Publications by authors named "Fink D"

Cancers utilize a simple glycan, Sialic Acid, to engage in metastatic processes via the Sialic acid (Sia) -Selectin pathway. Selectins recognize and bind to sialylated substrates, resulting in adhesion, migration, and extravasation, however, how deviations from the canonical form of Sia regulate binding to Selectin receptors (E, L, and P) on hemopoietic cells resulting in these metastatic processes, remained a gap in knowledge. De-O-acetylated Sias has been recently shown to be an integral substrate to the binding of sialic acid binding proteins.

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Importance: Given the personal and social burdens of opioid use disorder (OUD), understanding time trends in OUD prevalence in large patient populations is key to planning prevention and treatment services.

Objective: To examine trends in the prevalence of OUD from 2005 to 2022 overall and by age, sex, and race and ethnicity.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This serial cross-sectional study included national Veterans Health Administration (VHA) electronic medical record data from the VHA Corporate Data Warehouse.

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Objective: To investigate the association between subglottic stenosis (SGS) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Methods: This is a cross-sectional pilot cohort study conducted at a single tertiary academic center from 2022 to 2023. Subjects with non-traumatic SGS were recruited for enrollment.

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Background: Over the past decade, progress in the diagnosis and treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) has led to the identification of many targeted mutations. This has enhanced PFS and OS in both advanced and early-stage NSCLC. The current standard of care for stage III NSCLC varies, and it may combine chemotherapy with either immunotherapy or radiotherapy.

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  • * Surgical removal is often required to prevent issues like embolization; these tumors can appear randomly or as part of genetic conditions such as the Carney complex.
  • * A case of a 31-year-old man with a right atrial myxoma is discussed; after surgery, he later developed acute pericarditis linked to COVID-19, possibly due to his prior heart surgery.
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Background: Rates of cannabis use disorder (CUD) have increased disproportionately among Veterans Administration (VA) patients with psychiatric disorders compared to patients with no disorder. However, VA patient samples are not representative of all U.S.

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  • Most ovarian cancer patients develop resistance to chemotherapy within five years, highlighting the need to better understand the tumor microenvironment (TME) and its effect on drug response.
  • Researchers created a 3D tumor-on-a-chip model with multiple chambers to mimic the TME and study how it influences drug resistance, using various cell combinations to explore different interactions.
  • The study found that the presence of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) increased drug resistance in ovarian cancer cells, but this could be mitigated using therapies targeting the extracellular matrix, suggesting new avenues for treatment.
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Background: The efficacy of routine diagnostic laparoscopy with cytologic evaluation for gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer is variable with no set guidelines. We hypothesize that findings from diagnostic laparoscopy in Siewert II and III GEJ tumors may differ, where routine diagnostic laparoscopy with washings yields low upstaging results in Siewert II compared with Siewert III tumors.

Patients And Methods: We reviewed patients with Siewert II/III GEJ cancer from 2012 through 2022 within our integrated health system.

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Assemblages in seasonal ecosystems undergo striking changes in species composition and diversity across the annual cycle. Despite a long-standing recognition that seasonality structures biogeographic gradients in taxonomic diversity (e.g.

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Recurrent laryngeal nerve injuries can occur during thyroid and neck procedures or similar interventions. Immediate nerve repair when possible is preferred to both faciliate the repair and allow timely recovery of the muscle. Here, we report a case of transected left recurrent laryngeal nerve repaired by allograft nerve interposition with excellent return of speaking and singing voice with vocal cord function.

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VIVALDI (ISRCTN14447421) is a government-funded longitudinal open observational cohort study of staff and residents in care homes for older people in England. The study aimed to describe epidemiology (including seroprevalence) and immune responses to COVID-19 in a subset of care homes, in the context of extremely high mortality in this setting, in the first 12-18 months of the pandemic. Data linkage to routine health data was undertaken for all staff and residents and a subset of individuals who consented to sequential blood sampling to investigate SARS-CoV-2 immunity.

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Investigating the complex interactions between microbiota and immunity is crucial for a fruitful understanding progress of human health and disease. This review assesses animal models, next-generation in vitro models, and in silico approaches that are used to decipher the microbiome-immunity axis, evaluating their strengths and limitations. While animal models provide a comprehensive biological context, they also raise ethical and practical concerns.

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The field of vascular medicine has undergone a profound transformation in the 21 century, transforming our approach to assessment and treatment. Atherosclerosis, a complex inflammatory disease that affects medium and large arteries, presents a major challenge for researchers and healthcare professionals. This condition, characterized by arterial plaque formation and narrowing, poses substantial challenges to vascular health at individual, national, and global scales.

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  • Researchers studied mutations in a gene that affects a key protein involved in cell signaling, which is linked to severe health issues like impaired immunity in patients.
  • The mutations were found to disrupt normal cell behavior by promoting excessive cell growth and responses to immune signals, specifically T cell receptor stimulation.
  • The mutant protein was shown to interfere with a regulatory protein, leading to heightened activity of important signaling pathways that contribute to cell growth and survival.
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Background: Although multiple treatment options exist for gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer, surgery remains the mainstay for potential cure. Extended nodal dissection with a D2 lymphadenectomy (LAD) remains controversial for Siewert II GEJ cancer. Although D2 LAD may lead to a greater lymph node harvest, its effect on survival remains elusive.

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Background Aims: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-associated genome editing (GE) components (e.g., nucleases, guide RNAs (gRNAs), and plasmids) are used to genetically modify cells during development of ex vivo genome-edited cell therapies.

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In order to assess homeostatic mechanisms in the lung after COVID-19, changes in the protein signature of bronchoalveolar lavage from 45 patients with mild to moderate disease at three phases (acute, recovery, and convalescent) are evaluated over a year. During the acute phase, inflamed and uninflamed phenotypes are characterized by the expression of tissue repair and host defense response molecules. With recovery, inflammatory and fibrogenic mediators decline and clinical symptoms abate.

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To facilitate the triage of hits from small molecule screens, we have used various AI/ML techniques and experimentally observed data sets to build models aimed at predicting colloidal aggregation of small organic molecules in aqueous solution. We have found that Naïve Bayesian and deep neural networks outperform logistic regression, recursive partitioning tree, support vector machine, and random forest techniques by having the lowest balanced error rate (BER) for the test set. Derived predictive classification models consistently and successfully discriminated aggregator molecules from nonaggregator hits.

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Article Synopsis
  • LVADs are key treatments for advanced heart failure, often performed at heart transplant centers, used for patients awaiting transplants or as a destination therapy.
  • The study outlines the step-by-step process of starting a new LVAD program in a non-transplant center, highlighting patient selection and collaboration with transplant facilities as crucial elements.
  • Results from the first 25 patients show promising outcomes, with a high survival rate and minimal complications, indicating that smaller programs can successfully implement LVAD treatments for heart failure patients.
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