Objectives. Asymptomatic and symptomatic patients may transmit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but their clinical features and immune responses remain largely unclear. We aimed to characterise the clinical features and immune responses of asymptomatic and symptomatic patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Methods. We collected clinical, laboratory and epidemiological records of patients hospitalised in a coronavirus field hospital in Wuhan. We performed qualitative detection of anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) using archived blood samples. Results. Of 214 patients with SARS-CoV-2, 26 (12%) were asymptomatic at hospital admission and during hospitalisation. Most asymptomatic patients were ≤ 60 years (96%) and females (65%) and had few comorbidities (< 16%). Serum levels of white and red blood cells were higher in asymptomatic than in symptomatic patients (Pvalues < 0.05). During hospitalisation, IgG seroconversion was commonly observed in both asymptomatic and symptomatic patients (85% versus 94%, P-value = 0.07); in contrast, IgM seroconversion was less common in asymptomatic than in symptomatic patients (31% versus 74%, P-value < 0.001). The median time from the first virus-positive screening to IgG or IgM seroconversion was significantly shorter in asymptomatic than in symptomatic patients (median: 7 versus 14 days, P-value < 0.01). Furthermore, IgG/IgM seroconversion rates increased
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and prognostically unfavorable form of brain tumor. The aggressive and highly invasive phenotype of these tumors makes them among the most anatomically damaging human cancers with a median survival of less than one year. Although canonical WNT pathway activation in cancers has been historically linked to the presence of mutations involving key components of the pathway (APC, β-CATENIN or AXIN proteins), an increasing number of studies suggest that elevated WNT signaling in GBM is initiated by several alternative mechanisms that are involved in different steps of the disease. Therefore, inhibition of WNT signaling may represent a therapeutically relevant approach for GBM treatment. After the selection of a GBM cell model responsive to WNT inhibition, we set out to develop a screening approach for the identification of compounds capable of modulating canonical WNT signaling and associated proliferative responses in GBM cells. Here we show that the small molecule SEN461 inhibits the canonical WNT signaling pathway in GBM cells, with relevant effects at both molecular and phenotypic levels in vitro and in vivo. These include SEN461-induced AXIN stabilization, increased β-CATENIN phosphorylation/degradation, and inhibition of anchorage-independent growth of human GBM cell lines and patient-derived primary tumor cells in vitro. Moreover, in vivo administration of SEN461 antagonized WNT signaling in Xenopus embryos and reduced tumor growth in a GBM xenograft model. These data represent the first demonstration that small molecule-mediated inhibition of WNT signaling may be a potential approach for GBM therapeutics.
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