Scutellarein attenuates cancer cachexia-induced muscle atrophy via targeted inhibition of the JAK/STAT pathway.

Introduction: Cancer cachexia is a multifaceted metabolic syndrome characterized by severe loss of skeletal muscle and adipose tissue, diminishing both quality of life and survival in cancer patients. Despite its prevalence, effective treatments for cancer cachexia remain limited. The JAK/STAT signaling pathway has been identified as a key driver of muscle atrophy in cachexia.

Debate: What guidance is needed by academics who collaborate with digital companies to improve youth mental health?

In a recent debate piece, Livingstone, Orben and Odgers (Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 2023, 28, 150) asked whether and when it is advisable for academics researching youth mental health to collaborate with digital companies. Such collaborations arise when researchers seek to identify risks and opportunities associated with youth digital engagement or to develop research-based interventions that leverage digital technologies to improve young people's mental health. However, young people's digital experiences, the associated data records and the prospects of testing interventions in situ are often under the control of digital providers and inaccessible to researchers.

Joint estimation of hand-foot-mouth disease model and prediction in korea using the ensemble kalman filter.

Background: In Korea, Hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) is a recurring illness that presents significant public health challenges, primarily because of its unpredictable epidemic patterns. The accurate prediction of the spread of HFMD plays a vital role in the effective management of the disease.

Methods: We have devised a dynamic model that accurately represents the transmission dynamics of HFMD.

Hyaluronan network remodeling by ZEB1 and ITIH2 enhances the motility and invasiveness of cancer cells.

Hyaluronan (HA) in the extracellular matrix promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis; however, the mechanism by which the HA network constructed by cancer cells regulates cancer progression and metastasis in the tumor microenvironment (TME) remains largely unknown. In this study, inter-α-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain 2 (ITIH2), an HA-binding protein, was confirmed to be secreted from mesenchymal-like lung cancer cells when cocultured with cancer-associated fibroblasts. ITIH2 expression is transcriptionally upregulated by the EMT-inducing transcription factor ZEB1, along with HA synthase 2 (HAS2), which positively correlates with ZEB1 expression.

White Matter Microstructural Alterations in Type 2 Diabetes: A Combined UK Biobank Study of Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) affects brain white matter microstructure. While diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been used to study white matter abnormalities in T2DM, it lacks specificity for complex white matter tracts. Neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) offers a more specific approach to characterising white matter microstructures.

miR-224 activates cancer-associated fibroblasts to enhance lung cancer cell migration and invasion by targeting Akirin1.

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) actively contribute to the formation of tumor-supportive microenvironments, thereby promoting cancer progression and impacting therapeutic outcomes. This study utilized global microRNA (miRNA) expression profiling to identify specific miRNAs responsible for reprogramming normal lung fibroblasts (LFs) into CAFs. miR-224 demonstrates increased expression in CAFs, and its levels are elevated in lung tumors compared to those in normal tissues, according to data from public databases.

SymScore: Machine learning accuracy meets transparency in a symbolic regression-based clinical score generator.

Self-report questionnaires play a crucial role in healthcare for assessing disease risks, yet their extensive length can be burdensome for respondents, potentially compromising data quality. To address this, machine learning-based shortened questionnaires have been developed. While these questionnaires possess high levels of accuracy, their practical use in clinical settings is hindered by a lack of transparency and the need for specialized machine learning expertise.

3-Dimensional morphological characterization of neuroretinal microglia in Alzheimer's disease via machine learning.

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease that affects 47.5 million people worldwide. AD is characterised by the formation of plaques containing extracellular amyloid-β (Aβ) and neurofibrillary tangles composed of hyper-phosphorylated tau proteins (pTau).

Evaluation of joint external evaluation to COVID-19 and other infectious diseases mortality outcomes in 96 countries.

Background: This study evaluated the effectiveness of Joint External Evaluation (JEE) scores with regard to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and other infectious diseases performance in 96 countries. To propose a revised JEE tool, potential JEE indicators were also examined.

Methods: JEE data from 2016-2019 were linked with outcomes such as COVID-19 fatality rates and infections, as well as mortality rates for other infectious diseases.

Mathematical modeling of age-specific intervention strategies for latent tuberculosis infection.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, with TB deaths in 2021 surpassing those from HIV/AIDS. In alignment with the WHO's End TB strategy, South Korea launched a TB elimination plan in 2006. Recognizing the significance of age-dependent factors, we developed a comprehensive mathematical model to analyze the age-specific transmission dynamics of TB, including latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), from 2012 to 2021.

Supramolecular Motion Enables Chondrogenic Bioactivity of a Cyclic Peptide Mimetic of Transforming Growth Factor-β1.

Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 is a multifunctional protein that is essential in many cellular processes that include fibrosis, inflammation, chondrogenesis, and cartilage repair. In particular, cartilage repair is important to avoid physical disability since this tissue does not have the inherent capacity to regenerate beyond full development. We report here on supramolecular coassemblies of two peptide amphiphile molecules, one containing a TGF-β1 mimetic peptide, and another which is one of two constitutional isomers lacking bioactivity.

Self-Sorting vs Coassembly in Peptide Amphiphile Supramolecular Nanostructures.

The functionality of supramolecular nanostructures can be expanded if systems containing multiple components are designed to either self-sort or mix into coassemblies. This is critical to gain the ability to craft self-assembling materials that integrate functions, and our understanding of this process is in its early stages. In this work, we have utilized three different peptide amphiphiles with the capacity to form β-sheets within supramolecular nanostructures and found binary systems that self-sort and others that form coassemblies.

miR-200-mediated inactivation of cancer-associated fibroblasts via targeting of NRP2-VEGFR signaling attenuates lung cancer invasion and metastasis.

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play a substantial role in promoting cancer cell motility, drug resistance, angiogenesis, and metastasis; therefore, extensive research has been conducted to determine their mode of activation. We aimed to identify whether miRNA-200 (miR-200), a widely recognized suppressor of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, prevents CAFs from promoting cancer progression. Overexpression of miR-200 prevented CAFs from promoting lung cancer cell migration, invasion, tumorigenicity, and metastasis.

The Posthyaluronidase Syndrome: Dosing Strategies for Hyaluronidase in the Dissolving of Facial Filler and Independent Predictors of Poor Outcomes.

Background: Hyaluronic acid dermal fillers are used extensively in periocular aesthetic medicine, and the incidence of filler-related complications is increasing. This study aimed to investigate the optimal dosing strategy for hyaluronidase and to identify predictors of poor outcomes.

Methods: We performed a retrospective review of 157 orbits of 90 patients treated with hyaluronidase over a 4-year period.

Enhanced Hydrogen Bonding by Urea Functionalization Tunes the Stability and Biological Properties of Peptide Amphiphiles.

Self-assembled nanostructures such as those formed by peptide amphiphiles (PAs) are of great interest in biological and pharmacological applications. Herein, a simple and widely applicable chemical modification, a urea motif, was included in the PA's molecular structure to stabilize the nanostructures by virtue of intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Since the amino acid residue nearest to the lipid tail is the most relevant for stability, we decided to include the urea modification at that position.

Early inner plexiform layer thinning and retinal nerve fiber layer thickening in excitotoxic retinal injury using deep learning-assisted optical coherence tomography.

Excitotoxicity from the impairment of glutamate uptake constitutes an important mechanism in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease. Within the eye, excitotoxicity is thought to play a critical role in retinal ganglion cell death in glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, retinal ischemia, and optic nerve injury, yet how excitotoxic injury impacts different retinal layers is not well understood. Here, we investigated the longitudinal effects of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-induced excitotoxic retinal injury in a rat model using deep learning-assisted retinal layer thickness estimation.

Effects of an urban forest healing program on cancer-related fatigue in cancer survivors.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effects of an eight-session structured urban forest healing program for cancer survivors with fatigue.

Background: Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a complex and multifactorial common symptom among cancer survivors that limits quality of life (QoL). Although health benefits of forest healing on physiological, physical, and psychological aspect as well as on the immune system have been reported in many studies, there is limited evidence on the efficacy of specialized forest program for cancer survivors.

miR-199a and miR-199b facilitate diffuse gastric cancer progression by targeting Frizzled-6.

Pathological markers that can monitor the progression of gastric cancer (GC) may facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of patients with diffuse GC (DGC). To identify microRNAs (miRNAs) that can differentiate between early and advanced DGC in the gastric mucosa, miRNA expression profiling was performed using the NanoString nCounter method in human DGC tumors. Ectopic expression of miR-199a and miR-199b (miR-199a/b) in SNU601 human GC cells accelerated the growth rate, viability, and motility of cancer cells and increased the tumor volume and weight in a mouse xenograft model.

Dual-attention-based recurrent neural network for hand-foot-mouth disease prediction in Korea.

Hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) is a viral disease that occurs primarily in children. Meteorological factors have a significant impact on its popularity annually in Korea. This study proposes a new HFMD prediction model using a dual-attention-based recurrent neural network (DA-RNN) and important weather factors for HFMD in Korea.

DataCurator.jl: efficient, portable and reproducible validation, curation and transformation of large heterogeneous datasets using human-readable recipes compiled into machine-verifiable templates.

Large-scale processing of heterogeneous datasets in interdisciplinary research often requires time-consuming manual data curation. Ambiguity in the data layout and preprocessing conventions can easily compromise reproducibility and scientific discovery, and even when detected, it requires time and effort to be corrected by domain experts. Poor data curation can also interrupt processing jobs on large computing clusters, causing frustration and delays.

Tear Trough Filler Using the Three-point Tangent Technique: Lessons from 1452 Tear Trough Applications.

Unlabelled: This study describes a novel three-point tangent technique for tear trough filler and the results from the largest series to date.

Methods: A retrospective case review was performed for all patients treated between 2016 and 2020. Patient demographics, filler details and complications were recorded.

Aurozyme: A Revolutionary Nanozyme in Colitis, Switching Peroxidase-Like to Catalase-Like Activity.

A therapeutic strategy that could address colitis of multiple etiologies while restoring the dysbiosis of gut microbiota is attractive. Here, Aurozyme, a novel nanomedicine comprised of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and glycyrrhizin (GL) with a glycol chitosan coating layer, as a promising approach for colitis, is demonstrated. The unique feature of Aurozyme is the conversion of harmful peroxidase-like activity of AuNPs to beneficial catalase-like activity due to the amine-rich environment provided by the glycol chitosan.

Segmentation-guided domain adaptation and data harmonization of multi-device retinal optical coherence tomography using cycle-consistent generative adversarial networks.

Background: Medical images such as Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) images acquired from different devices may show significantly different intensity profiles. An automatic segmentation model trained on images from one device may perform poorly when applied to images acquired using another device, resulting in a lack of generalizability. This study addresses this issue using domain adaptation methods improved by Cycle-Consistent Generative Adversarial Networks (CycleGAN), especially when the ground-truth labels are only available in the source domain.

Efficacy and Safety of Epidermidibacterium Keratini EPI-7 Derived Postbiotics in Skin Aging: A Prospective Clinical Study.

The present study investigated the effect of topical application of (EPI-7) ferment filtrate, which is a postbiotic product of a novel on skin aging, by performing a prospective randomized split-face clinical study on Asian woman participants. The investigators measured skin biophysical parameters, including skin barrier function, elasticity, and dermal density, and revealed that the application of the EPI-7 ferment filtrate-including test product resulted in significantly higher improvements in barrier function, skin elasticity, and dermal density compared to the placebo group. This study also investigated the influence of EPI-7 ferment filtrate on skin microbiome diversity to access its potential beneficial effects and safety.