Publications by authors named "A Tchir"

Drug discovery pipelines rely on the availability of isolated primary hepatocytes for investigating potential hepatotoxicity prior to clinical application. These hepatocytes are typically isolated from livers rejected for transplantation and subsequently cryopreserved for later usage. The gold-standard cryopreservation technique, slow-freezing, is a labor-intensive process, with significant post-storage viability loss.

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Static cold storage of donor livers at 4°C incompletely arrests metabolism, ultimately leading to decreases in ATP levels, oxidative stress, cell death, and organ failure. Hydrogen Sulfide (HS) is an endogenously produced gas, previously demonstrated to reduce oxidative stress, reduce ATP depletion, and protect from ischemia and reperfusion injury. HS is difficult to administer due to its rapid release curve, resulting in cellular death at high concentrations.

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Article Synopsis
  • The aortic valve ensures one-way blood flow from the left ventricle to the aorta, relying on its leaflets and a structure made up of valve endothelial cells (VECs) and valve interstitial cells (VICs).
  • Abnormal communication between VECs and VICs can lead to calcification of the aortic valve, particularly due to flow irregularities that affect VEC function and subsequently alter VIC behavior.
  • The study measured flow oscillations VECs experienced and found that under maximum oscillations, VICs showed increased calcification, linking this effect to specific regions of the aortic valve known for severe calcified deposits, paving the way for future research into treatment options.
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There is an urgent and unprecedented need for sensitive and high-throughput molecular diagnostic tests to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Here we present a generalized version of the RNA-mediated oligonucleotide Annealing Selection and Ligation with next generation DNA sequencing (RASL-seq) assay, called "capture RASL-seq" (cRASL-seq), which enables highly sensitive (down to ~1-100 pfu/ml or cfu/ml) and highly multiplexed (up to ~10,000 target sequences) detection of pathogens. Importantly, cRASL-seq analysis of COVID-19 patient nasopharyngeal (NP) swab specimens does not involve nucleic acid purification or reverse transcription, steps that have introduced supply bottlenecks into standard assay workflows.

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The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has caused the current COVID-19 pandemic with catastrophic societal impact. Because many individuals shed virus for days before symptom onset, and many show mild or no symptoms, an emergent and unprecedented need exists for development and deployment of sensitive and high throughput molecular diagnostic tests. RNA-mediated oligonucleotide Annealing Selection and Ligation with next generation DNA sequencing (RASL-seq) is a highly multiplexed technology for targeted analysis of polyadenylated mRNA, which incorporates sample barcoding for massively parallel analyses.

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