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Hot topics

Edited by Francesco Marincola

The Journal of Translational Medicine is excited to launch the Hot topics series, which will publish a limited number of high interest review articles per year, focussing on cutting edge topics from across the breadth of the journal’s scope. Articles will cover emerging concepts and points of view or foresights, rather than focusing on comprehensive discussions of well-established areas. We encourage the participation of investigators from different groups with complementary expertise in the proposed theme.

Articles should be submitted by invitation of Editor-in-Chief, Francesco Marincola, only, and will be published in the series free of charge. If you would like to propose a review article for the Hot Topics series, please contact Dr Marincola at info@biomedcentral.com with a suggested outline.

Published articles have undergone the journal's standard peer-review process overseen by the Editor-in-Chief, who declares no competing interests.

  1. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanosized heat-stable vesicles released by virtually all cells in the body, including tumor cells and tumor-infiltrating dendritic cells (DCs). By carrying molecules from origi...

    Authors: Tiziana Schioppa, Carolina Gaudenzi, Giovanni Zucchi, Arianna Piserà, Yasmin Vahidi, Laura Tiberio, Silvano Sozzani, Annalisa Del Prete, Daniela Bosisio and Valentina Salvi
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:691
    Content type: Review Published on:

  3. Liver steatosis, inflammation, and variable degrees of fibrosis are the pathological manifestations of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), an aggressive presentation of the most prevalent chronic liver diseas...

    Authors: Melissa Myint, Francesca Oppedisano, Valeria De Giorgi, Byeong-Moo Kim, Francesco M. Marincola, Harvey J. Alter and Salvatore Nesci
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:757
    Content type: Review Published on:

  4. Mesothelioma is a cancer typically caused by asbestos. Mechanistically, asbestos carcinogenesis has been linked to the asbestos-induced release of HMGB1 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, where HMGB1 promotes ...

    Authors: Michele Carbone, Michael Minaai, Yasutaka Takinishi, Ian Pagano and Haining Yang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:749
    Content type: Review Published on:

  5. Over the last five decades, breast density has been associated with increased risk of developing breast cancer. Mammographically dense breasts are considered those belonging to the heterogeneously dense breast...

    Authors: Sofia M. Tarchi, Monica Pernia Marin, Md. Murad Hossain and Mary Salvatore
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:582
    Content type: Review Published on:

  8. Mammalian cells responding to specific perturbations of homeostasis can undergo a regulated variant of cell death that elicits adaptive immune responses. As immunogenic cell death (ICD) can only occur in a pre...

    Authors: Lorenzo Galluzzi, Oliver Kepp, Erik Hett, Guido Kroemer and Francesco M. Marincola
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:162
    Content type: Review Published on:

  9. Over the last few years, cancer immunotherapy experienced tremendous developments and it is nowadays considered a promising strategy against many types of cancer. However, the exclusion of lymphocytes from the...

    Authors: Violena Pietrobon and Francesco M. Marincola
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2021 19:9
    Content type: Review Published on:

  10. Immunotherapy is an efficient way to cure cancer by modulating the patient’s immune response. However, the immunotherapy response is heterogeneous and varies between individual patients and cancer subtypes, re...

    Authors: Sabah Nisar, Ajaz A. Bhat, Sheema Hashem, Santosh K. Yadav, Arshi Rizwan, Mayank Singh, Puneet Bagga, Muzafar A. Macha, Michael P. Frenneaux, Ravinder Reddy and Mohammad Haris
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:471
    Content type: Review Published on:

  11. Given that abnormal autophagy is involved in the pathogenesis of cancers, we sought to explore the potential value of autophagy-associated genes in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD).

    Authors: Xiaofei Wang, Shuang Yao, Zengtuan Xiao, Jialin Gong, Zuo Liu, Baoai Han and Zhenfa Zhang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:149
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. Genomic and radiomic data integration, namely radiogenomics, can provide meaningful knowledge in cancer diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Despite several data structures based on multi-layer architecture pro...

    Authors: Mario Zanfardino, Monica Franzese, Katia Pane, Carlo Cavaliere, Serena Monti, Giuseppina Esposito, Marco Salvatore and Marco Aiello
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:337
    Content type: Review Published on:

  14. This systematic review and meta-analysis summarized the most recent evidence on the efficacy of intermittent energy restriction (IER) versus continuous energy restriction on weight-loss, body composition, bloo...

    Authors: Iolanda Cioffi, Andrea Evangelista, Valentina Ponzo, Giovannino Ciccone, Laura Soldati, Lidia Santarpia, Franco Contaldo, Fabrizio Pasanisi, Ezio Ghigo and Simona Bo
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2018 16:371
    Content type: Review Published on:

  15. With the exception of genotoxic oncology drugs, first-in-human, Phase 1 clinical studies of investigational drugs have traditionally been conducted in healthy volunteers (HVs). The primary goal of these studie...

    Authors: Joyson J. Karakunnel, Nam Bui, Latha Palaniappan, Keith T. Schmidt, Kenneth W. Mahaffey, Briggs Morrison, William D. Figg and Shivaani Kummar
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2018 16:336
    Content type: Review Published on:

  16. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha was originally identified in the 1970s as the serum mediator of innate immunity capable of inducing hemorrhagic necrosis in tumors. Today, a wide spectrum of biological activi...

    Authors: Steven F. Josephs, Thomas E. Ichim, Stephen M. Prince, Santosh Kesari, Francesco M. Marincola, Anton Rolando Escobedo and Amir Jafri
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2018 16:242
    Content type: Review Published on:

  17. Non-typhoidal Salmonella usually induces self-limiting gastroenteritis. However, in many parts of Africa, especially in individuals who are malnourished, infected with malaria, or have sickle cell disease, the...

    Authors: Seah H. Lim, Barbara A. Methé, Bettina M. Knoll, Alison Morris and Stephen K. Obaro
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2018 16:239
    Content type: Commentary Published on:

  18. Immunotherapy has matured into standard treatment for several cancers, but much remains to be done to extend the reach of its effectiveness particularly to cancers that are resistant within each indication. Th...

    Authors: Laura Soldati, Laura Di Renzo, Emilio Jirillo, Paolo A. Ascierto, Francesco M. Marincola and Antonino De Lorenzo
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2018 16:75
    Content type: Review Published on:

  19. Extensive research within the last several decades has revealed that the major risk factors for most chronic diseases are infections, obesity, alcohol, tobacco, radiation, environmental pollutants, and diet. I...

    Authors: Ajaikumar B. Kunnumakkara, Bethsebie L. Sailo, Kishore Banik, Choudhary Harsha, Sahdeo Prasad, Subash Chandra Gupta, Alok Chandra Bharti and Bharat B. Aggarwal
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2018 16:14
    Content type: Review Published on:

  20. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogenous disease associated with distinct genetic and molecular abnormalities. Somatic mutations result in dysregulation of intracellular signaling pathways, epigenetics, ...

    Authors: Seah H. Lim, Patrycja M. Dubielecka and Vikram M. Raghunathan
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2017 15:183
    Content type: Review Published on:

  21. Immunotherapy consists of activating the patient’s immune system to fight cancer and has the great potential of preventing future relapses thanks to immunological memory. A great variety of strategies have eme...

    Authors: Michele Graciotti, Cristiana Berti, Harm-Anton Klok and Lana Kandalaft
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2017 15:142
    Content type: Review Published on:

  22. While many decades of scientific research studies have gone into harnessing the power of the immune system to fight cancer, only recently have cancer immunotherapeutic approaches begun to show robust clinical ...

    Authors: Mohammad Haris, Puneet Bagga, Hari Hariharan, Bevin McGettigan-Croce, Laura A. Johnson and Ravinder Reddy
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2017 15:140
    Content type: Review Published on:

  23. Recombinant monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are one of today’s most successful therapeutic classes in inflammatory diseases and oncology. A wider accessibility and implementation, however, is hampered by the high...

    Authors: Kevin Hollevoet and Paul J. Declerck
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2017 15:131
    Content type: Review Published on:

  24. The vitamin C deficiency disease scurvy is characterised by musculoskeletal pain and recent epidemiological evidence has indicated an association between suboptimal vitamin C status and spinal pain. Furthermor...

    Authors: Anitra C. Carr and Cate McCall
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2017 15:77
    Content type: Review Published on: