Myelin-directed autoimmunity is considered to play a key role in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Increased production of both pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines is a common finding in MS. Interleukin-17 (IL-17) is a recently described cytokine produced in humans almost exclusively by activated memory T cells, which can induce the production of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines from parenchymal cells and macrophages. In situ hybridisation with synthetic oligonucleotide probes was adopted to detect and enumerate IL-17 mRNA expressing mononuclear cells (MNC) in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with MS and control individuals. Numbers of IL-17 mRNA expressing blood MNC were higher in patients with MS and acute aseptic meningoencephalitis (AM) compared to healthy individuals. Higher numbers of IL-17 mRNA expressing blood MNC were detected in MS patients examined during clinical exacerbation compared to remission. Patients with MS had higher numbers of IL-17 mRNA expressing MNC in CSF compared to blood. This increase in numbers of IL-17 mRNA expressing MNC in CSF was not observed in patients with AM. Our results thus demonstrate increased numbers of IL-17 mRNA expressing MNC in MS with higher numbers in CSF than blood, and with the highest numbers in blood during clinical exacerbations.

In this study, we investigated whether CD4+CD25high regulatory T cells (Treg) are increased in the tumor tissue and peripheral blood of early-stage prostate cancer patients undergoing prostatectomy. We show that the prevalence of CD4+CD25high T cells inside the prostate was significantly higher in the tumor compared with benign tissue from the same prostate. Furthermore, the frequency of CD4+CD25high T cells in peripheral blood was significantly higher in prostate cancer patients compared with normal donors. A proportion of the CD4+CD25high T cells was also shown to be glucocorticoid-induced TNF receptor, ICOS, and FOXP3 positive. Moreover, CD4+CD25+ T cells from blood and supernatants from cultured prostate tumor tissue samples exhibited immunosuppressive function in vitro. Furthermore, supernatants from cultured prostate tissue samples and prostate cancer ascites fluid induced migration of CD4+CD25+ T cells and were shown to contain the regulatory T cell chemokine CCL22 by ELISA. Our findings indicate that Tregs are an important cellular component of early-stage prostate tumors, and thus new therapeutic strategies aimed at inhibition or depletion of Tregs may improve prostate cancer immunotherapy.

The FilmArray platform (FA; BioFire, Salt Lake City, UT) is a closed diagnostic system allowing high-order multiplex PCR analysis with automated readout of results directly from positive blood cultures in 1 h. In the present study, we evaluated the clinical performance of the FilmArray blood culture identification (BCID) panel, which includes 19 bacteria, five yeasts, and three antibiotic resistance genes. In total, 206 blood culture bottles were included in the study. The FilmArray could identify microorganisms in 153/167 (91.6%) samples with monomicrobial growth. Thirteen of the 167 (7.8%) microorganisms were not covered by the FilmArray BCID panel. In 6/167 (3.6%) samples, the FilmArray detected an additional microorganism compared to blood culture. When polymicrobial growth was analyzed, the FilmArray could detect all target microorganisms in 17/24 (71%) samples. Twelve blood culture bottles that yielded a positive signal but showed no growth were also negative by FilmArray. In 3/206 (1.5%) bottles, the FilmArray results were invalid. The results of the FilmArray were reproducible, as demonstrated by the testing and retesting of five bottles in the same day and a longitudinal follow-up of five other blood cultures up to 4 weeks. The present study shows that the FilmArray is a rapid identification method with high performance in direct identification of bacteria and yeasts from positive blood culture bottles.