Sensitivity of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in screening for cognitive impairment in patients with newly diagnosed high-grade glioma

Journal of Neuro-Oncology - Cognitive impairment is frequent in patients with high-grade glioma and requires cognitive follow-up. Cognitive screening tools such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment...     

Placental metal concentrations and birth outcomes: The Environment and Childhood (INMA) project

Objective

To examine the association of placental levels of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), and chromium (Cr) with birth outcomes (birth weight, length, and head circumference, low birth weight [LBW], gestational age, preterm delivery, and small for gestational age [SGA]) in mother-child pairs from the Environment and Childhood (INMA) Project in Spain.

Could a national oral health promotion program improve the oral hygiene of persons attending special care establishments in France? Evaluation of a pilot program

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of an oral health promotion intervention implemented in special care establishments by dentists trained online. Twenty‐six dentists intervening in 27 French special care establishments undertook a standardised oral health promotion intervention, including a conference presentation for care staff and hands‐on toothbrushing workshops. Oral hygiene status of the residents was performed at baseline and at 6 months, and were compared using the McNemar test. Mixed logistic regression was performed to identify the factors associated with an improvement of dental plaque removal. The oral health intervention was completed by 890 residents: 445 children, 373 adults and 72 elderly adults. At baseline, dental plaque was observed for 79.8% of the 797 dentate residents. Among the 691 dentate residents included in the final analysis, dental plaque removal was improved for 34%. Improvement in dental plaque removal was recorded more often for the group of 13 to 20‐year‐old residents (OR = 1.97; 95% CI = 1.15–3.38). The results indicate that this programme failed to significantly improve the dental plaque removal of the residents. More research is needed to understand the limiting factors of such interventions.     

Brain responses and approach bias to social alcohol cues and their association with drinking in a social setting in young adult males

Alcohol is mainly consumed in social settings, in which people often adapt their drinking behaviour to that of others, also called imitation of drinking. Yet, it remains unclear what drives this drinking in a social setting. In this study, we expected to see stronger brain and behavioural responses to social compared to non‐social alcohol cues, and these responses to be associated with drinking in a social setting. The sample consisted of 153 beer‐drinking males, aged 18–25 years. Brain responses to social alcohol cues were measured during an alcohol cue‐exposure task performed in an fMRI scanner. Behavioural responses to social alcohol cues were measured using a stimulus‐response compatibility task, providing an index of approach bias towards these cues. Drinking in a social setting was measured in a laboratory mimicking a bar environment. Specific brain responses to social alcohol cues were observed in the bilateral superior temporal sulcus and the left inferior parietal lobe. There was no approach bias towards social alcohol cues specifically; however, we did find an approach bias towards alcohol (versus soda) cues in general. Brain responses and approach bias towards social alcohol cues were unrelated and not associated with actual drinking. Thus, we found no support for a relation between drinking in a social setting on the one hand, and brain cue‐reactivity or behavioural approach biases to social alcohol cues on the other hand. This suggests that, in contrast to our hypothesis, drinking in a social setting may not be driven by brain or behavioural responses to social alcohol cues.     

Frequent expression of PD‐L1 on circulating breast cancer cells

Immune checkpoint regulators such as PD‐L1 have become exciting new therapeutic targets leading to long lasting remissions in patients with advanced malignancies. However, in view of the remarkable costs and the toxicity profiles of these therapies, predictive biomarkers able to discriminate responders from non‐responders are urgently needed. In the present paper, we provide evidence that PD‐L1 is frequently expressed on metastatic cells circulating in the blood of hormone receptor‐positive, HER2‐negative breast cancer patients. We performed western blot, flow cytometry and immunocytochemical analyses to demonstrate the specificity of the PDL1 antibody used in our study and established immunoscores for PDL1 expression on single tumor cells. We then selected sixteen patients with circulating tumor cells (CTCs) using the CellSearch® system and found PD‐L1(+) CTCs in 11 patients (68.8%). The fraction of PD‐L1(+) CTCs varied from 0.2 to 100% in individual patients. This is the first report demonstrating the expression of PD‐L1 on CTCs. The established CTC/PD‐L1 assay can be used for liquid biopsy in future clinical trials for stratification and monitoring of cancer patients undergoing immune checkpoint blockade.