Publications by authors named "Burkhardt S"

Article Synopsis
  • - MicroRNAs, which are short non-coding RNAs, play a key role in protein regulation and are being explored as potential biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD).
  • - The study analyzed plasma samples from 847 participants in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) and discovered specific microRNA signatures that correlate with AD diagnosis and the progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to AD.
  • - Findings suggest that evaluating plasma microRNA levels, alongside neuropsychological tests, can enhance the prediction accuracy for MCI to AD conversion, potentially helping to identify at-risk individuals and reduce the need for costly diagnostic procedures.
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Introduction: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in gene expression regulation and Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis.

Methods: We investigated the association between baseline plasma miRNAs and central AD biomarkers from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI; N = 803): amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration (A/T/N). Differentially expressed miRNAs and their targets were identified, followed by pathway enrichment analysis.

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  • Astrocytes are vital for neuronal support, but their deregulation is linked to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.
  • The study highlights a specific long non-coding RNA, PRDM16-DT, that is mainly found in astrocytes and is downregulated in Alzheimer's-affected brains.
  • Overexpression of PRDM16-DT can help counteract astrocyte dysfunction and may present a new therapeutic target for treating neurodegenerative diseases.
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  • The study looked at dogs with liver tumors to see if their blood clotting times (PT and aPTT) were longer than normal before surgery.
  • Out of 359 dogs, 74 had longer PT or aPTT, and 20 had both, but only dogs with a type of tumor called hemangiosarcoma showed both problems together.
  • The results suggest that testing for these blood clotting times isn't very helpful for most liver tumor dogs, unless there's a strong chance they have hemangiosarcoma.
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Astrocytes provide crucial support for neurons, contributing to synaptogenesis, synaptic maintenance, and neurotransmitter recycling. Under pathological conditions, deregulation of astrocytes contributes to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), highlighting the growing interest in targeting astrocyte function to address early phases of AD pathogenesis. While most research in this field has focused on protein-coding genes, non-coding RNAs, particularly long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), have emerged as significant regulatory molecules.

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Current approaches to the treatment of schizophrenia have mainly focused on the protein-coding part of the genome; in this context, the roles of microRNAs have received less attention. In the present study, we analyze the microRNAome in the blood and postmortem brains of schizophrenia patients, showing that the expression of miR-99b-5p is downregulated in both the prefrontal cortex and blood of patients. Lowering the amount of miR-99b-5p in mice leads to both schizophrenia-like phenotypes and inflammatory processes that are linked to synaptic pruning in microglia.

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In chronic inflammation, regulatory immune cells, such as regulatory T cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells, can develop. Local signals in the inflamed tissue, such as cytokines and eicosanoids, but also contact-dependent signals, can promote myeloid-derived suppressor cell development. In the liver, hepatic stellate cells may provide such signals via the expression of CD44.

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Emotion-focused parenting interventions have only rarely been evaluated systematically in Europe. This study investigates the effectiveness of "Tuning in to Kids" (TIK) from Australia delivered online in a randomized controlled trial. TIK is a six-week emotion-focused group parenting program that has shown to improve many aspects of parent emotion socialization as well as child problem behavior in several different countries across cultures.

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Article Synopsis
  • Exercise is linked to better cognitive health, particularly in the hippocampus, which is crucial for learning and memory.
  • Research shows that exercise improves neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons) and synaptic plasticity, but the specific molecular mechanisms are still unclear.
  • A new study provides a detailed dataset from the mouse hippocampus after 4 weeks of voluntary exercise, revealing that exercise speeds up the maturation of certain neurons and alters key signaling pathways, potentially guiding future interventions to enhance cognitive health.
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Variants of garnet-type LiLaZrO are being intensively studied as separator materials in solid-state battery research. The material-specific transport properties, such as bulk and grain boundary conductivity, are of prime interest and are mostly investigated by impedance spectroscopy. Data evaluation is usually based on the one-dimensional (1D) brick layer model, which assumes a homogeneous microstructure of identical grains.

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There is a strong medical need to develop suitable biomarkers to improve the diagnosis and treatment of depression, particularly in predicting response to certain therapeutic approaches such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that have the ability to influence the transcriptome as well as proteostasis at the systems level. Here, we investigate the role of circulating microRNAs in depression and response prediction towards ECT.

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Case Summary: A 15-year-old male castrated domestic shorthair cat originally presented to its primary care veterinarian with a chief complaint of a multi-month history of decreased appetite, weight loss and mild weight-bearing lameness. On physical examination, over the right scapula there was mild-to-moderate muscle wasting and a palpable firm, bony mass measuring approximately 3.5 cm × 3 cm.

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N-methyladenosine (mA) regulates mRNA metabolism. While it has been implicated in the development of the mammalian brain and in cognition, the role of mA in synaptic plasticity, especially during cognitive decline, is not fully understood. In this study, we employed methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing to obtain the mA epitranscriptome of the hippocampal subregions CA1, CA3, and the dentate gyrus and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in young and aged mice.

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Schizophrenia (SZ) is a serious mental disorder that is typically treated with antipsychotic medication. Treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) is the condition where symptoms remain after pharmacological intervention, resulting in long-lasting functional and social impairments. As the identification and treatment of a TRS patient requires previous failed treatments, early mechanisms of detection are needed in order to quicken the access to effective therapy, as well as improve treatment adherence.

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Clinical presentation and Treatment of Lyme Disease Lyme borreliosis is a tick-born disease caused by characteristically occurring in the northern hemisphere. Typically, the first manifestation is a localized infection of the skin with an expanding rash, commonly referred to as . Early disseminated infections typically affect the central nervous system and, less commonly, the heart causing carditis.

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A non-ideal contact at the electrode/solid electrolyte interface of a solid-state battery arising due to pores (voids) or inclusions results in a geometric constriction effect that severely deteriorates the electric transport properties of the battery cell. The lack of understanding of this phenomenon hinders the optimization process of novel components, such as reversible and high-rate metal anodes. Deeper insight into the constriction phenomenon is necessary to correctly monitor interface degradation and to accelerate the successful use of metal anodes in solid-state batteries.

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The Apple Watch is capable of recording single-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs). To incorporate such devices in routine medical care, the reliability of such devices to obtain precordial leads needs to be validated. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and reliability of a smartwatch (SW) to obtain precordial leads compared to standard ECGs.

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While some individuals age without pathological memory impairments, others develop age-associated cognitive diseases. Since changes in cognitive function develop slowly over time in these patients, they are often diagnosed at an advanced stage of molecular pathology, a time point when causative treatments fail. Thus, there is great need for the identification of inexpensive and minimal invasive approaches that could be used for screening with the aim to identify individuals at risk for cognitive decline that can then undergo further diagnostics and eventually stratified therapies.

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Article Synopsis
  • - MicroRNAs have been associated with memory and synaptic changes, showing potential as biomarkers and targets for treating cognitive diseases, but most research relies on advanced-stage postmortem samples which limits understanding of human cognition.
  • - This study uses exercise in healthy individuals to enhance memory and identify relevant microRNAs, analyzing the circulating smallRNAome.
  • - Researchers identified a group of 18 microRNAs associated with cognition, with microRNA-409-5p and microRNA-501-3p being the most significantly altered, highlighting their role in maintaining neuronal health and synaptic function.
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Classification approaches that allow to extract logical rules such as decision trees are often considered to be more interpretable than neural networks. Also, logical rules are comparatively easy to verify with any possible input. This is an important part in systems that aim to ensure correct operation of a given model.

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Objective: To investigate (1a) agreement of ultrasonographic, surgical, and histopathologic findings in the diagnosis of a neoplastic etiology underlying primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT), (1b) the ability of ultrasonographically determined parathyroid gland size to distinguish between malignant (carcinoma) and non-malignant (hyperplasia, adenoma) pathology, and (2) variables associated with postoperative hypocalcemia in dogs undergoing surgical treatment of PHPT.

Study Design: Ambidirectional cohort study.

Animals: Forty-seven client owned dogs with PHPT (34 retrospective; 13 prospective).

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The Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome (OMIM 277000) is characterized by agenesis of the uterus and upper part of the vagina in females with normal ovarian function. While genetic causes have been identified for a small subset of patients and epigenetic mechanisms presumably contribute to the pathogenic unfolding, too, the etiology of the syndrome has remained largely enigmatic. A comprehensive understanding of gene activity in the context of the disease is crucial to identify etiological components and their potential interplay.

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Background: Past work showed that an , therapist-guided, parent-implemented multicomponent intervention increased the motor functioning of the more affected upper extremity (UE) in infants with asymmetric cerebral palsy. The authors document treatment fidelity and provide initial testing of intervention delivery in a new subject sample.

Methods: The authors adapted the intervention manual used in the previous trial for telehealth.

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Background: In the last years, the number of notified hepatitis E cases in humans has continuously increased in Europe. Foodborne infection with the zoonotic hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype 3 is considered the major cause of this disease. Undercooked liver and raw sausages containing the liver of pigs and wild boar are at high risk of containing HEV.

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Background And Objectives: Early diagnosis of cerebral palsy (CP) is critical in obtaining evidence-based interventions when plasticity is greatest. In 2017, international guidelines for early detection of CP were published on the basis of a systematic review of evidence. Our study aim was to reduce the age at CP diagnosis throughout a network of 5 diverse US high-risk infant follow-up programs through consistent implementation of these guidelines.

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