Search Results (5)

Despite notable advancements in immunotherapy in the past decades, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HCT) remains a promising, potentially curative treatment modality. Only a limited number of studies have performed a direct comparison of two prevalent rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin (r-ATG) formulations—specifically, Thymoglobuline (ATG-T, formerly Genzyme) and Grafalon (ATG-G, formerly Fresenius). The primary objective of our retrospective analysis was to compare the outcomes of adult patients undergoing matched or mismatched unrelated donor (MUD/MMUD) allo-HCT, with a graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) prophylaxis based on either ATG-T or ATG-G. A total of 87 patients who had undergone allo-HCT between 2012 and 2022 were included. We observed no significant differences between ATG-T and ATG-G concerning the occurrence of acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD), regardless of its severity. Conversely, chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGvHD) occurred less frequently in the ATG-T group compared to the ATG-G group (7.5% vs. 38.3%, p = 0.001). The negative impact of ATG-G on cGvHD was confirmed by multivariate analysis (HR 8.12, 95% CI 2.06–32.0, p = 0.003). Patients treated with ATG-T manifested a higher incidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivations (70% vs. 31.9%, p < 0.001), with a shorter time between transplant and CMV (<61 days, 77.8% vs. 33.3%, p = 0.008) and a higher median CMV copy number (1000 vs. 0, p = 0.004). Notably, despite a higher occurrence of CMV reactivations in the ATG-T cohort, most patients were asymptomatic compared to ATG-G (85.7% vs. 43.8%, p = 0.005). By multivariate analysis, only aGvHD had an influence on CMV reactivations (HR 0.18, 95% CI 0.04–0.75, p = 0.019). Finally, we observed no significant differences in terms of 5-year overall survival (OS) and 3-year relapse-free survival (RFS) while comparing ATG-T and ATG-G (32.0% vs. 40.3%, p = 0.423; 66.7% vs. 60.4%, p = 0.544, respectively). Full article

Background: Pelotherapy is the traditional procedure of applying curative muds on the skin’s surface—shown to have a positive effect on the human body and cure illnesses. The effect of pelotherapy is complex, functioning through several mechanisms, and depends on the skin’s functional condition. The current research objective was to develop a methodology and electrodes to assess the passage of the chemical and biologically active compounds of curative mud through human skin by performing electrical bioimpedance (EBI) analysis. Methods: The methodology included local area mud pack and simultaneous tap water compress application on the forearms with the comparison to the measurements of the dry skin. A custom-designed small-area gold-plated electrode on a rigid printed circuit board, in a tetrapolar configuration, was designed. A pilot study experiment with ten volunteers was performed. Results: Our results indicated the presence of an effect of pelotherapy, manifested by the varying electrical properties of the skin. Distinguishable difference in the measured real part of impedance (R) emerged, showing a very strong correlation between the dry and tap-water-treated skin (r = 0.941), while a poor correlation between the dry and mud-pack-treated skin (r = 0.166) appeared. The findings emerged exclusively in the frequency interval of 10 kHz …1 MHz and only for R. Conclusions: EBI provides a promising tool for monitoring the variations in the electrical properties of the skin, including the skin barrier. We foresee developing smart devices for promoting the exploitation of spa therapies. Full article

Based on published research on modifying the structure of water and water-containing systems, we assess external influence methods: temperature, magnetic field, light radiation, and their combination. We evaluate changes in the electrophysical, photo- and pH-metric biological, therapeutic, and other properties of water systems using non-destructive electrophysical research methods, i.e., thermometry, pH, laser interference, dynamic light scattering, microelectrophoresis, conductivity, surface tension, dielectric constant, polarimetric measurements, atomic force microscopy, and UV and EPR spectroscopy. The effects of temperature or magnetic field lead to a change in the content and size of water clusters, and physicochemical, biological, therapeutic, and other changes in the properties of water and water-containing systems. The combined effect of a magnetic field and curative mud and the impact of magnetised mineral water have a more pronounced therapeutic effect than only mineral water or curative mud. The data presented indirectly indicate structural changes in water and water-containing systems. We conclude that the primary mechanism of action of a magnetic field, light, or a combination of these factors on water and water-containing systems, including mineral water and therapeutic mud, is a change in the structure of water. Full article

The traditional way to mitigate loss circulation in drilling operations is to use preventative and curative materials. However, it is difficult to quantify the amount of materials from every possible combination to produce customized rheological properties. In this study, machine learning (ML) is used to develop a framework to identify material composition for loss circulation applications based on the desired rheological characteristics. The relation between the rheological properties and the mud components for polyacrylamide/polyethyleneimine (PAM/PEI)-based mud is assessed experimentally. Four different ML algorithms were implemented to model the rheological data for various mud components at different concentrations and testing conditions. These four algorithms include (a) k-Nearest Neighbor, (b) Random Forest, (c) Gradient Boosting, and (d) AdaBoosting. The Gradient Boosting model showed the highest accuracy (91 and 74% for plastic and apparent viscosity, respectively), which can be further used for hydraulic calculations. Overall, the experimental study presented in this paper, together with the proposed ML-based framework, adds valuable information to the design of PAM/PEI-based mud. The ML models allowed a wide range of rheology assessments for various drilling fluid formulations with a mean accuracy of up to 91%. The case study has shown that with the appropriate combination of materials, reasonable rheological properties could be achieved to prevent loss circulation by managing the equivalent circulating density (ECD). Full article

Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is the only possible curative treatment for β-thalassemia major. The largest experience occurred in Pesaro, Italy, where the BMT was applied after a standard risk assessment. The patients were divided into 3 risk classes based on liver size by physical examination, the presence or absence of fibrosis by liver biopsy, and adherence to regular iron chelation. Outcomes were mainly affected by the risk status. After modifications to the conditioning regimens, the risk of transplantation-related complications in highrisk recipients reduced considerably. As a result, outcomes after transplantation have become more similar across risk categories. For BMT, most centers use bone marrow instead of peripheral blood in thalassemia. Some studies showed that peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) is better than BMT with regard to hematologic recovery, hospitalization period, leukemia-free survival, overall survival (OS), and transplant-related mortality (TRM). No significant differences were seen in grade II to IV acute GVHD (aGVHD); but the incidence of chronic GVHD (cGVHD) was significantly higher in the PBSCT group. BMT from unrelated donors may offer similar results to those obtained using HLA-identical family donors, at least for patients who are not fully compliant with conventional treatment and do not yet show severe complications of iron overload. All studies conclude that MUD BMT might be a good alternative for patients with less risk factors. Another study concluded that, at present, due to high graft failure and GVHD rates, BMT from alternative donors should be restricted to patients who have poor life expectancies because they cannot receive adequate conventional treatment or because of alloimmunization to minor blood antigens. In another study unrelated cord blood transplantation (CBT) was compared to related donor transplantation for children with β-thalassemia. The results were comparable to the survival rates of related-donor BMT for thalassemia. It has always been a dream for parents to have a new baby who might be a donor for his/her sibling and save his/her life. Today some families tried to learn the HLA group of the fetus using prenatal diagnosis. The last step in this development was preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). PGD has become available as an alternative to prenatal diagnosis in order to avoid the risk for pregnancy termination, because PGD allows selection of unaffected embryos before a pregnancy is established. Gene therapies, the ultimate idea, involves replacing allogeneic stem cell transplantation with the transfer of normal globin genes into patientderived autologous haematopoietic stem cells, bypassing the need for allogeneic donors and the immunosuppression required to achieve engraftment of the transplanted cells and to eliminate the risk of donor-related graft-versus-host disease. The successful preclinical studies in thalassaemia mousemodels, the accumulating data on lentiviral vector-mediated HSC transduction and the anticipated increased safety of lineage-restricted globin SIN lentiviral vectors strongly support the initiation of Phase I gene therapy clinical trials in β-thalassaemia. Full article