Hyaluronic Acid-Coated SPIONs with Attached Folic Acid as Potential T2 MRI Contrasts for Anticancer Therapies.

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) are known to be good MRI contrasts, but they have a high tendency to aggregate and their biocompatibility is limited. Hyaluronic acid is highly biocompatible, can provide SPION with colloidal stability, and interacts specifically with tumor cells through the CD44 receptor; therefore, it was used as a stabilizing layer. We successfully obtained SPION coated with hyaluronic acid and further functionalized it with folic acid to construct a dual-targeted system.

Psychogenic hearing loss in children and adolescents. Diagnosis and psychotherapy.

Introduction: Psychogenic hearing loss is often neglected in the differential diagnosis of hearing disorders. In a difficult diagnostic process and treatment of psychogenic hearing loss disorder, the close cooperation of the audiologist, psychologist, patient, and his family is required. The study aimed to improve the knowledge and understanding of psychogenic hearing loss, establish a differential diagnosis in audiological tests in children, determine diagnostic procedures and finally apply adequate therapeutic procedures.

Health-related quality of life after Dega pelvic osteotomy and varus derotation osteotomy due to spastic hip disease in children with cerebral palsy.

Purpose: Our study aimed to present health-related quality of life (HRQL) after combined bone reconstruction in nonambulatory patients with cerebral palsy (CP) after at least a 2-year follow-up and to assess its impact on HRQL using the Caregiver Priorities and Child Health Index of Life with Disabilities questionnaire (CPCHILD) as the primary outcome measure.

Methods: In this prospective study, we analyzed 31 nonambulatory patients with spastic or mixed CP (GMFCS levels IV-V) who underwent hip reconstructive surgery between 2015 and 2021. The surgical procedures included one-sided varus derotation osteotomy of the femur with Dega transiliac osteotomy and, on the opposite side, varus derotation osteotomy (VDRO) of the femur with shortening and, as needed, Dega pelvic osteotomy.

Sex-Dependent Differences in the Elemental Composition of Internal Organs Determined via Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence and Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy.

Background: Research on elemental changes in tissues and organs provides valuable information enabling better understanding of the physiological processes occurring in a living organism, as well as the pathogenesis and course of various diseases. They may also contribute to the development of new, more effective, and safer therapeutic strategies. So far, they have been carried out mainly on male individuals because of the easier planning and conducting of experiments as well as the lower variability of the results in comparison with studies involving females.

Protein engineering using variational free energy approximation.

Engineering proteins is a challenging task requiring the exploration of a vast design space. Traditionally, this is achieved using Directed Evolution (DE), which is a laborious process. Generative deep learning, instead, can learn biological features of functional proteins from sequence and structural datasets and return novel variants.

Salidroside and exercise performance in healthy active young adults - an exploratory, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Background: Rhodiola rosea extract is purported to improve physical performance and support resilience to stress. Salidroside is considered to be one of the main constituents responsible for the ergogenic actions of R. rosea.

Resection of Early Colorectal Neoplasms Using Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection: A Retrospective Multicenter Cohort Study.

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is a reliable method that can replace surgery in the treatment of early colorectal cancer under certain conditions. The aim of the study was to analyze factors influencing the ESD procedure in early colorectal cancer, with the intention of improving its effectiveness. We conducted a multicenter, retrospective cohort study on 214 patients who underwent ESD procedures for early colorectal cancer from January 2016 to October 2023.

Conjunctive optimal operation of water and power networks.

Water distribution systems (WDSs) are designed to convey water from sources to consumers. Their operation is a main concern for engineers, researchers, and practitioners and is subject to demand, pressure, and quality constraints. Pumping stations require power to pump water and keep system pressure at a desired level.

Amino Acid Content in the Muscles of the Red Deer () from Three Types of Feeding Grounds.

This study aimed to analyze the amino acid profile, with a particular focus on the nutritional value of the protein of the (LL) and the (SM) muscles of deer originating from three feeding grounds: forest (FFG); conventional (CFG) grounds; organic farm (OFG). This is the first time that deer from an organic farm feeding ground have been included in this study. The muscles were collected from 36 deer carcasses with equal proportions of sex and 31 months of age.

European pollen reanalysis, 1980-2022, for alder, birch, and olive.

The dataset presents a 43 year-long reanalysis of pollen seasons for three major allergenic genera of trees in Europe: alder (Alnus), birch (Betula), and olive (Olea). Driven by the meteorological reanalysis ERA5, the atmospheric composition model SILAM predicted the flowering period and calculated the Europe-wide dispersion pattern of pollen for the years 1980-2022. The model applied an extended 4-dimensional variational data assimilation of in-situ observations of aerobiological networks in 34 European countries to reproduce the inter-annual variability and trends of pollen production and distribution.

Cell-Permeable Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotides for Exploration of Cellular Protein ADP-Ribosylation.

Posttranslational modifications (PTMs) greatly enhance the functional diversity of proteins, surpassing the number of gene-encoded variations. One intriguing PTM is ADP-ribosylation, which utilizes nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) as a substrate and is essential in cell signaling pathways regulating cellular responses. Here, we report the first cell-permeable NAD analogs and demonstrate their utility for investigating cellular ADP-ribosylation.

Etiology, Diagnostic, and Rehabilitative Methods for Children with Central Auditory Processing Disorders-A Scoping Review.

APD (auditory processing disorders) is defined as difficulties in processing auditory stimuli within the central nervous system, with normative physical hearing and intellectual disabilities excluded. The scale of this phenomenon among children and adolescents and the need to raise awareness of its occurrence prompted the authors to review currently available diagnostic and therapeutic methods, as well as outline future directions for addressing children affected by APD.

A switchable green emitting dye and its phenomenal properties: implications for the photoluminescence features of carbon dots.

New molecular fluorophores are constantly being discovered in post-synthetic mixtures of carbon dots (CDs), prompting researchers to elucidate their role in the optical properties of these nanomaterials. It has been reported that the green-emitting fluorophore that forms during the synthesis of popular citric acid/urea CDs is HPPT (4-hydroxy-1-pyrrolo[3,4-]pyridine-1,3,6(2,5)-trione). However, due to the low concentration of HPPT-like molecules within the structure of CDs, their actual binding and contribution to the optical properties of CDs has not so far been convincingly confirmed.

Chemical synthesis of 2″OMeNAD+ and its deployment as an RNA 2'-phosphotransferase (Tpt1) 'poison' that traps the enzyme on its abortive RNA-2'-PO4-(ADP-2″OMe-ribose) reaction intermediate.

RNA 2'-phosphotransferase Tpt1 catalyzes the removal of an internal RNA 2'-PO4 via a two-step mechanism in which: (i) the 2'-PO4 attacks NAD+ C1″ to form an RNA-2'-phospho-(ADP-ribose) intermediate and nicotinamide; and (ii) transesterification of the ADP-ribose O2″ to the RNA 2'-phosphodiester yields 2'-OH RNA and ADP-ribose-1″,2″-cyclic phosphate. Although Tpt1 enzymes are prevalent in bacteria, archaea, and eukarya, Tpt1 is uniquely essential in fungi and plants, where it erases the 2'-PO4 mark installed by tRNA ligases during tRNA splicing. To identify a Tpt1 'poison' that arrests the reaction after step 1, we developed a chemical synthesis of 2″OMeNAD+, an analog that cannot, in principle, support step 2 transesterification.

Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty safety profile - retrospective, single-center analysis of 222 consecutive patients including the learning curve period.

Introduction: The global obesity epidemic affects over 1.9 billion adults, with an additional 650 million classified as obese. Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) is a type of minimally invasive endobariatric procedure.

Metabolomics-based search for lung cancer markers among patients with different smoking status.

Tobacco smoking is the main etiological factor of lung cancer (LC), which can also cause metabolome disruption. This study aimed to investigate whether the observed metabolic shift in LC patients was also associated with their smoking status. Untargeted metabolomics profiling was applied for the initial screening of changes in serum metabolic profile between LC and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, selected as a non-cancer group.

Core regions in immunoglobulin heavy chain enhancers essential for survival of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells are identified by a CRISPR interference screen.

Chromosomal translocations in non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) result in activation of oncogenes by placing them under the regulation of immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) super-enhancers. Aberrant expression of translocated oncogenes induced by enhancer activity can contribute to lymphomagenesis. The role of the IGH enhancers in normal B-cell development is well established, but knowledge regarding the precise mechanisms of their involvement in control of the translocated oncogenes is limited.

Long-term outcomes of reconstructive treatment for painful dislocations in patients with cerebral palsy.

Purpose: This report presents the long-term results of the hip joint reconstruction in patients with spastic hip disease through open reduction, proximal femur varus derotation osteotomy, and Dega transiliac osteotomy.

Methods: We analyzed retrospectively patients diagnosed with a spastic form of bilateral cerebral palsy with painful hip subluxation or dislocation. All patients underwent the same surgical procedure.

Spatial patterns and climatic drivers of phylogenetic structure of regional liverwort assemblages in China.

Background And Aims: Latitudinal diversity gradients have been intimately linked to the tropical niche conservatism hypothesis, which posits that there has been a strong filter due to the challenges faced by ancestral tropical lineages to adapt to low temperatures and colonize extra-tropical regions. In liverworts, species richness is higher towards the tropics, but the centres of diversity of the basal lineages are distributed across extra-tropical regions, pointing to the colonization of tropical regions by phylogenetically clustered assemblages of species of temperate origin. Here, we test this hypothesis through analyses of the relationship between macroclimatic variation and phylogenetic diversity in Chinese liverworts.