Computational and Experimental Assessments of Magnolol as a Neuroprotective Agent and Utilization of UiO-66(Zr) as Its Drug Delivery System.

The phenolic natural product magnolol exhibits neuroprotective properties through β-amyloid toxicity in PC-12 cells and ameliorative effects against cognitive deficits in a TgCRND8 transgenic mice model. Its bioavailability and blood-brain barrier crossing ability have been significantly improved using the metal-organic framework (MOF) UiO-66(Zr) as a drug delivery system (DDS). To investigate the neuroprotective effects of the Zr-based DDS, magnolol and magnolol-loaded-UiO-66(Zr) (Mag@UiO-66(Zr)) were evaluated for inhibitory activity against β-secretase and AlCl-induced neurotoxicity.

An Overview of Autonomous Vehicles Sensors and Their Vulnerability to Weather Conditions.

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) rely on various types of sensor technologies to perceive the environment and to make logical decisions based on the gathered information similar to humans. Under ideal operating conditions, the perception systems (sensors onboard AVs) provide enough information to enable autonomous transportation and mobility. In practice, there are still several challenges that can impede the AV sensors' operability and, in turn, degrade their performance under more realistic conditions that actually occur in the physical world.

Enhanced Oral Bioavailability of the Pharmacologically Active Lignin Magnolol via Zr-Based Metal Organic Framework Impregnation.

Bioavailability plays an important role in drug activity in the human body, as certain drug amounts should be present to elicit activity. However, low bioavailability of drugs leads to negligible use for human benefit. In this study, the diversely active neolignan, magnolol, was impregnated onto a Zr-based organometallic framework [Uio-66(Zr)] to increase its low bioavailability (4-5%) and to test its potential acute oral toxicity.

Independent replication of motor cortex and cervical spinal cord electrical stimulation to promote forelimb motor function after spinal cord injury in rats.

Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) impairs arm and hand function largely by interrupting descending tracts. Most SCI spare some axons at the lesion, including the corticospinal tract (CST), which is critical for voluntary movement. We targeted descending motor connections with paired electrical stimulation of motor cortex and cervical spinal cord in the rat.

Fe in biosynthesis, translocation, and signal transduction of NO: toward bioinorganic engineering of dinitrosyl iron complexes into NO-delivery scaffolds for tissue engineering.

Iron, the most abundant transition metal ion in humans, participates in the biosynthesis, translocation, signal transduction, and transformation of nitric oxide through its encapsulation in the form of heme, [Fe-S], and [Fe(NO)2] cofactors within a variety of enzymes and proteins. After the review on nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) for the biosynthesis and detection of NO, in this report, we discuss the natural utilization of the [Fe(NO)2] motif for translocation of endogenous NO and the translational development of synthetic dinitrosyl iron complexes (DNICs) for biomedical applications. A mechanistic study of NO-release and NO-transfer reactivity of structure-characterized DNICs promoted the discovery of cell-penetrating and in vivo NO-delivery reactivity for treatment of cancer and wound healing in diabetes.

The Knob Supination Task: A Semi-automated Method for Assessing Forelimb Function in Rats.

Tasks that accurately measure dexterity in animal models are critical to understand hand function. Current rat behavioral tasks that measure dexterity largely use video analysis of reaching or food manipulation. While these tasks are easy to implement and are robust across disease models, they are subjective and laborious for the experimenter.

An Automated Test of Rat Forelimb Supination Quantifies Motor Function Loss and Recovery After Corticospinal Injury.

Background: Rodents are the primary animal model of corticospinal injury and repair, yet current behavioral tests do not show the large deficits after injury observed in humans. Forearm supination is critical for hand function and is highly impaired by corticospinal injury in both humans and rats. Current tests of rodent forelimb function do not measure this movement.

The successful use of inhaled nitric oxide in the management of severe hepatopulmonary syndrome after orthotopic liver transplantation.

Hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) is characterized by pulmonary vasodilation and subsequent hypoxemia in the setting of hepatic dysfunction. There is currently no pharmacologic intervention that has been shown to significantly affect outcomes and liver transplantation remains the mainstay of therapy. Unfortunately, patients undergoing liver transplantation are at high risk of significant hypoxemia and mortality in the early postoperative period.