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  • Wollesen Harrison posted an update 10 months, 2 weeks ago

    Background During the 2016 Assisi Think Tank Meeting (ATTM) on breast cancer, the panel of experts proposed developing a validated system, based on rapid learning health care (RLHC) principles, to standardize inter-center data collection and promote personalized treatments for breast cancer. Material and Methods The seven-step Breast LArge DatabasE (BLADE) project included data collection, analysis, application, and evaluation on a data-sharing platform. The multidisciplinary team developed a consensus-based ontology of validated variables with over 80% agreement. This English-language ontology constituted a breast cancer library with seven knowledge domains baseline, primary systemic therapy, surgery, adjuvant systemic therapies, radiation therapy, follow-up, and toxicity. The library was uploaded to the BLADE domain. The safety of data encryption and preservation was tested according to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines on data from 15 clinical charts. The system was validated on 64 patients who had undergone post-mastectomy radiation therapy. In October 2018, the BLADE system was approved by the Ethical Committee of Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy (Protocol No. 0043996/18). JNK activator Results From June 2016 to July 2019, the multidisciplinary team completed the work plan. An ontology of 218 validated variables was uploaded to the BLADE domain. The GDPR safety test confirmed encryption and data preservation (on 5000 random cases). All validation benchmarks were met. ConclusionBLADE is a support system for follow-up and assessment of breast cancer care. To successfully develop and validate it as the first standardized data collection system, multidisciplinary collaboration was crucial in selecting its ontology and knowledge domains. BLADE is suitable for multi-center uploading of retrospective and prospective clinical data, as it ensures anonymity and data privacy.Synthetic polypeptides and polymer-peptide hybrid materials have been successfully implemented in an array of biomedical applications owing to their biocompatibility, biodegradability and ability to mimic natural proteins. In addition, these materials have the capacity to form complex supramolecular structures, facilitate specific biological interactions, and incorporate a diverse selection of functional groups that can be used as the basis for further synthetic modification. Like conventional synthetic polymers, polypeptide-based materials can be designed to respond to external stimuli (e.g., light and temperature) or changes in the environmental conditions (e.g., redox reactions and pH). In particular, pH-responsive polypeptide-based systems represent an interesting avenue for the preparation of novel drug delivery systems that can exploit physiological or pathological pH variations within the body, such as those that arise in the extracellular tumour microenvironment, intracellularly within endosomes/lysosomes, or during tissue inflammation. Here, we review the significant progress made in advancing pH-responsive polypeptides and polymer-peptide hybrid materials during the last five years, with a particular emphasis on the manipulation of ionisable functional groups, pH-labile linkages, pH-sensitive changes to secondary structure, and supramolecular interactions.Neurological disorders pose a substantial health and economic burden to the individual and society, necessitating strategies for effective prevention and disease management. Lifestyle behaviours play a role in risk and management of some neurological disorders; however, overlap between lifestyle behaviours across disorders has not been well explored. We used log-binomial regression to assess associations of selected lifestyle behaviours in community-dwelling Australians (n = 192,091), some of whom self-reported Alzheimer’s disease (AD), motor neurone disease (MND), multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease (PD) or stroke. Of six lifestyle behaviours, undertaking physical activity was inversely associated with the presence of all neurological disorders except PD. Smoking was positively associated with MND and stroke, and inversely associated with PD. Participants with AD and stroke shared inverse associations with cognitive engagement, face-to-face social interaction and stress-reducing activities, and MS was positively associated with online social interaction and stress-reduction activities. Of eleven food and beverage consumption categories, no associations were seen in MND, ten categories were inversely associated with people with AD or stroke, and six of these with PD. Vegetable and soft drink consumption were associated with MS. Further detailed assessment of commonalities in lifestyle behaviours across neurological disorders may inform potential strategies for risk reduction across disorders.This study presents a novel Janthinobacterium strain, SNU WT3, isolated from the kidney of rainbow trout. A phylogenetic study using 16S rRNA sequences indicated that the strain is closely related to Janthinobacterium svalbardensis JA-1T. However, biochemical analysis found differences in D-xylose adonitol, N-acetylglucosamine, arbutin, and cellobiose. As for genome-to-genome distance and average nucleotide identity values calculated between strain SNU WT3 and other related strains such as J. lividum EIF1, J. svalbardensis PAMC 27463, and J. agaricidamnosum BHSEK were all below the cutoff value between species. DNA-DNA hybridization between strain SNU WT3 and other close relatives indicated the results of J. lividum DSM 1522T (47.11%) and J. svalbardensis JA-1T (38.88%) individually. The major fatty acid compositions of strain SNU WT3 were cylco-C170 (41.45%), C160 (33.86%) and C120 (5.87%). The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, and diphosphatidylglycerol. The quinone system was composed mainly of ubiquinone Q-8. The genome of strain SNU WT3 consists of 6,314,370 bp with a G + C content of 62.35%. Here, we describe a novel species of the genus Janthinobacterium, and the name Janthinobacterium tructae has been proposed with SNU WT3T (=KCTC 72518 = JCM 33613) as the type strain.