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Introduction: Research has confirmed the safety and comparable seroconversion rates following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients with solid cancers. However, the impact of cancer treatment on vaccine-induced T cell responses remains poorly understood. Methods: In this study, we expand on previous findings within the VOICE trial by evaluating the functional and phenotypic composition of mRNA-1273-induced T cell responses in patients with solid tumors undergoing immunotherapy, chemotherapy, or both, compared to individuals without cancer. We conducted an ELISpot analysis on 386 participants to assess spike-specific T cell responses 28 days after full vaccination. Further in-depth characterization of using flow cytometry was performed on a subset of 63 participants to analyze the functional phenotype and differentiation state of spike-specific T cell responses. Results: ELISpot analysis showed robust induction of spike-specific T cell responses across all treatment groups, with response rates ranging from 75% to 80%. Flow cytometry analysis revealed a distinctive cytokine production pattern across cohorts, with CD4 T cells producing IFNγ, TNF, and IL-2, and CD8 T cells producing IFNγ, TNF, and CCL4. Variations were observed in the proportion of monofunctional CD4 T cells producing TNF, particularly higher in individuals without cancer and patients treated with chemotherapy alone, while those treated with immunotherapy or chemoimmunotherapy predominantly produced IFNγ. Despite these differences, polyfunctional spike-specific memory CD4 and CD8 T cell responses were comparable across cohorts. Notably, immunotherapy-treated patients exhibited an expansion of spike-specific CD4 T cells with a terminally differentiated effector memory phenotype. Discussion: These findings demonstrate that systemic treatment in patients with solid tumors does not compromise the quality of polyfunctional mRNA-1273-induced T cell responses. This underscores the importance of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with solid cancers undergoing systemic treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enlargement of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-filled brain ventricles (cerebral ventriculomegaly), the cardinal feature of congenital hydrocephalus (CH), is increasingly recognized among patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). KATNAL2, a member of Katanin family microtubule-severing ATPases, is a known ASD risk gene, but its roles in human brain development remain unclear. Here, we show that nonsense truncation of Katnal2 (Katnal2Δ17) in mice results in classic ciliopathy phenotypes, including impaired spermatogenesis and cerebral ventriculomegaly. In both humans and mice, KATNAL2 is highly expressed in ciliated radial glia of the fetal ventricular-subventricular zone as well as in their postnatal ependymal and neuronal progeny. The ventriculomegaly observed in Katnal2Δ17 mice is associated with disrupted primary cilia and ependymal planar cell polarity that results in impaired cilia-generated CSF flow. Further, prefrontal pyramidal neurons in ventriculomegalic Katnal2Δ17 mice exhibit decreased excitatory drive and reduced high-frequency firing. Consistent with these findings in mice, we identified rare, damaging heterozygous germline variants in KATNAL2 in five unrelated patients with neurosurgically treated CH and comorbid ASD or other neurodevelopmental disorders. Mice engineered with the orthologous ASD-associated KATNAL2 F244L missense variant recapitulated the ventriculomegaly found in human patients. Together, these data suggest KATNAL2 pathogenic variants alter intraventricular CSF homeostasis and parenchymal neuronal connectivity by disrupting microtubule dynamics in fetal radial glia and their postnatal ependymal and neuronal descendants. The results identify a molecular mechanism underlying the development of ventriculomegaly in a genetic subset of patients with ASD and may explain persistence of neurodevelopmental phenotypes in some patients with CH despite neurosurgical CSF shunting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the world and the incidence of diabetes has increased dramatically in developing countries such as India. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important factor for self-management behaviours of diabetic patients. These behaviours have special importance in preventing complications of diabetes. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has become an important measure for evaluating patient treatment with noncurable chronic disease. In the present paper demographic profile of 200 men and women in which 118 were suffering from diabetes in which 68 were men 50 were women from two districts of Uttar Pradesh. The demographic profile of respondents depicted age, gender, religion, educational status, marital status, occupation of respondents. These are the important contributing factors to access the quality of life of diabetic subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much literature documents elevated psychiatric symptoms among adults after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11). We, however, know of no research in children that examines emergency mental health services following 9/11. We test whether children's emergency services for crisis mental health care rose above expected values in September 2001. We applied time-series methods to California Medicaid claims (1999-2003; N = 127,200 visits). Findings in California indicate an 8.7% increase of children's emergency mental health visits statistically attributable to 9/11. Non-Hispanic white more than African American children account for this acute rise in emergency services.

Research has generally failed to explore whether the effect of neighborhood characteristics on home values has changed over time. We take a long-range view and study decadal changing home values in the southern California region over a 50-year period, from 1960 to 2009. We focus on the effects of racial composition and measures associated with the New Urbanism on changing home values. We find that whereas neighborhoods with more racial/ethnic minorities and racial mixing experienced relative decreases in home values in the earlier decades, this effect has effectively disappeared in the most recent decade and actually became positive for some measures. We also found that certain characteristics associated with the New Urbanism-population density, older homes, a lack of concentration of single family units-show stronger positive effects on home values in the most recent decades.

BACKGROUND: In light of the recent Great Recession, increasing attention has focused on the health consequences of economic downturns. The perinatal literature does not converge on whether ambient economic declines threaten the health of cohorts in gestation. We set out to test the economic stress hypothesis that the monthly count of cesarean deliveries (CD), which may gauge the level of fetal distress in a population, rises after the economy declines. We focus on male CD since the literature reports that male more than female fetuses appear sensitive to stressors in utero. METHODS: We tested our ecological hypothesis in California for 228 months from January 1989 to December 2007, the most recent data available to us at the time of our tests. We used as the independent variable the Bureau of Labor Statistics unadjusted total state employment series. Time-series methods controlled for patterns of male CD over time. We also adjusted for the monthly count of female CD, which controls for well-characterized factors (e.g., medical-legal environment, changing risk profile of births) that affect CD but are shared across infant sex. RESULTS: Findings support the economic stress hypothesis in that male CD increases above its expected value one month after employment declines (employment coefficient = -24.09, standard error = 11.88, p = .04). Additional exploratory analyses at the metropolitan level indicate that findings in Los Angeles and Orange Counties appear to drive the State-level relation. CONCLUSIONS: Contracting economies may perturb the health of male more than female fetuses sufficiently enough to warrant more CD. Male relative to female CD may sensitively gauge the cohort health of gestations.

BackgroundIn light of the recent Great Recession, increasing attention has focused on the health consequences of economic downturns. The perinatal literature does not converge on whether ambient economic declines threaten the health of cohorts in gestation. We set out to test the economic stress hypothesis that the monthly count of cesarean deliveries (CD), which may gauge the level of fetal distress in a population, rises after the economy declines. We focus on male CD since the literature reports that male more than female fetuses appear sensitive to stressors in utero.MethodsWe tested our ecological hypothesis in California for 228 months from January 1989 to December 2007, the most recent data available to us at the time of our tests. We used as the independent variable the Bureau of Labor Statistics unadjusted total state employment series. Time-series methods controlled for patterns of male CD over time. We also adjusted for the monthly count of female CD, which controls for well-characterized factors (e.g., medical-legal environment, changing risk profile of births) that affect CD but are shared across infant sex.ResultsFindings support the economic stress hypothesis in that male CD increases above its expected value one month after employment declines (employment coefficient = -24.09, standard error = 11.88, p = .04). Additional exploratory analyses at the metropolitan level indicate that findings in Los Angeles and Orange Counties appear to drive the State-level relation.ConclusionsContracting economies may perturb the health of male more than female fetuses sufficiently enough to warrant more CD. Male relative to female CD may sensitively gauge the cohort health of gestations.