Summary Chronic inflammation may drive development of cancer as observed in inflammation‐induced colorectal cancer (CRC). Though immune cells can infiltrate the tumour microenvironment, cancer cells seem to evade anti‐tumour responses, which is one of the established hallmarks of cancer. Targeting the programmed cell death protein‐1 (PD‐1)/PD‐L1 signalling pathway is currently at the forefront in the development of anti‐tumour immunity‐based therapies for multiple malignancies. By blocking the immune‐checkpoint of activated T‐cells, it is possible to rewire the adaptive resistance induced by the PD‐1 ligands expressed in the tumour microenvironment. However, adverse immunotherapy‐modulated events could complicate the treatment of individuals with preexisting chronic inflammatory conditions. In this study, we investigated the expression of different systemic and mucosal T‐cell subsets during the course of azoxymethane (AOM)/dextran sulphate sodium (DSS)‐induced colitis and colitis‐associated CRC. In addition, we examined the expression of PD‐1 and its ligands PD‐L1 and PD‐L2 as well as other molecular targets related to T‐cell exhaustion. We found a significant increase in PD‐1 expression on all examined mucosal T‐cell subsets of the colon and the ileum, which correlated with disease progression. We also observed an upregulation of PD‐L1 and PD‐L2 mRNA expression throughout the AOM/DSS regime. Blocking PD‐1 signalling with an anti‐PD1 antibody did not affect the tumour burden in the AOM/DSS‐treated mice, but did potentiate the weight loss in the third DSS cycle, indicating possible immune‐mediated toxicity. This raises a concern for patients with colitis‐associated CRCs and should be further investigated.

Customer demands for fresh salads are increasing, but leafy green vegetables have also been linked to food‐borne illness due to pathogens such as Escherichia coli O157:H7. As a safety measure, consumers often wash leafy vegetables in water before consumption. In this study, we analyzed the efficiency of household washing to reduce the bacterial content. Romaine lettuce and ready‐to‐eat mixed salad were washed several times in flowing water at different rates and by immersing the leaves in water. Lettuce was also inoculated with E. coli before washing. Only washing in a high flow rate (8 L/min) resulted in statistically significant reductions (p < .05), “Total aerobic count” was reduced by 80%, and Enterobacteriaceae count was reduced by 68% after the first rinse. The number of contaminating E. coli was not significantly reduced. The dominating part of the culturable microbiota of the washed lettuce was identified by rRNA 16S sequencing of randomly picked colonies. The majority belonged to Pseudomonadaceae, but isolates from Enterobacteriaceae and Staphylococcaceaceae were also frequently found. This study shows the inefficiency of tap water washing methods available for the consumer when it comes to removal of bacteria from lettuce. Even after washing, the lettuce contained high levels of bacteria that in a high dose and under certain circumstances may constitute a health risk.

Rectal insulin therapy could potentially be a novel treatment, targeting the epithelial layer to enhance mucosal healing in ulcerated areas. Our findings open up new possibilities for combination treatments to synergize with the existing anti-inflammatory therapies.

Opierając się na etnograficznych badaniach terenowych przeprowadzonych w centrum leczenia uzależnień Via da Paz, w niniejszym artykule analizuję relację między koncepcjami trzeźwości i rzeczywistości. Via da Paz położone jest w brazylijskiej Amazonii. Centrum łączy w swych praktykach leczniczych rytuały religii União do Vegetal z metodami psychoterapeutycznymi wywodzącymi się przede wszystkich z filozofii 12 kroków. W trakcie dziewięciomiesięcznej terapii jej uczestnicy piją vegetal – psychoaktywny napój zawierający DMT. Choć DMT jest substancją kontrolowaną, zaklasyfikowaną w ramach międzynarodowych konwencji jako halucynogenny narkotykowych, w Via da Paz praktyki związane z konsumpcją vegetal odgrywają centralną rolę w procesie leczenia uzależnienia. Co więcej, uczestnicy terapii odróżniają stan wywołany przez vegetal od stanu wywołanego intoksykacją innymi substancjami psychoaktywnymi i określają go jako „trzeźwy”. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest ukazanie, że w pewnych kontekstach społecznych proces odzyskiwania trzeźwości (rozumianej jako właściwe rozpoznanie rzeczywistości) może wymagać używania substancji, które w innych kontekstach uważane są za zaburzające percepcję rzeczywistości.

Psychoactive substances are subject to law control, imposed through the system of medical prescription or legal prohibition, with legal penalties for their unauthorized use. The consumption of drugs in a non-medical contexts is often labelled as "drug abuse", and the substance used in this way as a “narcotic” - the term endowed with illegality (Goodman et al. 2017). While legal, medical and popular discourses attempt to establish the distinction between what is an illicit drug and what is a medicine by creating the presumptive ontologies of drugs, this way of approaching substances has become the object of critique within drug research  associated with the ‘ontological turn’. Scholars in this field of study have destabilised the assumption of a fixed, ready-made, singular drug objects, postulating thinking about substance use as a mutable system of relations intertwined in the broader assemblages and ecologies of drug use. In this article, by using ethnographic examples and through the analysis of research conducted within the so called “psychedelic turn” movement, I demonstrate the fluidity and multiplicity of psychoactive substances and examine diverse ways in which the dominant – Euro-American – drug categorizations are undermined. I pose the question of how the border between what is an “illicit drug” and what is a “medicine” is stabilized and destabilized through the embodied users’ practices and scientific discourses.