Dexmedetomidine as Conduit for Non-Invasive Ventilation (NIV) Compliance in COVID-19 and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Setting: Case Series.

Non-compliance to the non-invasive ventilation (NIV) mask in a distressed hypoxemic patient is not an unusual finding, especially in desaturated coronavirus disease (COVID-19) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients with respiratory distress who require ventilatory support to improve oxygenation. Failure to achieve success with the non-invasive ventilatory support with the tight-fitting mask led to emergent endotracheal intubation. This was in view to avert consequences such as severe hypoxemia and subsequent cardiac arrest.

Leveraging Deep Learning Techniques and Integrated Omics Data for Tailored Treatment of Breast Cancer.

Multiomics data of cancer patients and cell lines, in synergy with deep learning techniques, have aided in unravelling predictive problems related to cancer research and treatment. However, there is still room for improvement in the performance of the existing models based on the aforementioned combination. In this work, we propose two models that complement the treatment of breast cancer patients.

Impaired neural stem cell expansion and hypersensitivity to epileptic seizures in mice lacking the EGFR in the brain.

Mice lacking the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) develop an early postnatal degeneration of the frontal cortex and olfactory bulbs and show increased cortical astrocyte apoptosis. The poor health and early lethality of EGFR mice prevented the analysis of mechanisms responsible for the neurodegeneration and function of the EGFR in the adult brain. Here, we show that postnatal EGFR-deficient neural stem cells are impaired in their self-renewal potential and lack clonal expansion capacity in vitro.

Maternal immune activation epigenetically regulates hippocampal serotonin transporter levels.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most debilitating psychiatric diseases, affecting a large percentage of the population worldwide. Currently, the underlying pathomechanisms remain incompletely understood, hampering the development of critically needed alternative therapeutic strategies, which further largely depends on the availability of suitable model systems. Here we used a mouse model of early life stress - a precipitating factor for the development of MDD - featuring infectious stress through maternal immune activation (MIA) by polyinosinic:polycytidilic acid (Poly(I:C)) to examine epigenetic modulations as potential molecular correlates of the alterations in brain structure, function and behavior.

The brain-tumor related protein podoplanin regulates synaptic plasticity and hippocampus-dependent learning and memory.

Introduction: Podoplanin is a cell-surface glycoprotein constitutively expressed in the brain and implicated in human brain tumorigenesis. The intrinsic function of podoplanin in brain neurons remains however uncharacterized.

Materials And Methods: Using an established podoplanin-knockout mouse model and electrophysiological, biochemical, and behavioral approaches, we investigated the brain neuronal role of podoplanin.

δ Subunit-containing GABAA receptors are preferred targets for the centrally acting analgesic flupirtine.

Background And Purpose: The Kv 7 channel activator flupirtine is a clinical analgesic characterized as 'selective neuronal potassium channel opener'. Flupirtine was found to exert comparable actions at GABAA receptors and Kv 7 channels in neurons of pain pathways, but not in hippocampus.

Experimental Approach: Expression patterns of GABAA receptors were explored in immunoblots of rat dorsal root ganglia, dorsal horns and hippocampi using antibodies for 10 different subunits.

STAT3 controls IL6-dependent regulation of serotonin transporter function and depression-like behavior.

Experimental evidence suggests a role for the immune system in the pathophysiology of depression. A specific involvement of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin 6 (IL6) in both, patients suffering from the disease and pertinent animal models, has been proposed. However, it is not clear how IL6 impinges on neurotransmission and thus contributes to depression.

The poly(I:C)-induced maternal immune activation model in preclinical neuropsychiatric drug discovery.

Increasing epidemiological and experimental evidence implicates gestational infections as one important factor involved in the pathogenesis of several neuropsychiatric disorders. Corresponding preclinical model systems based upon maternal immune activation (MIA) by treatment of the pregnant female have been developed. These MIA animal model systems have been successfully used in basic and translational research approaches, contributing to the investigation of the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms at the molecular, cellular and behavioral levels.

Modafinil improves performance in the multiple T-Maze and modifies GluR1, GluR2, D2 and NR1 receptor complex levels in the C57BL/6J mouse.

Modafinil has been shown to modify behavioural and cognitive functions and to effect several brain receptors. Effects, however, were not observed at the receptor protein complex level and it was therefore the aim of the study to train mice in the multiple T-Maze (MTM) as a paradigm for spatial memory and to determine paralleling brain receptor complex levels. Sixty C57BL/6J mice were used in the study and divided into four groups (trained drug injected; trained vehicle injected; yoked drug injected; yoked vehicle injected).

Intraperitoneal injection of saline modulates hippocampal brain receptor complex levels but does not impair performance in the Morris Water Maze.

The involvement of the hippocampus in pain has been demonstrated but key players, i.e. the major brain receptors have not been shown to be modulated by pain.

Classical presentation of Darier's disease: a rare disorder of keratinisation.

Keratosis follicularis or Darier's disease (DD), a rare autosomal dominant disorder is characterised clinically by appearance of multiple, prurutic, discrete, scaly papules affecting seborrheic areas coupled with palmar pits, nail changes and mucosal involvement. Histologicaly the lesions show suprabasal clefts with acantholytic and dyskeratotic cells. We report a case of 35 years old woman with typical clinical and histological features of Darier's disease.