Hepatic artery branch perforation with hemoperitomeum: A rare complication of pericardiocentesis.

A 58-year-old male patient presented with anterior myocardial infarction after 36 hours of symptom onset.

Defensin1 as a tumor sensitizer for improving chemotherapy: translation from anti-fungal agent to a potential anti-cancer agent.

Plant defensins including defensin 1 (MsDef1) are cysteine-rich antifungal peptides which are known for potent broad-spectrum antifungal activity against bacterial or fungal pathogens of plants. The antimicrobial activities of these cationic defensins are attributed to their capacity to bind to cell membranes to create potentially structural defects tin the cell membranes to interact with intracellular target (s) and mediates cytotoxic effects. Our earlier work identified Glucosylceramide (GlcCer) of fungus as a potential target for biological activity.

Prevalence and Causes of Diagnostic Errors in Hospitalized Patients Under Investigation for COVID-19.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic required clinicians to care for a disease with evolving characteristics while also adhering to care changes (e.g., physical distancing practices) that might lead to diagnostic errors (DEs).

Clinical and Etiological Profiles of Patients With Pancytopenia in a Tertiary Care Hospital.

Background Pancytopenia is more of a manifestation of a spectrum of underlying diseases affecting the bone marrow. Specific treatment relies solely on early diagnosis and identification of the accurate etiology. We aimed to generate data on the clinical and etiological profiles of patients diagnosed with pancytopenia.

Development of an Automated Algorithm to Generate Guideline-based Recommendations for Follow-up Colonoscopy.

Background And Aims: Physician adherence to published colonoscopy surveillance guidelines varies. We aimed to develop and validate an automated clinical decision support algorithm that can extract procedure and pathology data from the electronic medical record (EMR) and generate surveillance intervals congruent with guidelines, which might increase physician adherence.

Methods: We constructed a clinical decision support (CDS) algorithm based on guidelines from the United States Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer.

Trainees' knowledge and application of guideline recommendations for colorectal cancer screening and surveillance.

Background: Data shows that practicing physicians don't recommend colorectal (CRC) screening and surveillance as suggested by guidelines. We assessed knowledge of CRC guidelines in medical trainees.

Methods: A survey assessing confidence and knowledge of published CRC guidelines was emailed to program directors (PDs) of Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education approved training programs in the United States.

Poor Knowledge of Colorectal Cancer Screening and Surveillance Guidelines in a National Cohort of Digestive Disease Specialists.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is cost-effective and prevents death from CRC if used appropriately. Physicians do not recommend CRC screening according to guidelines. Physician-related factors associated with CRC screening knowledge are unknown.

Differences in Right Ventricular Functional Changes during Treatment between Systemic Sclerosis-associated Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Rationale: Patients with systemic sclerosis-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (SSc-PAH) continue to have an unacceptably high mortality rate despite the progress achieved with pulmonary arterial vasodilator therapies.

Objectives: We sought to determine whether SSc-PAH is a clinically distinct pulmonary vascular disease phenotype when compared with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) on the basis of progression of echocardiographic right ventricular (RV) dysfunction.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of echocardiographic data in 13 patients with SSc-PAH and 11 patients with IPAH was used to delineate the progression of RV dysfunction during single or combination pulmonary arterial vasodilator therapy.

Quantitative assessment of pericardial delayed hyperenhancement predicts clinical improvement in patients with constrictive pericarditis treated with anti-inflammatory therapy.

Background: Delayed hyperenhancement (DHE) of the pericardium usually represents ongoing inflammation and may identify patients with constrictive pericarditis that will improve with anti-inflammatory therapy. However, a quantitative assessment of pericardial DHE has not been performed, and the hierarchical relationship among clinical factors, inflammatory markers, and pericardial DHE is unknown.

Methods And Results: We identified 41 consecutive patients with constrictive pericarditis who had a cardiovascular magnetic resonance study with DHE prior to the initiation of anti-inflammatory medications.

Design and synthesis of MMP inhibitors with appended fluorescent tags for imaging and visualization of matrix metalloproteinase enzymes.

We describe the synthesis, MMP-2 and 9 potency, and in vitro evaluation of a series of α-sulfone hydroxmate MMP inhibitors conjugated to a series of dyes with different absorption/emission lamina maxima's that can be used to visualize tumors.

Roles of free radicals in type 1 phototherapeutic agents: aromatic amines, sulfenamides, and sulfenates.

Detailed analyses of the electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra, cell viability, and DNA degradation studies are presented for the photolyzed Type I phototherapeutic agents: aromatic amines, sulfenamides, and sulfenates. The ESR studies provided evidence that copious free radicals can be generated from these N-H, N-S, and S-O containing compounds upon photoirradiation with UV/visible light. The analyses of spectral data allowed us to identify the free radical species.

Non-destructive and selective imaging of the functionally active, pro-invasive membrane type-1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) enzyme in cancer cells.

Proteolytic activity of cell surface-associated MT1-matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) (MMP-14) is directly related to cell migration, invasion, and metastasis. MT1-MMP is regulated as a proteinase by activation and conversion of the latent proenzyme into the active enzyme, and also via inhibition by tissue inhibitors of MMPs (TIMPs) and self-proteolysis. MT1-MMP is also regulated as a membrane protein through its internalization and recycling.

In vitro efficacy of paclitaxel-loaded dual-responsive shell cross-linked polymer nanoparticles having orthogonally degradable disulfide cross-linked corona and polyester core domains.

Paclitaxel-loaded shell cross-linked polymeric nanoparticles having an enzymatically and hydrolytically degradable poly(lactic acid) core and a glutathione-responsive disulfide cross-linked poly(oligoethylene glycol)-containing corona were constructed in aqueous solution and investigated for their stimuli-responsive release of the embedded therapeutics and in vitro cytotoxicity. Paclitaxel release from the nanoparticles in PBS buffer was accelerated in the presence of glutathione at both pH 5.5 and pH 7.

Poly(ethylene oxide)--polyphosphester-based Paclitaxel Conjugates as a Platform for Ultra-high Paclitaxel-loaded Multifunctional Nanoparticles.

A new type of degradable, nanoscopic polymer assembly containing ultra-high levels of drug loading covalent attachment within amphiphilic core-shell nanoparticle morphology has been generated as a potentially effective and safe anti-cancer agent. Poly(ethylene oxide)--polyphosphoester-based paclitaxel drug conjugates (PEO--PPE--PTX) were synthesized by rapid, scalable and versatile approach that involves only two steps: organocatalyst-promoted ring-opening-polymerization followed by click reaction-based conjugation of a PTX prodrug. Variations in the polymer-to-PTX stoichiometries allowed for optimization of the conjugation efficiency, the PTX drug loading and the resulting water solubilities of the entire polymer and the PTX content.

Paclitaxel-loaded SCK nanoparticles: an investigation of loading capacity and cell killing abilities in vitro.

Block copolymer nanoparticles having two different hydrodynamic diameters (120 nm vs 50 nm) and core diameters (60 nm vs 20 nm) with variable paclitaxel loading (5 to 20 wt % with respect to polymer weight, 4.4 μg/mL to 21.7 μg/mL paclitaxel concentrations in ultrapure water) were prepared for their in vitro cytotoxicity evaluation.

Antibody targeting of cell-bound MUC1 SEA domain kills tumor cells.

The cell-surface glycoprotein MUC1 is a particularly appealing target for antibody targeting, being selectively overexpressed in many types of cancers and a high proportion of cancer stem-like cells. However the occurrence of MUC1 cleavage, which leads to the release of the extracellular α subunit into the circulation where it can sequester many anti-MUC1 antibodies, renders the target problematic to some degree. To address this issue, we generated a set of unique MUC1 monoclonal antibodies that target a region termed the SEA domain that remains tethered to the cell surface after MUC1 cleavage.

A novel nano-nonwoven fabric with three-dimensionally dispersed nanofibers: entrapment of carbon nanofibers within nonwovens using the wet-lay process.

This study demonstrates, for the first time, the manufacturing of novel nano-nonwovens that are comprised of three-dimensionally distributed carbon nanofibers within the matrices of traditional wet-laid nonwovens. The preparation of these nano-nonwovens involves dispersing and flocking carbon nanofibers, and optimizing colloidal chemistry during wet-lay formation. The distribution of nanofibers within the nano-nonwoven was verified using polydispersed aerosol filtration testing, air permeability, low surface tension liquid capillary porometry, SEM and cyclic voltammetry.

Type 1 Phototherapeutic Agents. 2. Cancer Cell Viability and ESR Studies of Tricyclic Diarylamines.

Type 1 phototherapeutic agents based on diarylamines were assessed for free radical generation and evaluated in vitro for cell death efficacy in the U937 leukemia cancer cell line. All of the compounds were found to produce copious free radicals upon photoexcitation with UV-A and/or UV-B light, as determined by electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. Among the diarylamines, the most potent compounds were acridan (4) and 9-phenylacridan (5), with IC50 values of 0.

Naturally occurring medicinal mushroom-derived antimicrobials: a case-study using Lingzhi or Reishi Ganoderma lucidum (W. Curt.:Fr.) P. Karst. (higher Basidiomycetes).

Antibacterial activity of Lingzhi or Reishi medicinal mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum, collected from Central India was evaluated against four bacterial pathogens. Ethyl alcohol and water extracts of fruit body powder were tested using the disc diffusion method against Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bacillus cereus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It was noted that the aqueous extract inhibited growth of pathogenic bacteria.

Type 1 phototherapeutic agents, part I: preparation and cancer cell viability studies of novel photolabile sulfenamides.

Novel type 1 phototherapeutic agents based on compounds containing S-N bonds (sulfenamides) were synthesized, assessed for free radical generation, and evaluated in vitro for cell death efficacy in four cancer cell lines (U937, HTC11, KB, and HT29). All of the compounds were found to produce copious free radicals upon photoexcitation with UV-A and/or UV-B light, as determined by electron spin resonance spectroscopy. Among the sulfenamides, the most potent compounds were derived from dibenzazepine 7b and dihydroacridine 8b as determined in all of the four cancer cell lines.

Noninvasive imaging of cell death using an Hsp90 ligand.

Cell death plays a central role in normal physiology and in disease. Common to apoptotic and necrotic cell death is the eventual loss of plasma membrane integrity. We have produced a small organoarsenical compound, 4-(N-(S-glutathionylacetyl)amino)phenylarsonous acid, that rapidly accumulates in the cytosol of dying cells coincident with loss of plasma membrane integrity.

Tunable dual-emitting shell-crosslinked nano-objects as single-component ratiometric pH-sensing materials.

Dual-emitting photonic nano-objects that can sense changes in the environmental pH are designed based on shell-crosslinked micelles assembled from amphiphilic block copolymers and crosslinked with pH-insensitive chromophores. The chromophoric crosslinkers are tetra-functionalized pyrazine molecules that bear a set of terminal aliphatic amine groups and a set of anilino amine groups, which demonstrate morphology-dependent reactivities towards the poly(acrylic acid) shell domain of the nano-objects. The extent to which the anilino amine groups react with the nano-object shell is shown to affect the hypsochromic shift (blue-shift).