Identifying the potential origin of mucin in primary cutaneous mucinoses-A retrospective study and analysis using histopathology and multiplex fluorescence staining.

BACKGROUND: Primary cutaneous mucinoses (PCM) are rare diseases characterized by dermal or follicular mucin deposits. OBJECTIVES: A retrospective study characterizing PCM to compare dermal with follicular mucin to identify its potential origin on a single-cell level. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Patients diagnosed with PCM between 2010 and 2020 at our department were included in this study. Biopsy specimens were stained using conventional mucin stains (Alcian blue, PAS) and MUC1 immunohistochemical staining. Multiplex fluorescence staining (MFS) was used to investigate which cells were associated with MUC1 expression in select cases. RESULTS: Thirty-one patients with PCM were included, 14 with follicular mucinosis (FM), 8 with reticular erythematous mucinosis, 2 with scleredema, 6 with pretibial myxedema and one patient with lichen myxedematosus. In all 31 specimens, mucin stained positive for Alcian blue and negative for PAS. In FM, mucin deposition was exclusively found in hair follicles and sebaceous glands. None of the other entities showed mucin deposits in follicular epithelial structures. Using MFS, all cases showed CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, tissue histiocytes, fibroblasts and pan-cytokeratin+ cells. These cells expressed MUC1 at different intensities. MUC1 expression in tissue histiocytes, fibroblasts, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and follicular epithelial cells of FM was significantly higher than the same cell types in the dermal mucinoses (p < 0.001). CD8+ T cells were significantly more involved in expression of MUC1 than all other analysed cell types in FM. This finding was also significant in comparison with dermal mucinoses. CONCLUSION: Various cell types seem to contribute to mucin production in PCM. Using MFS, we showed that CD8+ T cells seem to be more involved in the production of mucin in FM than in dermal mucinoses, which could indicate that mucin in dermal and follicular epithelial mucinoses have different origins.

PET/CT radiomics for prediction of hyperprogression in metastatic melanoma patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Purpose: This study evaluated pretreatment 2[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG)-PET/CT-based radiomic signatures for prediction of hyperprogression in metastatic melanoma patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI). Material and method: Fifty-six consecutive metastatic melanoma patients treated with ICI and available imaging were included in the study and 330 metastatic lesions were individually, fully segmented on pre-treatment CT and FDG-PET imaging. Lesion hyperprogression (HPL) was defined as lesion progression according to RECIST 1.1 and doubling of tumor growth rate. Patient hyperprogression (PD-HPD) was defined as progressive disease (PD) according to RECIST 1.1 and presence of at least one HPL. Patient survival was evaluated with Kaplan-Meier curves. Mortality risk of PD-HPD status was assessed by estimation of hazard ratio (HR). Furthermore, we assessed with Fisher test and Mann-Whitney U test if demographic or treatment parameters were different between PD-HPD and the remaining patients. Pre-treatment PET/CT-based radiomic signatures were used to build models predicting HPL at three months after start of treatment. The models were internally validated with nested cross-validation. The performance metric was the area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results: PD-HPD patients constituted 57.1% of all PD patients. PD-HPD was negatively related to patient overall survival with HR=8.52 (95%CI 3.47-20.94). Sixty-nine lesions (20.9%) were identified as progressing at 3 months. Twenty-nine of these lesions were classified as hyperprogressive, thereby showing a HPL rate of 8.8%. CT-based, PET-based, and PET/CT-based models predicting HPL at three months after the start of treatment achieved testing AUC of 0.703 +/- 0.054, 0.516 +/- 0.061, and 0.704 +/- 0.070, respectively. The best performing models relied mostly on CT-based histogram features. Conclusions: FDG-PET/CT-based radiomic signatures yield potential for pretreatment prediction of lesion hyperprogression, which may contribute to reducing the risk of delayed treatment adaptation in metastatic melanoma patients treated with ICI.

Long-term soil water limitation and previous tree vigor drive local variability of drought-induced crown dieback in Fagus sylvatica.

Ongoing climate warming is increasing evapotranspiration, a process that reduces plant-available water and aggravates the impact of extreme droughts during the growing season. Such an exceptional hot drought occurred in Central Europe in 2018 and caused widespread defoliation in mid-summer in European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests. Here, we recorded crown damage in 2021 in nine mature even-aged beech-dominated stands in northwestern Switzerland along a crown damage severity gradient (low, medium, high) and analyzed tree-ring widths of 21 mature trees per stand. We aimed at identifying predisposing factors responsible for differences in crown damage across and within stands such as tree growth characteristics (average growth rates and year-to-year variability) and site-level variables (mean canopy height, soil properties). We found that stand-level crown damage severity was strongly related to soil water availability, inferred from tree canopy height and plant available soil water storage capacity (AWC). Trees were shorter in drier stands, had higher year-to-year variability in radial growth, and showed higher growth sensitivity to moisture conditions of previous late summer than trees growing on soils with sufficient AWC, indicating that radial growth in these forests is principally limited by soil water availability. Within-stand variation of post-drought crown damage corresponded to growth rate and tree size (diameter at breast height, DBH), i.e., smaller and slower-growing trees that face more competition, were associated with increased crown damage after the 2018 drought. These findings point to tree vigor before the extreme 2018 drought (long-term relative growth rate) as an important driver of damage severity within and across stands. Our results suggest that European beech is less likely to be able to cope with future climate change-induced extreme droughts on shallow soils with limited water retention capacity.

Stress-induced alterations of mesocortical and mesolimbic dopaminergic pathways.

Our ability to develop the cognitive strategies required to deal with daily-life stress is regulated by region-specific neuronal networks. Experimental evidence suggests that prolonged stress in mice induces depressive-like behaviors via morphological, functional and molecular changes affecting the mesolimbic and mesocortical dopaminergic pathways. Yet, the molecular interactions underlying these changes are still poorly understood, and whether they affect males and females similarly is unknown. Here, we used chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) to induce depressive-like behaviors in male and female mice. Density of the mesolimbic and mesocortical projections was assessed via immuno-histochemistry combined with Sholl analysis along with the staining of activity-dependent markers pERK and c-fos in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens (NAc) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Our results show that social stress decreases the density of TH+ dopaminergic axonal projections in the deep layers of the mPFC in susceptible but not resilient male and female mice. Consistently, our analyses suggest that pERK expression is decreased in the mPFC but increased in the NAc following CSDS in males and females, with no change in c-fos expression in both sexes. Overall, our findings indicate that social defeat stress impacts the mesolimbic and mesocortical pathways by altering the molecular interactions regulating somatic and axonal plasticity in males and females.

Pilot Study of French-Canadian Lifestyle Redesign® for Chronic Pain Management.

As chronic pain (CP) interferes with an individual's lifestyle by limiting meaningful activities and health-related quality of life (HRQoL), occupational therapy (OT) plays an important role in CP management interventions. This pilot study aimed to explore the influence of a 13-week French-Canadian Lifestyle Redesign® for CP. A mixed-methods research design including a preexperimental quantitative component pre-/posttest was used with 15 participants with fibromyalgia. Although pain remained unchanged after the intervention, improvements were observed in participants' engagement in meaningful activities (p < .01), life balance (p < .01), mental components of HRQoL (p < .01), depressive symptoms (p = .047), and pain self-efficacy (p < .01). After the intervention, phone interviews (n = 6) highlighted the participants' appreciation of the focus being placed on their daily routines and the development of a sense of belonging throughout the intervention. This study suggests the potential feasibility and benefits of an occupation-based approach in CP management.

Increased tumour cell PD-L1 expression, macrophage and dendritic cell infiltration characterise the tumour microenvironment of ulcerated primary melanomas.

BACKGROUND: Primary melanoma ulceration is an unfavourable prognostic factor included in current staging systems. Yet, the immunological and molecular alterations responsible for this adverse outcome have not been fully elucidated. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to identify immunological differences between ulcerated and non-ulcerated primary melanomas concerning both innate and adaptive immunity and to correlate these with clinical outcome. METHODS: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded primary melanomas from 112 patients (pts) were analysed by immunohistochemistry. The expression of various markers identifying tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells was evaluated semi-quantitatively by three independent investigators. Tumour cell expression of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), transporter of antigen processing 1 and the MxA protein was also analysed. RESULTS: Recurrence occurred in 21/56 pts (37.5%) with ulcerated vs. 14/56 pts (25.0%) with non-ulcerated tumours (P = 0.15). Tumour ulceration was associated with more frequent development of brain metastasis (17.6 vs. 3.6% of pts, P = 0.015). Immunohistochemistry showed an association of ulceration with the presence of intratumoural CD68+ macrophages (P = 0.028) as well as with increased numbers of intratumoural CD11c+ dendritic cells (P = 0.014) and CD163+ macrophages (P = 0.001). PD-L1 positivity (expression in >1% of tumour cells) was more frequent in ulcerated than non-ulcerated tumours [40 (72.7%) vs. 25 (44.6%), P = 0.003]. A positive correlation between intratumoural CD11c+ (Spearman's correlation coefficient ρ: 0.42) and CD163+ (ρ: 0.31) cell count and frequency of tumour cell PD-L1 expression was detected. CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm the adverse clinical outcome associated with primary melanoma ulceration, particularly concerning the risk of recurrence and subsequent development of brain metastases. The observed immunological differences suggest a conceivable role of increased intratumoural macrophage and dendritic cell counts associated with enhanced tumour cell PD-L1 expression potentially contributing to the immunosuppressive, growth-promoting microenvironment of ulcerated primary melanomas.

Towards prevention of post-traumatic osteoarthritis: report from an international expert working group on considerations for the design and conduct of interventional studies following acute knee injury.

OBJECTIVE: There are few guidelines for clinical trials of interventions for prevention of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA), reflecting challenges in this area. An international multi-disciplinary expert group including patients was convened to generate points to consider for the design and conduct of interventional studies following acute knee injury. DESIGN: An evidence review on acute knee injury interventional studies to prevent PTOA was presented to the group, alongside overviews of challenges in this area, including potential targets, biomarkers and imaging. Working groups considered pre-identified key areas: eligibility criteria and outcomes, biomarkers, injury definition and intervention timing including multi-modality interventions. Consensus agreement within the group on points to consider was generated and is reported here after iterative review by all contributors. RESULTS: The evidence review identified 37 studies. Study duration and outcomes varied widely and 70% examined surgical interventions. Considerations were grouped into three areas: justification of inclusion criteria including the classification of injury and participant age (as people over 35 may have pre-existing OA); careful consideration in the selection and timing of outcomes or biomarkers; definition of the intervention(s)/comparator(s) and the appropriate time-window for intervention (considerations may be particular to intervention type). Areas for further research included demonstrating the utility of patient-reported outcomes, biomarkers and imaging outcomes from ancillary/cohort studies in this area, and development of surrogate clinical trial endpoints that shorten the duration of clinical trials and are acceptable to regulatory agencies. CONCLUSIONS: These considerations represent the first international consensus on the conduct of interventional studies following acute knee joint trauma.

Predictors of responses to immune checkpoint blockade in advanced melanoma.

Immune checkpoint blockers (ICB) have become pivotal therapies in the clinical armamentarium against metastatic melanoma (MMel). Given the frequency of immune related adverse events and increasing use of ICB, predictors of response to CTLA-4 and/or PD-1 blockade represent unmet clinical needs. Using a systems biology-based approach to an assessment of 779 paired blood and tumor markers in 37 stage III MMel patients, we analyzed association between blood immune parameters and the functional immune reactivity of tumor-infiltrating cells after ex vivo exposure to ICB. Based on this assay, we retrospectively observed, in eight cohorts enrolling 190 MMel patients treated with ipilimumab, that PD-L1 expression on peripheral T cells was prognostic on overall and progression-free survival. Moreover, detectable CD137 on circulating CD8+ T cells was associated with the disease-free status of resected stage III MMel patients after adjuvant ipilimumab + nivolumab (but not nivolumab alone). These biomarkers should be validated in prospective trials in MMel.The clinical management of metastatic melanoma requires predictors of the response to checkpoint blockade. Here, the authors use immunological assays to identify potential prognostic/predictive biomarkers in circulating blood cells and in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes from patients with resected stage III melanoma.

Sox2 is dispensable for primary melanoma and metastasis formation.

Tumor initiation and metastasis formation in many cancers have been associated with emergence of a gene expression program normally active in embryonic or organ-specific stem cells. In particular, the stem cell transcription factor Sox2 is not only expressed in a variety of tumors, but is also required for their formation. Melanoma, the most aggressive skin tumor, derives from melanocytes that during development originate from neural crest stem cells. While neural crest stem cells do not express Sox2, expression of this transcription factor has been reported in melanoma. However, the role of Sox2 in melanoma is controversial. To study the requirement of Sox2 for melanoma formation, we therefore performed CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene inactivation in human melanoma cells. In addition, we conditionally inactivated Sox2 in a genetically engineered mouse model, in which melanoma spontaneously develops in the context of an intact stroma and immune system. Surprisingly, in both models, loss of Sox2 did neither affect melanoma initiation, nor growth, nor metastasis formation. The lack of a tumorigenic role of Sox2 in melanoma might reflect a distinct stem cell program active in neural crest stem cells and during melanoma formation.

Osteoarthritis Year in Review 2016: biomarkers (biochemical markers).

PURPOSE: The aim of this "Year in Review" article is to summarize and discuss the implications of biochemical marker related articles published between the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) 2015 Congress in Seattle and the OARSI 2016 Congress in Amsterdam. METHODS: The PubMed/MEDLINE bibliographic database was searched using the combined keywords: 'biomarker' and 'osteoarthritis'. The PubMed/MEDLINE literature search was conducted using the Advanced Search Builder function (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/advanced). RESULTS: Over two hundred new biomarker-related papers were published during the literature search period. Some papers identified new biomarkers whereas others explored the biological properties and clinical utility of existing markers. There were specific references to several adipocytokines including leptin and adiponectin. ADAM Metallopeptidase with Thrombospondin Type 1 motif 4 (ADAMTS-4) and aggrecan ARGS neo-epitope fragment (ARGS) in synovial fluid (SF) and plasma chemokine (CeC motif) ligand 3 (CCL3) were reported as potential new knee biomarkers. New and refined proteomic technologies and novel assays including a fluoro-microbead guiding chip (FMGC) for measuring C-telopeptide of type II collagen (CTX-II) in serum and urine and a novel magnetic nanoparticle-based technology (termed magnetic capture) for collecting and concentrating CTX-II, were described this past year. CONCLUSION: There has been steady progress in osteoarthritis (OA) biomarker research in 2016. Several novel biomarkers were identified and new technologies have been developed for measuring existing biomarkers. However, there has been no "quantum leap" this past year and identification of novel early OA biomarkers remains challenging. During the past year, OARSI published a set of recommendations for the use of soluble biomarkers in clinical trials, which is a major step forward in the clinical use of OA biomarkers and bodes well for future OA biomarker development.

An exploratory study investigating the metabolic activity and local cytokine profile in patients with melanoma treated with pazopanib and paclitaxel.

BACKGROUND: There is a medical need for new drugs in patients with BRAF wild-type metastatic melanoma. Pazopanib is a multitarget tyrosine kinase inhibitor with antitumour and antiangiogenic activity. OBJECTIVES: The primary aim was to investigate the metabolic response to pazopanib monotherapy and pazopanib plus paclitaxel in patients with BRAF wild-type melanoma. Secondary end points were the early cytokine and chemokine profiles and histological findings. METHODS: Pazopanib (400 mg twice daily) was administered orally from days 1 to 10 and from days 14 to 70. An intravenous infusion with paclitaxel (150 mg m-2 body surface) was administered on days 14, 35 and 56. Metabolic response evaluation was performed before treatment, after treatment with pazopanib (day 10) and after treatment with pazopanib and paclitaxel (day 70). Skin biopsy of metastatic tissue for chemokine and cytokine expression analysis and histology and immunohistochemistry (CD68, CD163) evaluation, and blood samples were taken at the same time points. RESULTS: Two patients failed screening and 17 were dosed. Of 67 adverse events, nine (13%) were grade 3 or 4. Five of 14 evaluable patients had a partial metabolic response at day 10 under pazopanib monotherapy. The response rate at day 70 under combined pazopanib-paclitaxel treatment was 0%. Immunohistochemistry revealed an increase of M2-like macrophages in nonresponders compared with responders. We observed a significant upregulation of five cytokines (CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL13, CCL22 and SPP1) in responding vs. nonresponding lesions. Overall, the median progression-free survival was 70 days (range 5-331), which did not differ significantly between responders (148 days) and nonresponders (70 days, P = 0·17). CONCLUSIONS: In this patient population pazopanib efficacy was limited. Response is associated with low M2-like macrophage density and increased expression of several chemokines.

Cystamine/cysteamine rescues the dopaminergic system and shows neurorestorative properties in an animal model of Parkinson's disease.

The neuroprotective properties of cystamine identified in pre-clinical studies have fast-tracked this compound to clinical trials in Huntington's disease, showing tolerability and benefits on motor symptoms. We tested whether cystamine could have such properties in a Parkinson's disease murine model and now provide evidence that it can not only prevent the neurodegenerative process but also can reverse motor impairments created by a 6-hydroxydopamine lesion 3 weeks post-surgery. Importantly, we report that cystamine has neurorestorative properties 5 weeks post-lesion as seen on the number of nigral dopaminergic neurons which is comparable with treatments of cysteamine, the reduced form of cystamine used in the clinic, as well as rasagiline, increasingly prescribed in early parkinsonism. All three compounds induced neurite arborization of the remaining dopaminergic cells which was further confirmed in ex vivo dopaminergic explants derived from Pitx3-GFP mice. The disease-modifying effects displayed by cystamine/cysteamine would encourage clinical testing.

Differential in vivo tumorigenicity of diverse KRAS mutations in vertebrate pancreas: A comprehensive survey.

Somatic activation of the KRAS proto-oncogene is evident in almost all pancreatic cancers, and appears to represent an initiating event. These mutations occur primarily at codon 12 and less frequently at codons 13 and 61. Although some studies have suggested that different KRAS mutations may have variable oncogenic properties, to date there has been no comprehensive functional comparison of multiple KRAS mutations in an in vivo vertebrate tumorigenesis system. We generated a Gal4/UAS-based zebrafish model of pancreatic tumorigenesis in which the pancreatic expression of UAS-regulated oncogenes is driven by a ptf1a:Gal4-VP16 driver line. This system allowed us to rapidly compare the ability of 12 different KRAS mutations (G12A, G12C, G12D, G12F, G12R, G12S, G12V, G13C, G13D, Q61L, Q61R and A146T) to drive pancreatic tumorigenesis in vivo. Among fish injected with one of five KRAS mutations reported in other tumor types but not in human pancreatic cancer, 2/79 (2.5%) developed pancreatic tumors, with both tumors arising in fish injected with A146T. In contrast, among fish injected with one of seven KRAS mutations known to occur in human pancreatic cancer, 22/106 (20.8%) developed pancreatic cancer. All eight tumorigenic KRAS mutations were associated with downstream MAPK/ERK pathway activation in preneoplastic pancreatic epithelium, whereas nontumorigenic mutations were not. These results suggest that the spectrum of KRAS mutations observed in human pancreatic cancer reflects selection based on variable tumorigenic capacities, including the ability to activate MAPK/ERK signaling.

Epileptiform synchronization and high-frequency oscillations in brain slices comprising piriform and entorhinal cortices.

We employed field potential recordings in extended in vitro brain slices form Sprague-Dawley rats containing the piriform and entorhinal cortices (PC and EC, respectively) to identify the characteristics of epileptiform discharges and concomitant high-frequency oscillations (HFOs, ripples: 80-200Hz, fast ripples: 250-500Hz) during bath application of 4-aminopyridine (4AP, 50µM). Ictal-like discharges occurred in PC and EC either synchronously or independently of each other; synchronous ictal discharges always emerged from a synchronous "fast" interictal background whereas asynchronous ictal discharges were preceded by a "slow" interictal event. In addition, asynchronous ictal discharges had longer duration and interval of occurrence than synchronous ictal discharges, and contained a higher proportion of ripples and fast ripples. Cutting the connections between PC and EC made synchronicity disappear and increased ictal discharges duration in the EC but failed in changing HFO occurrence in both areas. Finally, antagonizing ionotropic glutamatergic receptors abolished ictal activity in all experiments, increased the duration and rate of occurrence of interictal discharges occurring in PC-EC interconnected slices while it did not influence the slow asynchronous interictal discharges in both areas. Our results identify some novel in vitro interactions between olfactory (PC) and limbic (EC) structures that presumably contribute to in vivo ictogenesis as well.

Building a multidisciplinary team for burn treatment - Lessons learned from the Montreal tendon transfer experience.

Multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) represent a recognized component of care in the treatment of complex conditions such as burns. However, most institutions do not provide adequate support for the formation of these teams. Furthermore, the majority of specialists lack the managerial skills required to create a team and have difficulties finding the proper tools. Our objective is to provide an insight for health care professionals, who wish to form a MDT for burn treatment, on the challenges that are likely to be faced, and to identify key elements that may facilitate the establishment of such a project. The setting for this was a plastic surgery department and rehabilitation center at a national reference center. A qualitative analysis was performed on all correspondences related to our tetraplegia project, from 2006 to 2008. To guide our thematic analysis, we used a form of systems theory known as the complexity theory. The qualitative analysis was performed using the NVivo software (Version 8.0 QSR International Melbourne, Australia). Lastly, the data was organized in chronologic order. Three main themes emerged from the results: knowledge acquisition, project organizational setup and project steps design. These themes represented respectively 24%, 50% and 26% of all correspondences. Project steps design and knowledge acquisition correspondences increased significantly after the introduction of the mentor team to our network. We conclude that an early association with a mentor team is beneficial for the establishment of a MDT.

Les équipes multidisciplinaires (EMD) représentent une composante des soins reconnue dans le traitement de conditions complexes telles que les brûlures. Cependant, la plupart des institutions ne fournissent pas de soutien adéquat pour la formation de ces équipes. En outre, la majorité des spécialistes ne possède pas les compétences de gestion nécessaires pour créer une équipe et éprouvent souvent des difficultés à trouver les outils appropriés. Notre objectif est de fournir aux professionnels de soins de santé, qui souhaitent former une équipe multidisciplinaire pour le traitement des brûlures, un aperçu sur les défis susceptibles d'être confronter et d'identifier les éléments clés qui faciliteront la mise en place d'un tel projet. Cette étude a eu lieu dans un département de chirurgie plastique et un centre de réadaptation affilié à un centre de référence national. Une analyse qualitative a été effectuée sur toutes les correspondances relatives à notre projet de tétraplégie, de 2006 à 2008. Pour guider notre analyse thématique, nous avons utilisé une forme de la théorie des systèmes connu comme la théorie de la complexité. L'analyse qualitative a été réalisée en utilisant le logiciel NVivo (version 8.0 QSR International, Melbourne, Australie). Enfin, les données ont été organisées en ordre chronologique. Trois thèmes principaux ont émergé à partir des résultats: l'acquisition de connaissances, la configuration et l'organisation du projet ainsi que la conception des étapes du projet. Ces thèmes représentaient respectivement 24 %, 50 % et 26 % de toutes les correspondances. Les correspondances en lien avec la conception du projet et l'acquisition des connaissances ont considérablement augmenté suite à l'introduction de l'équipe de mentors à notre réseau. Nous concluons qu'une association précoce avec une équipe de mentors est bénéfique à la mise en place d'une équipe multidisciplinaire.

Basal cell carcinomas in a tertiary referral centre: a systematic analysis.

BACKGROUND: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most frequent skin cancer with increasing incidence and generally high cure rates. BCC can be quite aggressive and is difficult to treat. OBJECTIVES: To investigate BCCs with a focus on histological subtypes, treatment procedures and correlation to clinical progress to collect further information on complex BCC cases. METHODS: In this retrospective single-centre analysis the dermatopathology database, a network of cooperating dermatological surgeons, was queried for BCC cases between January 2007 and December 2011. Of 14,423 samples from a total of 9652 patients initially identified, 2938 patients were treated at the University Hospital Zurich and had corresponding local electronic patient records. RESULTS: Patients (n = 2938) (with 4769 diagnoses, 2006 re-excisions with 1180 microscopically controlled surgeries) were classified based on severity estimations into 2240 simple, 640 moderate, and 58 severe cases, including one BCC-treatment-associated death and 11 patients with subsequent participation in a clinical trial. In moderate and severe cases (n = 698), there were significantly higher rates of unique histological diagnoses (n = 2·5; P < 0·0001), higher association with basosquamous carcinoma [odds ratio (OR) 3·6; P < 0·0001] and sclerosing BCC (OR 2·48; P < 0·0001). Of the patients with basosquamous carcinoma 82·6% had a previous history of BCC. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study that analyses the frequency of complicated BCCs in a tertiary referral centre. There were 6·6% moderate (640 of 9652) and 0·6% (58 of 9652) severe cases. We found significantly more varying histological diagnoses and significant association with aggressive subtypes in moderate and severe cases. These patients might especially benefit from new therapeutic options.

Neurosteroids modulate epileptiform activity and associated high-frequency oscillations in the piriform cortex.

Allotetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone (THDOC) belongs to a class of pregnane neurosteroidal compounds that enhance brain inhibition by interacting directly with GABAA signaling, mainly through an increase in tonic inhibitory current. Here, we addressed the role of THDOC in the modulation of interictal- and ictal-like activity and associated high-frequency oscillations (HFOs, 80-500 Hz; ripples: 80-200 Hz, fast ripples: 250-500 Hz) recorded in vitro in the rat piriform cortex, a highly excitable brain structure that is implicated in seizure generation and maintenance. We found that THDOC: (i) increased the duration of interictal discharges in the anterior piriform cortex while decreasing ictal discharge duration in both anterior and posterior piriform cortices; (ii) reduced the occurrence of HFOs associated to both interictal and ictal discharges; and (iii) prolonged the duration of 4-aminopyridine-induced, glutamatergic independent synchronous field potentials that are known to mainly result from the activation of GABAA receptors. Our results indicate that THDOC can modulate epileptiform synchronization in the piriform cortex presumably by potentiating GABAA receptor-mediated signaling. This evidence supports the view that neurosteroids regulate neuronal excitability and thus control the occurrence of seizures.

The effect of targeted rheumatoid arthritis therapies on anti-citrullinated protein autoantibody levels and B cell responses.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a complex inflammatory disorder associated with synovitis and joint destruction that affects an estimated 1·3 million Americans and causes significant morbidity, a reduced life-span and lost work productivity. The use of biological therapies for the treatment of RA is costly, and the selection of therapies is still largely empirical and not guided by the underlying biological features of the disease in individual patients. The synovitis associated with RA is characterized by an influx of B and T cells, macrophages and neutrophils and the expansion of fibroblast-like synoviocytes, which form pannus and lead to cartilage and bone destruction. RA is associated with synovial production of rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-citrullinated protein autoantibodies (ACPA) and with the production of inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, IL-17 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, which are targets for RA therapeutics. Recent ideas about the pathogenesis of RA emphasize a genetic predisposition to develop RA, a preclinical phase of disease that is associated with the production of ACPA and the development of symptomatic disease following inflammatory initiating events that are associated with expression of citrullinated epitopes in the joints of patients. However, we still have a limited understanding of the cytokine and intracellular pathways that regulate ACPA levels. In humans, therapy with biological agents affords a unique opportunity to better understand the cytokine and signalling pathways regulating ACPA levels and the impact of ACPA level changes on disease activity. In this study we summarize the effect of RA therapies on ACPA levels and B cell responses.