A Focal Traumatic Injury to the Neonatal Rodent Spinal Cord Causes an Immediate and Massive Spreading Depolarization Sustained by Chloride Ions, with Transient Network Dysfunction.

In clinics, physical injuries to the spinal cord cause a temporary motor areflexia below lesion, known as spinal shock. This topic is still underexplored due to the lack of preclinical spinal cord injury (SCI) models that do not use anesthesia, which would affect spinal excitability. Our innovative design considered a custom-made micro impactor that provides localized and calibrated strikes to the ventral surface of the thoracic spinal cord of the entire CNS isolated from neonatal rats.

Virtual reality for surgical training in balloon kyphoplasty procedure.

Purpose: The aim of our prospective randomised trial was to demonstrate the efficacy and improvement in surgical skills of inexperienced surgeons in the balloon kyphoplasty procedures trained with virtual reality (VR) compared to untrained inexperienced surgeons.

Methods: Six orthopaedic residents were randomized to group VR1 (trained) and group VR0 (untrained, control group). At the beginning, all participants, after a theoretical lesson, performed a virtual kyphoplasty.

DFT Computational Analysis of the Mechanism of Action of Ru(II) Polypyridyl Complexes as Photoactivated Chemotherapy Agents: From Photoinduced Ligand Solvolysis to DNA Binding.

Photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT) is a form of target-oriented cancer therapy that exploits light of the proper wavelength to selectively activate the drug. Among the prodrugs used for this purpose, ruthenium-based complexes are particularly interesting, as when irradiated by light, they can release ligands by forming aquo-complexes able to bind DNA in both single and double strand fashions, causing its distortion. Using as model system a Ru(II) polypyridyl complex that has been demonstrated to be a promising photochemotherapeutic agent, all of the key aspects of the photoinduced solvolysis process and subsequent DNA interaction have been scrutinized using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent-DFT (TDDFT).

When Metal Complexes Evolve, and a Minor Species is the Most Active: the Case of Bis(Phenanthroline)Copper in the Catalysis of Glutathione Oxidation and Hydroxyl Radical Generation.

Several copper-ligands, including 1,10-phenanthroline (Phen), have been investigated for anticancer purposes based on their capacity to bind excess copper (Cu) in cancer tissues and form redox active complexes able to catalyse the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), ultimately leading to oxidative stress and cell death. Glutathione (GSH) is a critical compound as it is highly concentrated intracellularly and can reduce and dissociate copper(II) from the ligand forming poorly redox-active copper(I)-thiolate clusters. Here we report that Cu-Phen speciation evolves in physiologically relevant GSH concentrations.

Computational Exploration of the Mechanism of Action of a Sorafenib-Containing Ruthenium Complex as an Anticancer Agent for Photoactivated Chemotherapy.

Ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes are being tested as potential anticancer agents in different therapies, which include conventional chemotherapy and light-activated approaches. A mechanistic study on a recently synthesized dual-action Ru(II) complex [Ru(bpy)(sora)Cl] is described here. It is characterized by two mono-dentate leaving ligands, namely, chloride and sorafenib ligands, which make it possible to form a di-aquo complex able to bind DNA.