Patient and public involvement in neonatal research - experiences and insights from parents and researchers.

Background: Involving parents in decisions about the care of their infant is common practice in most neonatal intensive care units. However, involvement is less common in neonatal research and a gap appears to exist in understanding the process of patient and public involvement. The aim of this study was to explore parents and researchers' experiences of patient and public involvement in a neonatal research project.

Proteomic profiling of neonatal herpes simplex virus infection on dried blood spots.

Background: Neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection is life-threatening, with a mortality of up to 70-80% when disseminated, often due to vague symptoms and delayed treatment. Neonatal screening using dried blood spot (DBS) samples is among the most impactful preventative health measures ever implemented, but screening for HSV has not been investigated.

Methods: We investigated high throughput multiplexed proteomics on DBS samples collected on days 2-3 of life from a nationwide cohort of neonates with HSV infection (n = 53) and matched controls.

Bone Marrow Failure due to Aplastic Anemia, Associated With Serous Fat Atrophy, and Treated With Allogeneic, Haploidentical Stem Cell Transplantation: A Case Report.

We describe the case of a 27-year-old male, previously healthy though with a social history notable for recreational cocaine use, who developed bone marrow failure due to aplastic anemia (AA) with associated serous fat atrophy (SFA). After the SFA was corrected with nutritional supplementation, the patient underwent successful allogeneic, haploidentical stem cell transplantation with a regimen designed to treat AA. To our knowledge, this is the first case of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) performed following correction of SFA.

Parental epigenetic age acceleration and risk of adverse birth outcomes: the Norwegian mother, father and child cohort study.

Background: Few studies have examined associations between maternal epigenetic age acceleration and adverse birth outcomes, and none have investigated paternal epigenetic age acceleration. Our objective was to assess the associations of parental (both maternal and paternal) epigenetic age acceleration in relation to birth outcomes.

Methods: Parental epigenetic age was estimated using seven established epigenetic clocks in 2198 mothers and 2193 fathers from the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study (MoBa).

First-in-Human: Simultaneous Hyperpolarized 1- 13 C-Pyruvate Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and 18 F-FDG PET (hyperPET) Imaging of a Patient With Lymphoma.

Hyperpolarized 1- 13 C-pyruvate magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and MRS imaging (MRSI) offer noninvasive and real-time direct assessment of the altered metabolism of cancer cells known as the Warburg effect-a key hallmark of cancer. When combined with simultaneously acquired 18 F-FDG PET in a PET/MR scanner, coined hyperPET by us, this dual-modality may unveil cancer-type specific glucose metabolic phenotypes with potential implications for patient prognostication, treatment-response assessment, and prediction. We here present the first human data of simultaneously acquired hyperpolarized MRS/MRSI and PET performed in a PET/MR scanner-and the first human hyperpolarized MRS/MRSI data from a patient with lymphoma.

Phase II study of uPAR-PET/CT for staging of primary breast cancer in comparison with ultrasound and fine needle biopsies.

Accurate initial staging of patients with breast cancer is essential for planning optimal treatment strategies. However, currently, no imaging modality is able to detect lymph node metastases preoperatively with sufficient reliability; therefore, the N status depends on the sentinel node procedure for ~ 70% of patients. In a prospective clinical trial of breast cancer patients, we compared head-to-head uPAR-PET/CT with current standard-of-care, ultrasound (US) and fine needle biopsy (FNB) as staging methods.

Prospective phase II trial of [Ga]Ga-NOTA-AE105 uPAR-PET/MRI in patients with primary gliomas: Prognostic value and Implications for uPAR-targeted Radionuclide Therapy.

Background: Treatment of patients with low-grade and high-grade gliomas is highly variable due to the large difference in survival expectancy. New non-invasive tools are needed for risk stratification prior to treatment. The urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) is expressed in several cancers, associated with poor prognosis and may be non-invasively imaged using uPAR-PET.

The Global Adolescent Fertility Decline is Counteracted by Increasing Teen Births in Sub-Saharan Africa.

There is a lack of understanding of the persistence of elevated teen fertility rates in certain regions and countries, in contrast to the significant decline observed in other regions globally. This report considers fertility trends among 15- to 19-year olds in the period 1950-2020 and explores potential driving factors behind the significant shifts that occurred over this period. The countries where teen fertility remains high are those with fast-growing populations, primarily located in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Group B Streptococcus (GBS) disease in neonates occurs in two forms: early-onset disease (EOD), (day 0-6), and late-onset disease (LOD), (day 7-90). This review investigates that risk-based intrapartum screening and antibiotics have reduced the incidence of EOD, but not LOD, in Denmark. No clinical or laboratory tests can rule out GBS disease at symptom onset.

Evaluation of a complex couplet care intervention in a neonatal intensive care unit: A mixed methods study protocol.

Background: Families with an infant in need of intensive care most often experience a harmful separation after birth. This is due to a division of medical specialties into neonatal care and maternal care. Therefore, a couplet care intervention is implemented for mother-infant dyads in a neonatal intensive care unit.

Host RNA Expression Signatures in Young Infants with Urinary Tract Infection: A Prospective Study.

Early diagnosis of infections in young infants remains a clinical challenge. Young infants are particularly vulnerable to infection, and it is often difficult to clinically distinguish between bacterial and viral infections. Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common bacterial infection in young infants, and the incidence of associated bacteremia has decreased in the recent decades.

Characteristics of isatuximab-derived interference in serum protein electrophoresis and immunofixation, and an absence of sustained in vivo interference due to belantamab mafodotin and denosumab.

Objectives: Some therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, like daratumumab and elotuzumab, produce interfering monoclonal bands on serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP) and immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE). Whether other common therapeutic antibodies also produce interference has not been systematically evaluated.

Design And Methods: SPEP/IFE from patients receiving isatuximab (48 patients), belantamab mafodotin (BM; 41), and denosumab (41) were retrospectively reviewed for therapeutic antibody interference.

Synthetic and natural rubber associated chemicals drive functional and structural changes as well as adaptations to antibiotics in in vitro marine microbiomes.

The leaching of additives from plastics and elastomers (rubbers) has raised concerns due to their potential negative impacts on the environment and the development of antibiotic resistance. In this study, we investigated the effects of chemicals extracted from two types of rubber on microbiomes derived from a benthic sea urchin and two pelagic fish species. Additionally, we examined whether bacterial communities preconditioned with rubber-associated chemicals displayed adaptations to antibiotics.

Flow cytometry quantification of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes to predict the survival of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Introduction: Our previous studies have demonstrated that tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), including normal B cells, T cells, and natural killer (NK) cells, in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) have a significantly favorable impact on the clinical outcomes of patients treated with standard chemoimmunotherapy. In this study, to gain a full overview of the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME), we assembled a flow cytometry cohort of 102 patients diagnosed with DLBCL at the Duke University Medical Center.

Methods: We collected diagnostic flow cytometry data, including the proportion of T cells, abnormal B cells, normal B cells, plasma cells, NK cells, monocytes, and granulocytes in fresh biopsy tissues at clinical presentation, and analyzed the correlations with patient survival and between different cell populations.

Epigenome-wide association study of DNA methylation in maternal blood leukocytes with BMI in pregnancy and gestational weight gain.

Objectives: We aimed to discover CpG sites with differential DNA methylation in peripheral blood leukocytes associated with body mass index (BMI) in pregnancy and gestational weight gain (GWG) in women of European and South Asian ancestry. Furthermore, we aimed to investigate how the identified sites were associated with methylation quantitative trait loci, gene ontology, and cardiometabolic parameters.

Methods: In the Epigenetics in pregnancy (EPIPREG) sample we quantified maternal DNA methylation in peripheral blood leukocytes in gestational week 28 with Illumina's MethylationEPIC BeadChip.

NON-pharmacological Approach Less Invasive Surfactant Administration (NONA-LISA) trial: protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Using pre-procedure analgesia with the risk of apnoea may complicate the Less Invasive Surfactant Administration (LISA) procedure or reduce the effect of LISA.

Methods: The NONA-LISA trial (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05609877) is a multicentre, blinded, randomised controlled trial aiming at including 324 infants born before 30 gestational weeks, meeting the criteria for surfactant treatment by LISA.

Diagnostic Value of Preoperative uPAR-PET/CT in Regional Lymph Node Staging of Oral and Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Prospective Phase II Trial.

The detection of lymph node metastases is a major challenge in oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC and OPSCC). Ga-NOTA-AE105 is a novel positron emission tomography (PET) radioligand with high affinity to urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR), a receptor expressed on the surfaces of tumor cells. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of uPAR-PET/CT (computerized tomography) in detecting regional metastatic disease in patients with OSCC and OPSCC compared to the current imaging work-up.

Paternal and maternal birthweight and offspring risk of macrosomia at term gestations: A nationwide population study.

Background: There is a paucity of data on whether parents' macrosomia (birthweight ≥4500 g) status influences the risk of macrosomia in the offspring. The role of maternal overweight in the generational effect of macrosomia is not known.

Objective: To estimate the risk of macrosomia by parental birthweight at term and evaluate if this risk varied with maternal body mass index (BMI, kg/m) early in pregnancy.