Frontiers | MicroRNA biomarkers as next-generation diagnostic tools for neurodegenerative diseases: a comprehensive review

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are characterized by abnormalities within neurons of the brain or spinal cord that gradually lose function, eventually leadi...

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944 - Novel Plasma Biomarkers for the Detection of Long COVID Defined by Multiapproach Analysis

Background Long COVID (LC) is a newly defined syndrome linking COVID infection with an umbrella of long-lasting symptoms. Due to this variety of presentation and lack of understanding of the mechanism involved, no reliable biomarkers have been found so far, and diagnostic uncertainty remains high. In the prospect of personalized medicine, there is a dire…

Alzheimer's biomarkers now visible up to a decade ahead of symptoms

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have devised a biomarker test that can spot small amounts of clumping tau protein in the brain and cerebrospinal fluid, which lead to Alzheimer's disease.

How fast is your brain ageing? Proteins in blood offer clues

Biomarkers could monitor ageing in the brain, revealing ways to treat dementia and other age-related brain disorders.

Blood based immune biomarkers associated with clinical frailty scale in older patients with melanoma receiving checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy - Immunity & Ageing

Introduction Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibition (ICI) is increasingly prescribed to older patients with cancer. High age, especially in combination with frailty, has been associated to immune senescence, which is the age-related decline in immune function, thereby possibly hindering ICI effectiveness. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess whether blood cell immune senescence markers are associated with age, frailty and response to anti-PD-1 treatment in older patients with metastatic melanoma. Methods In a prospective observational study, sixty patients with stage IIIC or IV melanoma undergoing anti-PD1 treatment were categorized into young (< 65 years; n = 22), old (> 65 years) without frailty (n = 19), and old with frailty (n = 19). In-depth immune cell phenotyping was performed in baseline blood samples (prior to treatment) using multispectral flow cytometry and compared between groups and with immunotherapy treatment response. Antigen-presenting cell capacity was evaluated using mixed lymphocyte reaction and T cell proliferative potential was assessed using PHA proliferation assay. Results No significant differences in treatment response rates were observed across age groups. Older patients, irrespective of frailty, showed lower levels of naïve CD8 + T cells, with the old and frail group also exhibiting reduced tissue-resident effector memory CD8 + T cells and CD8 + mucosal associated invariant T (MAIT) cells. These differences were not associated with treatment outcomes. T cell proliferation and antigen-presenting cell capacities did not differ across groups. Conclusion Several ageing and frailty associated changes were detected among circulating immune cells in blood but were not associated with response to immunotherapy in our study. While these findings suggest that the level of frailty and ageing may not necessarily preclude the efficacy of ICI therapy, further investigation is needed to fully understand the impact of frailty and ageing on immunotherapy.