Search

This article, published in the British Journal of Dermatology, discusses the deceptive pigment changes observed in a patient undergoing neoadjuvant sonidegib therapy for basal cell carcinoma (BCC). The patient, a 71-year-old Asian male, experienced a significant decrease in tumor volume after three months of sonidegib treatment, resulting in a black plaque. However, complete surgical excision revealed complete tumor regression with abundant pigment granules and histocytes. The authors suggest that pigmented BCCs that rapidly regress after HHI therapy may retain pigmentation, potentially leading to misjudgment of incomplete tumor regression. The article does not disclose any conflicts of interest and the data underlying the study can be obtained upon request. [Extracted from the article]

Summary: Anuran amphibians are susceptible to infection by intestinal nematodes, but the damage and response mechanisms that occur in their intestines after infection are only partially understood. In this study, the intestinal disruption and response mechanisms in Amolops wuyiensis frogs infected with Cosmocercoides wuyiensis n. sp. were revealed through analysis of the intestinal histopathology, digestive enzyme activity, transcriptome and intestinal microbiota. Tissue section analysis showed histological damage and inflammation in the infected intestine, and the digestive enzyme activity indicated a decrease in digestion and absorption of some nutrients. We found that infection led to differences in the intestinal microbiota composition, including lower diversity and symbiotic relationships. The greater relative abundance of the genera Burkholderia and Rhodococcus may enhance intestinal immunity to resist pathogenic infections. A comparison of the transcriptomes of infected and uninfected intestines revealed 1055 differentially expressed genes. GO enrichment and KEGG pathways analyses suggested that the guts of infected C. wuyiensis n. sp. show enhanced complement activation, cell adhesion molecule function, NOD‐like receptor signalling pathway activity and other innate immunity responses. Among the adaptive immune responses, the intestinal immune network for IgA production was significantly enriched, and the expression of IL‐17D and transforming growth factor beta‐1 genes were upregulated in the infected intestine. These results imply that C. wuyiensis n. sp. infection of A. wuyiensis intestine may trigger innate and adaptive immune responses, which reduce the post‐infection burden. Furthermore, the intestine of A. wuyiensis may also respond to C. wuyiensis n. sp. infection by increasing metallocarboxypeptidase activity and accelerating smooth muscle contraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]