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Topic Review
From Stem Cells to Immune Cells Populations
Although stem cells have been considered promising for the treatment of degenerative diseases by ‘seeding’ them into damaged tissues, it has recently been observed that the regenerative capacity of stem cells is influenced and regulated by the local immune response and in particular by macrophages, which constitute a central component of the damage response and are the coordinators of tissue repair and regeneration. Among the panoply of immune cells involved in the response to both acute and chronic wounds, recent discoveries have highlighted novel and often unexpected roles for certain types of immune cells in promoting a permissive local environment for effective cell replacement and restoration of tissue integrity. Some studies have shown that the control of inflammation is crucial in regenerative therapies: To be effective, regenerative therapies must block and control inflammation to allow tissue regeneration by resident stem cells. Indeed, the presence of inflammation inhibits the regenerative action of tissue-resident mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Recent papers suggest that an innovative regenerative strategy could be to polarize macrophages from the M1 inflammatory state to the M2 anti-inflammatory state utilizing immune cells. These reviews conclude that next-generation regenerative therapies need an immune-centric approach instead of the use of stem cells. Thus, depending on the tissue or organ targeted, regenerative strategies could be developed to stimulate macrophage polarization or to recruit subpopulations of pro-healing macrophages. Already, it has been observed  that the regeneration of myocardial tissue after ischemia was induced by macrophages that regulate resident stem cells and promote regeneration, suggesting that targeting macrophages could be a new strategy to improve infarct healing and repair. The regenerative and stem-cell-controlling capacity of macrophages has also recently been demonstrated in bone tissue: mesenchymal stem cells act through a paracrine and immune-modulatory and non-differentiative mechanism and the microenvironment and immune system regulate the activity of MSCs regardless of the tissue from which they originate. Based on the role played by several types of macrophages and lymphocytes in the wound-healing response, it is tempting to hypothesize that interventions that reduce the M1 macrophage phenotype and promote M2 may represent a new therapy to induce tissue regeneration.
  • 845
  • 28 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Innate Immunity and COVID-19 Vaccines
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to almost seven million deaths worldwide. SARS-CoV-2 causes infection through respiratory transmission and can occur either without any symptoms or with clinical manifestations which can be mild, severe or, in some cases, even fatal. Innate immunity provides the initial defense against the virus by sensing pathogen-associated molecular patterns and triggering signaling pathways that activate the antiviral and inflammatory responses, which limit viral replication and help the identification and removal of infected cells. 
  • 845
  • 23 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Lot-to-Lot Variance in Immunoassays
Immunoassays, which have gained popularity in clinical practice and modern biomedical research, play an increasingly important role in quantifying various analytes in biological samples. Despite their high sensitivity and specificity, as well as their ability to analyze multiple samples in a single run, immunoassays are plagued by the problem of lot-to-lot variance (LTLV). LTLV negatively affects assay accuracy, precision, and specificity, leading to considerable uncertainty in reported results. Therefore, maintaining consistency in technical performance over time presents a challenge in reproducing immunoassays.
  • 845
  • 15 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Imprinted Genes and Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that arises from interplay between non-genetic and genetic risk factors. The epigenetics - the study of heritable changes in gene expression that do not involve changes in the primary DNA sequence or genotype - functions as a link between these factors, affecting gene expression in response to external influence. Among others, the epigenetic mechanisms underlie the establishment of parent-of-origin effects that appear as phenotypic differences depending on whether the allele was inherited from the mother or father. The most well described manifestation of parent-of-origin effects is genomic imprinting that causes monoallelic gene expression. It becomes more obvious that disturbances in imprinted genes affecting their expression do occur in MS and may be involved in its pathogenesis. 
  • 844
  • 07 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Exercise and Its Effects
Physical exercise represents an effective preventive and therapeutic strategy beneficially modifying the course of multiple diseases. The protective mechanisms of exercise are manifold; primarily, they are elicited by alterations in metabolic and inflammatory pathways. Exercise intensity and duration strongly influence the provoked response. 
  • 844
  • 17 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Zoonotic Visceral Leishmaniasis: Blood Macrophages and Kupffer Cells
Leishmania infantum is a parasite that causes zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis, a disease that affects humans, wild and domestic animals, mainly domestic dogs. Macrophages are cells of the immune system, existing in the peripheral blood and associated with different tissues in the mammal body, having the task to protect against microbiological threats. Interestingly, Leishmania can manipulate the macrophages into a non-active ghost-like state, allowing the parasite to stay in the host. The liver, which is a vital organ and a target for the parasite, has a resident population of macrophages designated as Kupfer cells. Therefore, a better understanding of the immune mechanisms exhibited by the macrophages when facing Leishmania parasite is needed to improve control strategies.
  • 843
  • 13 Jan 2022
Topic Review
The Immunology and Therapy-Resistant Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in men. Initially, it is androgen-dependent, but it eventually develops into castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), which is incurable with current androgen receptor signaling target therapy and chemotherapy. Immunotherapy, specifically with immune checkpoint inhibitors, has brought hope for the treatment of this type of prostate cancer. Approaches such as vaccines, adoptive chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) cells, and immune checkpoint inhibitors have been employed to activate innate and adaptive immune responses to treat prostate cancer, but with limited success. Prostate cancer has a complex tumor microenvironment (TME) in which various immunosuppressive molecules and mechanisms coexist and interact.
  • 841
  • 12 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Galectin-1 as a Context-Dependent Regulator in Infection
Galectin-1, a ubiquitously expressed 14-kDa protein with an evolutionarily conserved β-galactoside binding site, translates glycoconjugate recognition into function. That galectin-1 is demonstrated to induce T cell apoptosis has led to substantial attention to the immunosuppressive properties of this protein, such as inducing naive immune cells to suppressive phenotypes, promoting recruitment of immunosuppressing cells as well as impairing functions of cytotoxic leukocytes. 
  • 840
  • 21 Apr 2023
Topic Review
B-Lymphocytes in Progression to Osteoporosis
B-lymphocytes—typically appreciated for their canonical role in adaptive, humoral immunity—have emerged as critical regulators of bone remodeling. B-lymphocytes communicate with osteoclasts and osteoblasts through various cytokines, including IL-7, RANK, and OPG. In inflammatory conditions, B-lymphocytes promote osteoclast activation and differentiation. However, B-lymphocytes also possess immunomodulatory properties, with regulatory B-lymphocytes (Bregs) secreting TGF-β1 to restrain pathogenic osteoclastogenesis. 
  • 840
  • 07 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Oncolytic Virotherapy in Solid Tumors
Oncolytic virotherapy (OVT) is a promising approach in cancer immunotherapy. Oncolytic viruses (OVs) could be applied in cancer immunotherapy without in-depth knowledge of tumor antigens.
  • 838
  • 20 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Clinical Phenotypes of AOSD
Adult-onset Still’s disease (AOSD) is a non-familial, polygenic systemic autoinflammatory disorder. It is traditionally characterized by four cardinal manifestations—spiking fever, an evanescent salmon-pink maculopapular rash, arthralgia or arthritis and a white-blood-cell count (WBC) ≥ 10,000/mm3, mainly neutrophilic polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs)—but many other manifestations and complications can be associated, making clinical expression very heterogeneous and diagnosis sometimes difficult. The AOSD course can be diverse and is currently impossible to predict. Several clinical phenotypes have been described, either on the basis of the evolution of symptoms over time (monocyclic, polycyclic and chronic evolution) or according to dominant clinical evolution (systemic and arthritis subtypes). However, these patterns are mainly based on case series and not on robust epidemiological studies. Furthermore, they have mainly been established a long time ago, before the era of the biological treatments.
  • 838
  • 08 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Human Endogenous Retroviruses in a Clinical Setting
Human ERVs (HERVs) make up roughly 8.3% of the genome and over the course of evolution, HERV elements underwent positive selection and accrued mutations that rendered them non-infectious; thereby, the genome could co-opt them into constructive roles with important biological functions. 
  • 838
  • 10 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Pathophysiological Hypoxia Shapes Immune Response
Oxygen availability varies throughout the human body in health and disease. Under physiological conditions, oxygen availability drops from the lungs over the blood stream towards the different tissues into the cells and the mitochondrial cavities leading to physiological low oxygen conditions or physiological hypoxia in all organs including primary lymphoid organs. Moreover, immune cells travel throughout the body searching for damaged cells and foreign antigens facing a variety of oxygen levels.
  • 836
  • 09 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Redox Biology and Immune Response in SARS-CoV-2 Infection
Reactive species and redox imbalance may dysregulate the immune response and account for disease progression in SARS-CoV-2 infection. This aspect suggests treatment options that could hinder disease progression and prevent multiple features of severe illness, which include clotting predisposition, cytokine storm and organ damage.
  • 836
  • 03 Mar 2022
Topic Review
DSS-Induced Colitis in Brief
Dextran Sulfate Sodium (DSS)-induced colitis is a widely used experimental model for studying inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), particularly ulcerative colitis (UC). This research delves into the intricacies of DSS-induced colitis, exploring its mechanisms, key features, and relevance in IBD research. 
  • 835
  • 08 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Doublecortin-Like Kinase 1
Microtubule-associated doublecortin-like kinase 1 (DCLK1) is an accepted marker of tuft cells (TCs) and several kinds of cancer stem cells (CSCs), and emerging evidence suggests that DCLK1-positive TCs participate in the initiation and formation of inflammation-associated cancer. DCLK1-expressing CSCs regulate multiple biological processes in cancer, enhance resistance to host anti-tumor immunity, promote resistance to therapy, and are associated with metastasis. 
  • 834
  • 05 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Extracellular Traps in Disease/Protection
The first formal description of the microbicidal activity of extracellular traps (ETs) containing DNA occurred in neutrophils in 2004. Since then, ETs have been identified in different populations of cells involved in both innate and adaptive immune responses. Much of the knowledge has been obtained from in vitro or ex vivo studies; however, in vivo evaluations in experimental models and human biological materials have corroborated some of the results obtained. Two types of ETs have been described—suicidal and vital ETs, with or without the death of the producer cell. The studies showed that the same cell type may have more than one ETs formation mechanism and that different cells may have similar ETs formation mechanisms. ETs can act by controlling or promoting the mechanisms involved in the development and evolution of various infectious and non-infectious diseases, such as autoimmune, cardiovascular, thrombotic, and neoplastic diseases, among others.
  • 832
  • 09 Aug 2021
Topic Review
ILC3s and Intestinal Inflammatory Disorders
Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are a population of lymphoid cells that do not express T cell or B cell antigen-specific receptors. ILC3s are RORγt-expressing cells and are capable of producing IL-22 and IL-17 to maintain intestinal homeostasis. ILCs, mainly ILC3s, are located at the small intestine lamina propria (siLP). They are the first line in the gut to fight against the pathogens; therefore, their dysfunction will result in intestinal disorders such as inflammation.
  • 831
  • 23 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Oncolytic Viruses and ICI
Immuno-oncology (IO) has been an active area of oncology research. Following US FDA approval of the first immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI), ipilimumab (human IgG1 k anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody), in 2011, and of the first oncolytic virus, Imlygic (talimogene laherparepvec), in 2015, there has been renewed interest in IO. In the past decade, ICIs have changed the treatment paradigm for many cancers by enabling better therapeutic control, resuming immune surveillance, suppressing tumor immunosuppression, and restoring antitumor immune function. However, ICI therapies are effective only in a small subset of patients and show limited therapeutic potential due to their inability to demonstrate efficacy in "cold" or unresponsive tumor microenvironments (TMEs). Relatedly, oncolytic viruses (OVs) have been shown to induce antitumor immune responses, augment the efficacy of existing cancer treatments, and reform unresponsive TME to turn "cold" tumors "hot," increasing their susceptibility to checkpoint blockade immunotherapies. For this reason, OVs serve as ideal complements to ICIs, and multiple preclinical studies and clinical trials are demonstrating their combined therapeutic efficacy. 
  • 830
  • 26 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Exosomal ncRNAs
Exosomes, small extracellular vesicles mediate intercellular communication by transferring their cargo including DNA, RNA, proteins and lipids from cell to cell. ExVs contain varying amounts of RNAs concerning over a dozen different RNA forms , the majority of which are classified as ncRNAs (non-coding RNAs). 
  • 830
  • 08 Feb 2021
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