Predictors of Post-treatment Visual Improvement After Bacterial Keratitis Infection at a Referral Center in Southern California.

Purpose: To evaluate visual outcomes after bacterial keratitis (BK) and identify predictive factors for poor prognosis at a tertiary referral center in Southern California.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional retrospective review of patients' medical records with culture-positive BK at University of California Los Angeles from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2019. Main outcome measure was change in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) at 12 weeks posttreatment.

Characteristics and Risk Factors of Medication Incidents Across Stages of Medication Management in Residential Aged Care: A Longitudinal Cohort Study of 5700 Reported Incidents.

Background: Problems with medication management are consistently identified as key concerns for the quality of residential aged care (RAC). Incident reports can provide valuable information on key issues related to medication management; however, few studies have explored medication incidents in RAC settings.

Objectives: To investigate the characteristics of medication incidents at different stages of medication management and identify the risk factors associated with incidents.

Biomarkers for early detection and monitoring of abnormal brain development in mild fetal growth restriction.

Fetal growth restriction (FGR), driven by intrauterine hypoperfusion, delays brain development and heightens the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders. Nonetheless, current diagnostic strategies rarely capture the subtle neuropathology that emerges in mild FGR. To overcome this limitation, we employed an innovative rodent model that replicates mild FGR through gradual and chronic intrauterine hypoperfusion, mirroring clinical conditions overlooked by conventional severe or acute FGR models.

Genotype-Specific HPV mRNA Triage Improves CIN2+ Detection Efficiency Compared to Cytology: A Population-Based Study of HPV DNA-Positive Women.

Background: Effective triage of women testing positive for high-risk HPV DNA is essential to reduce unnecessary colposcopies while preserving cancer prevention. Cytology, the current standard, has limited specificity and reproducibility. The genotype-specific 7-type HPV E6/E7 mRNA test (PreTect HPV-Proofer'7), targeting HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58, detects transcriptionally active infections and may enhance risk stratification.

Analysis of Short-Term Outcomes in Pancreatic Surgery with Vascular Resection from a Prospective Multicenter Global Study.

Background: Pancreatic resection with concomitant vascular resection is increasingly practiced with outcomes mainly reported from specialist centers but lacking results from prospective global data. This study aimed to investigate factors associated with short-term outcomes after vascular resections in pancreatic surgery worldwide.

Patients And Methods: Data were extracted from a prospective, multicenter, international cross-sectional snapshot study in 2021 (pancreasgroup.

AveloMask, a novel breath aerosol collection kit for airborne : a proof-of-principle assessment.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the world's deadliest infectious disease, with many active cases missed due to challenges in sputum collection. Exhaled breath aerosols (XBA), a major route of (MTB) transmission, offer a promising non-invasive alternative. This study evaluated the diagnostic accuracy and feasibility of the AveloMask-a novel point-of-care breath aerosol collection kit-for detecting active pulmonary TB using quantitative PCR (qPCR).

An unnatural base pair for the detection of epigenetic cytosine modifications in DNA.

Natural, covalently modified cytosine bases within genomic DNA function as important epigenetic markers. Approaches for single-base-resolution sequencing of cytosine modifications typically deploy chemistry for modification-selective C-to-T code conversion and can require error-prone subtractive analysis of complex data. Here we report the sequencing of an epigenetic base by exploiting an unnatural base pair system.

Cerium oxide nanoparticles prepared through Bio-combustion using Ficus carica as effective antioxidant, anticancer and dye degrading agent.

The rising levels of environmental contamination and oxidative stress disorders have led to a growing demand for multifunctional nanomaterials that possess both biomedical and catalytic importance. CeO nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized using a green solution combustion method involving Ficus carica F. extract, followed by an evaluation of their structural, biological, and photocatalytic properties.

A live tumor fragment platform to assess immunotherapy response in core needle biopsies while addressing challenges of tumor heterogeneity.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized cancer treatment, providing durable and even curative responses. However, most patients do not respond and current biomarkers (eg, programmed death ligand (PD-L1), mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR)/high microsatellite instability (MSI) and tumor mutational burden) lack predictive accuracy. Ex vivo profiling of patient-derived tumor fragments shows promise as a predictive biomarker but relies on substantial surgical tissue to mitigate intra-specimen heterogeneity.

Effects of Dehydroepiandrosterone in Pulmonary Hypertension (EDIPHY): A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Crossover Trial.

Rationale: The adrenal steroid dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulfated form (DHEA-S) are deficient in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and lower levels are associated with worse right ventricular (RV) function, a decisive factor for survival in PAH.

Objectives: We sought to determine whether DHEA improved RV function as measured by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in PAH.

Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover clinical trial of DHEA in participants with PAH at a single center.

Vaccination with an mRNA-encoded membrane-bound HIV envelope trimer induces neutralizing antibodies in animal models.

A protective vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) will likely need to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) that engage relatively conserved epitopes on the HIV envelope glycoprotein (Env) trimer. Nearly all vaccine strategies to induce bnAbs require the use of complex immunization regimens involving a series of different immunogens, most of which are Env trimers. Producing protein-based clinical material to evaluate such relatively complex regimens in humans presents major challenges in cost and time.

Incidence of Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Associated Hospitalization Among Adults in Ontario, Canada, 2017-2019.

Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes substantial morbidity and mortality among adults. Given recent RSV vaccine authorizations, data on groups at highest risk are needed to support vaccine program decision making.

Methods: We identified adults aged ≥ 18 years hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed RSV and hospitalizations with RSV-related diagnostic codes in Ontario, Canada (2017-2019).

Oral Prodrug of a Novel Glutathione Surrogate Reverses Metabolic Dysregulation and Attenuates Neurodegenerative Process in Transgenic Alzheimer's Mice.

Glycation-induced oxidative stress underlies the numerous metabolic ravages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Reduced glutathione levels in AD lead to increased oxidative stress, including glycation-induced pathology. Previously, we showed that the accumulation of reactive 1,2-dicarbonyls such as methylglyoxal, the major precursor of nonenzymatic glycation products, was reduced by the increased function of GSH-dependent glyoxalase-1 enzyme in the brain.

Design of Colchicine-Based Tubulin Inhibitors as Anticancer Agents by In Silico Analysis of Colchicine-Based Tubulin Inhibitors: 3D-QSAR, Molecular Docking, and Molecular Dynamics Simulations for Anticancer Drug Development.

This study explores colchicine analogues as potential anticancer agents by analyzing their interactions with the tubulin-colchicine complex. A robust three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) model (r = 0.9438, q = 0.

Proteomics of the temporal cortex in semantic dementia reveals brain-region specific molecular pathology and regulation of the TDP-43-ANXA11 interactome.

Semantic dementia (SD) is a clinical subtype of frontotemporal dementia characterized by impaired word comprehension and semantic memory, and occurs nearly always sporadically. Neuroimaging typically reveals asymmetric, predominantly left-sided, atrophy of the anterior temporal pole, anterior fusiform gyrus, and the hippocampus. Post-mortem pathological examination shows frontotemporal lobar degeneration TDP type C, characterized by long dystrophic neurites in the temporal cortex and typical round, TDP-43-positive neuronal inclusions in the dentate gyrus.

Multi-ancestry genome-wide meta-analysis of 56,241 individuals identifies known and novel cross-population and ancestry-specific associations as novel risk loci for Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Limited ancestral diversity has impaired our ability to detect risk variants more prevalent in ancestry groups of predominantly non-European ancestral background in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We construct and analyze a multi-ancestry GWAS dataset in the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC) to test for novel shared and population-specific late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) susceptibility loci and evaluate underlying genetic architecture in 37,382 non-Hispanic White (NHW), 6728 African American, 8899 Hispanic (HIS), and 3232 East Asian individuals, performing within ancestry fixed-effects meta-analysis followed by a cross-ancestry random-effects meta-analysis.

Results: We identify 13 loci with cross-population associations including known loci at/near CR1, BIN1, TREM2, CD2AP, PTK2B, CLU, SHARPIN, MS4A6A, PICALM, ABCA7, APOE, and two novel loci not previously reported at 11p12 (LRRC4C) and 12q24.

KRAS Mutation Status in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Distribution Across Occupational Categories.

Background: Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with occupational carcinogen exposure contributing significantly to its etiology. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this process remain largely unexplored.

Research Question: Does occupational exposure to specific carcinogens influence the molecular profile of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)?

Study Design And Methods: A total of 302 patients with metastatic NSCLC without activating EGFR/ALK mutations were included, all of whom provided detailed occupational histories.

A Buccal Mucosal Oximeter Accurately Measures Arterial Oxyhemoglobin Saturation.

Purpose: While arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation (SaO) decreases during sleep in many patients with sleep apnea and pulmonary diseases, personalized oximeters suitable for multi-night monitoring of SpO are not readily available. The present report describes a custom buccal mucosal intraoral oximeter that might provide the opportunity for such long-term monitoring given its strong accuracy in measuring SpO over a range of clinically relevant hypoxemia.

Patients And Methods: The intraoral buccal mucosal oximeter was constructed by encapsulating a reflectance pulse oximeter in an overlay of the maxillary dentition.

Tau PET positivity in individuals with and without cognitive impairment varies with age, amyloid-β status, APOE genotype and sex.

Tau positron emission tomography (PET) imaging allows in vivo detection of tau proteinopathy in Alzheimer's disease, which is associated with neurodegeneration and cognitive decline. Understanding how demographic, clinical and genetic factors relate to tau PET positivity will facilitate its use for clinical practice and research. Here we conducted an analysis of 42 cohorts worldwide (N = 12,048), including 7,394 cognitively unimpaired (CU) participants, 2,177 participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 2,477 participants with dementia.

Development and evaluation of an automated classification and counting system for rice planthoppers captured on survey boards.

Rice planthoppers are the most economically important insect pests of rice in Asia. Traditional surveys to examine their abundance and composition in paddy fields involve human visual inspection, which requires considerable time and effort by expert entomologists. We previously developed a deep learning-based object detection system which can detect rice planthopper individuals from scanned images of survey boards, categorize, and count planthopper individuals by 18 categories, based on species, developmental stages, adult sexes, and adult wing-forms, with a mean average precision (mAP) of 79%.

Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Infants with Very Low Birth Weight in California.

Objective: To characterize incidences of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and oxygen use at discharge in infants with very low birth weight by Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) ethnicity.

Study Design: We studied infants with very low birth weight born in California from 2012 to 2019. Infants of AANHPI mothers were studied in aggregate, were disaggregated by maternal ethnicity, and were compared with infants of Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White (NHW) mothers.

Ultra-low-input cell-free DNA sequencing for tumor detection and characterization in a real-world pediatric brain tumor cohort.

Molecular profiling of pediatric central nervous system (CNS) tumors has important clinical utility for guiding diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from liquid biopsies has been used for minimally invasive tumor profiling and longitudinal disease assessment in adult oncology and pediatric hematology. However, in pediatric neuro-oncology, low cfDNA yields pose a major barrier to translating these assays from bench to bedside.

Expedited access to polyunsaturated fatty acids and biofunctional analogues by full solid-phase synthesis.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) represent a fundamental and essential class of lipids that exhibit versatile biofunctions. Lipidomic analysis has identified a growing number of lipid species, including PUFAs with diverse structural variations and biofunctions, yet their structure-function relationships are still largely unknown. In this context, an efficient synthesis of PUFAs would be highly desirable.