The effects of resistance training in patients with primary Sjogren’s syndrome

Clinical Rheumatology - Resistance training (RT) is well tolerated and has shown promise for decreasing fatigue. However, the effects of RT have never been examined in primary Sjogren’s...     

Human rhinovirus C infections in pediatric hematology and oncology patients

Children with cancer and HSCT recipients are at high risk for common viral infections. We sought to define the viral etiology of ARI and identify risk factors. Nasal wash samples were collected from pediatric hematology–oncology patients and HSCT recipients with ARI during the 2003–2005 winter seasons. Real‐time RT‐PCR was performed to detect Flu A, influenza B, RSV, PIV 1‐3, human MPV, and HRV. HRV specimens were sequenced and genotyped. Seventy‐eight samples from 62 children were included. Viruses were detected in 31 of 78 samples (40%). HRV were detected most frequently, in 16 (52%) including five HRVC; followed by seven (22%) RSV, five (16%) Flu A, four (13%) MPV, and two (6%) PIV2. There was a trend toward higher risk of viral infection for children in day care. Only 8% of the study children had received influenza vaccine. HRV, including the recently discovered HRVC, are an important cause of infection in pediatric oncology and HSCT patients. Molecular testing is superior to conventional methods and should be standard of care, as HRV are not detected by conventional methods.     

Humoral immune response to measles and varicella vaccination in former very low birth weight preterm infants

Introduction

Immune response to vaccination in infants born prematurely may be lower than in infants born at full-term. Some clinical factors might be associated with humoral immune response.

Rapid Detection of Rare Deleterious Variants by Next Generation Sequencing with Optional Microarray SNP Genotype Data

Autozygosity mapping is a powerful technique for the identification of rare, autosomal recessive, disease‐causing genes. The ease with which this category of disease gene can be identified has greatly increased through the availability of genome‐wide SNP genotyping microarrays and subsequently of exome sequencing. Although these methods have simplified the generation of experimental data, its analysis, particularly when disparate data types must be integrated, remains time consuming. Moreover, the huge volume of sequence variant data generated from next generation sequencing experiments opens up the possibility of using these data instead of microarray genotype data to identify disease loci. To allow these two types of data to be used in an integrated fashion, we have developed AgileVCFMapper, a program that performs both the mapping of disease loci by SNP genotyping and the analysis of potentially deleterious variants using exome sequence variant data, in a single step. This method does not require microarray SNP genotype data, although analysis with a combination of microarray and exome genotype data enables more precise delineation of disease loci, due to superior marker density and distribution.     

Myocardial healing using cardiac fat

Introduction: Chronic diseases, including myocardial scar healing and heart failure remission, impose huge social and economic burdens, and novel approaches are needed. Several therapeutic modalities are currently being evaluated, including cell therapy, stem cell conditioning, and cardiac tissue engineering.

Areas covered: This review discusses the restoration of cardiac function after myocardial infarction using a vascularized flap of autologous cardiac adipose tissue over an akinetic scar. It addresses the risks and benefits of using cardiac adipose progenitors and the adipose graft transposition procedure (AGTP) to ameliorate cardiac dysfunction in preclinical and clinical trials.

Expert commentary: The focus is shifting from first-generation studies that used ex vivo expanded and manipulated progenitors to newer second-generation approaches, including AGTP, which are inexpensive and do not raise ethical issues. AGTP safety has been validated, and the ongoing AGTP-2 trial to determine AGTP efficacy and outcome is currently recruiting patients (NCT02798276). This reparative strategy is safe, avoids the risks associated with ex vivo manipulation, and the preclinical and clinical trials performed to date show cardiac function recovery and reduced necrosis. Confirmation of these data in the AGTP-2 trial could pave the way for the clinical use of this novel modality.