MRI-guided focused ultrasound for treating Parkinson's disease with human mesenchymal stem cells.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive disorder that affects the nervous system and causes regions of the brain to deteriorate. In this study, we investigated the effects of MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) for the delivery of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on the 6-hydroxydopamine (6-HODA)-induced PD rat model. MRgFUS-induced blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability modulation was conducted using an acoustic controller with the targets at the striatum (ST) and SN.

Repeated 5-aminolevulinic acid mediated sonodynamic therapy using magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound in rat brain tumour models.

Sonodynamic therapy is an emerging therapeutic approach against brain tumours. However, the treatment scheme and ultrasound parameters have yet to be explored for clinical translation. Our study aimed to optimize ultrasound parameters for sonodynamic therapy (SDT) with 5-ALA as a sonosensitizing agent and to evaluate its therapeutic outcome on the rodent 9L gliosarcoma and the human U87 glioblastoma models.

Demographic, social and health system factors associated with maternal mortality in Pakistan: A nested case-control study.

Background: Pakistan has experienced a significant reduction in maternal mortality with a decline of 33 percent between 2006 and 2019. However, the country still grapples with a high number (186 per 100,000 live births) of maternal deaths each year. This study aims to identify socio-demographic and health system related factors associated with maternal mortality.

Ataxia With Vitamin E Deficiency: Case Series, Vitamin E Therapy Response, Founder Effect, and In Silico Analysis.

Ataxia with Vitamin E Deficiency (AVED) is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder, that caused by pathogenic variants in the TTPA gene, which encodes the alpha-tocopherol transfer protein. This study investigates eight patients from three consanguineous Iranian families, using exome sequencing (ES) and Sanger sequencing to identify novel pathogenic variants in the TTPA gene. Two variants were identified: c.