Adiposity, immunity, and inflammation: interrelationships in health and disease: a report from 24th Annual Harvard Nutrition Obesity Symposium, June 2023.

The rapidly evolving field of immunometabolism explores how changes in local immune environments may affect key metabolic and cellular processes, including that of adipose tissue. Importantly, these changes may contribute to low-grade systemic inflammation. In turn, chronic low-grade inflammation affecting adipose tissue may exacerbate the outcome of metabolic diseases. Novel advances in our understanding of immunometabolic processes may critically lead to interventions to reduce disease severity and progression. An important example in this regard relates to obesity, which has a multifaceted effect on immunity, activating the proinflammatory pathways such as the inflammasome and disrupting cellular homeostasis. This multifaceted effect of obesity can be investigated through study of downstream conditions using cellular and systemic investigative techniques. To further explore this field, the National Institutes of Health P30 Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard, in partnership with Harvard Medical School, assembled experts to present at its 24th Annual Symposium entitled "Adiposity, Immunity, and Inflammation: Interrelationships in Health and Disease" on 7 June, 2023. This manuscript seeks to synthesize and present key findings from the symposium, highlighting new research and novel disease-specific advances in the field. Better understanding the interaction between metabolism and immunity offers promising preventative and treatment therapies for obesity-related immunometabolic diseases.

A phase I clinical and pharmacokinetic study of Ro 31-7453 given as a 7- or 14-day oral twice daily schedule every 4 weeks in patients with solid tumors.

PURPOSE: This is a dose-finding Phase I study of oral Ro 31-7453, a new class of antimitotic drug with promising preclinical activity in several chemoresistant models. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Two schedules of oral Ro 31-7453 (every 12 h) given for either 7 or 14 consecutive days repeated every 4 weeks were explored consecutively. RESULTS: Thirty-seven patients with refractory cancer entered the study (14 on the 7-day schedule and 23 on the 14-day schedule). Median age was 63 years (range, 40-77 years), and median Karnofsky performance status was 80 (range, 60-100); the most frequent diagnosis was colorectal carcinoma (16 patients). Dose levels of 100, 200, 240, and 280 mg/m(2) twice daily (bid) for 7 days and 70, 100, 125, and 150 mg/m(2) bid for 14 days were explored. A total of 110 cycles were administered, the median number of cycles received was 3 (range, 1-7); six patients completed 6 or more cycles. Myelosuppression and mucositis were dose-limiting with both schedules. Fatigue and gastrointestinal toxicities other than mucositis were frequent but generally mild. The maximum tolerated doses were 200 mg/m(2) bid and 125 mg/m(2) bid for the 7- and 14-day schedules, respectively. Pharmacokinetic analysis showed rapid absorption and metabolism. The area under the concentration-time curve and trough concentrations of Ro 31-7453 and two active metabolites appeared dose proportional with a t(1/2) of approximately 9 h and a t(max) of approximately 4 h. One patient with pretreated lung cancer had a partial response. CONCLUSIONS: Both Ro 31-7453 regimens were feasible, but the 14-day schedule at the recommended dose of 125 mg/m(2) bid was selected for further monotherapy Phase II evaluation because of its higher preclinical activity. This regimen is convenient, well tolerated, and has a favorable pharmacokinetic profile.

Aerobic Plate Counts of 100-ml Samples in Plastic Bags 1.

Counts from samples that contained low numbers of bacteria were determined by mixing the samples with double-strength agar media in 42-oz (1.2-L) Whirl-Pak bags. The bag-plate method was compared with other direct-plating methods and the most-probable-number and membrane-filtration procedures. Results obtained by using the bag method were as reliable as methods commonly used for analysis of samples that contain low numbers of viable bacteria.