Safety and tolerability of therapeutic plasma exchange in autoimmune neurological diseases - a retrospective single-centre analysis.

Clinical Rationale For Study: The sudden onset of autoimmune neurological diseases often threatens life. In such clinical situations, fast, effective and safe treatment is needed. Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is an option in the treatment of autoimmune disorders.

Mild hyponatremia discovered within the first 24 hours of ischemic stroke is a risk factor for early post stroke mortality.

Background: Comorbidities, complications and laboratory abnormalities are common in stroke patients. One of the common problems is hyponatremia (serum sodium (Na) level <135 mmol/L), but the relationship between hyponatremia and the prognosis in patients with stroke is not well understood.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and severity of hyponatremia, as well as its impact on prognosis in stroke patients on admission to hospital.

miRNA-146a-5p is upregulated in serum and cartilage samples of patients with osteoarthritis.

Introduction: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a widely prevalent joint disease leading to motor disability and pain. Appropriate indicators for identifying patients at risk for this progressive disease, identifying molecular events for detecting early phases of the disease, or biomarkers to screen for treatment responses, however, are lacking. Micro RNAs (miRNAs), which play crucial roles in OA, could be potential biomarkers of OA.

Association of 18bp insertion/deletion polymorphism, at -2549 position of VEGF gene, with diabetic vascular complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Purpose: Diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) and its vascular complications are a serious world health problem. For this reason it is important to look for new diabetes complication risk factors. The aim of this study was to determine whether 18-bp insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism at -2549 position of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene is associated with diabetic vascular complications (DVC).

MiRNA expression in the cartilage of patients with osteoarthritis.

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA), the most prevalent disease of articulating joints, is a complex multifactorial disease caused by genetic, mechanical, and environmental factors. In this research, we evaluated miRNA expression in OA.

Methods: Forty tissue samples from 29 patients undergoing joint replacement for OA were evaluated.

Different patterns of nuclear and mitochondrial penetration by the G3 PAMAM dendrimer and its biotin-pyridoxal bioconjugate BC-PAMAM in normal and cancer cells in vitro.

The intracellular localization and colocalization of a fluorescently labeled G3 amine-terminated cationic polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer and its biotin-pyridoxal (BC-PAMAM) bioconjugate were investigated in a concentration-dependent manner in normal human fibroblast (BJ) and squamous epithelial carcinoma (SCC-15) cell lines. After 24 hours treatment, both cell lines revealed different patterns of intracellular dendrimer accumulation depending on their cytotoxic effects. Cancer cells exhibited much higher (20-fold) tolerance for native PAMAM treatment than fibroblasts, whereas BC-PAMAM was significantly toxic only for fibroblasts at 50 µM concentration.

In vitro cytotoxicity of the ternary PAMAM G3-pyridoxal-biotin bioconjugate.

A third-generation polyamidoamine dendrimer (PAMAM G3) was used as a macromolecular carrier for pyridoxal and biotin. The binary covalent bioconjugate of G3, with nine molecules of biotin per one molecule of G3 (G3(9B)), and the ternary covalent bioconjugate of G3, with nine biotin and ten pyridoxal molecules (G3(9B10P)), were synthesized. The biotin and pyridoxal residues of the bioconjugate were available for carboxylase and transaminase enzymes, as demonstrated in the conversion of pyruvate to oxaloacetate and alanine to pyruvate, respectively, by in vitro monitoring of the reactions, using (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.