DOME: Directional medical embedding vectors from electronic health records.

Motivation: The increasing availability of electronic health record (EHR) systems has created enormous potential for translational research. Recent developments in representation learning techniques have led to effective large-scale representations of EHR concepts along with knowledge graphs that empower downstream EHR studies. However, most existing methods require training with patient-level data, limiting their abilities to expand the training with multi-institutional EHR data.

Autophagosomes coated in situ with nanodots act as personalized cancer vaccines.

Autophagosome cancer vaccines can promote cross-presentation of multiple tumour antigens and induce cross-reactive T cell responses. However, so far, there is no effective method for obtaining a highly immunogenic autophagosomal cancer vaccine because autophagosomes, once formed, quickly fuse with lysosomes and cannot easily escape from cells. Here we report a functional TiNX nanodot that caps the autophagosome membrane lipid phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate, blocking the fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes and producing stable nanodot-coated autophagosomes in tumours.

Targeting Fibroblast Activation Protein for Molecular Imaging of Fibrotic Remodeling in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using F-labeled fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (FAPI) PET/CT in assessing the fibrotic remodeling of the pulmonary artery (PA) and the right ventricle (RV) in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). In a rat model of monocrotaline-induced PAH, rats were euthanized at different time points for tissue analysis (fibroblast activation protein immunofluorescence and Masson's trichrome staining) after completing F-FAPI PET/CT and hemodynamic measurements. Thirty-eight PAH patients were enrolled to participate in F-FAPI PET/CT imaging, with right heart catheterization and echocardiography performed within 1 wk to assess pulmonary hemodynamics and cardiac function.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Vascular cognitive impairment/dementia (VD) is the second most prevalent cause of dementia following Alzheimer's disease (AD). VD is characterized by the progression of white matter hyperintensity burden (WMH) and associated neurodegeneration. GFAP, a biomarker for reactive astrogliosis, is associated with Aβ pathology and mediates tau-pathology in preclinical AD.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Dysregulation of cholesterol metabolism contributes to the increase of cerebral vascular diseases, favoring the development of dementia. In this sense, high levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) are considered protective against the outcomes associated with cardiovascular diseases. However, little is known about the effect of plasma HDL levels to alterations of cerebral volume in non-vascular AD and vascular AD individuals.