Publications by authors named "Rachel W Li"

Despite significant advancesin osteoimmunology, the mechanistic underpinnings of immune-skeletal crosstalk remain insufficiently characterized, particularly at the molecular and submolecular scales. The present article introduces quantum osteoimmunology as a novel field of research exploring how quantum mechanical phenomena, such as coherence, tunneling, entanglement, and wavefunction superposition, may influence osteoimmune signaling dynamics. It argues that the current deterministic, temporally linear models of immune activation may overlook the probabilistic and non-linear nature of molecular events governed by quantum principles.

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The distribution of alkaloids, with a focus on their chemodiversity, has been reported previously, but not at a genera-wide diversity level. This review provides a comprehensive survey of the occurrence of alkaloids across the genera of the family. This survey is taxonomically guided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Taxonomy Browser, with targeted keyword searches conducted in the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) SciFinder-n and PubMed.

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Background: Total joint replacement for osteoarthritis is one of the most successful surgical procedures in modern medicine. However, aseptic loosening continues to be a leading cause of revision arthroplasty. The diagnosis of aseptic loosening remains a challenge as patients are often asymptomatic until the late stages.

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Article Synopsis
  • Pelvic trauma patients often face unstable pelvic ring disruptions due to mismatches between the pelvis's complex shape and the fixation implants used, leading to considerations for secondary surgical interventions.
  • A study analyzed 3D models of the pelvis from 13 patients to identify anatomical asymmetries between the fractured and nonfractured hemipelvises, creating color maps to highlight areas at risk for significant differences.
  • The research demonstrated that using customized fixation implants designed based on the fractured hemipelvis resulted in better fit and less deviation, which underscores the importance of considering bone symmetry in implant design to enhance surgical outcomes.
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Background: Aseptic loosening is a leading cause of revision following total hip and knee arthroplasty which is caused by chronic inflammation around the prosthesis. Diabetes mellitus causes systemic inflammatory changes which could increase the risk of aseptic loosening. This study investigated the association between diabetes mellitus and aseptic loosening around hip and knee arthroplasty.

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Although 3-dimensional (3D) printing is becoming more widely adopted for clinical applications, it is yet to be accepted as part of standard practice. One of the key applications of this technology is orthopaedic surgical planning for urgent trauma cases. Anatomically accurate replicas of patients' fracture models can be produced to guide intervention.

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Device-associated infections remain a clinical challenge. The common strategies to prevent bacterial infection are either toxic to healthy mammalian cells and tissue or involve high doses of antibiotics that can prompt long-term negative consequences. An antibiotic-free coating strategy to suppress bacterial growth is presented herein, which concurrently promotes bone cell growth and moderates the dissolution kinetics of resorbable magnesium (Mg) biomaterials.

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Introduction: Renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. It remains a leading cause of acute kidney injury and is therefore an important issue in trauma and renal transplant surgery. Various pharmaceutical agents have been used in an attempt to dampen the harmful effects of IRI but few have been shown to be useful clinically.

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  • - Narirutin, a flavanone found in citrus fruits, was studied for its cardiovascular effects, focusing on its ability to relax rat mesenteric arteries and understanding the underlying mechanisms through isometric tension measurements and patch-clamping techniques.
  • - The study found that while narirutin did not affect acetylcholine-induced relaxation, it directly induced concentration-dependent relaxation in arteries, with effects similar to its analogue naringenin, and was influenced by factors like endothelium removal and specific inhibitors.
  • - Key mechanisms identified included increased phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, enhanced voltage-dependent potassium current, and inhibition of phosphodiesterase, which raised cAMP levels, suggesting narirutin promotes relaxation in blood vessels through multiple
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Introduction: Skeletal muscle ischaemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) can be a life threatening condition. It is relevant to various aspects of the management of trauma and surgical patients. Currently there lacks a pharmacological agent that can be used to dampen the effects of IRI.

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  • Breast cancer has a hereditary component, with about 30% of cases being familial, often influenced by multiple genes, making prevention challenges.
  • Researchers studied a specific set of susceptibility alleles called SuprMam in mice to explore their role in mammary tumors and found disruptions in the vitamin D/calcium/PTH pathway, particularly in females.
  • The findings suggest that elevated PTH levels and low active vitamin D may increase breast cancer risk, potentially preventable through dietary supplements, highlighting the relevance of SuprMam mice in understanding gene-environment interactions in cancer research.
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Mosquito-borne viruses can cause severe inflammatory diseases and there are limited therapeutic solutions targeted specifically at virus-induced inflammation. Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a re-emerging alphavirus responsible for several outbreaks worldwide in the past decade, causes debilitating joint inflammation and severe pain. Here, we show that CHIKV infection activates the NLRP3 inflammasome in humans and mice.

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A double-layered model is proposed for numerically simulating osteoblast adhesion on surface-engineered biomaterials. The proposed model consists of molecular and cellular motions based on theoretical and experimental evidence and creates predictive simulations from sparse experimental data. The comparison of numerical solutions and experimental data reveals that the proposed model can explain the nonlinear behaviour of osteoblast adhesion on material surfaces in respect to nanophase grain size (0-100 nm).

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Equilibrative nucleoside transporters (ENTs) play a crucial role in the transport of nucleoside and nucleoside analogues, which are important for nucleotide synthesis and chemotherapy. In addition, ENTs regulate extracellular adenosine levels in the vicinity of its receptors and hence influence adenosine-related functions. The clinical applications of ENT inhibitors in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and cancer therapy have been explored in numerous studies.

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Osteoporosis is becoming more prevalent due to the aging demographics of many populations. Osteoporotic bone is more prone to fracture than normal bone, and current orthopedic implant materials are not ideal for the osteoporotic cases. A newly developed strontium phosphate (SrPO4 ) coating is reported herein, and applied to Ti-29Nb-13Ta-4.

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In this study, we evaluated the anabolic effect and the underlying cellular mechanisms involved of vitamin K2 (10 nM) and 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3) (10 nM), alone and in combination, on primary osteoblasts harvested from the iliac crests of C57BL/KsJ lean (+/+) and obese/diabetic (db/db) mice. A lower alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity plus a reduced expression of bone anabolic markers and bone formation transcription factors (osteocalcin, Runx2, Dlx5, ATF4 and OSX) were consistently detected in osteoblasts of db/db mice compared to lean mice. A significantly higher calcium deposits formation in osteoblasts was observed in lean mice when compared to db/db mice.

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Article Synopsis
  • Danshen and ChuanXiong are traditional Chinese herbal medicines used for heart-related conditions, containing active components DSS and TMP, respectively.
  • A new compound called ADTM, made by combining DSS and TMP, was tested for its ability to relax rat mesenteric arteries.
  • ADTM was found to effectively relax these arteries by blocking voltage-gated Ca(2+) channels, reducing calcium influx into vascular smooth muscle cells, and demonstrating potential as a novel relaxant agent.
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Background: The use of abacavir has been linked with increased cardiovascular risk in patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection; however, the mechanism involved remains unclear. We hypothesize that abacavir may impair endothelial function. In addition, based on the structural similarity between abacavir and adenosine, we propose that abacavir may affect vascular contractility through endogenous adenosine release or adenosine receptors in blood vessels.

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Background: Arthritogenic alphaviruses such as Ross River virus (RRV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) have caused widespread outbreaks of chronic polyarthritis. The inflammatory responses in alphavirus-induced arthritis and osteoarthritis (OA) share many similar features, which suggests the possibility of exacerbated alphavirus-induced bone pathology in individuals with pre-existing OA. Here, we investigated the susceptibility of osteoblasts (OBs) from OA patients to RRV infection and dissected the immune mechanisms elicited from infection.

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Ergothioneine is a thiourea derivative of histidine found in food, especially mushrooms. Experiments in cell-free systems and chemical assays identified this compound as a powerful antioxidant. Experiments were designed to test the ability of endothelial cells to take up ergothioneine and hence benefit from protection against oxidative stress.

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Arthritogenic alphaviruses including Ross River virus (RRV), Sindbis virus, and chikungunya virus cause worldwide outbreaks of musculoskeletal disease. The ability of alphaviruses to induce bone pathologies remains poorly defined. Here we show that primary human osteoblasts (hOBs) can be productively infected by RRV.

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The postdegradation effect of pure Mg, Mg-1Y, Mg-5Al, and Mg-2Ca alloys on the differentiation, proliferation and gene expression of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) was investigated. It was revealed that that Mg(2+) ions result in an increase in cell proliferation. However, we observed a maximum concentration (approximately 8.

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Mismatch repair (MMR) plays a pivotal role in keeping the genome stable. MMR dysfunction can lead to carcinogenesis by gene mutation accumulation. HMSH2 and hMLH1 are two key components of MMR.

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Background: Statins (3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors) consumption provides beneficial effects on cardiovascular systems. However, effects of statins on vascular KATP channel gatings are unknown.

Methods: Pig left anterior descending coronary artery and human left internal mammary artery were isolated and endothelium-denuded for tension measurements and Western immunoblots.

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Rapid non-genomic effects of 17β-estradiol are elicited by the activation of different estrogen receptor-α isoforms. Presence of surface binding sites for estrogen have been identified in cells transfected with full-length estrogen receptor-α66 (ER66) and the truncated isoforms, estrogen receptor-α46 (ER46) and estrogen receptor-α36 (ER36). However, the binding affinities of the membrane estrogen receptors (mERs) remain unknown due to the difficulty of developing of stable mER-transfected cell lines with sufficient mER density, which has largely hampered biochemical binding studies.

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