Publications by authors named "Martina Schmidt"

Air pollution is a significant public health issue that impacts lung health, particularly in vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly, and individuals with pre-existing respiratory conditions. Both natural and anthropogenic sources of air pollution give rise to a variety of toxic compounds, including particulate matter (PM), ozone (O₃), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Exposure to these pollutants is strongly associated with the development and exacerbation of respiratory diseases, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

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Exercise is safe and beneficial for people diagnosed with cancer. The use of live-remote exercise approaches, where exercise trainers deliver exercise programs via a videoconferencing platform, has increased rapidly, greatly expanding the reach of exercise programs. This method retains key elements of supervised exercise, which provide greater benefits than unsupervised programs.

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Objectives: Due to its complexity, the management of cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is best based on an inter-disciplinary care approach. Thus, we examined the preferred and the actual distribution of responsibilities from the perspectives of healthcare professionals and patients.

Materials And Methods: An online survey was conducted among physicians (N =148), nurses (N =184), and psycho-oncologists (N =144) in Germany.

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Purpose: As survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) improves, their work situation is gaining importance. The aim of the current study was to identify factors associated with work status and quality of working life (QWL) in patients with MBC. Additionally, we investigated the effects of an exercise intervention on work status.

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Background And Purpose: Asthma is characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), allergic inflammation, and airway remodelling. Although recent studies have shown that asthma pathophysiology involves P2X4 receptor activation, a potential link with chronic asthma remains to be explored. We investigated the effect of a novel P2X4 receptor antagonist BR11595 on allergen-induced airway responses in a guinea pig model of chronic asthma.

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Purpose: This study aimed to investigate whether socio-demographic, clinical, and intervention-related variables moderate the effects of exercise on depression and anxiety symptoms in cancer survivors.

Methods: Data from 26 RCTs in the POLARIS database were analyzed using a one-step individual participant data (IPD) meta-analytic approach with linear mixed models to assess exercise effects on depression and anxiety symptoms (z-scores). Interaction terms were added to these models to explore moderators.

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Glioma affects millions of people worldwide and there is a lack of effective therapies. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and deadliest form of primary brain tumor in adults. Emerging evidence indicated that targeting ion channels may be a promising therapeutic approach for GBM.

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Background: The potential of exercise as a concurrent therapy for actively treated primary tumors has been suggested by emerging preclinical and observational studies. However, clinical trials regarding this question are scarce. Therefore, we conducted a randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of aerobic or resistance exercise concomitant to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) on tumor size.

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Exposure to air pollution is associated with neurological diseases. Traffic is a major source of air pollution, consisting of a complex mixture of ultrafine particles, that can invade the brain and induce a microglia-mediated inflammatory response. However, the exact mechanisms of how traffic-related particles impact human microglia remain poorly understood.

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Asthma, a chronic airway disease, is marked by allergic inflammation, hyperresponsiveness, and tissue remodeling. Influenza infections in asthma patients can cause severe exacerbations, though the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigated how pre-existing allergic inflammation affects immune responses to influenza infection in mice exposed to house dust mite (HDM).

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Background: Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) is a frequent and burdensome problem that is still insufficiently understood and managed. We investigated subjective and objective measures of CRCI, as recommended by the International Cancer and Cognition Task Force (ICCTF) in cancer patients prior to systemic or radiation therapy with respect to potential influencing or associated psychosocial, demographic, or lifestyle factors.

Methods: Female patients with breast or gynecological tumors (n = 239, mean age = 55.

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Impaired memory retrieval is one of the cognitive markers in the early stage of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Previous studies report that exchange protein directly activated by cAMP 2 (Epac2) plays a specific and time-limited role in promoting memory retrieval. In this study, we investigated the effect of a novel Epac2 activator, S220, on neuronal and synaptic activities, and memory impairment in an acute AD mouse model.

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The understanding and treatment of sexual health problems, impaired body image, and other non-life threatening but burdensome symptoms of women with metastatic breast cancer (mBC) is still insufficient. We studied the factors associated with such symptoms and investigated whether these problems could be alleviated by a structured exercise intervention. In the multinational PREFERABLE-EFFECT study, 355 women with mBC were randomly assigned to usual care (n = 178) or a 9-month supervised exercise program (n = 177).

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Background: Although cancer-related fatigue has a major impact on daily functioning and quality of life of patients, it remains underestimated in cancer care. Nurses play a significant role in multidisciplinary approaches to fatigue care.

Purpose: This study was designed to investigate knowledge and attitudes among nurses regarding cancer-related fatigue and its management in daily clinical practice and training to suggest future actions for improvement.

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Cyclic nucleotides are synthesized by adenylyl and/or guanylyl cyclase, and downstream of this synthesis, the cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase families (PDEs) specifically hydrolyze cyclic nucleotides. PDEs control cyclic adenosine-3',5'monophosphate (cAMP) and cyclic guanosine-3',5'-monophosphate (cGMP) intracellular levels by mediating their quick return to the basal steady state levels. This often takes place in subcellular nanodomains.

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Background: One of the most common sequelae of cancer and/or its treatment is cancer-related fatigue (CRF). For those affected, CRF is often accompanied by considerable, even long-term impairment. This makes it all the more important to examine how care is provided in Germany and to what extent guideline recommendations are implemented in clinical practice.

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Increased calcium levels are associated with the ferroptosis pathway in neurodegenerative conditions. Recent evidence showed that exposure to particulate matter (PM) could accelerate the pathology of neurodegenerative diseases. However, the molecular mechanisms of how PM could affect brain cell pathology is not fully understood.

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Purpose: To evaluate the cost utility of a 9-month supervised exercise program for patients with metastatic breast cancer (mBC), compared with control (usual care, supplemented with general activity advice and an activity tracker). Evidence on the cost-effectiveness of exercise for patients with mBC is essential for implementation in clinical practice and is currently lacking.

Methods: A cost-utility analysis was performed alongside the multinational PREFERABLE-EFFECT randomized controlled trial, conducted in 8 centers across Europe and Australia.

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Objective: Cancer-related fatigue is one of the most common burdens of cancer patients. To date, most studies focused on fatigue during or after treatment. However, investigation of pretreatment fatigue is crucial to identify causal or risk factors other than cancer therapy and to enable timely fatigue management.

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Purpose: In resistance training (RT), the change in volume-load from training sessions (TS) to TS is an indicator of training progress. Resulting growth trajectories are likely to differ between individuals. Understanding this variation is important for exercise planning in general, but even more for clinical populations.

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Products from various parts of species are traditionally applied as a cardiotonic. In Europe and the USA, mainly Jacq. (Lindm.

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Bacterial respiratory infections are a major global health concern, often leading to lung injury and triggering lung repair mechanisms. Endogenous epithelial progenitor cells are crucial in this repair, yet the mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study investigates the response of lung epithelial progenitor cells to injury induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a component of gram-negative bacteria, focusing on their regulation during lung repair.

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Purpose: Contrary to guidelines, many cancer patients are not screened for cancer-related fatigue (CRF) and do not receive information or adequate treatment. As physicians play a key role in cancer therapy, their knowledge of this common sequela and perspectives on its management are of major interest.

Methods: For an online survey, physicians working in oncology in Germany were systematically drawn from registers and invited by using institutional newsletters or colleagues.

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Air pollution from diesel combustion is linked in part to the generation of diesel exhaust particles (DEP). DEP exposure induces various processes, including inflammation and oxidative stress, which ultimately contribute to a decline in lung function. Cyclic AMP (cAMP) signaling is critical for lung homeostasis.

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