Clinical outcomes, time span for healing of various ocular surface disorders with amniotic membrane: A prospective, an Indian study.

Purpose: To study the clinical outcomes, time span of healing of various ocular surface disorders with amniotic membrane graft.

Methods: A total of 41 patients, presenting to cornea clinic were included in the study and divided into five groups depending on the type of diagnosis: Group 1, with either >2 weeks of Persistent epithelial defect following cataract/retinal/glaucoma surgeries or Shield ulcers, Group 2 with >4 weeks of Non healing corneal ulcers, Group 3 with chemical injuries, Group 4 with Epithelial defects following keratoplasty, and Group 5 is the miscellaneous group.

Results: The mean age of the study subjects was 50.

A study on childhood microbial keratitis in South India.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the predisposing risk factors, clinical characteristics, microbiological profile, and visual and functional treatment outcome of microbial keratitis including viral keratitis in children.

Methods: A prospective study was carried out in a tertiary care institute over a period of 18 months on 73 pediatric patients. Data collected was analyzed for demographics of the patient population, causative organisms, and management outcome in terms of visual and functional outcome.

Eye banking and keratoplasty trend analysis during the COVID-19 pandemic: A South Indian observational study.

Purpose: To analyze the impact on eye donation and corneal transplantation during the COVID-19 pandemic in a tertiary eye hospital in south India.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of the donor and recipient records during the study period from January 2020 to May 2021 was conducted and tabulated in Microsoft Excel 2013. Demographic details of the donor, utility rate, cause of death, culture characteristics, storage methods, wet lab usage, and the surgical donor outcomes were evaluated.

A safer alternative approach to penetrating keratoplasty in opaque corneas.

Background: This video demonstrates a useful technique of keratoplasty which can be routinely undertaken by all surgeons when imaging modalities such as anterior segment optical coherence tomography are not available and prior patient history is not forthcoming.

Purpose: To demonstrate a technique of lamellar separation and layer by layer removal of host cornea when dealing with keratoplasty in perforated corneal ulcers, adherent leucomas, dense corneal opacities, which obscure visualization of the iris and anterior chamber details.

Synopsis: In this video, we demonstrate penetrating keratoplasty in a failed opacified graft with iridocorneal adhesions, with no visualization of anterior chamber details.

Correction: Residue-based propensity of aggregation in the Tau amyloidogenic hexapeptides AcPHF6* and AcPHF6.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/D0RA03809A.].

Colletotrichum asianum: A Novel Phytopathogen Causing Human Infection-A Case Report.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to report the predisposing factors, clinical features, microbiological characteristics, and the management of the novel identified species, Colletotrichum asianum .

Methods: Two patients, farmers by occupation, with a history of trauma with vegetative material, presented to us with redness and pain. The corneal scrapings revealed branched hyphae on potassium hydroxide mount, and woolly aerial fungal mycelia with gray colonies were seen on blood agar and potato dextrose agar.

Safety of collagen cross linking in advanced keratoconus in a patient with scleroderma.

A 26-year-old female presented to us with complaints of progressive loss of vision in right eye (RE) since past 6 months. Patient was a known case of generalized systemic sclerosis with hypothyroidism for the past 2 years and was under treatment with a rheumatologist Physical features of scleroderma seen in her included diffuse skin tightness, hyper pigmentation of skin of face, abdomen, thighs, legs and arms, with ulcers on fingers. Her best corrected visual acuity was 20/320 in the RE and 20/20 in the left eye (LE).

"Outcomes of optical penetrating keratoplasty with the large sized donor for failed therapeutic grafts for infectious keratitis from the tertiary eye care center, South India".

Purpose: To evaluate the preoperative risk factors, complications, and postoperative outcomes following regraft with the large-sized donor for failed therapeutic grafts.

Methods: In this retrospective interventional case series, patients who underwent optical penetrating keratoplasty for failed therapeutic keratoplasty (TPK) from 2010 till 2019 were studied at the Cornea clinic, Tertiary eye care center, with a maximum follow-up period of 3 years within the study period. Demographic patterns, preoperative risk factors, graft survival, visual outcomes, and complications were reviewed from the electronic medical records.

Gore-Tex- as an adjuvant to Tenon's patch graft for large perforated corneal ulcers during Covid times.

Purpose: Covid-19 has profoundly affected the day-to-day lives of individual citizens. It has strained all aspects of health care including eye banking and corneal transplantation. Although elective procedures like optical Keratoplasty can be postponed, management of perforating ulcers needs tectonic Keratoplasty to avoid permanent ocular morbidities.

A modified Tenons sling annular graft for advanced peripheral ulcerative keratitis with an hourglass cornea.

Systemic tuberculosis mostly affects the lungs and ocular involvement is rare. The ocular manifestations are varied, and rarely peripheral ulcerative keratitis (PUK) occurs either due to direct invasion of the microorganism or due to immune reaction. We present a case of advanced PUK in a 28-year-old male patient diagnosed with pulmonary TB in the right eye with hourglass cornea.

Astrocyte HIV-1 Tat Differentially Modulates Behavior and Brain MMP/TIMP Balance During Short and Prolonged Induction in Transgenic Mice.

Despite effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), mild forms of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) continue to afflict approximately half of all people living with HIV (PLWH). As PLWH age, HIV-associated inflammation perturbs the balance between brain matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs), likely contributing to neuropathogenesis. The MMP/TIMP balance is associated with cognition, learning, and memory, with TIMPs eliciting neuroprotective effects.

Methamphetamine Activates Trace Amine Associated Receptor 1 to Regulate Astrocyte Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter-2 via Differential CREB Phosphorylation During HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders.

Methamphetamine (METH) use, referred to as methamphetamine use disorder (MUD), results in neurocognitive decline, a characteristic shared with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). MUD exacerbates HAND partly through glutamate dysregulation. Astrocyte excitatory amino acid transporter (EAAT)-2 is responsible for >90% of glutamate uptake from the synaptic environment and is significantly decreased with METH and HIV-1.

Safety and efficacy of toric implantable collamer lens V4c model - A retrospective South Indian study.

Purpose: : The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and complications of V4c Toric implantable collamer Lens (TICL) implantation for myopic astigmatism in the south Indian population.

Methods: In this retrospective observational case series, a total of 109 eyes of 67 patients who underwent V4c TICL implantation (ICL, V4C Staar Surgical, Nidau, Switzerland) between January 2012 and August 2019 were studied with a minimum follow-up period of 6 months (mean 24 months). The main outcome measures were objective and subjective refraction, uncorrected distance visual acuity, corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), safety, predictability, adverse events, and postoperative complications.

β-Catenin Regulates Wound Healing and IL-6 Expression in Activated Human Astrocytes.

Reactive astrogliosis is prominent in most neurodegenerative disorders and is often associated with neuroinflammation. The molecular mechanisms regulating astrocyte-linked neuropathogenesis during injury, aging and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) are not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the implications of the wingless type (Wnt)/β-catenin signaling pathway in regulating astrocyte function during gliosis.

Residue-based propensity of aggregation in the Tau amyloidogenic hexapeptides AcPHF6* and AcPHF6.

In Alzheimer's disease and related tauopathies, the aggregation of microtubule-associated protein, Tau, into fibrils occurs the interaction of two hexapeptide motifs PHF* VQIINK and PHF VQIVYK as β-sheets. To understand the role of the constituent amino acids of PHF and PHF* in the aggregation, a set of 12 alanine mutant peptides was synthesized by replacing each amino acid in PHF and PHF* with alanine and they were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and ThS/ANS fluorescence assay. Our studies show that while the aggregation was suppressed in most of the alanine mutant peptides, replacement of glutamine by alanine in both PHF and PHF* enhanced the fibrillization.

Arginine-Modified Polymers Facilitate Poly (Lactide-Co-Glycolide)-Based Nanoparticle Gene Delivery to Primary Human Astrocytes.

Purpose: Astrocyte dysfunction is a hallmark of central nervous system injury or infection. As a primary contributor to neurodegeneration, astrocytes are an ideal therapeutic target to combat neurodegenerative conditions. Gene therapy has arisen as an innovative technique that provides excellent prospect for disease intervention.

Idiopathic retroperitoneal haematoma causing duodenal obstruction: a case report and review of literature.

Idiopathic retroperitoneal haematoma is a rare clinical entity; resulting duodenal obstruction is even more occult. It can pose a diagnostic challenge due to variable presentations. Timely management requires a high index of suspicion and a multidisciplinary approach.

Blood-based inflammation biomarkers of neurocognitive impairment in people living with HIV.

Inflammation in people living with HIV (PLWH) correlates with severity of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. The objective of this study is to identify blood-based markers of neurocognitive function in a demographic balanced cohort of PLWH. Seven neurocognitive domains were evaluated in 121 seropositive Black/African American, Non-Hispanic White, and White Hispanic men and women using computerized assessments.

Activated human astrocyte-derived extracellular vesicles modulate neuronal uptake, differentiation and firing.

Astrocytes in the central nervous system (CNS) provide supportive neural functions and mediate inflammatory responses from microglia. Increasing evidence supports their critical roles in regulating brain homoeostasis in response to pro-inflammatory factors such as cytokines and pathogen/damage-associated molecular pattern molecules in infectious and neurodegenerative diseases. However, the underlying mechanisms of the trans-cellular communication are still unclear.

Insights into the Gene Expression Profiles of Active and Restricted Red/Green-HIV Human Astrocytes: Implications for Shock or Lock Therapies in the Brain.

A significant number of people living with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) suffer from HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). Many previous studies investigating HIV in astrocytes as a heterogenous population have established the relevance of astrocytes to HIV-associated neuropathogenesis. However, these studies were unable to differentiate the state of infection, i.

Combination of clotam and vincristine enhances anti-proliferative effect in medulloblastoma cells.

Medulloblastoma (MB) is characterized by highly invasive embryonal neuro-epithelial tumors that metastasize via cerebrospinal fluid. MB is difficult to treat and the chemotherapy is associated with significant toxicities and potential long-term disabilities. Previously, we showed that small molecule, clotam (tolfenamic acid: TA) inhibited MB cell proliferation and tumor growth in mice by targeting, survivin.

Reaching for the Stars in the Brain: Polymer-Mediated Gene Delivery to Human Astrocytes.

Astrocytes, the "star-shaped" glial cells, are appealing gene-delivery targets to treat neurological diseases due to their diverse roles in brain homeostasis and disease. Cationic polymers have successfully delivered genes to mammalian cells and hence present a viable, non-immunogenic alternative to widely used viral vectors. In this study, we investigated the gene delivery potential of a series of arginine- and polyethylene glycol-modified, siloxane-based polyethylenimine analogs in primary cultured human neural cells (neurons and astrocytes) and in mice.