Transcriptome sequencing and multi-plex imaging of prostate cancer microenvironment reveals a dominant role for monocytic cells in progression

BACKGROUND

Prostate cancer is caused by genomic aberrations in normal epithelial cells, however clinical translation of findings from analyses of cancer cells alone has been very limited. A deeper understanding of the tumour microenvironment is needed to identify the key drivers of disease progression and reveal novel therapeutic opportunities.

RESULTS

In this study, the experimental enrichment of selected cell-types, the development of a Bayesian inference model for continuous differential transcript abundance, and multiplex immunohistochemistry permitted us to define the transcriptional landscape of the prostate cancer microenvironment along the disease progression axis. An important role of monocytes and macrophages in prostate cancer progression and disease recurrence was uncovered, supported by both transcriptional landscape findings and by differential tissue composition analyses. These findings were corroborated and validated by spatial analyses at the single-cell level using multiplex immunohistochemistry.

CONCLUSIONS

This study advances our knowledge concerning the role of monocyte-derived recruitment in primary prostate cancer, and supports their key role in disease progression, patient survival and prostate microenvironment immune modulation.

A lever action hypothesis for pendulous hummingbird flowers: experimental evidence from a columbine

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Pendulous flowers (due to a flexible pedicel) are a common, convergent trait of hummingbird-pollinated flowers. However, the role of flexible pedicels remains uncertain despite several functional hypotheses. Here we present and test the 'lever action hypothesis': flexible pedicels allow pendulous flowers to move upwards from all sides, pushing the stigma and anthers against the underside of the feeding hummingbird regardless of which nectary is being visited.

METHODS

To test whether this lever action increased pollination success, we wired emasculated flowers of serpentine columbine, Aquilegia eximia, to prevent levering and compared pollination success of immobilized flowers with emasculated unwired and wire controls.

KEY RESULTS

Seed set was significantly lower in wire-immobilized flowers than unwired control and wire control flowers. Video analysis of visits to wire-immobilized and unwired flowers demonstrated that birds contacted the stigmas and anthers of immobilized flowers less often than those of flowers with flexible pedicels.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that flexible pedicels permit the levering of reproductive structures onto a hovering bird. Hummingbirds, as uniquely large, hovering pollinators, differ from flies or bees which are too small to cause levering of flowers while hovering. Thus, flexible pedicels may be an adaptation to hummingbird pollination, in particular due to hummingbird size. We further speculate that this mechanism is effective only in radially symmetric flowers; in contrast, zygomorphic hummingbird-pollinated flowers are usually more or less horizontally oriented rather than having pendulous flowers and flexible pedicels.

Comparison of concentric condensation technique with laterally condensed gutta-percha

Sixty mandibular premolars with large, straight canals and 60 nonjoining narrow, curved canals from mesial mandibular molar roots were obturated with gutta-percha via 1 of 3 methods: lateral condensation with sealer, or concentric condensation without sealer. The sealer used was a zinc oxide-eugenol without radiopacifiers. The premolar teeth were radiographed next to a step wedge, both before and after obturation. All teeth were exposed to India ink as a test for linear dye leakage, then cleared, and the leakage recorded. The pre- and postobturation radiographs were scanned at 2 and 6 mm from the apex using a Joyce-Loebel microdensitometer to establish the radiographic density of the obturation material, and a density ratio for the obturation was calculated using the cross-sectional diameter of the obturating material. The incidence of gutta-percha extrusion and Micro-Flow Compactor breakage was recorded. Two-way analysis of variance for linear dye leakage revealed no significant differences between the lateral and concentric condensation groups when sealer was used (p > 0.05). The concentric condensation without sealer groups exhibited significantly greater leakage (p < 0.00001) than the other groups, showing the importance of using sealers. One-way analysis of variance found no significant differences in radiographic density ratios between groups at 2 mm (p > 0.05) or 6 mm from the apex (p > 0.05). The incidence of extrusion was not significant, but a high rate of #30 condensor breakage was found.

Childhood bereavement after the death of a sibling

The article describes a study designed to explore the processes of sibling bereavement and to compare children's impressions with those of their parents. The Institute of Medicine model was used as a sensitizing framework for the study. Constant comparative technique was used to analyze data from a pilot study of 18 bereaved siblings aged 4 to 23 years. Sadness was the most common reaction after sibling death. Mothers were most often cited as being helpful; friends and fathers were also helpful. People who were not actively supportive were not helpful. Many children described feeling protective of their parents, and several children described personal growth.

Are serological tests of value in diagnosing and monitoring response to treatment of syphilis in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus?

To assess the value of serological tests in diagnosing and monitoring the response to treatment of syphilis in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), case notes of eight homosexual men with a history of treated syphilis, positive reactions to serological tests for syphilis, and documented subsequent conversion to HIV seropositivity were studied. No change was noted in serological markers of syphilis after HIV infection. The case notes of one man with primary syphilis, four men with secondary syphilis, and three men with latent syphilis, of whom all were HIV seropositive, were also studied. In seven of these patients the serological responses to infection and after treatment were consistent with the experience of syphilis in HIV seronegative patients. In one man treated for secondary syphilis, and confirmed as HIV seropositive eight months after treatment, the rapid plasma reagin (RPR) test result continued to be positive at a high titre for up to 20 months after treatment.

Human trypanosomiasis in Southern Africa

Five cases of human trypanosomiasis are presented. The clinical picture and course of the disease, and the results of haematological, immunological and other special examinations, are presented. The persistence of decreased total haemolytic complement, increased serum igM levels, decreased plasma fibrinogen levels, raised plasma and urinary fibrinogen split products, cryofibrinogenaemia and significant proteinuria in the presence of apparent clinical cure, tends to indicate the continuation of an immune complex process in spite of eradication of the parasite.