Outcomes of pediatric liver retransplantation candidates in the modern era: Strategies are needed to avoid waitlist mortality in the United States.

Pediatric liver retransplantation (rLT) has historically shown poorer outcomes compared to primary liver transplantation (pLT). Comprehensive studies assessing outcomes for pediatric rLT candidates under the modern allocation policy are lacking. OPTN data from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2022 were obtained; exclusion criteria included candidates ≥18years of age and those listed or transplanted for multiple organs.

Understanding Barriers to Hepatitis C Antiviral Treatment in Low-Middle-Income Countries.

: Direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) have significantly reduced Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) transmission and improved health outcomes since their FDA approval in 2011. Despite these advances, over 70 million people remain untreated globally, with a disproportionately high burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). : Through a structured search of open access informational sources and an informal peer-reviewed literature review, HCV treatment barriers were identified, compiled, and analyzed.

Ketamine induces plasticity in a norepinephrine-astroglial circuit to promote behavioral perseverance.

Transient exposure to ketamine can trigger lasting changes in behavior and mood. We found that brief ketamine exposure causes long-term suppression of futility-induced passivity in larval zebrafish, reversing the "giving-up" response that normally occurs when swimming fails to cause forward movement. Whole-brain imaging revealed that ketamine hyperactivates the norepinephrine-astroglia circuit responsible for passivity.

Material economic hardship is associated with adverse 1-year outcomes after pediatric liver transplantation: Prospective cohort results from the multi-center SOCIAL-Tx study.

Pediatric liver transplant outcomes exhibit disparities, necessitating identification of modifiable risk factors to develop targeted interventions. We characterized associations between household material economic hardship (e.g.

Features of hyperinflammation link the biology of EBV infection and cytokine storm syndromes.

Background: Overt immune activation by viral infections can lead to cytokine storm syndromes, such as hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and macrophage activation syndrome (MAS).

Objective: We aim to compare the immune response to different viral pathogens to understand the connection between infections and cytokine storm syndromes.

Methods: We recruited children who presented to the emergency room with fever for ≥ 3 days.

Diffuse functional and structural abnormalities in fibrosis: Potential structural basis for sustaining atrial fibrillation.

Background: Structural remodeling has been associated with increased incidence of atrial fibrillation, but how fibrotic regions allow atrial fibrillation to be sustained remains unclear.

Objective: With a novel transgenic goat model, we evaluated structural and functional differences between structurally remodeled and healthy regions of the atria.

Methods: A novel transgenic goat model with cardiac-specific overexpression of transforming growth factor β1 was used.

Enhanced tumor control and survival in preclinical models with adoptive cell therapy preceded by low-dose radiotherapy.

Introduction: Effective infiltration of chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells into solid tumors is critical for achieving a robust antitumor response and improving therapeutic outcomes. While CAR-T cell therapies have succeeded in hematologic malignancies, their efficacy in solid tumors remains limited due to poor tumor penetration and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of low-dose radiotherapy (LDRT) administered before T-cell therapy to enhance the antitumor effect by promoting CAR-T cell infiltration.

An Intersectional Approach to Cervical Cancer Screening Disparities by Race/Ethnicity and Immigrant Status.

Disparities in cervical cancer (CC) screening exist within racial/ethnic minority and immigrant groups. However, few studies have explored the joint influence of race/ethnicity and immigrant status on screening, and the disparities that have been identified by existing studies remain incompletely explained. This study aims to identify the joint influence of race/ethnicity and immigrant status on CC screening and elucidate the barriers contributing to identified disparities.

Latent classes of sleep problems and subjective cognitive decline among middle-aged and older adults in the United States.

Objective: Previous studies have linked sleep problems to subjective cognitive decline (SCD) using a variable-centered approach (e.g., adding sleep symptoms to form a score); however, sleep problems may cluster differently between individuals.

Assessment of resistance to colicinogenic synthetic phage antimicrobial system.

Unlabelled: This work presents a multi-hurdle approach that addresses antimicrobial resistance by minimizing the selective pressure of antimicrobials using a novel colicinogenic-phage system. We have created two synthetic T7 phages (T7-E1 and T7-M) by inserting the gene of colicin E1 (Cea) or colicin M (Cma) into the genome of the T7 phage, thereby adding an additional colicin-based hurdle to the T7 lytic cycle. The colicin-phages' efficacy in suppressing the outgrowth of a T7-resistant sub-population within a mixed culture of was demonstrated using a challenge matrix design under planktonic and structured conditions.

The Burden of Health Care Utilization, Cost, and Mortality Associated with Select Surgical Site Infections.

Objective: To assess the additional health care utilization, cost, and mortality resulting from three surgical site infections (SSIs): mediastinitis/SSI after coronary artery bypass graft, SSI after bariatric surgery for obesity, and SSI after certain orthopedic procedures.

Methods: This retrospective observational cohort study used commercial and Medicare Advantage/Supplement claims from 2016 to 2021. Patients with one of three SSIs were compared to a 1:1 propensity score-matched group of patients with the same surgeries but without SSI on outcomes up to one year postdischarge.

A Crowd Disaster Study: The Itaewon Seoul Crush.

The recent Halloween crowd crush incident in Itaewon, Seoul, Korea, highlights a woeful inadequacy in our collective knowledge about crowd disasters. Underscored is a lack of detailed information on the causes of death and the injuries sustained. While traumatic asphyxiation has been widely implicated as the primary cause of death, the wider spectrum of injury patterns and their causative mechanisms remain poorly identified.

Updates in Systemic Treatment of Hormone Receptor-Positive Early-Stage Breast Cancer.

Hormone-receptor positive (HR +) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) negative early breast cancer (eBC) is a heterogeneous disease with several contributing factors for increased risk of recurrence, including tumor features, individual biomarkers, and genomic risk. The current standard approach in the management of HR + /HER2neg eBC includes chemotherapy and endocrine therapy (ET), and additional therapies based on risk profile, menopausal status, and genetics are sometimes appropriate. The risk of recurrence is more pronounced in patients with high-risk eBC including large tumor size, nodal involvement, high proliferative index, and genetic predisposition.

Genomic and transcriptomic landscape of HER2-low breast cancer.

Background: Novel agents have expanded the traditional HER2 definitions to include HER2-Low (HER2L) Breast Cancer (BC). We sought to evaluate the distinct molecular characteristics of HER2L BC to understand potential clinical/biologic factors driving resistance and clinical outcomes.

Methods: Retrospective analysis was performed on 13,613 BC samples, tested at Caris Life Sciences via NextGen DNA/RNA Sequencing.

Delay discounting and nucleus accumbens functional connectivity are related to weight status in adolescents from the ABCD study.

Background: Despite the growing epidemic of paediatric obesity, questions remain regarding potential neural mechanisms for individual risk. Delay discounting is a cognitive process of comparison of valuation between immediate and delayed reward, which has been inconsistently linked to weight status. Moreover, central to the brain's reward system is the nucleus accumbens, a region structurally and functionally altered in obesity.

3D-ink-extruded titanium scaffolds with porous struts and bioactive supramolecular polymers for orthopedic implants.

Porous titanium addresses the longstanding orthopedic challenges of aseptic loosening and stress shielding. This work expands on the evolution of porous Ti with the manufacturing of hierarchically porous, low stiffness, ductile Ti scaffolds via direct-ink write (DIW) extrusion and sintering of inks containing Ti and NaCl particles. Scaffold macrochannels were filled with a subtherapeutic dose of recombinant bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) alone or co-delivered within a bioactive supramolecular polymer slurry (SPS) composed of peptide amphiphile nanofibrils and collagen, creating four treatment conditions (Ti struts: microporous vs.

Cannabinol modulates the endocannabinoid system and shows TRPV1-mediated anti-inflammatory properties in human keratinocytes.

Cannabinol (CBN) is a secondary metabolite of cannabis whose beneficial activity on inflammatory diseases of human skin has attracted increasing attention. Here, we sought to investigate the possible modulation by CBN of the major elements of the endocannabinoid system (ECS), in both normal and lipopolysaccharide-inflamed human keratinocytes (HaCaT cells). CBN was found to increase the expression of cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB) at gene level and that of vanilloid receptor 1 (TRPV1) at protein level, as well as their functional activity.

Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Binge Eating in 9- to 10-Year-Old Children.

Objective: This observational study compared children with and without binge eating (BE) on biobehavioral measures of reward responsiveness, inhibitory control, and emotion processes, while accounting for the impact of weight.

Method: Children aged 9 to 10 years completed the baseline wave of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (316 with BE; 7,681 without BE [no-BE]). The prevalence of binge-eating disorder in the BE group was 17.

Applications of Ocular Point-of-Care Ultrasound for Optic Nerve Sheath Assessment in the Emergency Setting: A Systematic Review.

Objective: To evaluate the current body of literature pertaining to the use of ocular point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in the emergency department.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted on SCOPUS, Web of Science, MEDLINE, and Cochrane CENTRAL. Inclusion criteria included studies written in English only and primary clinical studies involving ocular POCUS scans in an emergency department setting.

Novel engineered IL-2 Nemvaleukin alfa combined with PD1 checkpoint blockade enhances the systemic anti-tumor responses of radiation therapy.

Background: Combining interleukin-2 (IL-2) with radiotherapy (RT) and immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has emerged as a promising approach to address ICB resistance. However, conventional IL-2 cytokine therapy faces constraints owing to its brief half-life and adverse effects. RDB 1462, the mouse ortholog of Nemvaleukin alfa, is an engineered IL-2 with an intermediate affinity that selectively stimulates antitumor CD8 T and NK cells while limiting regulatory T cell expansion.

Pushing the Limits of In Situ Split Liver Procurement to Overcome Donor Distance and Graft Size Challenges for 8-Week-Old Pediatric Recipient.

Background: Pediatric liver transplantation for small recipients presents significant challenges, particularly in securing suitably sized donor organs. This case report illustrates the feasibility of performing an in situ split procurement in an 18.5-kg toddler, the smallest recorded case in the OPTN database to date, for a critically ill 8-week-old infant recipient.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Applications for Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) in Low-Resource Settings: A Scoping Review.

Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) for point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) have ushered in new possibilities for medical diagnostics in low-resource settings. This review explores the current landscape of AI applications in POCUS across these environments, analyzing studies sourced from three databases-SCOPUS, PUBMED, and Google Scholars. Initially, 1196 records were identified, of which 1167 articles were excluded after a two-stage screening, leaving 29 unique studies for review.