Identification of potent HSV antivirals using 3D bioprinted human skin equivalents.

Unlabelled: Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection has worldwide public health concerns and lifelong medical impacts. The standard therapy, acyclovir, has limited efficacy in preventing HSV subclinical virus shedding, and drug resistance occurs in immunocompromised patients, highlighting the need for novel therapeutics. HSV infection manifests in the skin epidermal layer, but current drug discovery utilizes Vero cells and fibroblasts monolayer cultures, capturing neither relevance nor tissue environment.

Association between Driving Pressure, Systemic Inflammation and Non-pulmonary Organ Dysfunction in Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, a Prospective Pathophysiological Study.

Background: Driving pressure is thought to determine the effect of low tidal ventilation on survival in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. The leading cause of mortality in these patients is non-pulmonary multiorgan dysfunction, which is believed to worsen due to the biological response to mechanical ventilation (biotrauma). Therefore, we aimed to analyze the association between driving pressure, biotrauma, and non-pulmonary multiorgan dysfunction.

Validation of the European Oncology toolkit for the self-assessment of Quality of Life (EUonQoL-Kit) in cancer patients and survivors: study protocol of a pan European survey.

Background: European cancer programmes and policies lack a unified health-related quality of life (HRQoL) assessment tool. The European oncology quality of life toolkit (EUonQoL-Kit) is a novel set of HRQoL questionnaires, co-designed with cancer patients and survivors, translated and culturally adapted into 31 European languages, and with both static and dynamic electronic administration modes. The main aim of this study is the psychometric assessment of the static version.

State of the science on assessing developmental neurotoxicity using new approach methods.

The workshop titled State of the Science on Assessing Developmental Neurotoxicity Using New Approach Methods was co-organized by University of Maryland's Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN; now called the Human Foods Program), and was hosted by FDA in College Park, MD on November 14-15, 2023.

The evolutionary history of the ancient weevil family Belidae (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea) reveals the marks of Gondwana breakup and major floristic turnovers, including the rise of angiosperms.

The rise of angiosperms to ecological dominance and the breakup of Gondwana during the Mesozoic marked major transitions in the evolutionary history of insect-plant interactions. To elucidate how contemporary trophic interactions were influenced by host plant shifts and palaeogeographical events, we integrated molecular data with information from the fossil record to construct a time tree for ancient phytophagous weevils of the beetle family Belidae. Our analyses indicate that crown-group Belidae originated approximately 138 Ma ago in Gondwana, associated with Pinopsida (conifer) host plants, with larvae likely developing in dead/decaying branches.

Development of immunocompetent full thickness skin tissue constructs to model skin fibrosis for high-throughput drug screening.

The lack of the immune component in most of the engineered skin models remains a challenge to study the interplay between different immune and non-immune cell types of the skin. Immunocompetent humanskin models offer potential advantages in recapitulatinglike behavior which can serve to accelerate translational research and therapeutics development for skin diseases. Here we describe a three-dimensional human full-thickness skin (FTS) equivalent incorporating polarized M1 and M2 macrophages from human peripheral CD14monocytes.

Exploring the Potential of Various Cyclodextrin-Based Derivatives in Enzyme Supramolecular Engineering.

Enzyme stability and activity are pivotal factors for their implementation in different industrial applications. Enzyme supramolecular engineering relies on the fabrication of a tailor-made enzyme nano-environment to ensure enzyme stability without impairing activity. Cyclodextrins (CDs), cyclic oligomers of glucose, act as protein chaperones and stabilize, upon interaction with hydrophobic amino acid residues exposed at the protein surface, its three-dimensional structure.

A Novel non-invasive optical framework for simultaneous analysis of contractility and calcium in single-cell cardiomyocytes.

The use of a video method based on the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) algorithm from experimental mechanics to estimate the displacements, strain field, and sarcolemma length in a beating single-cell cardiomyocyte is proposed in this work. The obtained deformation is then correlated with the calcium signal, from calcium imaging where fluorescent dyes sensitive to calcium Ca are used. Our proposed video-based method for simultaneous contraction and intracellular calcium analysis results in a low-cost, non-invasive, and label-free method.

Polyesterase activity is widespread in the family IV carboxylesterases from bacteria.

Enzyme-based depolymerization of plastics, including polyesters, has emerged as a promising approach for plastic waste recycling and reducing environmental plastic pollution. Currently, most of the known polyester-degrading enzymes are represented by a few natural and engineered PETases from the carboxylesterase family V. To identify novel groups of polyesterases, we selected 25 proteins from the carboxylesterase family IV, which share 22 % to 80 % sequence identity to the metagenomic thermophilic polyesterase IS12.

Protective role of short-chain fatty acids on intestinal oxidative stress induced by TNF-α.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are driven by an exaggerated inflammatory response, which leads to a marked increase in oxidative stress. This, in turn, exacerbates the inflammatory process and causes significant cellular and tissue damage. Intestinal dysbiosis, a common observation in IBD patients, alters the production of bacterial metabolites, including short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which are key by-products of dietary fiber fermentation.

Phospholipid Nanoemulsion-Based Ocular Lubricant for the Treatment of Dry Eye Subtypes: A Multicenter and Prospective Study.

Introduction: Dry eye disease (DED) is a multifactorial condition of the ocular surface (OS) characterized by loss of tear film homeostasis, ocular discomfort, and vision disturbances. Most available ocular lubricants target the aqueous deficiency of the tear, restoring only this layer, leaving the tear lipid stratum deficient, as occurs in most patients with evaporative DED. An innovative propylene glycol-hydroxypropyl guar enriched with a phospholipid nanoemulsion (PG-HPG-PH-N) is indicated to restore deficiencies in both the lipid and aqueous layers of the tear film, and its composition was designed to increase lubricant retention on the OS.

Fatty acid amide hydrolase gene inactivation induces hetero-cellular potentiation of microglial function in the 5xFAD mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

Neuroinflammation has recently emerged as a crucial factor in Alzheimer's disease (AD) etiopathogenesis. Microglial cells play an important function in the inflammatory response; specifically, the emergence of disease-associated microglia (DAM) has offered new insights into the conflicting perspectives on the detrimental or beneficial roles of microglia. We previously showed that modulating the endocannabinoid tone by fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inactivation renders beneficial effects in an amyloidosis context, paradoxically accompanied by an exacerbated neuroinflammatory response and the enrichment of DAM population.

Computational design for enantioselective CO capture: asymmetric frustrated Lewis pairs in epoxide transformations.

Carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technologies offer a compelling strategy to mitigate rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Despite extensive research on the CO insertion into epoxides to form cyclic carbonates, the stereochemical implications of this reaction have been largely overlooked, despite the prevalence of racemic epoxide solutions. This study introduces an in silico approach to design asymmetric frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) aimed at controlling reaction stereochemistry.

Impact of Empirical Treatment Recommendations From 2017 European Guidelines for Nosocomial Pneumonia.

Background: The management of nosocomial pneumonia represents a major challenge in the ICU. European guidelines from 2017 proposed an algorithm for the prescription of empirical antimicrobial treatment based on medical history, local ecology, and severity (ie, presence or absence of septic shock). We assessed this algorithm's usefulness by comparing outcomes with and without guideline adherence in a population at high risk of multiresistance and mortality.

Effect of 5β-dihydrotestosterone on vasodilator function and on cell proliferation.

Aging is one of the main factors associated with cardiovascular diseases. Androgens exert beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system and testosterone (TES) replacement therapy improves cardiometabolic risk factors. However, TES is contraindicated in patients with prostate cancer due to its proliferative effects on prostatic tumor cells.

Cascade Fluorescence Modulation in Photochromic Microcapsules.

Certain derivatives of terarylene are able to undergo a highly efficient oxidative cycloreversion cascade effect, a ring opening reaction with quantum yields above unity, resulting in a colored-to-colorless transition in solution. In the presence of chloroform, high-energy UV and X-rays can trigger this phenomenon, potentially acting as a visual detection system for ionizing radiation. However, chloroform is sensitive to different irradiation wavelengths without distinction, making it difficult to adapt to a reusable device.

Dual optical elastography detects -induced alterations in the biomechanical properties of skin scaffolds.

Significance: The skin's mechanical properties are tightly regulated. Various pathologies can affect skin stiffness, and understanding these changes is a focus in tissue engineering. skin scaffolds are a robust platform for evaluating the effects of various genetic and molecular interactions on the skin.

Analytical and clinical validation of diagnostic tests for the detection of leucospermia in beef bulls.

The objectives of this study were to validate diagnostic tests to detect polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs) in bull semen, and to determine the prevalence of leucospermia in beef bulls with varying semen quality. We hypothesized that all tests have comparable diagnostic value, and that leucospermia is more prevalent in unsatisfactory breeders in association with poor semen quality. For the analytical validation, one ejaculate was obtained from five bulls.

The use of ectopic volar fibroblasts to modify skin identity.

Skin identity is controlled by intrinsic features of the epidermis and dermis and their interactions. Modifying skin identity has clinical potential, such as the conversion of residual limb and stump (nonvolar) skin of amputees to pressure-responsive palmoplantar (volar) skin to enhance prosthesis use and minimize skin breakdown. Greater keratin 9 () expression, higher epidermal thickness, keratinocyte cytoplasmic size, collagen length, and elastin are markers of volar skin and likely contribute to volar skin resiliency.