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Pier E Gallenga1, Lucio Lobefalo21University Eye Clinic, G.D’Annunzio University, Chieti, Italy; 2Ethical Committee, Italian Ophthalmological Society – SOI, ItalyThe paper by Kocabora and coworkers (2008) underlines the message that patients treated with intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide are at risk of increased intraocular pressure (IOP) even after the clearance period of the drug. Furthermore, the development of intractable secondary glaucoma requiring surgical intervention is clear advice to monitor these patients carefully. M Selim KocaboraVatan caddesi, Vakif Gureba Egitim ve Arastirma Hastanesi, Fatih, 34 000, Istanbul, Turkey.We thank Dr. Gallenga and Dr. Lobefalo for their interest in our article (Kocabora et al 2008) and for their comments. We agree with them on the importance of pharmacovigilance and of warning the ophthalmology community about the potential risks of intravitreal triamcinolone (IVTA). We should always follow the principle of primum, non nocere in our medical practices. ...

The development of a gene mutation that makes HIV resistant to lamivudine may make it more sensitive to zidovudine. In a study of 56 HIV patients, half of those treated with zidovudine developed resistance to lamivudine compared to 19% who were not treated with zidovudine.

Background and Objectives: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is an invasive and potentially disabling syndrome characterized by a multitude of symptoms capable of reducing the quality of life of patients. Among the most disabling symptoms of IBS is certainly physical pain, which manifests itself mainly at the abdominal level but can also appear in other areas of the body, particularly in the form of chronic low-back pain (CLBP). Among the non-invasive methods of treating organ-specific pathologies and organ-related musculoskeletal problems, the use of Bioresonance Therapy (BT)—based on the administration of self-modulating Extremely Low-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields, capable of determining a rebalance of bio-electrical and metabolic activity in the presence of various functional alterations—is currently gaining acceptance. Therefore, we decided to monitor results obtained from patients suffering from IBS and CLBP subjected to a cycle of treatments with BT. Materials and Methods: We monitored 20 patients (12 women and 8 men, average age of 51 years) suffering from CLBP and other visceral symptoms related to IBS. Patients were monitored through the use of the Bristol Stool Form Scale (BSFS), the Fecal Calprotectin test and the Short-Form Health Survey 36 (SF-36), collected before (T0) and after (T1) the execution of the cycle of treatments. They undertook a treatment protocol consisting of eight sessions of BT carried out over about a month. Results: At the end of the treatments with BT, it was possible to observe a general and significant improvement in all the parameters observed, as well as a close inversely proportional correlation between the Calprotectin values detected and the quality of life experienced by the patients in relation to their perceived IBS symptoms. Conclusions: Overall, our pilot study would seem to suggest a potential beneficial effect of BT in modulating organic and musculoskeletal symptoms derived from IBS.

The confirmatory comment of Garcia-Teillard et al [...]

Research has been conducted on the use of lopinavir/ritonavir for HIV-patients treatment. The role of lopinavir/ritonavir salvage therapy in patients experiencing treatment failure has been investigated and the results suggest that this therapy could be effective with high viral load.

The biological history of Chlamydia trachomatis is intertwined with the evolution of the man. Infecting Elemental Bodies (EBs), having penetrated mucosal epithelial cells, wrap themselves in a cloak (ĸλαμις) of glycogen that ensures their obligatory intracellular survival and protects this differentiation into Reticulate Bodies (RBs) that feed on cellular ATP. Multiple chemokines and cytokines are involved under the direction of IL-6 in the florid phase and IL-17A in the scar phase. The WHO has successfully identified the SAFE strategy against trachoma (Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleansing, Environment) as the blueprint to eliminate the disease by 2020. Recently, interest has been increasingly focused on changing sexual attitudes in different areas of the world, leaving Musca sorbens, Scatophaga stercoraria, and stepsisters fairly blameless, but extolling the role of Chlamydia trachomatis in apparently “sterile” chronic prostatitis or conjunctivitis or, less frequently, in oropharyngitis and proctitis. The addition of an S (SAFE-S) standing for “sexual behavior” was then proposed to also attract the interest and attention not only of Ophthalmologists and Obstetricians/Gynecologists, Urologists/Andrologists, and the School Authorities for information on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, but also of Social Physicians and Pediatricians. This means that sexually transmitted infections should be screened in asymptomatic patients with risky sexual behavior or sexual contact with people diagnosed with a transmitted infection.

Over the last decade, the development of multiple strategies to allow the safe transfer from the donor to the patient of high numbers of partially HLA-incompatible T cells has dramatically reduced the toxicities of haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation (haplo-HCT), but this was not accompanied by a similar positive impact on the incidence of post-transplantation relapse. In the present review, we will elaborate on how the unique interplay between HLA-mismatched immune system and malignancy that characterizes haplo-HCT may impact relapse biology, shaping the selection of disease variants that are resistant to the “graft-vs.-leukemia” effect. In particular, we will present current knowledge on genomic loss of HLA, a relapse modality first described in haplo-HCT and accounting for a significant proportion of relapses in this setting, and discuss other more recently identified mechanisms of post-transplantation immune evasion and relapse, including the transcriptional downregulation of HLA class II molecules and the enforcement of inhibitory checkpoints between T cells and leukemia. Ultimately, we will review the available treatment options for patients who relapse after haplo-HCT and discuss on how a deeper insight into relapse immunobiology might inform the rational and personalized selection of therapies to improve the largely unsatisfactory clinical outcome of relapsing patients.

PAX3 (paired box 3) is known to have an important role in melanocyte development through modulation of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor transcription. Here we found that PAX3 transcriptional activity could be regulated through FGF2 (basic fibroblast growth factor)-STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3) signaling in the pigment cells. To study its function in vivo, we have generated a transgenic mouse model expressing PAX3 driven by tyrosinase promoter in a tissue-specific fashion. These animals exhibit hyperpigmentation in the epidermis, evident in the skin color of their ears and tails. We showed that the darker skin color results from both increased melanocyte numbers and melanin synthesis. Together, our study delineated a novel pathway in the melanocyte lineage, linking FGF2-STAT3 signaling to increased PAX3 transcription. Moreover, our results suggest that this pathway might contribute to the regulation of melanocyte numbers and melanin levels, and thereby provide an alternative strategy to induce pigmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]