Pharmacological blocking of microfibrillar-associated protein 4 reduces retinal neoangiogenesis and vascular leakage.

Neovascular age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema are leading causes of vision-loss evoked by retinal neovascularization and vascular leakage. The glycoprotein microfibrillar-associated protein 4 (MFAP4) is an integrin αβ ligand present in the extracellular matrix. Single-cell transcriptomics reveal MFAP4 expression in cell-types in close proximity to vascular endothelial cells including choroidal vascular mural cells and retinal astrocytes and Müller cells.

One hundred thirty-four germ line PU.1 variants and the agammaglobulinemic patients carrying them.

Leukopoiesis is lethally arrested in mice lacking the master transcriptional regulator PU.1. Depending on the animal model, subtotal PU.

Metal-organic frameworks as anchors for giant unilamellar vesicle immobilization.

Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) are ideal for studying cellular mechanisms due to their cell-mimicking morphology and size. The formation, stability, and immobilization of these vesicles are crucial for drug delivery and bioimaging studies. Separately, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are actively researched owing to their unique and varied properties, yet little is known about the interaction between MOFs and phospholipids.

The 2021 American Hand Therapy Foundation research priorities survey.

Background: In 1998, the American Hand Therapy Foundation (AHTF) surveyed Certified Hand Therapists and active Charter Members of the American Society of Hand Therapists to identify hand rehabilitation research priorities, guide grant awards, and confirm alignment with the foundation's mission.

Purpose: The American Hand Therapy Foundation repeated the survey in 2021 to confirm that its award funding was consistent with hand therapists' research priorities.

Study Design: Convergent parallel mixed method study design.

Frontier-Model Chatbots Can Help Instructors Create, Improve, and Use Learning Objectives.

Learning Objectives (LOs) are a pillar of course design and execution, and thus a focus of curricular reforms. This study explored the extent to which the creation and usage of LOs might be facilitated by three leading chatbots: ChatGPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Google Gemini Advanced.

Regulatory responses to ultra-processed foods are skewed towards behaviour change and not food system transformation.

Growing evidence suggests that diets high in ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are harming human and planetary health. UPFs therefore pose a complex regulatory challenge, yet, to date, little research has systematically assessed how governments have responded to UPFs in national food policies. Here we analyse data from the NOURISHING database to assess the scope and strength of UPF-related regulatory interventions worldwide, using three frameworks-namely, NOURISHING, the Nuffield Ladder and the Modalities of Control framework.

Behavioural responses to acute warming precede critical shifts in the cellular and physiological thermal stress responses in a salmonid fish (brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis).

From a conservation perspective, it is important to identify when sub-lethal temperatures begin to adversely impact an organism. However, it is unclear whether, during acute exposures, sub-lethal cellular thresholds occur at similar temperatures to other physiological or behavioural changes, or at temperatures associated with common physiological endpoints measured in fishes to estimate thermal tolerance. To test this, we estimated temperature preference (15.

Tumor cell-based liquid biopsy using high-throughput microfluidic enrichment of entire leukapheresis product.

Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) in blood encompass DNA, RNA, and protein biomarkers, but clinical utility is limited by their rarity. To enable tumor epitope-agnostic interrogation of large blood volumes, we developed a high-throughput microfluidic device, depleting hematopoietic cells through high-flow channels and force-amplifying magnetic lenses. Here, we apply this technology to analyze patient-derived leukapheresis products, interrogating a mean blood volume of 5.

Dynamic self-assembled meso-structures formed across a wide concentration range in aqueous solutions of propranolol hydrochloride.

Hypothesis: Nanoscale characterisation of the self-associated species formed by amphiphilic pharmaceuticals in aqueous solution carries relevance across their entire journey from development through to manufacture - relevant, therefore, not only as regards formulation of the drug products as medicines, but also potentially relevant to their bioavailability, activity, and clinical side effects. Such knowledge and understanding, however, can only be fully secured by applying a range of experimental and theoretical methodologies.

Experiments: Herein, we apply a synergistic combination of solubility, surface tension, SANS, NMR and UV spectroscopic studies, together with MD simulation and QM calculations, to investigate the meso-structures of propranolol hydrochloride aggregates in bulk aqueous solutions, at concentrations spanning 2.

Reliability and Accuracy of Stryd to Detect Changes in Vertical Displacement of the Center of Mass While Running.

Somma, M and Lawrence, MA. Reliability and accuracy of Stryd to detect changes in vertical displacement of the center of mass while running. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2024-The purpose of this study was to determine if Stryd can reliably and accurately detect changes in vertical displacement of the center of mass (VCoM) that are produced when cadence was increased by 5 and 10%.

Functional testing of humoral immunity in the Prevnar 20 era.

Humoral immune disorders such as common variable immunodeficiency and specific antibody deficiency are prevalent in clinical practice and require accurate functional testing of humoral immunity for diagnosis and to guide treatment approach. Traditionally, the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23) has been used to assess polysaccharide antibody responses by measuring pre- and post-vaccination pneumococcal titers. However, the recent introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs), such as PCV13, PCV15, and PCV20, into the childhood and adult vaccine schedules has significantly reduced the number of unique serotypes available for testing and in turn has complicated the evaluation process.

Understanding the Politics of Food Regulation and Public Health: An Analysis of Codex Standard-Setting Processes on Food Labelling.

Background: The importance of the international food regulatory system to global health, is often overlooked. There are calls to reform this system to promote healthy and sustainable food systems centred on the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), the United Nation's (UN's) standard-setting body. Yet this presents a significant political challenge, given Codex has historically prioritized food safety risks over wider harms to public health, and is dominated by powerful food exporting nations and industry groups with a primary interest in trade expansion.

Fundamentals of a healthy and sustainable diet.

Background: A healthy and sustainable diet is a prerequisite for population and planetary health. The evidence of associations between dietary patterns and health outcomes has now been synthesised to inform more than 100 national dietary guidelines. Yet, people select foods, not whole dietary patterns, even in the context of following specific diets such as a Mediterranean diet, presenting challenges to researchers, policymakers and practitioners wanting to translate dietary guideline recommendations into food-level selection guidance for citizens.

A Scoping Review of the Causal Pathways and Biological Mechanisms Linking Nutrition Exposures and Health Outcomes.

Background/aim: Building on the evidence for multifaceted effects of different nutrients, foods and dietary patterns is a new priority for nutrition science. This review aims to describe the causal pathways and biological mechanisms that elucidate the associations between different nutrition exposures (nutrients, foods and dietary patterns) and health outcomes.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted in two stages: 1) review of nutrition science textbooks; and 2) a review of reviews of empirical literature using a systematic approach to elucidate causal pathways and biological mechanisms for nutrition exposures and health outcomes.

The Miranda penalty: Inferring guilt from suspects' silence.

Objective: Despite the risks inherent to custodial police interrogation, criminal suspects may waive their rights and submit to police questioning in fear that exercising their rights or remaining silent will make them appear guilty. We tested whether such a penalty exists.

Hypotheses: We predicted that people would perceive suspects who invoke their rights or sit in silence during an interrogation as more likely to be guilty than those who waive their rights.

Friend or foe? Deciphering androgen receptor action to improve bipolar androgen therapy for prostate cancer.

Inhibiting the activity of the androgen receptor (AR) is the cornerstone treatment for advanced prostate cancer. AR-targeted therapies are highly effective in slowing disease progression but are not curative. Failure of these therapies results in a disease state termed castration-resistant prostate cancer, which is associated with significant patient morbidity and mortality.

Disparities in Diagnosis, Access to Specialist Care and Treatment for Inborn Errors of Immunity.

Inborn errors of immunity represent a rapidly expanding group of genetic disorders of the immune system. Significant advances have been made in recent years in diagnosis, including using genetic testing and newborn screening; treatment, including precision therapies, gene therapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplant; and development of patient registries to inform prevalence, understand morbidity of these disorders and guide the development of clinical trials. However, significant disparities due to age, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or geographic location exist in all aspects of care of patients with inborn errors of immunity, beginning with delays in diagnosis and further compounded by impaired access to specialist care and treatment, leading to a notable impact on outcomes including morbidity and mortality.

Targeting Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1α in Pancreatic Cancer: siRNA Delivery Using Hyaluronic Acid-Displaying Nanoparticles.

Conventional anticancer therapies often lack specificity, targeting both cancerous and normal cells, which reduces efficacy and leads to undesired off-target effects. An additional challenge is the presence of hypoxic regions in tumors, where the Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF) transcriptional system drives the expression of pro-survival and drug resistance genes, leading to radio- and chemo-resistance. This study aims to explore the efficacy of targeted nanoparticle (NP)-based small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapies in downregulating these genes to enhance treatment outcomes in pancreatic cancer, a tumor type characterized by high CD44 expression and hypoxia.

Operationalizing Power in Health Law: The Hospital Abolition Hypothesis.

This symposium Article describes how prison abolitionist arguments also support the hypothesis that a defining goal of health law should be the abolition of hospitals. Like prison abolitionism, the hospital abolition hypothesis can provide a constructive way to shift the focus of legal analysis from substantive dimensions (in health law - cost, quality, access, and equity) to the dimension of power.

Innate and adaptive immunity gene expression profiles induced by virulent Aeromonas hydrophila infection in the immune-related organs of channel catfish.

Aeromonas hydrophila causes motile Aeromonas septicemia (MAS) in freshwater fish. In recent years, MAS outbreaks due to virulent Aeromonas hydrophila (vAh) have been responsible for large-scale losses within commercial catfish farms in Mississippi and Alabama. The aim of this study was to evaluate immune gene expression in catfish immune-competent tissues during infection with vAh strain ML09-119.