Patterns of molecular evolution in a parthenogenic terrestrial isopod ().

The "paradox of sex" refers to the question of why sexual reproduction is maintained in the wild, despite how costly it is compared to asexual reproduction. Because of these costs, one might expect nature to select for asexual reproduction, yet sex seems to be continually selected for. Multiple hypotheses have been proposed to explain this incongruence, including the niche differentiation hypothesis, the Red Queen hypothesis, and accumulation of harmful mutations in asexual species due to inefficient purifying selection.

An immunomodulating peptide with potential to suppress tumour growth and autoimmunity.

Cancers and autoimmune diseases commonly co-exist and immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy (ICI) exacerbates autoimmune pathologies. We recently described a lipidic peptide, designated IK14004, that promotes expansion of immunosuppressive T regulatory (Treg) cells and uncouples interleukin-2 from interferon-gamma production while activating CD8+ T cells. Herein, we report IK14004-mediated inhibition of Lewis lung cancer (LLC) growth and re-invigoration of splenocyte-derived exhausted CD4+ T cells.

Kikuchi-Fujimoto Disease: A Case of Febrile Cervical Lymphadenopathy With Hematological Abnormalities.

Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease (KFD), or histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis, is a benign but rare disorder associated with febrile cervical lymphadenopathy in young adults. Here, we discuss a case of a young female patient presenting with left tender cervical lymphadenopathy that progressed bilaterally with a fever of unknown origin. Laboratory parameters showed persistent leukopenia, especially neutropenia, which fluctuated with the degree of symptom severity.

An immunomodulating peptide to counteract solar radiation-induced immunosuppression and DNA damage.

Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) induces immunosuppression and DNA damage, both of which contribute to the rising global incidence of skin cancer including melanoma. Nucleotide excision repair, which is activated upon UVR-induced DNA damage, is linked to expression of interleukin-12 (IL-12) which serves to limit immunosuppression and augment the DNA repair process. Herein, we report an immunomodulating peptide, designated IK14800, that not only elicits secretion of IL-12, interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) but also reduces DNA damage in the skin following exposure to UVR.

Association Between SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Frequency of Acute Symptoms: Analysis of a Multi-institutional Prospective Cohort Study-December 20, 2020-June 20, 2022.

Background: While prior work examining severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern focused on hospitalization and death, less is known about differences in clinical presentation. We compared the prevalence of acute symptoms across pre-Delta, Delta, and Omicron.

Methods: We conducted an analysis of the Innovative Support for Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infections Registry (INSPIRE), a cohort study enrolling symptomatic SARS-CoV-2-positive participants.

Efficacy of HER2-Targeted Intraperitoneal Ac α-Pretargeted Radioimmunotherapy for Small-Volume Ovarian Peritoneal Carcinomatosis.

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is often asymptomatic and presents clinically in an advanced stage as widespread peritoneal microscopic disease that is generally considered to be surgically incurable. Targeted α-therapy with the α-particle-emitting radionuclide Ac (half-life, 9.92 d) is a high-linear-energy-transfer treatment approach effective for small-volume disease and even single cells.

Greenness and equity: Complex connections between intra-neighborhood contexts and residential tree planting implementation.

Associations between neighborhood greenness and socioeconomic status (SES) are established, yet intra-neighborhood context and SES-related barriers to tree planting remain unclear. Large-scale tree planting implementation efforts are increasingly common and can improve human health, strengthen climate adaptation, and ameliorate environmental inequities. Yet, these efforts may be ineffective without in-depth understanding of local SES inequities and barriers to residential planting.

Fanconi anemia-isogenic head and neck cancer cell line pairs: A basic and translational science resource.

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a heritable malformation, bone marrow failure and cancer predisposition syndrome that confers an exceptionally high risk of squamous carcinomas. These carcinomas originate in epithelia lining the mouth, proximal esophagus, vulva and anus: their origins are not understood, and no effective ways have been identified to prevent or delay their appearance. Many FA-associated carcinomas are also therapeutically challenging: they may be multi-focal and stage-advanced at diagnosis, and most individuals with FA cannot tolerate standard-of-care systemic therapies such as DNA cross-linking drugs or ionizing radiation due to constitutional DNA damage hypersensitivity.

A novel lipidic peptide with potential to promote balanced effector-regulatory T cell responses.

T cell-dendritic cell (DC) interactions contribute to reciprocal stimulation leading to DC maturation that results in production of interleukin-12 (IL-12) and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ). Both cytokines have been implicated in autoimmune diseases while being necessary for effective immune responses against foreign antigens. We describe a lipidic peptide, designated IK14004, that modifies crosstalk between T cells and DCs resulting in suppression of IL-12p40/IFN-γ production.

Intraperitoneal Pretargeted Radioimmunotherapy for Colorectal Peritoneal Carcinomatosis.

Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) is considered incurable, and more effective therapies are needed. Herein we test the hypothesis that GPA33-directed intracompartmental pretargeted radioimmunotherapy (PRIT) can cure colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis. Nude mice were implanted intraperitoneally with luciferase-transduced GPA33-expressing SW1222 cells for aggressive peritoneal carcinomatosis (e.

Infection of a sylvian Galassi II arachnoid cyst after craniotomy for resection of a parasagittal meningioma.

Arachnoid cysts are CSF-containing entities that rarely are symptomatic or warrant neurosurgical intervention. In addition, infection of these lesions is an even rarer event, with only four reports in the literature capturing this. In this report, we present the case of a 79-year-old man presenting with paraparesis, secondary to a right parasagittal meningioma, with an incidental asymptomatic right sylvian arachnoid cyst (Galassi type II).

Evolutionary transition to XY sex chromosomes associated with Y-linked duplication of a male hormone gene in a terrestrial isopod.

Sex chromosomes are highly variable in some taxonomic groups, but the evolutionary mechanisms underlying this diversity are not well understood. In terrestrial isopod crustaceans, evolutionary turnovers in sex chromosomes are frequent, possibly caused by Wolbachia, a vertically-transmitted endosymbiont causing male-to-female sex reversal. Here, we use surgical manipulations and genetic crosses, plus genome sequencing, to examine sex chromosomes in the terrestrial isopod Trachelipus rathkei.

Neurosurgery and coronavirus: impact and challenges-lessons learnt from the first wave of a global pandemic.

Introduction And Objectives: The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) pandemic has had drastic effects on global healthcare with the UK amongst the countries most severely impacted. The aim of this study was to examine how COVID-19 challenged the neurosurgical delivery of care in a busy tertiary unit serving a socio-economically diverse population.

Methods: A prospective single-centre cohort study including all patients referred to the acute neurosurgical service or the subspecialty multidisciplinary teams (MDT) as well as all emergency and elective admissions during COVID-19 (18th March 2020-15th May 2020) compared to pre-COVID-19 (18th of January 2020-17th March 2020).

Up-regulation of GLI1 in vincristine-resistant rhabdomyosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma.

Background: The clinical significance of GLI1 expression either through canonical Hedgehog signal transduction or through non-canonical mechanisms in rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) or Ewing sarcoma (EWS) is incompletely understood. We tested a role for Hedgehog (HH) signal transduction and GL11 expression in development of vincristine (VCR) resistance in RMS and EWS.

Methods: We characterized baseline expression and activity of HH pathway components in 5 RMS (RD, Rh18, Ruch-2, Rh30, and Rh41) and 5 EWS (CHLA9, CHLA10, TC32, CHLA258, and TC71) cell lines.

Infant High-Grade Gliomas Comprise Multiple Subgroups Characterized by Novel Targetable Gene Fusions and Favorable Outcomes.

Infant high-grade gliomas appear clinically distinct from their counterparts in older children, indicating that histopathologic grading may not accurately reflect the biology of these tumors. We have collected 241 cases under 4 years of age, and carried out histologic review, methylation profiling, and custom panel, genome, or exome sequencing. After excluding tumors representing other established entities or subgroups, we identified 130 cases to be part of an "intrinsic" spectrum of disease specific to the infant population.

Sexual Selection Does Not Increase the Rate of Compensatory Adaptation to a Mutation Influencing a Secondary Sexual Trait in .

Theoretical work predicts that sexual selection can enhance natural selection, increasing the rate of adaptation to new environments and helping purge harmful mutations. While some experiments support these predictions, remarkably little work has addressed the role of sexual selection on compensatory adaptation-populations' ability to compensate for the costs of deleterious alleles that are already present. We tested whether sexual selection, as well as the degree of standing genetic variation, affect the rate of compensatory evolution via phenotypic suppression in experimental populations of These populations were fixed for a spontaneous mutation causing mild abnormalities in the male sex comb, a structure important for mating success.

A bioinformatics approach to identifying infections in arthropods.

is the most widespread endosymbiont, infecting >20% of arthropod species, and capable of drastically manipulating the host's reproductive mechanisms. Conventionally, diagnosis has relied on PCR amplification; however, PCR is not always a reliable diagnostic technique due to primer specificity, strain diversity, degree of infection and/or tissue sampled. Here, we look for evidence of infection across a wide array of arthropod species using a bioinformatic approach to detect the genes and the operon in next-generation sequencing samples available through the NCBI Sequence Read Archive.

Functional diversity and cooperativity between subclonal populations of pediatric glioblastoma and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma cells.

The failure to develop effective therapies for pediatric glioblastoma (pGBM) and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is in part due to their intrinsic heterogeneity. We aimed to quantitatively assess the extent to which this was present in these tumors through subclonal genomic analyses and to determine whether distinct tumor subpopulations may interact to promote tumorigenesis by generating subclonal patient-derived models in vitro and in vivo. Analysis of 142 sequenced tumors revealed multiple tumor subclones, spatially and temporally coexisting in a stable manner as observed by multiple sampling strategies.