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Gene expression studies are reported to be influenced by pre-analytical factors that can compromise RNA yield and integrity, which in turn may confound the experimental findings. Here we investigate the impact of four pre-analytical factors on brain-derived RNA time-before-collection, tissue specimen size, tissue collection method, and RNA isolation method. We report no significant differences in RNA yield or integrity between 20 mg and 60 mg tissue samples collected in either liquid nitrogen or the RNAlater stabilizing solution. Isolation of RNA employing the TRIzol reagent resulted in a higher yield compared to isolation via the QIAcube kit while the latter resulted in RNA of slightly better integrity. Keeping brain tissue samples at room temperature for up to 160 min prior to collection and isolation of RNA resulted in no significant difference in yield or integrity. Our findings have significant practical and financial consequences for clinical genomic departments and other laboratory settings performing large-scale routine RNA expression analysis of brain samples.

To promote precision oncology in clinical practice, the Japanese Society of Medical Oncology, the Japanese Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Japanese Cancer Association, jointly published “Clinical practice guidance for next-generation sequencing in cancer diagnosis and treatment” in 2017. Since new information on cancer genomic medicine has emerged since the 1st edition of the guidance was released, including reimbursement for NGS-based multiplex gene panel tests in 2019, the guidance revision was made.

A working group was organized with 33 researchers from cancer genomic medicine designated core hospitals and other academic institutions. For an impartial evaluation of the draft version, eight committee members from each society conducted an external evaluation. Public comments were also made on the draft. The finalized Japanese version was published on the websites of the three societies in March 2020.

The revised edition consists of two parts an explanation of the cancer genomic profiling test (General Discussion) and clinical questions (CQs) that are of concern in clinical practice. selleck chemicals llc Particularly, patient selection should be based on the expectation that the patient’s post-test general condition and organ function will be able to tolerate drug therapy, and the optimal timing of test should be considered in consideration of subsequent treatment plans, not limited to treatment lines.

We expect that the revised version will be used by healthcare professionals and will also need to be continually reviewed in line with future developments in cancer genome medicine.

We expect that the revised version will be used by healthcare professionals and will also need to be continually reviewed in line with future developments in cancer genome medicine.

Because carotid plaques predict the development of cardiovascular events in RA, we aimed to assess if the combined use of the systematic coronary risk evaluation (SCORE) and the QRISK3 algorithms allows for the identification of RA patients with carotid plaques in a defined population-based RA inception cohort.

A set of consecutive RA patients without a history of diabetes, chronic kidney disease or cardiovascular events were studied by carotid US between 2012 and 2019. Modified SCORE (mSCORE) for RA based on the 2015/2016 updated EULAR recommendations and QRISK3 algorithms were retrospectively tested using baseline data obtained at the time of the carotid US assessment.

A total of 466 (54%) of 865 patients had carotid plaques. Using dichotomized QRISK3 and EULAR mSCORE, 73.2% (95% CI 68.4.8, 77.6) of patients with QRISK ≥ 10% and EULAR mSCORE < 5% had plaque. In this group, the diagnostic odds ratio was 5.79 (95% CI 4.14, 8.10). However, if both algorithms were above their thresholds of high cardiovascular risk (QRISK ≥ 10% and EULAR mSCORE ≥ 5%), the sensitivity increased up to 83.3% (95% CI 72.1, 91.4) and the diagnostic odds ratio up to 10.6 (95% CI 5.13, 22.0). When the risk charts scales were used as continuous variables, both QRISK3 and EULAR mSCORE were found positively associated with plaque. For each 1% QRISK3 or EULAR mSCORE increase, the probability of having plaques multiplied by 1.14 and 1.22, respectively. However, the effects of both algorithms did not multiply by each other.

. The combined use of QRISK3 and EULAR mSCORE allows for the identification of most RA patients at high risk of carotid plaques.

. The combined use of QRISK3 and EULAR mSCORE allows for the identification of most RA patients at high risk of carotid plaques.Dendritic cells (DCs) are a cluster of heterogeneous antigen-presenting cells that play a pivotal role in both innate and adaptive immune responses. Rare reports have discussed their role in OA immunopathogenesis. Recently, DCs derived from the synovial fluid of OA mice were shown to have increased expression of toll-like receptors. Moreover, from in vitro studies it was concluded that DCs derived from OA patients had secreted high levels of inflammatory cytokines. Likewise, a significant increase in CD123+BDCA-2 plasmacytoid DCs has been observed in the synovial fluid of OA patients. Furthermore, DCs have a peripheral tolerance potential and can become regulatory under specific circumstances. This could be exploited as a promising tool to eliminate immunoinflammatory manifestations in OA disease. In this review, the potential roles DCs could play in OA pathogenesis have been described. In addition, suggestions for the development of new immunotherapeutic strategies involving intra-articular injections of tolerogenic plasmacytoid DCs for treating OA inflammations have been made.

This work aims to estimate the prevalence of sarcopenia and to investigate the association between sarcopenia and functional performance in patients with and without diabetes admitted for inpatient rehabilitation.

Consecutive patients admitted to the subacute inpatient rehabilitation unit at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, Australia (November 2016 to March 2020) were prospectively recruited into this cross-sectional study. Sarcopenia was diagnosed using the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People 2018 algorithm. Participants’ functional performance was measured by the total Functional Independence Measure, motor Functional Independence Measure, and the Short Physical Performance Battery. The association between sarcopenia and functional performance was investigated using quantile regression.

Of 300 participants, 49 (16%) had a history of diabetes and 44 (14.7%) were diagnosed with sarcopenia. No significant difference in the prevalence of sarcopenia between patients with or without diabetes was identified (11/49, 22.