A domed window chamber for multi-modality optical imaging.

Current dorsal skin flap window chambers with flat glass windows are compatible with optical coherence tomography (OCT) and multiphoton microscopy (MPM) imaging. However, light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) performs best with a cylindrical or spherical sample located between its two 90° objectives and when all sample materials have the same index of refraction (). A modified window chamber with a domed viewing window made from fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), with n similar to water and tissue, was designed.

ATRX loss in glioma results in dysregulation of cell-cycle phase transition and ATM inhibitor radio-sensitization.

ATRX, a chromatin remodeler protein, is recurrently mutated in H3F3A-mutant pediatric glioblastoma (GBM) and isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-mutant grade 2/3 adult glioma. Previous work has shown that ATRX-deficient GBM cells show enhanced sensitivity to irradiation, but the etiology remains unclear. We find that ATRX binds the regulatory elements of cell-cycle phase transition genes in GBM cells, and there is a marked reduction in Checkpoint Kinase 1 (CHEK1) expression with ATRX loss, leading to the early release of G2/M entry after irradiation.

Sampling the Variational Posterior with Local Refinement.

Variational inference is an optimization-based method for approximating the posterior distribution of the parameters in Bayesian probabilistic models. A key challenge of variational inference is to approximate the posterior with a distribution that is computationally tractable yet sufficiently expressive. We propose a novel method for generating samples from a highly flexible variational approximation.

Abdominal Aorta Bullet Embolism: Presentation and Management.

Penetrating cardiac injury (PCI) secondary to a gunshot wound presents with several complications and a mortality rate of 94% before reaching the hospital. Current literature search reveals that embolism of bullet fragments after gunshot wounds are exceptionally rare. Additionally, no reported case was found regarding bullet embolism following left atrium penetration at the time of this case report.

Loss of CDKN1C in a Recurrent Atypical Teratoid/Rhabdoid Tumor.

Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor (AT/RT) is a malignant tumor that is commonly associated with biallelic alterations of SMARCB1. Recurrent or refractory AT/RT has not been molecularly characterized as well. We present the case of a child with recurrent AT/RT who underwent clinically integrated molecular profiling (germline DNA and tumor DNA/RNA sequencing).

Characterizing and targeting PDGFRA alterations in pediatric high-grade glioma.

Pediatric high-grade glioma (HGG, WHO Grade III and IV) is a devastating brain tumor with a median survival of less than two years. PDGFRA is frequently mutated/ amplified in pediatric HGG, but the significance of this finding has not been fully characterized. We hypothesize that alterations of PDGFRA will promote distinct prognostic and treatment implications in pediatric HGG.

Survival and Proliferation of Neural Progenitor-Derived Glioblastomas Under Hypoxic Stress is Controlled by a CXCL12/CXCR4 Autocrine-Positive Feedback Mechanism.

One likely cause of treatment failure in glioblastoma is the persistence of glioma stem-like cells (GSLCs) which are highly resistant to therapies currently employed. We found that CXCL12 has highest expression in glioma cells derived from neural progenitor cells (NPC). The development and molecular signature of NPC-derived glioblastomas were analyzed and the therapeutic effect of blocking CXCL12 was tested.

Headache and insomnia: their relation reviewed.

Objective: Headache and insomnia are both very common and burdensome complaints worldwide. Numerous articles have been written on the relation between them, but the number of scientific articles is limited. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current scientific literature and analyze it in light of the nature of the headache-insomnia relation.