"Synthetic" DSC Perfusion MRI with Adjustable Acquisition Parameters in Brain Tumors Using Dynamic Spin-and-Gradient-Echo Echoplanar Imaging.

Background And Purpose: Normalized relative cerebral blood volume (nrCBV) and percentage of signal recovery (PSR) computed from dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) perfusion imaging are useful biomarkers for differential diagnosis and treatment response assessment in brain tumors. However, their measurements are dependent on DSC acquisition factors, and CBV-optimized protocols technically differ from PSR-optimized protocols. This study aimed to generate "synthetic" DSC data with adjustable synthetic acquisition parameters using dual-echo gradient-echo (GE) DSC datasets extracted from dynamic spin-and-gradient-echo echoplanar imaging (dynamic SAGE-EPI).

Current immunotherapy techniques in meningioma.

Introduction: Although meningiomas are the most common primary brain tumor, there are limited treatment options for recurrent or aggressive lesions. Compared to other brain tumors, meningiomas may be uniquely amenable to immunotherapy by virtue of their location outside the blood-brain barrier.

Areas Covered: This review describes our current understanding of the immunology of the meninges, as well as immune cell infiltration and immune signaling in meningioma.

Treatment outcome of spontaneous chronic corneal epithelial defects in brachycephalic dogs comparing Boxers and non-Boxers: A retrospective multicenter study of 420 dogs.

Objective: To compare characteristics and treatment outcomes of spontaneous chronic corneal epithelial defects (SCCEDs) in brachycephalic non-Boxers and Boxers. We hypothesized that brachycephalic non-Boxers develop SCCEDs at a younger age and develop complications more frequently than Boxers.

Animals Studied: Retrospective review of medical records of brachycephalic dogs treated for SCCEDs between January 2018 and December 2022 in multiple ophthalmology referral centers in the UK.

Safety and Efficacy of Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy as Upfront Therapy in Primary Glioblastoma and IDH-Mutant Astrocytoma: A Meta-Analysis.

Although primary studies have reported the safety and efficacy of LITT as a primary treatment in glioma, they are limited by sample sizes and institutional variation in stereotactic parameters such as temperature and laser power. The current literature has yet to provide pooled statistics on outcomes solely for primary brain tumors according to the 2021 WHO Classification of Tumors of the Central Nervous System (WHO CNS5). In the present study, we identify recent articles on primary CNS neoplasms treated with LITT without prior intervention, focusing on relationships with molecular profile, PFS, and OS.

Epigenetic Induction of Cancer-Testis Antigens and Endogenous Retroviruses at Single-Cell Level Enhances Immune Recognition and Response in Glioma.

Unlabelled: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant primary brain tumor and remains incurable. Previous work has shown that systemic administration of Decitabine (DAC) induces sufficient expression of cancer-testis antigens (CTA) in GBM for targeting by adoptive T-cell therapy in vivo. However, the mechanisms by which DAC enhances immunogenicity in GBM remain to be elucidated.

Steam gasification kinetics of biochar at elevated pressures.

A waste product biomass sample was received and charred to produce the biochar sample. The char reactivity experiments were conducted in a high-pressure fixed bed reactor in the temperature range of 700-730 °C. The steam pressure was varied from 1 to 10 bar steam, and the CO and CO products were measured and used to determine the specific reaction rate of biochar.

Digital "flipbooks" for enhanced visual assessment of simple and complex brain tumors.

Typical longitudinal radiographic assessment of brain tumors relies on side-by-side qualitative visualization of serial magnetic resonance images (MRIs) aided by quantitative measurements of tumor size. However, when assessing slowly growing tumors and/or complex tumors, side-by-side visualization and quantification may be difficult or unreliable. Whole-brain, patient-specific "digital flipbooks" of longitudinal scans are a potential method to augment radiographic side-by-side reads in clinical settings by enhancing the visual perception of changes in tumor size, mass effect, and infiltration across multiple slices over time.

SARS-CoV-2 infection exacerbates the cellular pathology of Parkinson's disease in human dopaminergic neurons and a mouse model.

While an association between Parkinson's disease (PD) and viral infections has been recognized, the impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on PD progression remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 infection heightens the risk of PD using human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived dopaminergic (DA) neurons and a human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) transgenic (Tg) mouse model. Our findings reveal that SARS-CoV-2 infection exacerbates PD susceptibility and cellular toxicity in DA neurons pre-treated with human preformed fibrils (hPFFs).

TLR agonists polarize interferon responses in conjunction with dendritic cell vaccination in malignant glioma: a randomized phase II Trial.

In this randomized phase II clinical trial, we evaluated the effectiveness of adding the TLR agonists, poly-ICLC or resiquimod, to autologous tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cell (ATL-DC) vaccination in patients with newly-diagnosed or recurrent WHO Grade III-IV malignant gliomas. The primary endpoints were to assess the most effective combination of vaccine and adjuvant in order to enhance the immune potency, along with safety. The combination of ATL-DC vaccination and TLR agonist was safe and found to enhance systemic immune responses, as indicated by increased interferon gene expression and changes in immune cell activation.

Single-nucleus expression characterization of non-enhancing region of recurrent high-grade glioma.

Background: Non-enhancing (NE) infiltrating tumor cells beyond the contrast-enhancing (CE) bulk of tumor are potential propagators of recurrence after gross total resection of high-grade glioma.

Methods: We leveraged single-nucleus RNA sequencing on 15 specimens from recurrent high-grade gliomas ( = 5) to compare prospectively identified biopsy specimens acquired from CE and NE regions. Additionally, 24 CE and 22 NE biopsies had immunohistochemical staining to validate RNA findings.

Intraoperative discovery of a radiographically occult subependymoma obstructing the obex in a patient with a Chiari malformation - A rare case.

Background: Chiari (type I) malformations are typically congenital. Occasionally, however, tonsillar herniation can arise secondary to cerebrospinal fluid leakage, posterior fossa or intraventricular mass lesions, or other etiologies. We present the first-ever case of an intramedullary subependymoma at the cervicomedullary junction associated with vertebral bone abnormalities and an acquired secondary Chiari malformation.

Hospital-level variation in hospitalization costs for spinal fusion in the United States.

Background: With a growing emphasis on value of care, understanding factors associated with rising healthcare costs is increasingly important. In this national study, we evaluated the degree of center-level variation in the cost of spinal fusion.

Methods: All adults undergoing elective spinal fusion were identified in the 2016 to 2020 National Inpatient Sample.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as adjunct for planning laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) near eloquent structures.

LITT is a minimally-invasive laser ablation technique used to treat a wide variety of intracranial lesions. Difficulties performing intraoperative mapping have limited its adoption for lesions in/near eloquent regions. In this institutional case series, we demonstrate the utility of fMRI-adjunct planning for LITT near language or motor areas.

Cervicomedullary junction mature teratoma with pulmonary differentiation and diastematomyelia in an adult - A rare case.

Background: Intradural extramedullary teratomas in the cervical or cervicomedullary region are rare in adults.

Case Description: We report a symptomatic, mature teratoma at the cervicomedullary junction in a 52-year-old Hispanic female who also has a type I diastematomyelia in the thoracolumbar spine. The patient underwent surgical resection of the lesion with the resolution of presenting symptoms.

Dendritic Cell Vaccination in Conjunction with a TLR Agonist Polarizes Interferon Immune Responses in Malignant Glioma Patients.

Unlabelled: Autologous tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cell (ATL-DC) vaccination is a promising immunotherapy for patients with high grade gliomas, but responses have not been demonstrated in all patients. To determine the most effective combination of autologous tumor lysate-pulsed DC vaccination, with or without the adjuvant toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists poly-ICLC or resiquimod, we conducted a Phase 2 clinical trial in 23 patients with newly diagnosed or recurrent WHO Grade III-IV malignant gliomas. We then performed deep, high-dimensional immune profiling of these patients to better understand how TLR agonists may influence the systemic immune responses induced by ATL-DC vaccination.

Immune checkpoint blockade induces distinct alterations in the microenvironments of primary and metastatic brain tumors.

In comparison with responses in recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM), the intracranial response of brain metastases (BrM) to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is less well studied. Here, we present an integrated single-cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) study of 19 ICB-naive and 9 ICB-treated BrM samples from our own and published data sets. We compared them with our previously published scRNA-Seq data from rGBM and found that ICB led to more prominent T cell infiltration into BrM than rGBM.

Small pretreatment lesion size and high sphericity as favorable prognostic factors after laser interstitial thermal therapy in brain metastases.

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify baseline clinical and radiological characteristics of brain metastases (BMs) associated with a higher probability of lesion-specific progression-free survival (PFS-L) after laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT).

Methods: A total of 47 lesions in 42 patients with BMs treated with LITT were retrospectively examined, including newly diagnosed BM, suspected recurrent BM, and suspected radiation necrosis. The association of baseline clinical and radiological features with PFS-L was assessed using survival analyses.

What would other emergency stroke teams do? Using explainable machine learning to understand variation in thrombolysis practice.

Introduction: The aim of this work was to understand between-hospital variation in thrombolysis use among emergency stroke admissions in England and Wales.

Patients: A total of 88,928 patients who arrived at all 132 emergency stroke hospitals in England Wales within 4 h of stroke onset, from 2016 to 2018.

Methods: Machine learning was applied to the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) data set, to learn which patients in each hospital would likely receive thrombolysis.

Enhancing an enterprise data warehouse for research with data extracted using natural language processing.

Objective: This study aims to develop a generalizable architecture for enhancing an enterprise data warehouse for research (EDW4R) with results from a natural language processing (NLP) model, which allows discrete data derived from clinical notes to be made broadly available for research use without need for NLP expertise. The study also quantifies the additional value that information extracted from clinical narratives brings to EDW4R.

Materials And Methods: Clinical notes written during one month at an academic health center were used to evaluate the performance of an existing NLP model and to quantify its value added to the structured data.