The Barnes maze is a commonly used test of allocentric spatial reference memory, consisting of an elevated circular table with holes around the perimeter. Spatial cues surrounding the maze are intended to allow the animal on the maze to locate a target hole from which they can escape and return to their home cage during a period of acquisition trials. Following the acquisition period, the target box under the target hole is removed and a probe trial is performed to test spatial memory.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAttenuation of sympathetic vasoconstriction during exercise (functional sympatholysis) contributes to skeletal muscle oxygen delivery-utilization matching. However, the extent to which muscle contractions impact noradrenergic regulation of interstitial oxygen pressures ( ; the driving force for blood-myocyte oxygen flux) is unknown. We tested the hypotheses that (1) muscle contractions would attenuate the noradrenaline-induced reduction in muscle compared to rest (thus indicating functional sympatholysis) in healthy rats, and (2) functional sympatholysis would be impaired in rats with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) but ameliorated with heat therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring peripheral nervous system development, Schwann cells undergo Rac1-dependent cytoskeletal reorganization as they insert cytoplasmic extensions into axon bundles to sort and myelinate individual axons. However, our understanding of the direct effectors targeted by Rac1 is limited. Here, we demonstrate that striatin-3 and MOB4 are Rac1 interactors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Inflamm (Lond)
March 2025
Background: Neuroinflammation is a prominent pathological hallmark of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and glia cells have been widely characterized in the onset or progression of brain inflammation. While an effect of inflammation on cerebrovascular breakdown has been observed, little is known about the specific contribution of brain pericytes to the inflammatory response in TBI. Here, we focused on studying the pericyte response to inflammatory stimuli commonly found in the brain following TBI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Natl Compr Canc Netw
January 2025
The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Lung Cancer Screening provide criteria for selecting individuals for screening and offer recommendations for evaluating and managing lung nodules detected during initial and subsequent annual screening. These NCCN Guidelines Insights focus on recent updates to the NCCN Guidelines for Lung Cancer Screening.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Toxicol Pharmacol
January 2025
Introduction: The harmful alga Karenia brevis (K. brevis) releases brevetoxins (PbTx) that cause respiratory and neurological symptoms. The apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele has been linked to poor neurological outcomes after exposure to environmental toxicants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring peripheral nervous system development, Schwann cells undergo Rac1-dependent cytoskeletal reorganization as they insert cytoplasmic extensions into axon bundles to radially sort, ensheath, and myelinate individual axons. However, our understanding of the direct effectors targeted by Rac1 is limited. Here, we demonstrate that striatin-3 and MOB4 are novel Rac1 interactors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Eucalyptus regnans (Mountain Ash) is an Australian native giant tree species which form forests that are among the highest known carbon-dense biomasses in the world. To enhance genomic studies in this ecologically important species, we assembled a high-quality, mostly telomere-to-telomere complete, chromosome-level, haplotype-resolved reference genome. We sampled a single tree, the Centurion, which is currently a contender for the world's tallest flowering plant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSickle cell disease (SCD) is characterized by central (cardiac) and peripheral vascular dysfunctions, significantly diminishing exercise capacity and quality of life. Although central cardiopulmonary abnormalities in SCD are known to reduce exercise capacity and quality of life; the impact of hemolysis and subsequent cell-free hemoglobin (Hb)-mediated peripheral vascular abnormalities on those outcomes are not fully understood. Despite the recognized benefits of exercise training for cardiovascular health and clinical management in chronic diseases like heart failure, there remains substantial debate on the advisability of regular physical activity for patients with SCD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtracellular vesicles (EVs), or exosomes, play important roles in physiological and pathological cellular communication and have gained substantial traction as biological drug carriers. EVs contain both short and long non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression and epigenetic processes. To fully capitalize on the potential of EVs as drug carriers, it is important to study and understand the intricacies of EV function and EV RNA-based communication.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Drought adaptation is critical to many tree species persisting under climate change, however our knowledge of the genetic basis for trees to adapt to drought is limited. This knowledge gap impedes our fundamental understanding of drought response and application to forest production and conservation. To improve our understanding of the genomic determinants, architecture, and trait constraints, we assembled a reference genome and detected ~ 6.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAngew Chem Int Ed Engl
September 2024
Lipopeptides are an important class of biomolecules for drug development. Compared with conventional acylation, a chemoselective lipidation strategy offers a more efficient strategy for late-stage structural derivatisation of a peptide scaffold. It provides access to chemically diverse compounds possessing intriguing and non-native moieties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenomes have a highly organized architecture (nonrandom organization of functional and nonfunctional genetic elements within chromosomes) that is essential for many biological functions, particularly gene expression and reproduction. Despite the need to conserve genome architecture, a high level of structural variation has been observed within species. As species separate and diverge, genome architecture also diverges, becoming increasingly poorly conserved as divergence time increases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe brevicidines represent a novel class of nonribosomal antimicrobial peptides that possess remarkable potency and selectivity toward highly problematic and resistant Gram-negative pathogenic bacteria. A recently discovered member of the brevicidine family, coined brevicidine B (), comprises a single amino acid substitution (from d-Tyr to d-Phe) in the amino acid sequence of the linear moiety of brevicidine () and was reported to exhibit broader antimicrobial activity against both Gram-negative (MIC = 2-4 μgmL) and Gram-positive (MIC = 2-8 μgmL) pathogens. Encouraged by this, we herein report the first total synthesis of the proposed structure of brevicidine B (), building on our previously reported synthetic strategy to access brevicidine ().
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS Comput Biol
February 2024
Chloroplasts are photosynthetic organelles in algal and plant cells that contain their own genome. Chloroplast genomes are commonly used in evolutionary studies and taxonomic identification and are increasingly becoming a target for crop improvement studies. As DNA sequencing becomes more affordable, researchers are collecting vast swathes of high-quality whole-genome sequence data from laboratory and field settings alike.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlob Chang Biol
January 2024
Soil application of Ca- and Mg-rich silicates can capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide as inorganic carbon but could also have the potential to stabilise soil organic matter (SOM). Synergies between these two processes have not been investigated. Here, we apply finely ground silicate rock mining residues (basalt and granite blend) to a loamy sand in a pot trial at a rate of 4% (equivalent to 50 t ha ) and investigate the effects of a wheat plant and two watering regimes on soil carbon sequestration over the course of 6 months.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurrently approved blood biomarkers detect intracranial lesions in adult patients with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) acutely post-injury. However, blood biomarkers are still needed to help with a differential diagnosis of mild TBI (mTBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at chronic post-injury time points. Owing to the association between phospholipid (PL) dysfunction and chronic consequences of TBI, we hypothesized that examining bioactive PL metabolites (oxylipins and ethanolamides) would help identify long-term lipid changes associated with mTBI and PTSD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Ther Methods Clin Dev
June 2023
Traumatic optic neuropathy (TON) is a condition in which acute injury to the optic nerve from direct or indirect trauma results in vision loss. The most common cause of TON is indirect injury to the optic nerve caused by concussive forces that are transmitted to the optic nerve. TON occurs in up to 5% of closed-head trauma patients and there is currently no known effective treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Bronchology Interv Pulmonol
January 2024
Background: Benign airway stenosis (BAS) represents a significant burden on patients, providers, and healthcare systems. Spray cryotherapy (SCT) has been proposed as an adjunctive treatment to reduce BAS recurrence. We sought to examine safety and practice variations of the latest SCT system when used for BAS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExosomes and extracellular vesicles (EV) are increasingly being explored as circulating biomarkers, but their heterogenous composition will likely mandate the development of multiplexed EV technologies. Iteratively multiplexed analyses of near single EVs have been challenging to implement beyond a few colors during spectral sensing. Here we developed a multiplexed analysis of EV technique (MASEV) to interrogate thousands of individual EVs during 5 cycles of multi-channel fluorescence staining for 15 EV biomarkers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMassively parallel, second-generation short-read DNA sequencing has become an integral tool in biology for genomic studies. Offering highly accurate base-pair resolution at the most competitive price, the technology has become widespread. However, high-throughput generation of multiplexed DNA libraries can be costly and cumbersome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF