Publications by authors named "Gil Ben-David"
MicroRNAs as Biomarkers for Uveitis in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.
Ocul Immunol Inflamm
November 2024
Purpose: Uveitis associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA-U) is a clinically silent vision-impairing disease. Early detection and aggressive treatment are crucial for optimal visual outcome. Alterations in levels of microRNAs (miRNAs) are characteristic of autoimmune diseases.
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- - The study investigates genomic changes, specifically copy number variants (CNVs), in a cohort of Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians, their children, and unrelated controls, to understand factors influencing longevity.
- - Among 670 participants, it was found that centenarians had more total CNVs compared to controls, but they retained better genomic integrity, indicated by a lower total length of lost genomic material.
- - The research also revealed that offspring had the highest number of unique CNVs, which may contribute to longevity preservation, with significant genomic regions linked to crucial biological functions identified.
Background: To better understand and analyze various aspects of scientific publication, bibliometric data analysis is useful.
Objectives: An analysis of the factors associated with shorter publication times in pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus (POS) between the years 2002 and 2007, compared to 2014 and 2018.
Methods: In this retrospective bibliometric analysis, we analyzed 2,487 articles related to POS from the official websites of 8 preselected ophthalmology journals.
Article Synopsis
- 3K3A-Activated Protein C (APC) is a new anticoagulant that offers protective benefits and a lower risk of bleeding, showing promise for treating choroidal neovascularization (CNV), which can lead to vision loss.
- In experiments using a mouse model with laser-induced CNV, 3K3A-APC was injected into the eye, revealing its effects on immune cell activation and inflammatory markers.
- The results showed that 3K3A-APC reduced harmful immune responses and inflammation, leading to a decrease in CNV growth and leakage, suggesting it could be a effective multi-target treatment for this eye condition.
Psychiatric disorders affect millions of individuals and their families worldwide, and the costs to society are substantial and are expected to rise due to a lack of effective treatments. Personalized medicine-customized treatment tailored to the individual-offers a solution. Although most mental diseases are influenced by genetic and environmental factors, finding genetic biomarkers that predict treatment efficacy has been challenging.
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- Epigenetics involves how genes are influenced by the environment, mainly through changes in gene expression regulation, with stress known to cause such changes.
- This study explored the effects of juvenile and adult stress on glutamic acid decarboxylase genes in rats, analyzing DNA methylation and RNA expression in different brain regions.
- Results showed juvenile stress led to lower methylation in the amygdala but higher methylation in another brain region, with RNA levels decreasing in the juvenile stress group—indicating that stress may have both beneficial and harmful effects depending on the timing and context.
Article Synopsis
- - 3K3A-Activated Protein C (APC) is a modified version of a natural anticoagulant that shows protective effects without causing bleeding risks and has anti-inflammatory qualities in various neurological injury models.
- - In a study on mice with LPS-induced uveitis, treatment with 3K3A-APC led to a significant decrease in the recruitment of inflammatory cells to the retina, helping control inflammation and prevent retinal thickening.
- - 3K3A-APC treatment also suppressed the activation of inflammatory pathways, specifically by reducing levels of NLRP3 inflammasome components and IL-1β, indicating its potential as a new treatment for inflammatory retinal diseases.
Purpose: To characterize ocular surface temperature (OST) in healthy eyes and its association with systemic risk factors of cardiovascular and ischemic heart disease.
Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study included consenting subjects who were examined at the Institute for Medical Screening in Sheba Medical Center. A Therm-App™ thermal imaging camera (Opgal LTD, Israel) was used for OST acquisition, and the mean OST of the medial canthal, lateral canthal, and central cornea regions were measured.
Purpose: Accumulating evidence suggests that neuroinflammation and immune response are part of the sequence of pathological events leading to optic nerve damage in glaucoma. Changes in tissue temperature due to inflammation can be measured by thermographic imaging. We investigated the ocular surface temperature (OST) profile of glaucomatous eyes to better understand the pathophysiology of these conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe accessibility and transparency of the cornea permit robust stem cell labeling and in vivo cell fate mapping. Limbal epithelial stem cells (LSCs) that renew the cornea are traditionally viewed as rare, slow-cycling cells that follow deterministic rules dictating their self-renewal or differentiation. Here, we combined single-cell RNA sequencing and advanced quantitative lineage tracing for in-depth analysis of the murine limbal epithelium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe activated protein C (APC) ability to inhibit choroidal neovascularization (CNV) growth and leakage was recently shown in a murine model. A modified APC, 3K3A-APC, was designed to reduce anticoagulant activity while maintaining full cytoprotective properties, thus diminishing bleeding risk. We aimed to study the ability of 3K3A-APC to induce regression of CNV and evaluate vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) role in APC's activities in the retina.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is known for its resistance to gemcitabine, which acts to inhibit cell growth by termination of DNA replication. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) were recently shown to contribute to gemcitabine resistance; however, the exact mechanism of this process is still unclear. Using a genetic mouse model of PDAC and electron microscopy analysis, we show that TAM communicate with the tumor microenvironment via secretion of approximately 90 nm vesicles, which are selectively internalized by cancer cells.
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