Current knowledge about immunotherapy response after liver transplantation of patients with liver cancer.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) are the two main liver cancers responsible for cancer deaths worldwide. Multiple etiologies exist driving these diseases; however, there are limited effective treatments to date. Recent studies have demonstrated improved outcomes in patients with advanced disease treated with immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI).

A Medical Anthropology Assessment of Community Liver Cancer Risks: Qualitative Comparisons of Communities with Different Risk Profiles in Thailand.

Background: Thailand has the highest incidence rate of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) in the world, and a high rate of hepatocellular carcinoma. Although risk factors for these two types of liver cancer have been identified, gaps persist in models for prevention. This qualitative study examined community awareness of liver cancer risk factors and prevention in rural Thailand.

The efficacy and safety of efgartigimod for refractory myasthenia gravis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a chronic autoimmune disorder affecting the neuromuscular junction, where autoreactive immunoglobulin G (IgG) plays a key role in disease pathogenesis. The novel biologic Efgartigimod is a neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) antagonist, promotes the lysosomal degradation of IgG, and may offer a targeted approach for managing MG. Despite the growing interest in efgartigimod, there remains a lack of comprehensive evaluation of its efficacy and safety in different MG subtypes.

Exploratory development of human-machine interaction strategies for post-stroke upper-limb rehabilitation.

Background: Stroke and its related complications, place significant burdens on human society in the twenty-first century, and lead to substantial demands for upper limb rehabilitation. To fulfill the rehabilitation needs, human-machine interaction (HMI) technology strives continuously. Depends on the involvement of subject, HMI strategy can be classified as passive or active.

Relationship between glucagon and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Background: Glucagon (GCG) plays an important role in both diabetes and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).

Aim: To investigate the relationship between GCG and the development of MASLD in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the possible influencing factors.

Methods: A total of 212 T2DM patients were enrolled.

Immune microenvironment in hepatocellular carcinoma: from pathogenesis to immunotherapy.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an increasingly prevalent and deadly disease that is initiated by different etiological factors, such as alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD), metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), viral hepatitis, and other hepatotoxic and hepatocarcinogenic agents. The tumor microenvironment (TME) of HCC is characterized by several different fibroblastic and immune cell types, all of which affect the initiation, progression and metastasis of this malignant cancer. This complex immune TME can be divided into an innate component that includes macrophages, neutrophils, dendritic cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, mucosal-associated invariant T cells, natural killer cells, natural killer T cells, and innate lymphoid cells, as well as an adaptive component that includes CD4 T cells, CD8 T cells, regulatory T cells, and B cells.

Beneficial infections of the enterovirus genus in patients with liver cancer.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a significant global cancer burden, with rising incidence and lacking a unified prevention strategy due to complex aetiologies. Viral exposures may shape host immunity via specific reactive viral antigens that could induce immune responses against hepatocarcinogenesis.

Objective: We aimed to characterise viral exposure differences between HCC patients and healthy individuals and identify potentially protective viral antigens against HCC.

Spatiotemporally transcriptomic analyses of floral buds reveal the high-resolution landscape of flower development and dormancy regulation in peach.

The spatiotemporal transcriptome dataset reported here provides the peach flower bud's gene expression atlas at spatiotemporal resolution level using the 10x Genomics Visium platform. This dataset can be used to define transcript accumulation for any interesting genes across several flower bud cells. It was generated using three peach flower bud samples during the activity-dormancy period, providing valuable insight into gene expression profiling and developmental stages under different environmental contexts or conditions.

Reduction of alternative polarization of macrophages by short-term activated hepatic stellate cell-derived small extracellular vesicles.

Background: Activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) induce alternative (M2) polarization of macrophages and contribute to the progression of fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the effects of small extracellular vesicles released by HSCs (HSC-sEVs) during activation remain largely unknown.

Methods: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of extracellular vesicles released by HSCs (HSC-sEVs) at different stages of activation in macrophage polarization.

Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor treatment potentiates immune checkpoint blockade through a BAFF- and IL-12-dependent reprogramming of the TME.

Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment has shown clinical activity together with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), but the exact mechanism is not known. We show that VEGF blockade in combination with anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated protein 4 (CTLA4) + anti-programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) potentiated a multimodal mechanism dependent on B cell activating factor (BAFF), leading to a proinflammatory B cell response. It led to a BAFF- and interleukin (IL)-12-dependent expansion and rewiring of T regulatory cells (Tregs) toward an anti-tumor T helper-1 (Th-1)-like fragile state.

Folate receptor 1 is a stemness trait-associated diagnostic and prognostic marker for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) can be classified into several subtypes based on molecular traits, aiding in prognostic stratification. The subtype with a poor prognosis is often associated with stem/progenitor features. This study focused on identifying circulating biomarkers for aggressive HCC.

Multiomics analysis of immune correlatives in hepatocellular carcinoma patients treated with tremelimumab plus durvalumab.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. The combination of tremelimumab and durvalumab is now a standard treatment option for advanced HCC.

Objective: To study immune responses in HCC patients treated with tremelimumab and durvalumab.

Pan-serological antibodies and liver cancer risk: a nested case-control analysis.

Recently, studies have reported that pan-viral serology signatures may be predictive for liver cancer development. However, whether these same findings are observed for prospective studies has not been previously investigated. The nested case-control analysis included 191 persons who developed liver cancer and 382 controls from the PLCO prospective cohort.

Roles of Cellular Neighborhoods in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Pathogenesis.

The development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) involves an intricate interplay among various cell types within the liver. Unraveling the orchestration of these cells, particularly in the context of various etiologies, may hold the key to deciphering the underlying mechanisms of this complex disease. The advancement of single-cell and spatial technologies has revolutionized our ability to determine cellular neighborhoods and understand their crucial roles in disease pathogenesis.

Molecular mechanism of a coastal cyanobacterium sp. PCC 7002 adapting to changing phosphate concentrations.

Unlabelled: Phosphorus concentration on the surface of seawater varies greatly with different environments, especially in coastal. The molecular mechanism by which cyanobacteria adapt to fluctuating phosphorus bioavailability is still unclear. In this study, transcriptomes and gene knockouts were used to investigate the adaptive molecular mechanism of a model coastal cyanobacterium sp.

Aldehydes alter TGF-β signaling and induce obesity and cancer.

Obesity and fatty liver diseases-metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH)-affect over one-third of the global population and are exacerbated in individuals with reduced functional aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2), observed in approximately 560 million people. Current treatment to prevent disease progression to cancer remains inadequate, requiring innovative approaches. We observe that Aldh2 and Aldh2Sptbn1 mice develop phenotypes of human metabolic syndrome (MetS) and MASH with accumulation of endogenous aldehydes such as 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE).

Identification of autoantibodies as potential non-invasive biomarkers for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) presents a challenging diagnosis due to its nonspecific early clinical manifestations, often resulting in late-stage detection and high mortality. Diagnosing iCCA is further complicated by its limited accuracy, often necessitating multiple invasive procedures for precise identification. Despite carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) having been investigated and employed for iCCA diagnosis, it demonstrates modest diagnostic performance.

Development of a base editor for convenient and multiplex genome editing in cyanobacteria.

Cyanobacteria are important primary producers, contributing to 25% of the global carbon fixation through photosynthesis. They serve as model organisms to study the photosynthesis, and are important cell factories for synthetic biology. To enable efficient genetic dissection and metabolic engineering in cyanobacteria, effective and accurate genetic manipulation tools are required.

Identification of intracellular bacteria from multiple single-cell RNA-seq platforms using CSI-Microbes.

The study of the tumor microbiome has been garnering increased attention. We developed a computational pipeline (CSI-Microbes) for identifying microbial reads from single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data and for analyzing differential abundance of taxa. Using a series of controlled experiments and analyses, we performed the first systematic evaluation of the efficacy of recovering microbial unique molecular identifiers by multiple scRNA-seq technologies, which identified the newer 10x chemistries (3' v3 and 5') as the best suited approach.

A global transcriptional activator involved in the iron homeostasis in cyanobacteria.

Cyanobacteria use a series of adaptation strategies and a complicated regulatory network to maintain intracellular iron (Fe) homeostasis. Here, a global activator named IutR has been identified through three-dimensional chromosome organization and transcriptome analysis in a model cyanobacterium sp. PCC 6803.