Huntington’s disease from the patient, caregiver and physician’s perspectives: three sides of the same coin?

The aim of this study was to identify determinants of functional disability, patient’s quality of life (QoL) and caregivers’ burden in Huntington’s disease (HD). Eighty HD patients participated in the study. Motor and behavioral disturbances as well as cognitive impairment were assessed using motor, behavioral and cognitive parts of the Unified Huntington Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS); Hamilton Depression Rating Scale was used to assess depression. Disability, health-related QoL and the impact of the disease on the caregivers were assessed using the following methods: UHDRS Functional Assessment Score, SF-36 Scale and Caregiver Burden Inventory. Multiple regression analysis showed that motor disturbances, cognitive impairment, apathy and disease duration were the independent predictors of disability. Depression and cognitive disturbances were the determinants of patient’s QoL, while motor disturbances and depression were the predictors of the caregiver burden. Patient’s disability and QoL as well as caregivers’ burden should be taken into consideration while planning treatment strategy and the results of the present study show that the predictors of those treatment targets are different.     

Printed Flexible Thermoelectric Nanocomposites Based on Carbon Nanotubes and Polyaniline

A new era of composite organic materials, nanomaterials, and printed electronics is emerging to the applications of thermoelectric generators (TEGs). Special attention is focused on carbon nanomaterials and conducting polymers, and the possibility to form pastes and inks for various low-cost deposition techniques. In this work, we present a novel approach to the processing of composite materials for screen-printing based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and polyaniline (PANI), supported with a dielectric polymer vehicle. Three different types of such tailor-made materials were prepared, with a functional phase consisted of carbon nanotubes and polyaniline composites fabricated with two methods: dry mixing of PANI CNT powders and in situ polymerisation of PANI with CNT. These materials were printed on flexible polymer substrates, exhibiting outstanding mechanical properties. The best parameters obtained for elaborated materials were σ=405.45 S·m−1, S=15.4 μV·K−1, and PF=85.2 nW·m−1K−2, respectively.     

Proteomic profiling of naïve multiple myeloma patient plasma cells identifies pathways associated with favourable response to bortezomib‐based treatment regimens

Toward our goal of personalized medicine, we comprehensively profiled pre‐treatment malignant plasma cells from multiple myeloma patients and prospectively identified pathways predictive of favourable response to bortezomib‐based treatment regimens. We utilized two complementary quantitative proteomics platforms to identify differentially‐regulated proteins indicative of at least a very good partial response (VGPR) or complete response/near complete response (CR/nCR) to two treatment regimens containing either bortezomib, liposomal doxorubicin and dexamethasone (VDD), or lenalidomide, bortezomib and dexamethasone (RVD). Our results suggest enrichment of ‘universal response’ pathways that are common to both treatment regimens and are probable predictors of favourable response to bortezomib, including a subset of endoplasmic reticulum stress pathways. The data also implicate pathways unique to each regimen that may predict sensitivity to DNA‐damaging agents, such as mitochondrial dysfunction, and immunomodulatory drugs, which was associated with acute phase response signalling. Overall, we identified patterns of tumour characteristics that may predict response to bortezomib‐based regimens and their components. These results provide a rationale for further evaluation of the protein profiles identified herein for targeted selection of anti‐myeloma therapy to increase the likelihood of improved treatment outcome of patients with newly‐diagnosed myeloma.