Citations

Acellular bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) proteomics can partially separate lung cancer from non-lung cancer patients based on principal component analysis and multivariate analysis. Furthermore, the variance in the proteomics data sets is correlated mainly with lung cancer status and, to a lesser extent, smoking status and gender. Despite these advances BAL small and large extracellular vehicles (EVs) proteomes reveal aberrant protein expression in paracrine signaling mechanisms in cancer initiation and progression. We consequently present a case-control study of 24 bronchoalveolar lavage extracellular vesicle samples which were analyzed by state-of-the-art liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). We obtained evidence that BAL EVs proteome complexity correlated with lung cancer stage 4 and mortality within two years´ follow-up (p value = 0.006). The potential therapeutic target DNMT3B complex is significantly up-regulated in tumor tissue and BAL EVs. The computational analysis of the immune and fibroblast cell markers in EVs suggests that patients who deceased within the follow-up period display higher marker expression indicative of innate immune and fibroblast cells (four out of five cases). This study provides insights into the proteome content of BAL EVs and their correlation to clinical outcomes.

Abstract Skin substitutes are considered a useful alternative for occlusive dressings in the treatment of superficial burns as they reduce the frequency of dressing replacement. This phase II randomized controlled trial aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) skin as an occlusive xenograft dressing for the treatment of burn wounds in humans. In order to assess the use of tilapia skin, the following variables were evaluated: number of days for wound healing, the number of times the occlusive dressing was changed, use of anesthetics or analgesics, pain assessment using the Visual Analogue Scale, and evaluation of burn improvement on the day of dressing removal. In total, 62 participants completed the study. It was found that in participants treated with tilapia skin, complete reepithelialization occurred in significantly fewer days; reported pain intensity was lower (study arms B and C), the amount of anesthetics/analgesics required was lower (study arms B and C), and the necessity of dressing changes was significantly reduced in comparison with volunteers treated with silver sulfadiazine. In our study, the tilapia skin xenograft showed good efficacy as an occlusive biological dressing for burn wound treatment in humans.

Abstract This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of Nile tilapia skin as a xenograft for the treatment of partial-thickness burn wounds in children. This is an open-label, monocentric, randomized phase II pilot study conducted in Fortaleza, Brazil. The study population consisted of 30 children between the ages of 2 and 12 years with superficial “partial-thickness” burns admitted less than 72 hours from the thermal injury. In the test group, the tilapia skin was applied. In the control group, a thin layer of silver sulfadiazine cream 1% was applied. Tilapia skin showed good adherence to the wound bed, reducing the number of dressing changes required, the amount of anesthetics used, and providing benefits for the patients and also for healthcare professionals, by reducing the overall work load. The number of days to complete burn wound healing, the total amount of analgesics required throughout the treatment, burn improvement on the day of dressing removal, and pain throughout the treatment were similar to the conventional treatment with silver sulfadiazine. Thus, tilapia skin can be considered an effective and low-cost extra resource in the therapeutic arsenal of pediatric superficial partial thickness burns.