Serum, Cell-Free, HPV-Human DNA Junction Detection and HPV Typing for Predicting and Monitoring Cervical Cancer Recurrence.

Almost all cervical cancers are caused by human papillomaviruses (HPVs). In most cases, HPV DNA is integrated into the human genome. We found that tumor-specific, HPV-human DNA junctions are detectable in serum cell-free DNA of a fraction of cervical cancer patients at the time of initial treatment and/or at six months following treatment.

FASN inhibition shows the potential for enhancing radiotherapy outcomes by targeting glycolysis, AKT, and ERK pathways in breast cancer.

Purpose: Breast cancer ranks as the most prevalent cancer in women, characterized by heightened fatty acid synthesis and glycolytic activity. Fatty acid synthase (FASN) is prominently expressed in breast cancer cells, regulating fatty acid synthesis, thereby enhancing tumor growth and migration, and leading to radioresistance. This study aims to investigate how FASN inhibition affects cell proliferation, migration, and radioresistance in breast cancer, as well as the mechanisms involved.

Visualizing the Tumor Microenvironment: Molecular Imaging Probes Target Extracellular Matrix, Vascular Networks, and Immunosuppressive Cells.

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a critical factor in cancer progression, driving tumor growth, immune evasion, therapeutic resistance, and metastasis. Understanding the dynamic interactions within the TME is essential for advancing cancer management. Molecular imaging provides a non-invasive, real-time, and longitudinal approach to studying the TME, with techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and fluorescence imaging offering complementary strengths, including high sensitivity, spatial resolution, and intraoperative precision.

Therapeutic Potential of Hydrogen as a Radioprotective Agent for the Prevention of Radiation Dermatitis.

Radiation dermatitis (RD) is a common side effect in patients receiving radiotherapy. Currently, clinical skincare approaches for acute RD vary widely among institutions and lack consensus. Hydrogen molecules, acting as radioprotective agents by selectively scavenging free radicals, have the potential to protect against RD.

Beta-Caryophyllene Augments Radiotherapy Efficacy in GBM by Modulating Cell Apoptosis and DNA Damage Repair via PPARγ and NF-κB Pathways.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a highly aggressive brain malignancy with limited treatment options. Radiotherapy (RT) is often used for treating unresectable GBM; however, the outcomes are often limited due to the radioresistance of GBM. Therefore, the discovery of potential radiosensitizers to enhance GBM responses to RT is crucial.

Self-Collection for Primary HPV Testing: Acceptability in a Large Urban Emergency Department.

Study Objective: Overdue cervical cancer screening increases the risk of invasive cervical cancer. It is important to identify settings where self-collection for primary human papillomavirus (HPV) testing can be implemented to have high effect on cervical cancer screening among hard-to-reach women with overdue screening. Herein, we examined the acceptability of HPV self-collection, including completion rates, attitudes, and experiences among women seeking noncritical care at a high-volume urban safety-net hospital emergency department (ED) in Houston, Texas, United States.

Contribution of ingestive/dietary uptake to bioaccumulation of organics in worms.

Ingestive uptake is critical for understanding the accumulation and trophic transfer of chemicals and synthesized particles in general. This study explored the contribution of ingestion in the bioaccumulation of chemicals focusing on worms. Novel theory and equations were developed to derive fractional ingestive contribution, f, from a broad range of dietary uptake and accumulation studies, and to build a small dataset of f (n = 43) from relevant toxicokinetic and bioaccumulation measurements.

Impact of valley degeneracy on the thermoelectric properties of zig-zag graphene nanoribbons with staggered sublattice potentials and transverse electric fields.

This study investigates the band inversion of flat bands in zig-zag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs) using a tight-binding model. The band inversion results from symmetry breaking in the transverse direction, achievable through deposition on specific substrates such as separated silicon carbide or hexagonal boron nitride sheets. Upon band inversion, ZGNRs exhibit electronic structures characterized by valley degeneracy and band gap properties, which can be modulated by transverse electric fields.

Synergistic Tuning of Heterovalent States and Oxygen-Vacancy Defect Engineering in Hydrophilic W-Doped SbOS for Enhanced Nitrogen Photoreduction to Ammonia.

Nitrogen fixation reaction via photocatalysis offers a green and promising strategy for renewable NH synthesis, and catalysts with high-efficiency photocatalytic properties are essential to the process. Herein, we demonstrate a W-doped SbOS bimetal oxysulfide catalyst (labeled as SbWOS) with abundant oxygen vacancies, heterovalent metal states, and hydrophilic surfaces for nitrogen photoreduction to ammonia. The SbWOS-3 with suitable W-doping exhibited excellent nitrogen fixation activity of 408.

Serum Carnitine Concentrations and Cardiac Function in Pediatric, Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Patients Receiving High-Dose Anthracyclines.

Objective: Anthracycline chemotherapy agents have significant dose-dependent cardiotoxic effects. -Carnitine, a non-essential amino acid, is involved in long chain fatty acid oxidation, and carnitine deficiency can result in cardiomyopathy and cardiac arrhythmias. If administered concurrently with chemotherapy, carnitine supplementation could be a potential strategy to prevent cardiotoxicity.

Accidental Physical Trauma in Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs: A Scoping Review.

Background: Children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) may be at greater risk for accidental physical trauma. Interventions should be informed by the literature indicating incident characteristics and at-risk subpopulations.

Objective: To conduct a scoping review of accidental physical trauma in CYSHCN to characterize published literature and identify gaps.

Parent and patient knowledge and attitudes about cancer predisposition syndrome genetic testing in pediatric oncology: Understanding sociodemographic and parent-child differences.

Background: Cancer predisposition syndromes (CPS) impact about 10% of patients with pediatric cancer. Genetic testing (CPS-GT) has multiple benefits, but few studies have described parent and child knowledge and attitudes regarding CPS-GT decision-making. This study examined parent and patient CPS-GT decision-making knowledge and attitudes.

How effective is score-based data quality assessment? An illustration with fish BCF data.

Increasingly rigorous data quality (DQ) evaluations and/or screening practices are being applied to environmental and ecotoxicological datasets. DQ is predominantly evaluated by scoring given data against preselected criteria. This study provides the first examination on the effectiveness of score-based DQ evaluation in providing statistically meaningful differentiation of measurements using fish bioconcentration factor (BCF) dataset as an illustration.

Feasibility, reproducibility, and accuracy of echocardiographic right ventricular systolic function assessments in childhood cancer survivors at risk for heart failure.

Purpose: We sought to assess the feasibility, reproducibility, and accuracy of conventional and newer echocardiographic measures of right ventricular (RV) systolic function in adolescent and young adult childhood cancer survivors treated with anthracyclines.

Methods: Echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) were acquired ≤60 days apart in prospectively recruited survivors and RV functional measures were quantitated by blinded observers. Repeat quantitation was performed in a subset to evaluate reproducibility.

A brief review on models for birds exposed to chemicals.

"A Who's Who of pesticides is therefore of concern to us all. If we are going to live so intimately with these chemicals eating and drinking them, taking them into the very marrow of our bones - we had better know something about their nature and their power."-Rachel Carson, Silent Spring.

Pharmacogenomic Score Effectively Personalizes Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Purpose: Cytarabine (also known as ara-C) has been the backbone of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) chemotherapy for more than five decades. Recent pharmacogenomics-based 10-SNP ara-C (ACS10) scores showed low ACS10 (≤0) to be associated with poor outcomes in patients with AML treated with standard chemotherapy. Here, we evaluated the ACS10 score in the context of three different induction I regimens in patients with pediatric AML.

Developing zinc oxide and peanut shell-derived carbon star-shaped composite materials for effective photo-antibacterial treatment.

The development of new carbon-based materials using natural biowaste for biomedical applications has remained a significant challenge in the past decades. In this study, we successfully synthesized and characterized composite materials made from peanut shell-derived carbon (PNS-C) decorated on ZnO that formed star-shaped particles via a simple hydrothermal technique. The as-prepared composites possess several advantages, including unique optical properties and high photostability.

Transgenesis enables mapping of segmental ganglia in the leech Helobdella austinensis.

The analysis of how neural circuits function in individuals and change during evolution is simplified by the existence of neurons identified as homologous within and across species. Invertebrates, including leeches, have been used for these purposes in part because their nervous systems comprise a high proportion of identified neurons, but technical limitations make it challenging to assess the full extent to which assumptions of stereotypy hold true. Here, we introduce Minos plasmid-mediated transgenesis as a tool for introducing transgenes into the embryos of the leech Helobdella austinensis (Spiralia; Lophotrochozoa; Annelida; Clitellata; Hirudinida; Glossiphoniidae).

Hydroxychloroquine and Pre-eclampsia in a Diverse Cohort of Women With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Objective: Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are at risk for pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. These clinically important complications are associated with maternal morbidity, mortality, and postpartum cardiovascular disease. Some studies suggest that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) may reduce pre-eclampsia risk in lupus pregnancy.

Charge transport through the multiple end zigzag edge states of armchair graphene nanoribbons and heterojunctions.

This comprehensive study investigates charge transport through the multiple end zigzag edge states of finite-size armchair graphene nanoribbons/boron nitride nanoribbons (-AGNR/-BNNR) junctions under a longitudinal electric field, where and denote the widths of the AGNRs and the BNNRs, respectively. In 13-atom wide AGNR segments, the edge states exhibit a blue Stark shift in response to the electric field, with only the long decay length zigzag edge states showing significant interaction with the red Stark shift subband states. Charge tunneling through such edge states assisted by the subband states is elucidated in the spectra of the transmission coefficient.

Ischemia-reperfusion injury in a salvaged penumbra: Longitudinal high-tesla perfusion magnetic resonance imaging in a rat model.

Introduction: Although ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury varies between cortical and subcortical regions, its effects on specific regions remain unclear. In this study, we used various magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to examine the spatiotemporal dynamics of I/R injury within the salvaged ischemic penumbra (IP) and reperfused ischemic core (IC) of a rodent model, with the aim of enhancing therapeutic strategies by elucidating these dynamics.

Materials And Methods: A total of 17 Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to 1 h of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion with a suture model.

Structure and transcription of integrated HPV DNA in vulvar carcinomas.

HPV infections are associated with a fraction of vulvar cancers. Through hybridization capture and DNA sequencing, HPV DNA was detected in five of thirteen vulvar cancers. HPV16 DNA was integrated into human DNA in three of the five.

NiP active site ensembles tune electrocatalytic nitrate reduction selectivity.

We demonstrate that active site ensembles on transition metal phosphides tune the selectivity of the nitrate reduction reaction. Using NiP nanocrystals as a case study, we report a mechanism involving competitive co-adsorption of H* and NO* intermediates. A near 100% faradaic efficiency for nitrate reduction over hydrogen evolution is observed at -0.