EACVI survey on evaluation and quantification of aortic regurgitation by multi-modality imaging.

Aims: To investigate the real-world, current clinical practice of the assessment and management of aortic regurgitation (AR).

Methods And Results: An electronic survey was distributed to cardiovascular imaging specialists by the European Society Association of Cardiovascular Imaging Scientific Initiatives Committee. Three hundred respondents from 66 countries completed the survey.

Epigenetic networks coordinate DNA methylation across the genome.

The epigenetic landscape governs cell fate decisions during development, aging, and disease. Despite considerable progress in the understanding of DNA methylation (DNAm), the mechanisms that orchestrate its coordinated regulation across the genome remain largely elusive. Recent breakthroughs in sequencing technologies and epigenetic editing tools enable a more comprehensive exploration of these epigenetic interactions.

Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound enhances uptake of doxorubicin-loaded gold nanoparticles in cancer cells.

The distinctive physicochemical properties of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), such as biocompatibility, easy functionalization, and a high surface area-to-volume ratio, make AuNPs one of the most suitable candidates for cancer nanomedicine applications. However, achieving efficient uptake of drug-loaded AuNPs into cancer cells has remained a significant challenge in drug delivery. One promising non-invasive, pleiotropic modality that could enhance the cellular uptake of drug-loaded AuNPs by facilitating the transport through cell membranes is low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS).

Drying of Functional Hydrogels: Development of a Workflow for Bioreactor-Integrated Freeze-Drying of Protein-Coated Alginate Microcarriers for iPS Cell-Based Screenings.

Protein-coated ultra-high viscosity (UHV)-alginate hydrogels are essential to mimic the physiological in vivo environment of humans in several in vitro applications. This work presents an optimized bioreactor-integrated freeze-drying process for Matrigel-coated UHV-alginate microcarriers in the context of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) expansion. The impact of freeze-drying on the UHV-alginate microcarriers using trehalose 100 mg/mL in 0.

Blood perfusion through ventricular assist devices induces erythrocytes to interact with leukocytes.

Implantations of Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs) have significantly improved quality of life and life expectancy of end-stage heart failure patients. However, despite the advancements in the VAD designs and patient management protocols, the VAD recipients remain at risk of attaining bleeding, infection, pump thrombosis, and stroke. Although blood trauma has been suggested as a critical factor in development of these adverse events, its consequences in inducing interactions between different types of blood cells are largely unknown.

Magnetically Controllable and Degradable Milliscale Swimmers as Intraocular Drug Implants.

Intraocular drug implants are increasingly used for retinal treatments, such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema, due to the rapidly aging global population. Although these therapies show promise in arresting disease progression and improving vision, intraocular implant-based therapies can cause unexpected complications that require further surgery due to implant dislocation or uncontrolled drug release. These frequent complications of intraocular drug implants can be overcome using magnetically controllable degradable milliscale swimmers (MDMS) with a double-helix body morphology.

Nanotubular Gradients on Titanium: High-Throughput Screening of Nanoscale Architectures of Variable Topographical Complexity.

Advancements in cell-instructive biomaterials hinge on the precise design of their nanoscale topography, a critical factor in controlling cell-surface interactions. Nanofabrication techniques such as e-beam and nanoimprint lithography enable accurate nanopatterning on a wide range of materials. However, their limited applicability and scalability to medically relevant metals such as titanium, hinder the creation and modulation of precisely designed nanotopographies on metallic substrates to investigate structure-function relationships and clinical translation of nanotopographical surfaces for biomedical implants.

Consensus recommendations for hyperpolarized [1-C]pyruvate MRI multi-center human studies.

MRI of hyperpolarized (HP) [1-C]pyruvate allows in vivo assessment of metabolism and has translated into human studies across diseases at 15 centers worldwide. To determine consensus on best practice for multi-center studies for development of clinical applications. This paper presents the results of a two-round formal consensus building exercise carried out by experts with HP [1-C]pyruvate human study experience.

Spatiotemporal Immunomodulation of Macrophages via NLRP3/IL-1β Pathway by Core-Shell Microneedles to Promote Healing of Biofilm-Infected Diabetic Ulcers.

Macrophage phenotypic dysregulation, spatially by biofilm and dynamically in time, impedes the healing of diabetic ulcers (DUs). Effective treatment requires enabling spatiotemporal regulation of macrophage polarization, balancing the M1 pro-inflammatory antimicrobial response with the M2 anti-inflammatory tissue-regeneration response. Here, a core-shell microneedle system (LM-MG@MN) is proposed with spatiotemporal immunomodulation features, designed to spatially disrupt biofilm barriers and sequentially induce macrophage polarization from M0 to M1 and subsequently to M2 by regulating the NLRP3/IL-1β pathway.

Development of a qualitative data analysis codebook for peri-ictal behavior in suspected functional seizures.

Objective: Factors that can precipitate and/or prolong functional seizure events are often challenging to identify. We aimed to develop a methodology to investigate peri-ictal behaviors in subjects experiencing functional seizures and those around them in their home environment.

Methods: We conducted an iterative, four-phase process to develop a codebook for operationalizing peri-functional seizure behavior that involved observation of 37 functional seizures across 14 participants in the pre-ictal, ictal, and post-ictal phases.

Large-scale super-resolution optoacoustic imaging facilitated by FeNP/ICG-loaded coreless polyelectrolyte microcapsules.

Localization optoacoustic tomography (LOT) enhances imaging of deep-tissue microvasculature by leveraging flowing contrast particles. However, achieving high-resolution, large-scale imaging requires contrast agents with strong per-particle signal, good biocompatibility, and prolonged circulation time. This study introduces coreless polyelectrolyte microcapsules (MCs) encapsulating indocyanine green (ICG) and iron oxide nanoparticles (FeNP) to overcome current limitations in LOT imaging.

Nanomedicine-mediated macrophage polarization enhances the iron-depleting effect of desferrioxamine for breast cancer immunotherapy.

Therapeutic strategies targeting iron metabolism to disturb the physiological functions of tumor cells have emerged as promising avenues in cancer treatment. Deferoxamine (DFOM) is an effective FDA-approved iron chelator that actively eliminates iron from cells, inducing iron-related dysfunction. However, its use is considerably limited by off-target toxicities and the innate metabolic compensatory capacity of tumor cells.

Cardiac arrhythmias in patients with focal and generalised epilepsy undergoing ambulatory electroencephalographic and electrocardiographic monitoring.

Background: Epilepsy may be associated with cardiac arrhythmias. The specific incidence and types of cardiac arrhythmias in different forms of epilepsy is not clearly defined.

Methods: We evaluated patients aged 16 years or older referred for continuous home-based ambulatory video-electroencephalographic(EEG)-electrocardiographic(ECG) monitoring (AVEEM) across 24 sites in Australia between 2020 and 2023.

Unlocking NIR-II Photoluminescence in 2D Copper Tetrasilicate Nanosheets through Flame Spray Synthesis.

Expanding fluorescence bioimaging into the second near-infrared spectrum (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm) unlocks advanced possibilities for diagnostics and therapeutics, offering superior tissue penetration and resolution. 2D copper tetrasilicate (CTS) pigments (MCuSiO, M = Ca, Sr, Ba) are known for their brightness and stability, yet synthetic challenges have curbed their integration into bioimaging. Here, flame-spray-pyrolysis (FSP) is introduced as a versatile and scalable synthesis approach to produce ultra-bright, metastable CTS nanosheets (NS) by annealing multi-element metal oxide nanoparticles into 2D crystals through calcination or laser irradiation.

Multiparametric super-resolution optoacoustic imaging with ICG-tagged microbubbles.

Localization optoacoustic tomography (LOT) has recently emerged as an adept imaging approach for super-resolution functional microangiography at depths out of reach for conventional optical microscopy methods. LOT enables simultaneous measurements of microvascular morphology, oxygen saturation, and blood flow velocity via rapid tracking of highly-absorbing microparticulate agents. These distinctive multiparametric imaging capabilities present a remarkable clinical diagnostic potential for a wide spectrum of conditions associated with microcirculatory alterations.

Comparison of TENS electrodes and textile electrodes for electrocutaneous warning.

Electrocutaneous stimulation can be employed to alert workers in potentially hazardous situations. Previous parameter studies used TENS electrodes during the developmental process of the electrical warning system. As a step towards more practicability, we now focus on electrocutaneous stimulation through wearable textile electrodes.

Relationships between heart shape, function, and disease in 38,858 UK biobank participants.

Background: Cardiac functional metrics such as ejection fraction, strain, and valve excursion are important diagnostic and prognostic measures of cardiac disease. However, they ignore a large amount of systolic shape change information available from modern cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) examinations. We aimed to automatically quantify multidimensional shape and motion scores from CMR, investigate covariates, and test their discrimination of disease in the UK Biobank compared against standard functional metrics.

Human Applications of Transcranial Temporal Interference Stimulation: A Systematic Review.

Background: Many neurological and psychiatric disorders involve dysregulation of subcortical structures. Transcranial temporal interference stimulation (tTIS) is a novel, non-invasive method developed to selectively modulate these regions and associated neural circuits.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted to evaluate human applications of tTIS (PROSPERO ID: CRD42024559678).

Event-guided temporally super-resolved synchrotron X-ray imaging.

Event cameras, as novel bio-inspired neuromorphic sensors, detect per-pixel brightness changes asynchronously. Despite their growing popularity in various applications, their potential in X-ray imaging remains largely unexplored. Synchrotron-based X-ray imaging plays a significant role in various fields of science, technology and medicine.

The STING-activating nanofactory relieves T cell exhaustion in Mn-based tumor immunotherapy by regulating mitochondrial dysfunction.

Manganese-based STING-activating tumor immunotherapy faces limitations due to T cell exhaustion. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a key factor contributing to T cell exhaustion. Modulating mitochondrial function during manganese-based immunotherapy offers a promising strategy to reverse T cell exhaustion.

Recombinant cytokine bioconjugates with degradable nanogel substrates for macrophage immunotherapy.

Cytokines are potent endogenous modulators of innate immunity, making them key mediators of macrophage plasticity for immunotherapy. However, the clinical translation of recombinant cytokines as therapeutics is limited by systemic side effects, caused by cytokines' pleiotropy, potency, and non-specific biodistribution following systemic dosing. We developed a cytokine delivery platform utilizing poly(acrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) synthetic nanogels as a biodegradable substrate for conjugated recombinant cytokines (i.

Extracellular vesicle-dependent crosstalk between hepatic stellate cells and Kupffer cells promotes their mutual activation.

Background & Aims: Hepatic fibrosis results from hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation and excessive extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition, driven by chronic inflammation. Kupffer cells (KCs) play a central role in HSC activation. We previously showed that HSC-secreted factors, particularly extracellular vesicles (EVs), activate KCs.

Epigenetic mechanisms in non-small cell lung cancer therapy and chemoresistance.

Epigenetic mechanisms play a crucial role in cancer development and progression, encompassing DNA methylation, chromatin organization, histone modifications, and noncoding RNA regulation. Lung cancer is a major cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounting for approximately 85 % of all cases. Despite advances in detection and treatment, the prognosis for NSCLC patients remains poor, largely attributable to the development of chemoresistance.

Prediction of longitudinal synaptic loss in Alzheimer's disease using tau PET and plasma biomarkers.

Introduction: We investigated the associations of longitudinal synaptic loss and cognitive decline with tau burden and plasma biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: Twenty cognitively impaired (CI) individuals and 16 healthy controls (HC) underwent cognitive and plasma biomarker assessments, amyloid positron emission tomography (PET), tau PET, and synaptic density PET; after 1 year, tau and synaptic density PET were repeated. The relationships among tau burden, plasma biomarkers, synaptic density, and cognition were investigated.