion, using Cohen, Spearman, and McNemar tests were calculated. The agreement between MRI and ultrasound examination, and the agreement between radiologist and gynecologist during the fusion rly for parametrial infiltration (74% vs 86%, p=0.014 for the right posterior parametrium; 66% vs 80%, p=0.008 for the left posterior parametrium, 70% vs 82%, p=0.014 for the right lateral parametrium). CONCLUSIONS Fusion of MRI and ultrasound is feasible in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer and may increase the diagnostic accuracy of the single imaging methods. Fusion provides multiple diagnostic opportunities in gynecological oncology. © IGCS and ESGO 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.Therapeutic strategies combining radiation therapy with novel agents have become an area of intense research focus in oncology and are actively being investigated for a wide range of solid tumors. The mechanism of action of these systemic agents can be stratified into three general categories (1) enhancement or alteration of the immune system; (2) disruption of DNA damage response mechanisms; and (3) impediment of cellular signaling pathways involving growth, angiogenesis, and hypoxia. Pre-clinical data suggest that radiation therapy has immunogenic qualities and may optimize response to immuno-oncology therapies by priming the immune system, whereas other novel systemic agents can enhance radiosensitivity through augmentation of genomic instability and alteration of central signaling pathways related to growth and survival. Gynecologic cancers in particular have the potential for synergistic response to combination approaches incorporating radiation therapy and novel systemic therapies. Several clinical trials have been proposed to elucidate the efficacy and safety of such approaches. Here we discuss the mechanisms of novel therapies and the rationale for these combination strategies, reviewing the relevant pre-clinical and clinical data. We explore their optimal use with respect to indications, interactions, and potential synergy in combination with radiation therapy and review ongoing trials and active areas of investigation. © IGCS and ESGO 2020. Selleck APR-246 No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.It was recently disclosed that CYP3A is responsible for the tertiary stereoselective oxidations of deoxycholic acid (DCA), which becomes a continuum mechanism of the host-gut microbial co-metabolism of bile acids (BAs) in human. This work aims to investigate the species difference of BA redox metabolism and clarify whether the tertiary metabolism of DCA is a conserved pathway in preclinical animals. With quantitative determination of the total unconjugated BAs in urine and fecal samples of human, dogs, rats and mice, it was confirmed that the tertiary oxidized metabolites of DCA were found in all tested animals while DCA and its oxidized metabolites disappeared in germ-free mice. The in vitro metabolism data of DCA and the other unconjugated BAs in liver microsomes of human, monkeys, dogs, rats and mice showed consistencies with the BA profiling data, confirming that the tertiary oxidation of DCA is a conserved pathway. In liver microsomes of all tested animals, however, the oxidation activities toward DCA weanimals and provided deeper understanding of how and why the downstream metabolism of chenodeoxycholic acid dominates that of cholic acid in murine animals compared to human. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
Read More: https://www.selleckchem.com/products/apr-246-prima-1met.html