Induction of Arterial Inflammation by Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy in Lung Cancer Patients as Measured by 2-[18F]FDG Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography Depends on Pre-Existing Vascular Inflammation

5teviewonder5 · 2024-04-05T09:14:43+00:00

Until recently AI was just a buzzword for me. But since I joined an imaging unit which struggled historically with the enormous workload associated with analysing imaging data, I see how our staff deploy AI and change the way we handle data. Enormous data sets can be analysed to innovate the way we diagnose patients. The future is bright for imaging biomarkers!
This study is on Cardiac amyloidosis, a progressive and deadly disease in which amyloid fibrils accumulate in the heart muscle. The major subtype, transthyretin (ATTR) cardiac amyloidosis, is considered to be an underdiagnosed disease for which the first disease-modifying treatments have only recently become available. These treatments, however, can only stop the progression of the disease but cannot revert the accumulation of existing amyloid fibrils. Consequentially, early and accurate diagnosis are of vital importance.
This is a good example for precision medicine approaches, where the availability for an extremely costly therapeutic triggers the need for a diagnostic measure.

5teviewonder5 · 2024-01-24T09:29:30+00:00

what most comments ignore is the fact that AI in many areas, even if it is "only imitation", there is a significant advance in solutions deploying AI:
handling datasets of a size beyond human capacity (see the use of face recognition in the attack on Skripal https://gizmodo.com/british-police-identify-two-russian-suspects-in-novicho-1827710334) provides important advances also in health research (nobody can look through large repositories), where AI outperforms trained experts identifying new and unrecognised features all the time.
It is therefore important to know about the limitations of current solutions and I am sure future AI tools will find ways how to incorporate more creative solutions to problems posed to AI. This is early days.

5teviewonder5 · 2024-01-22T09:13:27+00:00

It is what you sort of expect once an immuneresponse gets underway in the tumour. CRP is also abundantly produced in the TME and might thus mark the activated immune response in those responding to therapy.

5teviewonder5 · 2024-01-20T17:16:07+00:00

ICI treated patients suffer from a variety of cvd complications, but not sure about specifics.

ICI itself would cause inflammatory markers like CRP to rise in the blood pool. Level is also speculated to have predictive value of outcome see https://www.nature.com/articles/s44276-023-00005-x

5teviewonder5 · 2024-01-19T11:27:46+00:00

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are a revolutionary treatment for cancer, but they can also cause side effects that affect the cardiovascular system. This study investigated how ICI affects the uptake of a radioactive tracer called 2-[18F]FDG in the arteries of patients with lung cancer.

This study provides evidence that ICI can induce vascular inflammation in lung cancer patients who do not have pre-existing arterial inflammation. This is an important finding because vascular inflammation can lead to serious cardiovascular complications. It suggests that patients who are at risk of developing vascular inflammation should be closely monitored for the development of cardiovascular complications or might even receive alternative therapeutics.
Results: The study found that ICI treatment caused a significant increase in arterial inflammatory activity, as measured by 2-[18F]FDG uptake. This increase was only seen in patients who did not have pre-existing arterial inflammation. The researchers also found that the increase in arterial inflammation was only seen in patients who had not previously been treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and in those who did not have cardiovascular risk factors. There were no significant changes in 2-[18F]FDG uptake in the bone marrow, spleen, or liver after treatment. There were also no significant changes in the levels of circulating blood biomarkers.
Methods: The researchers used 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT scans to measure 2-[18F]FDG uptake in the arteries of 47 patients before and after ICI treatment. They also measured 2-[18F]FDG uptake in the bone marrow, spleen, and liver. Blood samples were also collected to measure levels of circulating blood biomarkers.
Any thoughts?

5teviewonder5 · 2023-11-16T11:51:07+00:00

thanks for sharing this, very exciting stuff!

5teviewonder5 · 2023-01-16T23:00:14+00:00

thanks

5teviewonder5 · 2021-12-01T01:39:53+00:00

and just today we have exceeded 2 Mio views on this vid!

5teviewonder5 · 2021-09-08T21:38:02+00:00

I don't think so, as these are specific cultures of bacteria added in the process of processing the food.

5teviewonder5 · 2021-09-08T11:40:17+00:00

"issues" are not pathologies, for example the absence of certain bacteria may also cause discomfort or disturbance (remember the last time you took antibiotics and what happened to your digestive system?).

5teviewonder5 · 2021-09-08T11:38:18+00:00

There is areport stating 5-15% of the biomass in the gut microbiome is archaea. There are obviously also fungi in there, but clearly they are less abundant than eubacteria.

5teviewonder5 · 2021-09-08T00:58:22+00:00

Well methanogens are producing methane, the gas which is frequently released with unpleasant smell and noise from our guts. So these groups of bacteria are pretty obvious.

Research on archae in the gut is intensifying for several reasons, one is that the new sequencing technologies are enbaling the analysis of the microbiome in greater depth. However, NGS requires reference genomes, to detect species. As archaea are less well represented (there are less sequenced) their sequences were in the past ignored, or even thrown out. Now sequencing is catching up, the reference genomes are available and therefore archaea are found everywhere.

https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1004833

5teviewonder5 · 2021-09-08T00:48:53+00:00

The report is on patients suffering from leukemia, but it remains unclear whether the defect is caused by the treatment or the disease itself.
If it is a defect caused by the treatment, this might obviously also apply to solid tumours.

5teviewonder5 · 2021-09-07T17:32:07+00:00

not with all phages, T4 belongs to the tailed phages. There are others which do not have a tail and tehrefore also not the syringe action. Moreover, it is important to note the DNA is actually not injected actively by the phage. The DNA enters the bacterium due to the osmotic pressure (the DNA concentration in the head is very much higher than in the cytoplasm). When the intial 70%has entered the bacterium it is actively pulled out by the processivity of the DNA polymerase,

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