Publications by authors named "Cranston A"

Glutamatergic neurotransmission, important for learning and memory, is disrupted in different ways in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) tauopathies. We have previously reported that two tau transgenic mouse models, L1 and L66, produce different phenotypes resembling AD and FTD, respectively. The AD-like L1 model expresses the truncated core aggregation domain of the AD paired helical filament (PHF) form of tau (tau296-390) whereas the FTD-like L66 model expresses full-length tau carrying two mutations at P301S/G335D.

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Background: Understanding how to modulate the microenvironment of tumors that are resistant to immune checkpoint inhibitors represents a major challenge in oncology.Here we investigate the ability of USP7 inhibitors to reprogram the tumor microenvironment (TME) by inhibiting secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) from fibroblasts.

Methods: To understand the role played by USP7 in the TME, we systematically evaluated the effects of potent, selective USP7 inhibitors on co-cultures comprising components of the TME, using human primary cells.

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Background: Low bone mineral density is encountered in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) before, during, and after treatment. Prior experience with alendronate, an oral bisphosphonate, demonstrated high tolerability and evident clinical efficacy. However, concerns have been expressed about the long-term safety and utility of such agents in children.

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Purpose: To evaluate the therapeutic benefit of a novel peptide, ALM201, in ocular pathologic vascularization.

Design: Experimental study in mouse, rat, and rabbit animal models.

Participants: Ten-week-old Lister Hooded male rats, 8-week-old Brown Norway male rats, 9-day-old C57BL/6J mice, and 12-month-old New Zealand male rabbits.

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The accumulation of alpha-synuclein (α-Syn) into Lewy bodies in cortical and subcortical regions has been linked to the pathogenesis of synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). While there is a strong link between synuclein aggregates and the reduction in dopamine function in the emergence of PD, less is known about the consequences of α-Syn accumulation in glutamatergic neurons and how this could be exploited as a therapeutic target. Transgenic h-α-synL62 (L62) mice, in which synuclein aggregation is achieved through the expression of full-length human α-Syn fused with a signal sequence peptide, were used to characterise glutamatergic transmission using a combination of behavioural, immunoblotting, and histopathological approaches.

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Cranston, AW and Driller, MW. Investigating the use of an intermittent sequential pneumatic compression arm sleeve for recovery after upper-body exercise. J Strength Cond Res 36(6): 1548-1553, 2022-The current study aimed to investigate the efficacy of an intermittent sequential pneumatic compression (ISPC) device placed on the arm after a fatiguing upper-body exercise circuit.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists wanted to see if a new drug called ALM201 was safe and how it worked for patients with certain types of cancer.!
  • They gave the drug to 20 patients for a few weeks and found that most people handled it well, with only mild side effects like injection pain and tiredness.!
  • There were no major safety issues, and they think the drug could be tested more to see how well it works in specific cancer types.!
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Here, the full genome sequences of 22 T1-like bacteriophages isolated from wastewater are reported. Eight (BlueShadow, Brooksby, Devorator, ElisaCorrea, Reinasaurus, SorkZaugg, Supreme284, ZeroToHero) were isolated on , six on Klebsiella (Chell, FairDinkum, HazelMika, Opt-817, P528, PeteCarol), and eight on Escherichia (Fulano1, Mishu, Opt-719, PhleaSolo, Punny, Poky, Phunderstruck, Sadiya).

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Background: Parkinson's disease is a disabling neurodegenerative movement disorder characterized by dopaminergic neuron loss induced by α-synuclein oligomers. There is an urgent need for disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson's disease, but drug discovery is challenged by lack of in vivo models that recapitulate early stages of neurodegeneration. Invertebrate organisms, such as the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, provide in vivo models of human disease processes that can be instrumental for initial pharmacological studies.

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Background: To facilitate deployment of point-of-care testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, we evaluated the Access Bio CareStart COVID-19 Antigen test in a high-throughput, drive-through, free community testing site using anterior nasal (AN) swab reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for clinical testing.

Methods: Consenting symptomatic and asymptomatic children (≤18 years) and adults received dual AN swabs. CareStart testing was performed with temperature/humidity monitoring.

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Background: Current rheumatoid arthritis therapies target immune inflammation and are subject to ceiling effects. Seliciclib is an orally available cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor that suppresses proliferation of synovial fibroblasts-cells not yet targeted in rheumatoid arthritis. Part 1 of this phase 1b/2a trial aimed to establish the maximum tolerated dose of seliciclib in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis despite ongoing treatment with TNF inhibitors, and to evaluate safety and pharmacokinetics.

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Article Synopsis
  • Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for SARS-CoV-2, like the Abbott BinaxNOW, can enhance COVID-19 testing at point of care by providing quick results alongside traditional molecular tests.
  • A study in Massachusetts evaluated the effectiveness of BinaxNOW by comparing its results with standard PCR tests among both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, covering over 2,400 participants.
  • The findings showed high sensitivity (96.5% for adults and 84.6% for children with symptoms) and excellent specificity (100% for both groups), but lower sensitivity for asymptomatic individuals (70.2% for adults and 65.4% for children).
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An early and sizeable loss of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons is a well-characterized feature associated with measurable deficits in spatial learning and cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer's disease. In addition, pro-inflammatory glial cells such as astrocytes and microglia may play a key role in the neurodegenerative cascade of Alzheimer's disease and tauopathies. We recently presented two mouse models: Line 1, expressing the truncated tau fragment identified as the core of the Alzheimer's paired helical filament, and Line 66, expressing full-length human tau carrying a double mutation (P301S and G335D).

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Body size influences bone mineral density (BMD) in health. Relationships of BMD with body mass index, fat mass (FM), fat-free mass, and appendicular lean mass were explored in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors (n=75; 41 males; 45 standard risk ALL) >10 years from diagnosis. Dual energy radiograph absorptiometry performed body composition analysis.

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Introduction: Targeted biologic therapies demonstrate similar efficacies in rheumatoid arthritis despite distinct mechanisms of action. They also exhibit a ceiling effect, with 10% to 20% of patients achieving remission in clinical trials. None of these therapies target synovial fibroblasts, which drive and maintain synovitis.

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Background: Symptomatic treatments of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) with cholinesterase inhibitors and/or memantine are relatively ineffective and there is a need for new treatments targeting the underlying pathology of AD. In most of the failed disease-modifying trials, patients have been allowed to continue taking symptomatic treatments at stable doses, under the assumption that they do not impair efficacy. In recently completed Phase 3 trials testing the tau aggregation inhibitor leuco-methylthioninium bis (hydromethanesulfonate) (LMTM), we found significant differences in treatment response according to whether patients were taking LMTM either as monotherapy or as an add-on to symptomatic treatments.

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Background: Dialysis patients have reduced moderate to vigorous physical activity, and light physical activity. This has been shown in self-reported surveys and objective accelerometer studies. Less attention has been directed toward sedentary behavior, which is characterized by low energy expenditure (≤1.

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Three-dimensional (3D) culture models better recapitulate the tissue microenvironment, and therefore may provide a better platform to evaluate therapeutic effects on adhesive cell-cell interactions. The objective of this study was to determine if AD-01, a peptide derivative of FK506-binding protein like that is reported to bind to the adhesion receptor CD44, would induce a greater reduction in breast epithelial spheroid adhesion to endothelial tube-like networks in our 3D coculture model system compared to two-dimensional (2D) culture. MCF10A, MCF10A-NeuN, MDA-MB-231, and MCF7 breast epithelial cells were pretreated with AD-01 either as single cells or as spheroids.

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Purpose: Some survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in childhood and adolescence exhibit short stature, especially if their treatment included cranial irradiation. The impact of this outcome on health-related quality of life (HRQL) is uncertain and so formed the basis for the investigation reported here.

Methods: This study examined the association between self-reported HRQL and measured height in a cohort (n = 75) of survivors of ALL more than 10 years from diagnosis.

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Importance: There are no medical interventions for the orphan disease CYLD cutaneous syndrome (CCS). Transcriptomic profiling of CCS skin tumors previously highlighted tropomyosin receptor kinases (TRKs) as candidate therapeutic targets.

Objective: To investigate if topical targeting of TRK with an existing topical TRK inhibitor, pegcantratinib, 0.

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Background: The late effects of treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) include disordered body composition, especially obesity. Less attention has been focused on the loss of skeletal muscle mass (SMM) and the combined morbidity of sarcopenic obesity.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of body composition was undertaken via dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry in 75 long-term survivors of ALL (more than 10 years after the diagnosis).

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Background: Patients with germline mutations in a tumour suppressor gene called CYLD develop multiple, disfiguring, hair follicle tumours on the head and neck. The prognosis is poor, with up to one in four mutation carriers requiring complete surgical removal of the scalp. There are no effective medical alternatives to treat this condition.

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Purpose: Body mass index (BMI) is an inadequate measure of nutritional status in children and adolescents with cancer as it does not distinguish muscle from adipose tissue. However, arm anthropometry offers simple assessments of fat mass and lean body mass; especially valuable in low- and middle-income countries where the great majority of young people with cancer live and access to sophisticated expensive measures of body composition is markedly limited.

Methods: The nutritional status of 75 long-term survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukemia was assessed by arm anthropometry, in addition to BMI, in a cross-sectional cohort study.

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Purpose: Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the commonest form of cancer in this age group, suffer considerable morbidity during treatment, with the majority returning to good health soon after therapy has been completed, as reflected in health-related quality of life (HRQL). However, survivors are at risk of many adverse health outcomes later, including obesity, measured by body mass index (BMI), that is compounded by limited physical activity. This study examined the HRQL of long-term survivors of ALL and its relationship to BMI and physical activity.

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Post-mortem investigations of human Alzheimer's disease (AD) have largely failed to provide unequivocal evidence in support of the original amyloid cascade hypothesis, which postulated deposition of β-amyloid (Aβ) aggregates to be the cause of a demented state as well as inductive to tau neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). Conflicting evidence suggests, however, that Aβ plaques and NFTs, albeit to a lesser extent, are present in a substantial subset of non-demented individuals. Hence, a range of soluble tau and Aβ species has more recently been implicated as the disease-relevant toxic entities.

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