Publications by authors named "A-K Ebert"

Article Synopsis
  • - Approved vaccines are good for preventing severe COVID-19, but new variants and transmission need a stronger immune response, leading to the creation of modified live-attenuated vaccines (LAVs) that recode the SARS-CoV-2 genome.
  • - The new vaccines, called OTS-206 and OTS-228, are designed to be safe and effective, with OTS-228 showing no side effects or transmission in animal studies, and can be given intranasally.
  • - A single dose of OTS-228 not only provides strong immunity against the original SARS-CoV-2 strain but also offers broad protection against variants like Omicron, making this approach potentially valuable for other emerging viruses as well. *
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Article Synopsis
  • Gadoquatrane, a tetrameric gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA), was tested for its signal-enhancement capabilities compared to the established gadobutrol across varying doses in healthy adults.
  • The study found that gadoquatrane provided similar relative signal enhancements at lower doses than those required for gadobutrol, indicating superior efficiency in enhancing magnetic resonance imaging quality.
  • Both contrast agents showed comparable pharmacokinetic profiles and were well tolerated, with minimal adverse events regardless of the administered dosage.
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Background: There are clear standards for when to operate on both distal epiphyseal and diaphyseal forearm fractures in children. However, paediatric surgeons are often faced with fractures in the transition zone between metaphysis and diaphysis. This aim of the study is to compare different treatment approaches for diametaphyseal forearm fractures, to classify different types of these fractures, and to define further assessment parameters and treatment recommendations.

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The immune system is in place to assist in ensuring tissue homeostasis, which can be easily perturbed by invading pathogens or nonpathogenic stressors causing tissue damage. Extracellular nucleotides are well known to contribute to innate immune signaling specificity and strength, but how their signaling is relayed downstream of cell surface receptors and how this translates into antiviral immunity is only partially understood. Here, we systematically investigated the responses of human macrophages to extracellular nucleotides, focusing on the nucleotide-sensing GPRC receptors of the P2Y family.

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Here the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium presents a first draft of the human pangenome reference. The pangenome contains 47 phased, diploid assemblies from a cohort of genetically diverse individuals. These assemblies cover more than 99% of the expected sequence in each genome and are more than 99% accurate at the structural and base pair levels.

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Background: The TOPCAT trial (Treatment of Preserved Cardiac Function Heart Failure With an Aldosterone Antagonist Trial) suggested clinical benefits of spironolactone treatment among patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction enrolled in the Americas. However, a comprehensive assessment of biologic pathways impacted by spironolactone therapy in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction has not been performed.

Methods: We conducted aptamer-based proteomic analysis utilizing 5284 modified aptamers to 4928 unique proteins on plasma samples from TOPCAT participants from the Americas (n=164 subjects with paired samples at baseline and 1 year) to identify proteins and pathways impacted by spironolactone therapy in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

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In acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with inv(3)(q21;q26) or t(3;3)(q21;q26), a translocated enhancer drives oncogenic expression of . We generated an EVI1-GFP AML model and applied an unbiased CRISPR/Cas9 enhancer scan to uncover sequence motifs essential for transcription. Using this approach, we pinpointed a single regulatory element in the translocated enhancer that is critically required for aberrant expression.

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We present a search for nine lepton-number-violating and three lepton-flavor-violating neutral charm decays of the type D^{0}→h^{'-}h^{-}ℓ^{'+}ℓ^{+} and D^{0}→h^{'-}h^{+}ℓ^{'±}ℓ^{∓}, where h and h^{'} represent a K or π meson and ℓ and ℓ^{'} an electron or muon. The analysis is based on 468  fb^{-1} of e^{+}e^{-} annihilation data collected at or close to the ϒ(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. No significant signal is observed for any of the twelve modes, and we establish 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions in the range (1.

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Rationale: Autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and c-kit cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) are 2 promising cell types being evaluated for patients with heart failure (HF) secondary to ischemic cardiomyopathy. No information is available in humans about the relative efficacy of MSCs and CPCs and whether their combination is more efficacious than either cell type alone.

Objective: CONCERT-HF (Combination of Mesenchymal and c-kit Cardiac Stem Cells As Regenerative Therapy for Heart Failure) is a phase II trial aimed at elucidating these issues by assessing the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of transendocardial administration of autologous MSCs and CPCs, alone and in combination, in patients with HF caused by chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy (coronary artery disease and old myocardial infarction).

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Rationale: The TIME trial (Timing in Myocardial Infarction Evaluation) was the first cell therapy trial sufficiently powered to determine if timing of cell delivery after ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction affects recovery of left ventricular (LV) function.

Objective: To report the 2-year clinical and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging results and their modification by microvascular obstruction.

Methods And Results: TIME was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial comparing 150 million bone marrow mononuclear cells versus placebo in 120 patients with anterior ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarctions resulting in LV dysfunction.

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Purpose Of Review: Here, we discuss a recently developed experimental strategy for discovering small molecules with potential to prevent and treat skeletal muscle atrophy.

Recent Findings: Muscle atrophy involves and requires widespread changes in skeletal muscle gene expression, which generate complex but measurable patterns of positive and negative changes in skeletal muscle mRNA levels (a.k.

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Despite significant advances in antimalarial chemotherapy over the past 30 years, development of resistance to frontline drugs remains a significant challenge that limits efforts to eradicate the disease. We now report the discovery of a new class of antimalarials, salinipostins A-K, with low nanomolar potencies and high selectivity indices against mammalian cells (salinipostin A: Plasmodium falciparum EC50 50 nM, HEK293T cytotoxicity EC50 > 50 μM). These compounds were isolated from a marine-derived Salinospora sp.

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We present measurements of branching fractions and charge asymmetries for the decays B-->etaK*, where K* indicates a spin 0, 1, or 2 Kpi system. The data sample corresponds to 344x10(6) BB pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+ e- collider at SLAC. We measure the branching fractions (in units of 10(-6): B(B0-->etaK*0(892))=16.

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A method is introduced that allows one to select, for a given property and compound, among several prediction methods the presumably best-performing scheme based on prediction errors evaluated for structurally similar compounds. The latter are selected through analysis of atom-centered fragments (ACFs) in accord with a k nearest neighbor procedure in the two-dimensional structural space. The approach is illustrated with seven estimation methods for the water solubility of organic compounds and a reference set of 1876 compounds with validated experimental values.

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Individual hosts constitute a limited resource for parasites, suggesting that density-dependent effects may play a role in within-host growth and parasite regulation. This hypothesis has been tested for several helminth parasites, but not for microparasites. We therefore examined dose-response patterns for the microparasitic bacterium Pasteuria ramosa and the fungus Metschnikowiella biscuspidata infecting the planktonic crustacean Daphnia magna.

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(RS)-2-Amino-3-(3-carboxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolyl)propionic acid (ACPA), which is a potent and selective agonist at (RS)-2-amino-3-(3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolyl)propionic acid (AMPA) receptors, has previously been shown to desensitize AMPA receptors to a much lower degree than AMPA itself. We now report the synthesis of [3H]ACPA (32.5 Ci/mmol), the neurochemical and pharmacological characterization of [3H]ACPA binding, and a comparison of the distribution of [3H]ACPA, [3H]AMPA, and [3H](S)-5-fluorowillardiine binding sites in rat brain.

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Objective: Mutation of the K-ras oncogene is a frequent event in pancreatic ductal carcinogenesis and it is believed to occur at an early stage in the development of pancreatic cancer. However, little is known of the role of K-ras mutations in rare pancreatic epithelial neoplasms, endocrine tumours or other non-epithelial tumours of the pancreas. Furthermore, limited data are available regarding the role of K-ras mutations in the pathogenesis of ampullary tumours.

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Background: Human pancreatic cancers exhibit a high frequency of K-ras mutations.

Methods: In this study we used oligonucleotide specific hybridization to compare the frequency of K-ras mutations in genomic DNA samples prepared from 21 normal pancreatic tissues, 26 chronic pancreatitis tissues, and 24 pancreatic cancers.

Results: None of the DNA samples from normal or chronic pancreatitis tissues exhibited a K-ras mutation at codons 12 or 13 of K-ras.

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