Illusory movements for immobile patients with extensive burns (IMMOBILE): A randomized, controlled, cross-over trial.

Introduction: Patients who have sustained extensive burns frequently exhibit substantial damage to skeletal muscle and associated complications. The rehabilitation of these patients can be challenging due to the nature of the injury and the subsequent complications. Nevertheless, there is a possibility that functional proprioceptive stimulation (illusory movements) may facilitate effective rehabilitation in patients with limited physiotherapy options.

High Recovery Chromatographic Purification of mRNA at Room Temperature and Neutral pH.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) is becoming an increasingly important therapeutic modality due to its potential for fast development and platform production. New emerging RNA modalities, such as circular RNA, drive the need for the development of non-affinity purification approaches. Recently, the highly efficient chromatographic purification of mRNA was demonstrated with multimodal monolithic chromatography media (CIM PrimaS), where efficient mRNA elution was achieved with an ascending pH gradient approach at pH 10.

Effect of noradrenaline on propofol-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in human skeletal muscle cells.

Background: Mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of both critical illness and propofol infusion syndrome and its severity seems to be proportional to the doses of noradrenaline, which patients are receiving. We comprehensively studied the effects of noradrenaline on cellular bioenergetics and mitochondrial biology in human skeletal muscle cells with and without propofol-induced mitochondrial dysfunction.

Methods: Human skeletal muscle cells were isolated from vastus lateralis biopsies from patients undergoing elective hip replacement surgery (n = 14) or healthy volunteers (n = 4).

Burn-Induced Cardiac Dysfunction: A Brief Review and Long-Term Consequences for Cardiologists in Clinical Practice.

Background: Severe burn injury is a specific type of trauma, which induces a unique complex of responses in the body and leads to an extreme increase in stress hormones and proinflammatory cytokines. These hypermetabolic and stress responses are desirable in the acute phase but can persist for several years and lead - due to several mechanisms - to many late complications, including myocardial dysfunction.

Methods: The databases of PubMed, ScienceDirect, National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States, and Google Scholar were searched.

Can functional electrical stimulation-assisted cycle ergometry replace insulin infusion in patients? A nested substudy in a randomized controlled trial with 6 months' follow-up.

Background: Functional electrical stimulation-assisted cycle ergometry (FESCE) can deliver active exercise to critically ill patients, including those who are sedated. Aerobic exercise is known to stimulate skeletal muscle glucose uptake. We asked whether FESCE can reduce intravenous insulin requirements and improve insulin sensitivity in intensive care unit (ICU) patients.

Unprecedented hour-long residence time of a cation in a left-handed G-quadruplex.

Cations are critical for the folding and assembly of nucleic acids. In G-quadruplex structures, cations can bind between stacked G-tetrads and coordinate with negatively charged guanine carbonyl oxygens. They usually exchange between binding sites and with the bulk in solution with time constants ranging from sub-millisecond to seconds.

Bulges in left-handed G-quadruplexes.

G-quadruplex (G4) DNA structures with a left-handed backbone progression have unique and conserved structural features. Studies on sequence dependency of the structures revealed the prerequisites and some minimal motifs required for left-handed G4 formation. To extend the boundaries, we explore the adaptability of left-handed G4s towards the existence of bulges.

NMR solution and X-ray crystal structures of a DNA molecule containing both right- and left-handed parallel-stranded G-quadruplexes.

Analogous to the B- and Z-DNA structures in double-helix DNA, there exist both right- and left-handed quadruple-helix (G-quadruplex) DNA. Numerous conformations of right-handed and a few left-handed G-quadruplexes were previously observed, yet they were always identified separately. Here, we present the NMR solution and X-ray crystal structures of a right- and left-handed hybrid G-quadruplex.

Early surgical management in patients with burns.

Burns can be life threatening injuries with a significant risk of lifelong consequences. Severity of thermal injury is assessed using the combination of six essential factors (mechanism of injury, presence of inhalation trauma, extent of the burn area, depth of the burn, its location, patients age and co-morbidities) which also represent the determinants of referral to one of the three specialized burn centers in the Czech Republic. Early management consists of ABC Trauma Life Support (adequate oxygenation and ventilation, a venous access, parenteral fluid administration), pain relief, and sterile covering of the burn areas.

A Minimal Sequence for Left-Handed G-Quadruplex Formation.

Recently, we observed the first example of a left-handed G-quadruplex structure formed by natural DNA, named Z-G4. We analysed the Z-G4 structure and inspected its primary 28-nt sequence in order to identify motifs that convey the unique left-handed twist. Using circular dichroism spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography, we revealed a minimal sequence motif of 12 nt (GTGGTGGTGGTG) for formation of the left-handed DNA G-quadruplex, which is found to be highly abundant in the human genome.

Major G-Quadruplex Form of HIV-1 LTR Reveals a (3 + 1) Folding Topology Containing a Stem-Loop.

Nucleic acids can form noncanonical four-stranded structures called G-quadruplexes. G-quadruplex-forming sequences are found in several genomes including human and viruses. Previous studies showed that the G-rich sequence located in the U3 promoter region of the HIV-1 long terminal repeat (LTR) folds into a set of dynamically interchangeable G-quadruplex structures.

Parenterally administered dipeptide alanyl-glutamine prevents worsening of insulin sensitivity in multiple-trauma patients.

Background: Dipeptide alanyl-glutamine is a commonly used substrate in major trauma patients. Its importance and effects are widely discussed; as yet, it has not been elucidated whether its administration influences glucose homeostasis.

Objective: We studied the effect of alanyl-glutamine administration on insulin resistance.

[The role of cholesterol and intermediary metabolites of its synthesis in intensive care and parenteral nutrition].

Hypocholesterolaemia is a frequent and typical phenomenon of many acute situations such as injury, severe infection associated with sepsis and septic shock, catabolic situations after serious operations, in myocardial infarction and neoplastic diseases. This phenomenon cannot be explained only by malnutrition or energy deficiency although they may participate in the development of hypocholesterolaemia. In the development of the mentioned acute conditions participates according to our opinion also impaired synthesis of cholesterol as well as of intermediary metabolites of its biosynthesis (isoprene, squalene, lanosterol, and lathosterol).

Changes in cholesterol and its precursors during the first days after major trauma.

Background: The causes of hypocholesterolemia in the critically ill, including major trauma patients, have not yet been fully elucidated.

Objective: We tested the hypothesis that hypocholesterolemia is caused by decreased production of cholesterol precursors.

Design: Serum concentrations of squalene, lanosterol, and lathosterol were measured on admission, and then at 24 and 48 hours after injury using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry.

[Hypocholesterolemia after multiple injuries is not caused by simple hemodilution].

The authors examined in 45 patients with multiple injuries total serum cholesterol levels and the packed cell volume on admission, 24 hours and 48 hours after injury. The cholesterol level in these patients declined as compared with a control group to 0.61 on admission of the patient (on average 102 min.

[Osteochondritis ischiopubica--van Neck-Odelberg disease in the differential diagnosis of coxalgia].

The authors describe five cases from out-patient practice, whose pains were localized into lumbar joint due to the damage of ischiopubic joint in children at the age of five to twelve years. Aseptic necrosis of ischiopubic localization has been described in available literature as morbus van Neck-Odelberg. A description of clinical and X-ray picture is described, in the first case being typical in all stages of X-ray symptoms.