Response of pruritic scrotal epidermolytic acanthomas to pimecrolimus 1% cream.

Epidermolytic acanthomas (EA) are rare benign tumors of unclear etiology that present as flat, sometimes slightly keratotic, pale or whitish papules that are usually asymptomatic. Not uncommonly, their clinical appearance in the anogenital area might lead to misdiagnosis as other lesions that commonly develop at this site, such as condylomata acuminata. Though mainly asymptomatic, there are also reports of EA presenting with persistent genital pruritus. We describe the first reported case of pruritic scrotal EA successfully treated with topical pimecrolimus.

Combined immunotherapy encompassing intratumoral poly-ICLC, dendritic-cell vaccination and radiotherapy in advanced cancer patients.

Background: Combination immunotherapy has the potential to achieve additive or synergistic effects. Combined local injections of dsRNA analogues (mimicking viral RNA) and repeated vaccinations with tumor-lysate loaded dendritic cells shows efficacy against colon cancer mouse models. In the context of immunotherapy, radiotherapy can exert beneficial abscopal effects. Patients and methods: In this two-cohort pilot phase I study, 15 advanced cancer patients received two 4-week cycles of four intradermal daily doses of monocyte-derived dendritic cells preloaded with autologous tumor lysate and matured for 24 h with poly-ICLC (Hiltonol), TNF-α and IFN-α. On days +8 and +10 of each cycle, patients received intratumoral image-guided 0.25 mg injections of the dsRNA-analogue Hiltonol. Cyclophosphamide 600 mg/m2 was administered 1 week before. Six patients received stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) on selected tumor lesions, including those injected with Hiltonol. Expression of 25 immune-relevant genes was sequentially monitored by RT-PCR on circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMCs) and serum concentrations of a cytokine panel were sequentially determined before and during treatment. Pre- and post-treatment PBMC from patients achieving durable stable disease (SD) were studied by IFNγ ELISPOT-assays responding to tumor-lysate loaded DC and by TCRß sequencing. Results: Combined treatment was, safe and well tolerated. One heavily pretreated castration-resistant prostate cancer patient experienced a remarkable mixed abscopal response to SABR+ immunotherapy. No objective responses were observed, while nine patients presented SD (five of them in the six-patient radiotherapy cohort). Intratumoral Hiltonol increased IFN-ß and IFN-α mRNA in circulating PBMC. DC vaccination increased serum IL-12 and IL-1ß concentrations, especially in patients presenting SD. IFNγ-ELISPOT reactivity to tumor lysates was observed in two patients experiencing durable SD. Conclusions: This radio-immunotherapy combination strategy, aimed at resembling viral infection in tumor tissue in combination with a dendritic-cell vaccine and SABR, is safe and shows immune-associated activity and signs of preliminary clinical efficacy.

Changes in serum interleukin-8 (IL-8) levels reflect and predict response to anti-PD-1 treatment in melanoma and non-small-cell lung cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Surrogate biomarkers of efficacy are needed for anti-PD1/PD-L1 therapy, given the existence of delayed responses and pseudo-progressions. We evaluated changes in serum IL-8 levels as a biomarker of response to anti-PD-1 blockade in melanoma and non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Metastatic melanoma and NSCLC patients treated with nivolumab or pembrolizumab alone or nivolumab plus ipilimumab were studied. Serum was collected at baseline; at 2-4 weeks after the first dose; and at the time-points of response evaluation. Serum IL-8 levels were determined by sandwich ELISA. Changes in serum IL-8 levels were compared with the Wilcoxon test and their strength of association with response was assessed with the Mann-Whitney test. Accuracy of changes in IL-8 levels to predict response was estimated using receiver operation characteristics curves. RESULTS: Twenty-nine melanoma patients treated with nivolumab or pembrolizumab were studied. In responding patients, serum IL-8 levels significantly decreased between baseline and best response (P <0.001), and significantly increased upon progression (P =  0.004). In non-responders, IL-8 levels significantly increased between baseline and progression (P =  0.013). Early changes in serum IL-8 levels (2-4 weeks after treatment initiation) were strongly associated with response (P <0.001). These observations were validated in 19 NSCLC patients treated with nivolumab or pembrolizumab (P =  0.001), and in 15 melanoma patients treated with nivolumab plus ipilimumab (P <0.001). Early decreases in serum IL-8 levels were associated with longer overall survival in melanoma (P =  0.001) and NSCLC (P =  0.015) patients. Serum IL-8 levels also correctly reflected true response in three cancer patients presenting pseudoprogression. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in serum IL-8 levels could be used to monitor and predict clinical benefit from immune checkpoint blockade in melanoma and NSCLC patients.

Non-relativistic energy equations for diatomic molecules constrained in a deformed hyperbolic potential function.

CONTEXT: In this paper, the approximate analytical energy equations for the deformed hyperbolic potential have been obtained for arbitrary parameters of the potential. The potential function was transformed to a molecular potential by subjecting it to the Varshni conditions which allows for the determination of the energy levels of diatomic molecules. The molecular vibrational energy spectra for [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] diatomic molecules were obtained and found to match with the results obtained with another analytical approach, potential functions, and experimental data. The noticeable slight differences in the approximate energy spectra obtained in this work and existing literature may be ascribed to the analytical method, computational approach, and the accuracy of the molecular potential functions. The obtained energy equations were used to determine the energy of a particle for arbitrary parameters of the potential function. The obtained energy is bounded and increases with the increase in the quantum numbers. The results conformed to the ones obtained via the path integral approach and numerical solutions obtained via the MATHEMATICA program. METHOD: The energy spectra equations were obtained via the Nikiforov-Uvarov approach and semi-classical WKB approximation. The Pekeris approximation has been applied to resolve the difficulty in solving the complete energy spectrum of the non-relativistic wave equation for the potential function. The numerical data of the energy spectra was obtained using the MATHEMATICA program.

Approximate solutions of the spin and pseudospin symmetries under coshine Yukawa tensor interaction.

The approximate solutions of the Dirac equation for spin symmetry and pseudospin symmetry are studied with a coshine Yukawa potential model via the traditional supersymmetric approach (SUSY). To remove the degeneracies in both the spin and pseudospin symmetries, a coshine Yukawa tensor potential is proposed and applied to both the spin symmetry and the pseudospin symmetry. The proposed coshine tensor potential removes the energy degenerate doublets in both the spin symmetry and pseudospin symmetry for a very small value of the tensor strength (H = 0.05). This shows that the coshine Yukawa tensor is more effective than the real Yukawa tensor. The non-relativistic limit of the spin symmetry is obtained by using certain transformations. The results obtained showed that the coshine Yukawa potential and the real Yukawa potential has the same variation with the angular momentum number but the variation of the screening parameter with the energy for the two potential models differs. However, the energy eigenvalues of the coshine Yukawa potential model, are more bounded compared to the energies of the real Yukawa potential model.

Bound-state energy spectrum and thermochemical functions of the deformed Schiöberg oscillator.

In this study, a diatomic molecule interacting potential such as the deformed Schiöberg oscillator (DSO) have been applied to diatomic systems. By solving the Schrödinger equation with the DSO, analytical equations for energy eigenvalues, molar entropy, molar enthalpy, molar Gibbs free energy and constant pressure molar heat capacity are obtained. The obtained equations were used to analyze the physical properties of diatomic molecules. With the aid of the DSO, the percentage average absolute deviation (PAAD) of computed data from the experimental data of the 7Li2 (2 3Πg), NaBr (X 1Σ+), KBr (X 1Σ+) and KRb (B 1Π) molecules are 1.3319%, 0.2108%, 0.2359% and 0.8841%, respectively. The PAAD values obtained by employing the equations of molar entropy, scaled molar enthalpy, scaled molar Gibbs free energy and isobaric molar heat capacity are 1.2919%, 1.5639%, 1.5957% and 2.4041%, respectively, from the experimental data of the KBr (X 1Σ+) molecule. The results for the potential energies, bound-state energy spectra, and thermodynamic functions are in good agreement with the literature on diatomic molecules.

Analytical solutions and Herzberg's energy level for modified shifted morse molecular system.

The solution of the radial Schrödinger equation for the modified shifted Morse potential model is obtained using an approximate supersymmetric approach. The two different formulae for the computation of the centrifugal distortion constant are clearly examined to deduce the formula that gives the result that perfectly aligns with the experimental data. Numerical values for different molecules are computed for the two different values of the centrifugal distortion constant (dissociation energy) obtained from two different equations. The ground state energy spectra for different molecules are obtained using Herzberg's energy level equation as a standard for some molecules. The results of the modified shifted Morse potential are compared with the results from Herzberg's energy level equation and the experimental data. Our study reveals that the results for one of the two centrifugal distortion constants are closer to the standard results and the experimental data in all the molecules studied.

Theoretic measure and thermal properties of a standard Morse potential model.

Since the proposition of the standard form of Morse potential [Formula: see text] model over the years, there has not been much attention on the potential. Its application to different studies such as the thermodynamic properties and information theory are yet to be reported to the best of our understanding. In this study, the solutions of the radial Schrödinger equation for the standard Morse potential is obtained using supersymmetric approach. The effect of the quantum number on the energy eigenvalue for the standard Morse potential is examined numerically for the hydrogen molecule (H2), lithium molecule (Li2), and potassium molecule (K2). Using the energy equation and the wave function obtained, the theoretic measures and thermodynamic properties of hydrogen, lithium, and potassium molecules are calculated via maple program. It has been shown that the energy of the standard Morse potential is fully bounded for the three molecules studied. A higher concentration of electron density corresponds to a strongly localized distribution in the position configuration. The Beckner, Bialynicki-Birula, and Mycieslki (BBM) inequality is satisfied for both the ground state and the first excited state. Finally, the product of uncertainty obtained obeyed the Heisenberg uncertainty relation.

Energy eigenvalues and finite-temperature magnetization for the improved Scarf II potential in the presence of external magnetic and Aharonov-Bohm flux fields.

In this paper, the bound state solutions of the radial Schrödinger equation are obtained in closed form under an improved Scarf II potential energy function (ISPEF) constrained by external magnetic and Aharonov-Bohm (AB) flux fields. By constructing a suitable Pekeris-like approximation scheme for the centrifugal barrier, approximate analytical expressions for the bound-states and thermal partition function were obtained. With the aid of the partition function, an explicit equation for magnetization at finite temperatures is developed. The obtained equations were then applied to calculate the energy levels and magnetic properties of 7Li2 (2 3Πg), K2 (X 1Σg+), Mg2 (X 1Σg+) and NaBr (X 1Σ+) diatomic molecules. The obtained numerical results of the vibrational energies for these molecules were found to be in good agreement with theoretic and experimental values reported in the existing literature. The results indicated that by turning off the magnetic and AB fields, the energy levels of the diatomic molecules degenerate. The results further revealed that an increase in the temperature of the molecules and the AB field strengths leads to a linear decrease in magnetization.

Information theory and thermodynamic properties of diatomic molecules using molecular potential.

Owing to the devise applications of molecules in industries, the bound state solution of the non-relativistic wave equation with a molecular potential function has been obtained in a closed-form using the Nikiforov-Uvarov method. The solutions of the bound state are then applied to study the information-theoretic measures such as the one-dimensional Shannon and Renyi entropic densities. The expectation values for the position and momentum spaces were obtained to verify the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Utilizing the energy spectrum equation, the thermodynamic vibrational partition function is obtained via the Poisson summation. Other thermodynamic function variations with absolute temperature have been obtained numerically for four diatomic molecules (H2, N2, O2, and HF) using Maple 18 software. The Shannon global entropic sum inequality has also been verified. The Renyi sum for constrained index parameters satisfies the global entropic inequality. The thermodynamic properties of the four molecules are similar and conform to works reported in the existing literature. The obtained vibrational energies are in fair agreement with the ones obtained using other forms of potential energy. The result further indicates that the lowest bounds for the Shannon, Renyi, and Heisenberg inequalities are ground states phenomena.

Thermomagnetic properties and its effects on Fisher entropy with Schioberg plus Manning-Rosen potential (SPMRP) using Nikiforov-Uvarov functional analysis (NUFA) and supersymmetric quantum mechanics (SUSYQM) methods.

Thermomagnetic properties, and its effects on Fisher information entropy with Schioberg plus Manning-Rosen potential are studied using NUFA and SUSYQM methods in the presence of the Greene-Aldrich approximation scheme to the centrifugal term. The wave function obtained was used to study Fisher information both in position and momentum spaces for different quantum states by the gamma function and digamma polynomials. The energy equation obtained in a closed form was used to deduce numerical energy spectra, partition function, and other thermomagnetic properties. The results show that with an application of AB and magnetic fields, the numerical energy eigenvalues for different magnetic quantum spins decrease as the quantum state increases and completely removes the degeneracy of the energy spectra. Also, the numerical computation of Fisher information satisfies Fisher information inequality products, indicating that the particles are more localized in the presence of external fields than in their absence, and the trend shows complete localization of quantum mechanical particles in all quantum states. Our potential reduces to Schioberg and Manning-Rosen potentials as special cases. Our potential reduces to Schioberg and Manning-Rosen potentials as special cases. The energy equations obtained from the NUFA and SUSYQM were the same, demonstrating a high level of mathematical precision.