Aagesenhagen8589

Intestinal microbiota seems to play a key role in obesity. The impact of the composition and/or functionality of the obesity-associated microbiota have yet to be fully characterized. This work assessed the significance of the taxonomic composition and/or metabolic activity of obese- microbiota by massive 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the fecal microbiome of obese and normoweight individuals. The obese metabolic activity was also assessed by in vitro incubation of obese and normoweight microbiotas in nutritive mediums with different energy content. We found that the microbiome richness and diversity of the two groups did not differ significantly, except for Chao1 index, significantly higher in normoweight individuals. At phylum level, neither the abundance of Firmicutes or Bacteroidetes nor their ratio was associated with the body mass index. Besides, the relative proportions in Collinsella, Clostridium XIVa, and Catenibacterium were significantly enriched in obese participants, while Alistipes, Clostridium sensu stricto, Romboutsia, and Oscillibacter were significantly diminished. In regard to metabolic activity, short-chain fatty acids content was significant higher in obese individuals, with acetate being the most abundant followed by propionate and butyrate. Acetate and butyrate production was also higher when incubating obese microbiota in mediums mimicking diets with different energy content; interestingly, a reduced capability of propionate production was associated to the obese microbiome. In spite of the large interindividual variability, the obese phenotype seems to be defined more by the abundance and/or the absence of distinct communities of microorganism rather than by the presence of a specific population.

Preterm birth is one of the leading causes of perinatal morbidity and mortality. Apamin Gut microbiome dysbiosis is closely related to adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, the role of the gut microbiome in the pathogenesis of preterm birth remains poorly studied.

We collected fecal samples from 41 women (cases presenting with threatened preterm labor =19, 11 of which delivered preterm; gestational age-matched no-labor controls, all of which delivered at term = 22) were recruited for the study. We performed 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to compare the composition of the gut microbiome in threatened preterm labor cases and controls and among women who delivered preterm and at term. By annotating taxonomic biomarkers with the Human Oral Microbiome Database, we observed an increased abundance of potential oral-to-gut bacteria in preterm patients.

Patients with preterm birth showed a distinct gut microbiome dysbiosis compared with those who delivered at term. Opportunistic pathogens, particularly

,

,

, and

, were enriched, whereas

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were markedly depleted in the preterm group. Most of the enriched bacteria were annotated oral bacteria using the Human Oral Microbiome Database. These potential oral-to-gut bacteria were correlated with clinical parameters that reflected maternal and fetal status.

This study suggests that patients who deliver preterm demonstrate altered gut microbiome that may contain higher common oral bacteria.

This study suggests that patients who deliver preterm demonstrate altered gut microbiome that may contain higher common oral bacteria.[This corrects the article DOI 10.3389/fonc.2021.614925.].[This corrects the article DOI 10.3389/fonc.2021.644165.].Mesothelioma is a malignancy of serosal membranes. Parietal pleura is the most common site, with peritoneum being the second most frequent location. Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare and aggressive disease. The prognosis is often very poor with median overall survival ranging from 6 to 18 months in patients who are not candidates for cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) due to non-resectable disease or comorbid conditions. For patients with resectable disease, CRS and HIPEC have become the standard of care. However, for patients with unresectable malignant mesothelioma there is unfortunately no effective systemic treatment beyond the first line. Based on the results of a recent phase II trial, lurbinectedin has clinical activity and acceptable toxicity in the second- and third-line treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma. However, until present, no data have been available for patients with MPM and for patients who become refractory after multiple treatment lines. We report on two patients with metastatic MPM who achieved durable disease control of 10+ and 8 months with lurbinectedin in the fourth and fifth treatment line, respectively.Although integrin subunit genes (ITGs) have been reported to be associated with some human cancer types, a systematic assessment of ITGs across human cancers is lacking. Hence, we performed comprehensive analyses to investigate mRNA expression, copy number variation (CNV), DNA methylation, mutation, and clinical landscapes of ITGs in more than 8000 cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. Landscapes of ITGs were established across 20 human cancer types. We observed that ITGs are extensively dysregulated with heterogeneity in different system cancer types, part of which are driven by CNV, DNA hypomethylation or mutation. Furthermore, dysregulated prognosis-related ITGs were systematically identified in each cancer type, including ITGA11 in stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD). The models based on dysregulated ITGs with clinical relevance and TNM staging indexes are good indicators in STAD and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Finally, ITGA11 is overexpressed and associated with poor survival in STAD cases from the TCGA and additionally Gene Expression Omnibus cohorts. Functionally, ITGA11 knockdown inhibits malignant phenotypes in STAD cell lines AGS and MKN45, demonstrating the oncogenic role of ITGA11 in STAD. Together, this study highlights the important roles of ITGs in tumorigenesis as potential prognostic biomarkers, and provide an effective resource that identifies cancer-related genes of ITGs in human cancers.The immunoglobulin B cell receptor (IgBCR) expressed by chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) B cells plays a pivotal role in tumorigenesis, supporting neoplastic transformation, survival, and expansion of tumor clones. We demonstrated that in the same patient, two or more CLL clones could coexist, recognized by the expression of different variable regions of the heavy chain of IgBCR, composing the antigen-binding site. In this regard, phage display screening could be considered the easier and most advantageous methodology for the identification of small peptide molecules able to mimic the natural antigen of the tumor IgBCRs. These molecules, properly functionalized, could be used as a probe to specifically identify and isolate single CLL subpopulations, for a deeper analysis in terms of drug resistance, phenotype, and gene expression. Furthermore, CLL cells express another surface membrane receptor, the CD5, which is commonly expressed by normal T cells. Piece of evidence supports a possible contribution of CD5 to the selection and maintenance of autoreactivity in B cells and the constitutive expression of CD5 on CLL cells could induce pro-survival stimuli.