Quantitative combination of volumetric MR imaging and MR spectroscopy data for the discrimination of meningiomas from metastatic brain tumors by means of pattern recognition

The analysis of information derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) has been identified as an important indicator for discriminating among different brain pathologies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficiency of the combination of textural MRI features and MRS metabolite ratios by means of a pattern recognition system in the task of discriminating between meningiomas and metastatic brain tumors. The data set consisted of 40 brain MR image series and their corresponding spectral data obtained from patients with verified tumors. The pattern recognition system was designed employing the support vector machines classifier with radial basis function kernel; the system was evaluated using an external cross validation process to render results indicative of the generalization performance to “unknown” cases. The combination of MR textural and spectroscopic features resulted in 92.15% overall accuracy in discriminating meningiomas from metastatic brain tumors. The fusion of the information derived from MRI and MRS data might be helpful in providing clinicians a useful second opinion tool for accurate characterization of brain tumors.     

The effect of dexamethasone on tissue water distribution and proton relaxation in Panc02 tumors

The present experiments were conducted to determine the effects of dexamethasone mediated changes in tumor water distribution on proton relaxation times (T1, T2) in a murine pancreatic adenocarcinoma (Panc02). Spin lattice (T1) and spin-spin (T2) relaxation times were determined by ex vivo methods (10MHz) and by in vivo imaging techniques (6.25 MHz) at various intervals after single or multiple dexamethasone treatments. In complementary studies, dexamethasone mediated changes in tumor capillary permeability, tumor water distribution, relative tumor blood flow and tumor cell proliferation were also determined.

Proton spin lattice (T1) and spin-spin (T2 relaxation times for Panc02 tumors shortened within two hours of a single dexamethasone treatment. The time course and magnitude of this response was dexamethasone dose dependent. The time dependent changes in T1 and T2 after dexamethasone were similar at 10 MHz (ex vivo) and 6.25 MHz (in vivo imaging). Although dexamethasone produced little or no change in total tumor water content and tumor cell proliferation, transient changes in the physiologic distribution of tumor water were clearly demonstrated.

The data supports the idea that dexamethasone induced changes in the distribution of tumor water were mediated by changes in capillary permeability and tumor blood flow. These physiologic responses produced serial changes in tumor extracellular extravascular water content that were consistent with the observed changes in tumor T1 and T2. The results from these experiments might imply that therapy associated changes in tumor proton relaxation times may not only reflect changes in tissue water content, but may also reflect physiologic responses which alter the distribution of tissue water and solute.     

The triplex vaccine effects in mammary carcinoma: A nonlinear model in tune with SimTriplex

This paper deals with the mathematical modeling of the mammary carcinoma-immune system competition elicited by an external stimulus represented by three different protocols of the triplex vaccine [C. De Giovanni, et al., Immunoprevention of HER-2/neu transgenic mammary carcinoma through an interleukin 12-engineered allogeneic cell vaccine, Cancer Research 64 (2004) 4001-4009]. The presented model is composed of nonlinear ordinary differential equations based on parameters and cell populations. A qualitative analysis of the asymptotic behavior of the model and numerical simulations are able to depict preclinical experiments on transgenic mice in tune with the SimTriplex model [F. Pappalardo, F. Castiglione, P.L. Lollini, S. Motta, Modelling and simulation of cancer immunoprevention vaccine, Bioinformatics 21 (2005) 2891-2897]. The results are of great interest both in the applied and theoretical sciences.     

Optical imaging: bacteria,viruses, and mammalian cells encoding light-emitting proteins reveal the locations of primary tumors and metastases in animals

Early detection of tumors and their metastases is crucial for the prognosis of cancer treatment. Traditionally, tumor detection is achieved by various methods, including magnetic resonance imaging and computerized tomography. With the recent cloning, cellular expression, and real-time imaging of light-emitting proteins, such as Renilla luciferase (Ruc), bacterial luciferase (Lux), firefly luciferase (Luc), green fluorescent protein (GFP), or Ruc-GFP fusion protein, significant efforts have been focused on using these marker proteins for tumor detection. It has also been demonstrated that certain bacteria, viruses, and mammalian cells (BVMC), when administered systemically, are able to gain entry and replicate selectively in tumors. In addition, many tissue/tumor specific promoters have been cloned which allow transgene expression specifically in tumor tissues. Therefore, when light-emitting protein encoded BVMC are injected systemically into rodents, tumor-specific marker gene expression is achieved and is detected in real time based on light emission. Consequently, the locations of primary tumors and previously unknown metastases in animals are revealed in vivo. In the future it will likely be feasible to use engineered light-emitting BVMC as probes for tumor detection and as gene-delivery vehicles in vivo for cancer therapy.     

An Activatable Near-Infrared Fluorescent Probe for Precise Detection of the Pulmonary Metastatic Tumors: A Traditional Molecule Having a Stunning Turn

An accurate detection of lung metastasis is of great significance for making better treatment choices and improving cancer prognosis, but remains a big challenge in clinical practice. In this study, we propose a reinventing strategy to develop a pH-activatable near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent nanoprobe, pulmonary metastasis tracer (denoted as PMT), based on assembly of NIR dye IR780 and calcium phosphate (CaP). By delicately tuning the intermolecular interactions during the assembly process and dye doping content, as well as the synthetic condition of probe, the fluorescence of PMT could be finely adjusted via the tumor acidity-triggered disassembly. Notably, the selected PMT9 could sharply convert subtle pH variations into a distinct fluorescence signal to generate high fluorescence ON/OFF contrast, dramatically reducing the background signals. Benefiting from such preferable features, PMT9 is able to precisely identify not only the tumor sites in orthotopic lung cancer models but also the pulmonary metastases in mice with remarkable signal-to-background ratio (SBR). This study provides a unique strategy to turn shortcomings of traditional dye IR780 during in vivo imaging into advantages and further expand the application of fluorescent probe to image lung associated tumor lesions.     

Qualitative analysis of a delayed free boundary problem for tumor growth under the effect of inhibitors

In this paper we study a delayed free boundary problem for the growth of tumors under the effect of inhibitors. The establishing of the model is based on the diffusion of nutrient and inhibitors, and mass conservation for the two processes proliferation and apoptosis. It is assumed that the process of proliferation is delayed compared to apoptosis. We mainly study the asymptotic behavior of the solution, and prove that under some assumptions, in the case where c₁ and c₂ are sufficiently small, the volume of the tumor cannot expand without limit; it will either disappear or evolve to a dormant state as t→∞.     

Bounded immune response in immunotherapy described by the deterministic delay Kirschner–Panetta model

We describe restrictions on the parameters of the delay Kirschner–Panetta model which has bounded immune system behavior.     

激光诱导击穿光谱在疾病诊断中的应用前景

微量元素与人体健康密切相关。比如,金属元素的稳态可能会影响细胞的代谢功能,进而诱发某些疾病的产生。激光诱导击穿光谱（LIBS）,是一种可用于分子复杂的生物材料或临床标本的无因子分析技术,具有从单个激光脉冲和少量材料（纳克级数）中获得元素信号的能力。综述了2015年以来LIBS技术在疾病诊断方面的相关研究,包括几种常见疾病（结石、脱发、眼病,等）和恶性肿瘤（皮肤癌、肝癌、胃癌、乳腺癌、卵巢癌、宫颈癌,等）。研究的样品涵盖块状组织、结石、组织切片、血清、血浆、全血等生物材料。这些生物样品包含或积累了可以检测、定量和成像的金属物质和金属化合物。LIBS能够以百万分之几的灵敏度和微观分辨率对样品中内源性和外源性化学元素进行微分析、定位分析以及定量分析。最后,对LIBS技术的医学发展趋势进行了展望。希望简单的评述能够吸引更多的科学家关注LIBS技术在疾病诊断领域的应用,进而促进LIBS技术的日趋完善,为疾病诊断和治疗发挥更大的作用。