Vaping associated pulmonary injury (VAPI), a group of respiratory symptoms, sometimes accompanied by non-specific symptoms like generalized fatigue, body ache, fever, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and chills that has been previously categorized as a diagnosis of exclusion and best described as an exogenous lipoid pneumonia, or chemical pneumonitis. Here we describe the onset of an exogenous cause of lipoid pneumonia in an otherwise healthy patient using cannabis-containing products. We explore, similarities in the clinical case, identify common clinical features, characteristic radiologic findings along with cytological changes in the lungs.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent malignant disease in females worldwide. Genomic instability in tumor tissue has been associated with tumor progression. These genetic changes may take a variety of forms, including numerical and structural chromosomal abnormalities (CAs), epigenetic changes, and gene expression alterations. Many tumor tissues are made up of genetically different cell populations, and the study of the causes and consequences of this heterogeneity play a central role in cancer research. In this study, CAs in blood and cancer tissues of patients with sporadic BC were examined. Our findings shows that the increase in numerical sex aneuploidy in BC tissues is significantly higher than in blood tissue. These aneuploidy increases in cancer tissues seem to be compatible with the development and increase of cancer, and can play a role in the pathogenesis of cancers. These changes are consistent with early and long-standing exposure to carcinogens, especially estrogens. These findings should clarify our understanding of breast carcinogenesis in breast tissues and promote development of improved methods for risk assessment and BC prevention in women.

Microvesicles or ectosomes are heterogeneous extracellular vesicles ranging in size from 100-1000 nm in diameter. Research suggests that tumor associated microvesicles have a role in immune suppression, multi-drug resistance, invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis via intercellular communication and re-programming. This research study analyzed microvesicles secreted from serum-starved glioblastoma multiforme, the most common brain tumor, noted for having the worst five-year survival rate of any glioma (5%). Live cell imaging studies have shown that microtumor spheroid formation in vitro involves microvesicles that mediate cell-to-cell associations to produce aggregates of cells that coalesce to microtumors, an activity that is consistently observed also in organoid cultures of patient tumors. To study further their role in malignant progression, microvesicles were harvested from the culture medium of serum-starved glioblastoma cell line DBTRG-05MG by ultracentrifugation. Transmission electron microscopy showed that microvesicles comprised the largest fraction of extracellular vesicles, based on measurements of average diameter. Western blot analysis showed that proteins involved in tumor spread, immune system resistance, and early stage neural development were present in microvesicles secreted by the tumor cells. Among these, beta-tubulin III, neuroligin III, and integrin alpha-V were present at levels roughly comparable to glioblastoma whole cell lysates. CD63, CD 47, flotillin-2 and pan-cadherin were also detected in the microvesicle preparations. Notably absent were beta-actin, tsg101, epidermal growth factor receptor and HCAM proteins. A model is proposed, “insertional to mediate tumor invasion and spread.

The present report describes our clinical findings regarding the use of high dose intravenous insulin in cancer patients, as a means to deplete the blood compartment of glucose molecules. The purpose of this intervention is to create a favorable physiological state for the competitive inhibition of several rate-limiting enzymes within cancer cells, with structural analogues that behave as antimetabolites. Regardless of their histological origin, virtually all solid tumors reported on to date (February 2020) are found to be hypercaptant in PET-CT scans following the intravenous injection of 2-¹8fluoro-deoxy-D-glucose. Most solid tumors display a hypermetabolic phenotype (SUVmax = 3), with marked overexpression of glucose transporters (GLUTs) in the outer membrane of their anaplastic cells subpopulations. The fact that neoplastic cells also overexpress glycolytic, fermentative and glutaminolytic enzymes up to an order of magnitude relative to healthy cells further strengthens the argument for a competitive inhibition with antimetabolites. The rationale for a deep, systemic deprivation of glucose was suggested by classical enzymological work concerning competitive inhibition (the Woods principle), and our group has shown that a metabolic intervention with structural analogues of glucose and pyruvate is strongly enhanced by a systemic suppression of the natural substrates of hexokinase 2 (HK-2) and lactic dehydrogenase isozyme A (LDH-A), followed by the timely introduction of several non- metabolizable analogues. Sustained, deep hypoglycemia (<10mg/dl) under physiological ketosis provides an advantageous context for antitumor treatment with structural analogues of glucose, pyruvate and glutamine. Data provided in this report demonstrates the feasibility and safety of the procedure.

Poor long-term graft outcome remains problematic because of the inability to prevent chronic allograft rejection. Strategies based on suppression/regulation/tolerance (3 different but similarly used concepts) of the immune system often leads to other concerns. New alternatives based on facilitating the induction of alloantigen tolerance by regulatory T cells (Tregs) and other immune-suppressor cells can restore the balance between inhibitory and effector arm. This review mainly summarizes results about the use of Tregs for the control of transplant rejection, commenting also other situations and potentially similar cell therapies.