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It was in Love in Earnest (1970), one of the rare studies ever written on Uranian poetry, that Timothy d'Arch Smith chose the name 'Uranians' to designate a group of English poets and artists who shared a common love for boys and poetry in a period that went from about 1880 to 1930. These poets resorted to a set of symbols and imagery as a mode to conceal the object of their writings, appropriating fin-de-siècle Decadence and modelling a real 'fashion', an artistic attitude that might well be defined as 'Decadent Neoclassicism'. The aim of this article is to examine the uses and functions of flowers in Uranian poetry, and more specifically two peculiar flowers often associated with malemale love as from the late nineteenth century: hyacinths and narcissi. One of the reasons behind their employment goes beyond aesthetic choices, as they are part of those ways adopted to conceal - or, simultaneously, highlight - the Uranian theme. Once outlined the polarities of an aporia of light and shade, candour and censorship, which can be traced in different hues in each and every author and text of my corpus, I will consider the possible Uranian influences on the works of those who, at least in their explicit intentions, would flee from such a poetics: the Modernist poets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Langerhans cells (LCs) are crucial regulators of anti-cancer immune responses. Cancer, however, can alter DCs functions leading to tolerance. The enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO1) plays a crucial role in this process. In sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) of patients with melanoma, LCs show phenotypical and functional alterations favoring tolerance. Herein we aimed to investigate IDO1 expression in SLN LCs from patients with melanoma. We showed by immunofluorescence analysis that a portion of Langerin+ LCs, located in the SLN T cell-rich area, displayed the typical dendritic morphology and expressed IDO1. There was no significant difference in the expression of IDO between SLN with or without metastases. Double IDO1/CD83 staining identified four LCs subsets: real mature IDO1−CD83+ LCs; real immature IDO1−CD83− LCs; tolerogenic mature IDO1+CD83+ LCs; tolerogenic immature IDO1+CD83− LCs. The latter subset was significantly increased in metastatic SLNs as compared to negative ones (p < 0.05), and in SLN LCs of patients with mitotic rate (MR) > 1 in primary melanoma, as compared to MR ≤ 1 (p < 0.05). Finally, immature SLN LCs, after in vitro stimulation by inflammatory cytokines, acquired a maturation profile by CD83 up-regulation. These results provide new input for immunotherapeutic approaches targeting in vivo LC of patients with melanoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) constitutes the most frequent malignant cancer endangering women's health. In this study, a new spontaneously immortalized breast cancer cell line, DHSF-BR16 cells, was isolated from the primary IDC of a 74-years old female patient, treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and disease-free 5-years after adjuvant chemotherapy. Primary breast cancer tissue surgically removed was classified as ER−/PR−/HER2+, and the same phenotype was maintained by DHSF-BR16 cells. We examined DHSF-BR16 cell morphology and relevant biological and molecular markers, as well as their response to anticancer drugs commonly used for breast cancer treatment. MCF-7 cells were used for comparison purposes. The DHSF-BR16 cells showed the ability to form spheroids and migrate. Furthermore, DHSF-BR16 cells showed a mixed stemness phenotype (i.e. CD44+/CD24−/low), high levels of cytokeratin 7, moderate levels of cytokeratin 8 and 18, EpCAM and E-Cadh. Transcriptome analysis showed 2071 differentially expressed genes between DHSF-BR16 and MCF-7 cells (logFC > 2, p-adj < 0.01). Several genes were highly upregulated or downregulated in the new cell line (log2 scale fold change magnitude within − 9.6 to + 12.13). A spontaneous immortalization signature, mainly represented by extracellular exosomes-, plasma membrane- and endoplasmic reticulum membrane pathways (GO database) as well as by metabolic pathways (KEGG database) was observed in DHSF-BR16 cells. Also, these cells were more resistant to anthracyclines compared with MCF-7 cells. Overall, DHSF-BR16 cell line represents a relevant model useful to investigate cancer biology, to identify both novel prognostic and drug response predictive biomarkers as well as to assess new therapeutic strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a novel treatment for recurrent or in-transit unresectable melanoma metastases based on the administration of anti-neoplastic drugs followed by cancer cell electroporation. Whether ECT can also induce anti-tumour immunity is unclear. We addressed this issue investigating the presence of dendritic cells (DCs) in the inflammatory infiltrate of ECT-treated lesions. Biopsies from melanoma patients ( n = 9) were taken before ECT (T0), at d7 and d14 after treatment and studied by immunofluorescence with DCs-related antibodies. Epidermal Langerin Langerhans cells (LCs) were the most represented subset before treatment. ECT induced a significant reduction in epidermal LCs number at d7 ( p < 0.001), while they were completely replaced at d14. Similarly, the few LCs observed intermingled with metastatic melanoma cells at T0 decreased after treatment ( p < 0.001), suggesting an ECT-induced activation of LCs. Consistently, at d1 after ECT ( n = 3 patients), LCs were found to express CCR7, which mediates LCs migration to regional lymph nodes, and CD83, the typical DCs maturation marker. In contrast, plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) were not present at T0, but significantly increased after ECT both in melanoma metastasis ( p < 0.001) and perilesionally ( p < 0.05). Similarly, CD1c dermal DCs (dDCs), observed in low number before ECT, strongly increased at d7 and even more at d14 ( p < 0.05 and p < 0.001, respectively). Notably, some dDCs expressed CD83. These data suggest that ECT promotes LCs migration from the tumour to draining lymph nodes and pDCs and dDCs recruitment at the site of the lesion. These findings may help to design new strategies of in situ DCs vaccination in cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]