Oncogenic enhancers prime quiescent metastatic cells to escape NK immune surveillance by eliciting transcriptional memory.

Metastasis arises from disseminated tumour cells (DTCs) that are characterized by intrinsic phenotypic plasticity and the capability of seeding to secondary organs. DTCs can remain latent for years before giving rise to symptomatic overt metastasis. In this context, DTCs fluctuate between a quiescent and proliferative state in response to systemic and microenvironmental signals including immune-mediated surveillance. Despite its relevance, how intrinsic mechanisms sustain DTCs plasticity has not been addressed. By interrogating the epigenetic state of metastatic cells, we find that tumour progression is coupled with the activation of oncogenic enhancers that are organized in variable interconnected chromatin domains. This spatial chromatin context leads to the activation of a robust transcriptional response upon repeated exposure to retinoic acid (RA). We show that this adaptive mechanism sustains the quiescence of DTCs through the activation of the master regulator SOX9. Finally, we determine that RA-stimulated transcriptional memory increases the fitness of metastatic cells by supporting the escape of quiescent DTCs from NK-mediated immune surveillance. Overall, these findings highlight the contribution of oncogenic enhancers in establishing transcriptional memories as an adaptive mechanism to reinforce cancer dormancy and immune escape, thus amenable for therapeutic intervention.

Polarographic study on the presence of antibiotics in food.

EU and Italian laws dealing for the presence of antibiotics or, more in general, drags in food established limits for different kinds of food. Suitable rules exist about the medical treatment of cattle in relation to the production of milk and meat. The adoption of a procedure to check the respect of the law limits is necessary. In this paper, the presence of different classes of antibiotics in milk and in homogenised meat is investigated. Generally, HPLC methods are applied for this purpose. In this paper, the application of polarographic analysis is studied and the results are compared with the chromatographic ones. The comparison is relative to all the phases of analysis including the sample preparation. The results show the advantage of the proposed procedure.

Justified concern or exaggerated fear: the risk of anaphylaxis in percutaneous treatment of cystic echinococcosis-a systematic literature review.

Percutaneous treatment (PT) emerged in the mid-1980s as an alternative to surgery for selected cases of abdominal cystic echinococcosis (CE). Despite its efficacy and widespread use, the puncture of echinococcal cysts is still far from being universally accepted. One of the main reasons for this reluctance is the perceived risk of anaphylaxis linked to PTs. To quantify the risk of anaphylactic reactions and lethal anaphylaxis with PT, we systematically searched MEDLINE for publications on PT of CE and reviewed the PT-related complications. After including 124 publications published between 1980 and 2010, we collected a total number of 5943 PT procedures on 5517 hepatic and non-hepatic echinococcal cysts. Overall, two cases of lethal anaphylaxis and 99 reversible anaphylactic reactions were reported. Lethal anaphylaxis occurred in 0.03% of PT procedures, corresponding to 0.04% of treated cysts, while reversible allergic reactions complicated 1.7% of PTs, corresponding to 1.8% of treated echinococcal cysts. Analysis of the literature shows that lethal anaphylaxis related to percutaneous treatment of CE is an extremely rare event and is observed no more frequently than drug-related anaphylactic side effects.

Is ultrasound a useful adjunct for assessing malaria patients?

The value of ultrasonography as an adjunct for diagnosis and monitoring malaria was investigated. In all, 118 patients (male/female 65/53; age 2-78 years, median 29 years) with malaria underwent a standardised abdominal ultrasound examination at baseline. In 62 out of 118 patients, ultrasonography was repeated 21 days later. In the results at baseline, huge splenomegaly with firm organ consistency, consistent with hyperreactive malarious splenomegaly syndrome, was observed in two Cameroonese children. In the other 116 patients, the most common finding was non-specific splenomegaly (96/116, 82.76%), occurring more frequently in non-immune patients (71/78, 91.03%) than in patients who had grown up in malaria-endemic areas (25/38, 65.79%; P<0.002). No correlation was found between liver or spleen size and any clinical parameter. The results on day 21 show that, although splenomegaly after therapy persisted more frequently in patients with malaria recrudescence or relapse (8/8, 100%) than in patients cured (32/54, 59.26%; P<0.0421), the practical value of this finding is questionable. Ultrasonography cannot be regarded as a first-line diagnostic method in patients with malaria.