CYLD Alterations Are Associated With Metastasis and Poor Prognosis in Human Papilloma Virus-Positive Head and Neck Cancer.

Background: Human papilloma virus (HPV)-associated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is an emerging epidemic and a subset of HPV-positive patients experience aggressive disease with metastases. The CYLD gene is frequently altered in HPV-positive HNSCC, but the role of these alterations in disease progression is poorly understood.

Methods: We identified 11 HPV-positive HNSCC patients with CYLD alterations and assessed their clinical course.

Analysis of the Types of Retracted COVID-19 Articles Published in PubMed-Listed Journals.

Objectives: Periodically, medical publications are retracted. The reasons vary from minor situations, such as author attributions, which do not undermine the validity of the data or the analysis in the article, to serious reasons, such as fraud. Understanding the reasons for retraction can provide important information for clinicians, educators, researchers, journals, and editorial boards.

Designing eco-evolutionary experiments for restoration projects: Opportunities and constraints revealed during stickleback introductions.

Eco-evolutionary experiments are typically conducted in semi-unnatural controlled settings, such as mesocosms; yet inferences about how evolution and ecology interact in the real world would surely benefit from experiments in natural uncontrolled settings. Opportunities for such experiments are rare but do arise in the context of restoration ecology-where different "types" of a given species can be introduced into different "replicate" locations. Designing such experiments requires wrestling with consequential questions.

Peer Review and Medical Journals.

Journal editors depend on peer reviewers to make decisions about submitted manuscripts. These reviewers help evaluate the methods, the results, the discussion of the results, and the overall organization and presentation of the manuscript. In addition, reviewers can help identify important mistakes and possible misconduct.

An analysis of retracted COVID-19 articles published by one medical publisher with multiple journals.

Background: The retraction of medical articles periodically occurs in most medical journals and can involve multiple article types. These retractions are beneficial if they remove flawed or fraudulent information from the medical literature. However, retractions may also decrease confidence in the medical literature and require significant amounts of time by editors.

Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Program Directors' Perspective on the Virtual Interview Process.

Background: Since the start of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the residency and fellowship recruitment process has changed significantly with the use of virtual interview (VI) platforms. Pulmonary and critical care medicine (PCCM) candidates reported in a survey that VIs hindered their ability to evaluate their fit within the program. However, the program directors' (PDs') opinion of this process remains unknown.

Anti-PD-1 chimeric antigen receptor T cells efficiently target SIV-infected CD4+ T cells in germinal centers.

Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) is an immune checkpoint marker commonly expressed on memory T cells and enriched in latently HIV-infected CD4+ T cells. We engineered an anti-PD-1 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) to assess the impact of PD-1 depletion on viral reservoirs and rebound dynamics in SIVmac239-infected rhesus macaques (RMs). Adoptive transfer of anti-PD-1 CAR T cells was done in 2 SIV-naive and 4 SIV-infected RMs on antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Ehrlichiosis: A Unique Presentation of Fatal Sepsis in an Immunocompetent Adult.

Ehrlichiosis is a vector-borne illness transmitted by the lone star tick (). Most patients have risk factors for tick exposure, such as hobbies or careers involving hunting, camping, and hiking. This case exposes a rare case of severe ehrlichiosis, ultimately resulting in fatal sepsis, in an elderly patient without any reported tick bites or exposures.

CD20 CAR T cells safely and reversibly ablate B cell follicles in a non-human primate model of HIV persistence.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies have demonstrated immense clinical success for B cell and plasma cell malignancies. We tested their impact on the viral reservoir in a macaque model of HIV persistence, comparing the functions of CD20 CAR T cells between animals infected with simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) and uninfected controls. We focused on the potential of this approach to disrupt B cell follicles (BCFs), exposing infected cells for immune clearance.

Stem cell-derived CAR T cells show greater persistence, trafficking, and viral control compared to ex vivo transduced CAR T cells.

Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) using T cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) is an area of intense investigation in the treatment of malignancies and chronic viral infections. One of the limitations of ACT-based CAR therapy is the lack of in vivo persistence and maintenance of optimal cell function. Therefore, alternative strategies that increase the function and maintenance of CAR-expressing T cells are needed.

Mixed Patterns of Intergenerational DNA Methylation Inheritance in Acropora.

For sessile organisms at high risk from climate change, phenotypic plasticity can be critical to rapid acclimation. Epigenetic markers like DNA methylation are hypothesized as mediators of plasticity; methylation is associated with the regulation of gene expression, can change in response to ecological cues, and is a proposed basis for the inheritance of acquired traits. Within reef-building corals, gene-body methylation (gbM) can change in response to ecological stressors.

Lemierre Syndrome With Streptococcus constellatus Bacteremia.

Lemierre syndrome is characterized by thrombophlebitis of the internal jugular vein (IJV) secondary to bacterial pharyngitis or tonsillitis. Though antibiotic use has made this a rarer syndrome, it can nevertheless manifest in patients presenting with pharyngitis. Herein, we describe a 20-year-old male patient with no relevant medical history presenting with signs concerning for pneumonia and was ultimately diagnosed with Lemierre syndrome with bacteremia.

Long-Term Follow-Up of the RESORT Study (E4402): A Randomized Phase III Comparison of Two Different Rituximab Dosing Strategies for Low-Tumor Burden Follicular Lymphoma.

JCO In 2003, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group initiated a randomized phase III clinical trial (E4402) comparing two different rituximab dosing strategies for patients with previously untreated low-tumor burden follicular lymphoma. Rituximab-responsive patients (n = 299) were randomly assigned to either a retreatment rituximab (RR) strategy or a maintenance rituximab (MR) strategy. Each dosing strategy was continued until treatment failure.

Integrating geometries of ReLU feedforward neural networks.

This paper investigates the integration of multiple geometries present within a ReLU-based neural network. A ReLU neural network determines a piecewise affine linear continuous map, , from an input space ℝ to an output space ℝ. The piecewise behavior corresponds to a polyhedral decomposition of ℝ.

Furry, Fomite, and Facultative Anaerobe: A Unique Case of Capnocytophaga canimorsus.

infection is frequently associated with dog and cat bites or scratches in patients who have risk factors such as immunosuppression, asplenia, and alcohol abuse. However, rare instances of  infection in patients without typical risk factors have been reported. Here, we present such a rare and unusual case of  bacteremia in a patient without animal wounds or risk factors.

Nonbacterial Thrombotic Endocarditis With Embolic Phenomena Diagnosed by Transesophageal Echocardiogram.

Nonbacterial thrombotic endocarditis (NBTE) is a valvular disorder commonly associated with malignancy and connective tissue diseases. While the disorder is often discovered during autopsy, it is sometimes diagnosed in patients who present with systemic embolization. Here, we discuss the case of a 52-year-old female, with connective tissue disease and malignancy, who presented with symptoms of systemic embolization and was diagnosed with NBTE by transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE).

Article retraction rates in selected MeSH term categories in PubMed published between 2010 and 2020.

Background: Academic article retractions occur across all disciplines, though few studies have examined the association between research topics and retraction rates.

Objectives: We assessed and compared the rate of retraction across several important clinical research topics.

Methods: Information about the number of publications, the number of retractions, the retraction rate, and the time to retraction was collected for articles identified by 15 Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms.

Triple Threat: Triple-Valve Endocarditis Case Report and Literature Review.

Triple valve endocarditis (TVE) is a rare presentation of endocarditis often requiring multivalvular surgery. Here we report a case of S. triple valve endocarditis in a patient with a history of intravenous drug use and provide a literature review of TVE identification, treatment, and prognosis.

A Case of Chagas Cardiomyopathy in Western Virginia: Worlds Away?

Chagas cardiomyopathy, caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, is a significant cause of cardiac pathology worldwide. Though most frequently observed in Latin America, Chagas disease is present in the United States and should be considered in patients with heart block or other cardiac abnormalities and previous travel to or residence in endemic areas. Here we describe a new diagnosis of Chagas cardiomyopathy in a patient residing in Virginia with a previous residence in Mexico.

Efficient manufacturing and engraftment of gene-edited HSPCs following busulfan conditioning in nonhuman primates.

Hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy has been successfully used for a number of genetic diseases and is also being explored for HIV. However, toxicity of the conditioning regimens has been a major concern. Here we compared current conditioning approaches in a clinically relevant nonhuman primate model.

Local adaptation and host specificity to copepod intermediate hosts by the tapeworm .

Host-parasite coevolution may lead to patterns of local adaptation in either the host or parasite. For parasites with complex multi-host life cycles, this coevolution may be more challenging as they must adapt to multiple geographically varying hosts. The tapeworm exhibits some local adaptation to its second intermediate host, threespine stickleback, to which the parasite is strictly specialized.