Dengue is the most common arboviral disease globally. It is caused by four distinct but closely related Dengue viruses (DENV-1, -2, -3, and - 4) transmitted through bites of infected Aedes species mosquito vectors. In the last 50 years, incidence has increased 30-fold with increasing geographic expansion to new countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Despite many years of investigation into mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their potential for treating inflammatory conditions such as COVID-19, clinical outcomes remain variable due to factors like donor variability, different tissue sources, and diversity within MSC populations. Variations in MSCs' secretory and proliferation profiles, and their proteomic and transcriptional characteristics significantly influence their therapeutic potency, highlighting the need for enhanced characterization methods to better predict their efficacy. This study aimed to evaluate the biological characteristics of MSCs from different tissue origins, selecting the most promising line for further validation in a K18-hACE2 mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTriplet excited states in organic semiconductors are usually optically dark and long-lived as they have a spin-forbidden transition to the singlet ground state and therefore hinder processes in light-harvesting applications. Also, triplets often cause damage to the system as they can sensitize the formation of reactive singlet oxygen. Despite these unfavorable characteristics, there exist mechanisms through which we can utilize triplet states, and that constitutes the scope of this review.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhotoswitchable materials are of significant interest for diverse applications from energy and data storage to additive manufacturing and soft robotics. However, the absorption profile is often a limiting factor for practical applications. This can be overcome using indirect excitation complementary photophysical pathways, such as triplet sensitisation or photon upconversion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe neonatal increase in circulating luteinizing hormone (LH) is crucial for testicular development. In male pigs, blood LH levels start to increase approximately 1 week after birth and return to basal level by 5-6 weeks of age. This study tested the hypothesis that neonatal treatment with a combination of estrogens and androgens suppresses LH secretion and thereby inhibits testicular development.
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