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Research

Fine-Tuning the Tumour Microenvironment: Current Perspectives on the Mechanisms of Tumour Immunosuppression

Immunotherapy has revolutionised the treatment of cancers by harnessing the power of the immune system to eradicate malignant tissue. However, it is well recognised that some cancers are highly resistant to these therapies, which is in part attributed to the immunosuppressive landscape of the tumour microenvironment (TME). The contexture of the TME is highly heterogeneous and contains a complex architecture of immune, stromal, vascular and tumour cells in addition to acellular components such as the extracellular matrix. While understanding the dynamics of the TME has been instrumental in predicting durable responses to immunotherapy and developing new treatment strategies, recent evidence challenges the fundamental paradigms of how tumours can effectively subvert immunosurveillance. Here, we discuss the various immunosuppressive features of the TME and how fine-tuning these mechanisms, rather than ablating them completely, may result in a more comprehensive and balanced anti-tumour response.

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Pathobiologic Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration in Osteopetrosis Derived From Structural and Functional Analysis of 14 ClC-7 Mutants

ClC-7 is a chloride-proton antiporter of the CLC protein family. In complex with its accessory protein Ostm-1, ClC-7 localizes to lysosomes and to the osteoclasts' ruffled border, where it plays a critical role in acidifying the resorption lacuna during bone resorption. Gene inactivation in mice causes severe osteopetrosis, neurodegeneration, and lysosomal storage disease. Mutations in the human CLCN7 gene are associated with diverse forms of osteopetrosis.

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Effectiveness of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine against hospital admissions for pneumonia in Australian children

Reductions in pneumonia-coded hospital admissions in unvaccinated children predominated in non-Aboriginal children with low incidence of pneumonia

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A Survey of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Clinicians in Australia and New Zealand About the Management of Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia

Significant variation in practice, particularly for patients with a severe disease phenotype and antibiotic-resistant profile

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Disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal perinatal mortality rates in Western Australia from 1980 to 2015

This study aimed to examine the pattern of stillbirth and neonatal mortality rate disparities over time in Western Australia

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Disability "In-Justice": Benefits and Challenges of "Yarning" With Young People Undergoing Diagnostic Assessment for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in Youth Detention

We report the findings from a qualitative study that took place alongside a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) prevalence study among detainees in Australia

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Influenza epidemiology in patients admitted to sentinel Australian hospitals in 2017: the Influenza Complications Alert Network (FluCAN)

This report summarises the epidemiology of hospitalisations with laboratory-confirmed influenza during the 2017 influenza season

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A Comparison of Pneumococcal Nasopharyngeal Carriage in Very Young Fijian Infants Born by Vaginal or Cesarean Delivery

Pneumococcal nasopharyngeal carriage prevalence and density were higher in infants delivered vaginally compared with those delivered by cesarean birth

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Primary prevention of severe lower respiratory illnesses in at-risk infants using the immunomodulator OM-85

The effects of OM-85 were strongest in the first winter season, with a trend for fewer children in the OM-85 group to have sLRIs and URIs

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Malaria eradication within a generation: ambitious, achievable, and necessary

Momentum towards eradication has been building for decades, and more than half of the world's countries are now malaria free