The present invention relates to the prediction of responsiveness to cancer immunotherapy of a subject based on the T-cell composition of the subject, and a therapeutic method using cancer immunotherapy based on the prediction. The present invention also provides a method for improving or maintaining responsiveness to cancer immunotherapy of a subject. Responsiveness to cancer immunotherapy is predict by determining a relative value of a CD4.sup.+ T-cell subpopulation, dendritic cell subpopulation, and/or CD8.sup.+ T-cell subpopulation correlated with a dendritic cell stimulation in an anti-tumor immune response in a sample derived from a subject. A composition for treating or preventing cancer comprising cells such as CD62L.sup.lowCD4.sup.+ T-cells is also provided.

Disclosed herein are methods and compositions useful in diagnosing, prognosing, monitoring, and treatment of neurological disorders. The markers are syndecan-1, syndecan-4, thrombomodulin, plasmalemmal vesicle-associated protein, E-selectin, and VE-cadherin. These markers can be used alone or in combination.

The present invention relates to the prediction of responsiveness to cancer immunotherapy of a subject based on the T-cell composition of the subject, and a therapeutic method using cancer immunotherapy based on the prediction. The present invention also provides a method for improving or maintaining responsiveness to cancer immunotherapy of a subject. Responsiveness to cancer immunotherapy is predict by determining a relative value of a CD4.sup.+ T-cell subpopulation, dendritic cell subpopulation, and/or CD8.sup.+ T-cell subpopulation correlated with a dendritic cell stimulation in an anti-tumor immune response in a sample derived from a subject. A composition for treating or preventing cancer comprising cells such as CD62L.sup.lowCD4.sup.+ T-cells is also provided.

The present invention relates to the prediction of responsiveness to cancer immunotherapy of a subject based on the T-cell composition of the subject, and a therapeutic method using cancer immunotherapy based on the prediction. The present invention also provides a method for improving or maintaining responsiveness to cancer immunotherapy of a subject. Responsiveness to cancer immunotherapy is predict by determining a relative value of a CD4.sup.+ T-cell subpopulation, dendritic cell subpopulation, and/or CD8.sup.+ T-cell subpopulation correlated with a dendritic cell stimulation in an anti-tumor immune response in a sample derived from a subject. A composition for treating or preventing cancer comprising cells such as CD62L.sup.lowCD4.sup.+ T-cells is also provided.

Provided is a peripheral blood biomarker for evaluating the antitumor immune effect of radiation therapy. Also provided is a method in which the composition of cell subpopulation in a sample obtained from a subject is used as an index for immune activation in the subject caused by a radiation therapy. By comparing, with a reference, the amount of CD4.sup.+ T cell subpopulation that correlates with dendritic cell stimulation in an antitumor immune response or the amount of dendritic cell subpopulation that correlates with the dendritic cell stimulation in an antitumor immune response, the presence or absence of, and/or the magnitude of, immune activation occurring in the subject as a result of a radiation therapy can be determined.

Described is a method for identifying pathogenic platelet-activating antibodies in a subject's blood and particularly antibodies implicated in heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) which comprises the preparation of a platelet releasate from a normal subject's platelets, the combination of the platelet release with a normal subject's platelets, a test subject's blood sample, and analyzing the sample for platelet activation.

The present disclosure relates to assays, including but not limited to, leukocyte adhesive function assays (LAFA), devices and/or methods of using such assays. The present disclosure also relates to the uses of the disclosed embodiment in diagnostic, analytic and/or prognostic applications, particularly for diagnostic, analytic and/or prognostic applications in relation to diseases associated with abnormal host immune responses.

The present disclosure provides a micro-organismal product and a method for treating a patient with sickle cell disease. In one aspect, the method comprises determining a concentration of one or more biological markers in serum of the patient indicative of breach of an intestinal barrier in sickle cell disease; and administering a micro-organismal product to the patient that restores intestinal permeability of the patient by, for example, upregulating tight-junctions of the patient's intestine.

The present invention provides biomarker-based methods for diagnosing stroke in a patient suspected of having suffered a stroke, and also for discriminating between ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack. Substrates comprising probes for specific combinations of biomarkers useful in the methods of the invention are also described.

The present disclosure relates to compositions and uses thereof for inhibiting epithelial cell proliferation by exposing an epithelial cell to an agent that inhibits P-selectin expression and/or activity.