Psychopathic personality traits are associated with experimentally induced approach and appraisal of fear-evoking stimuli indicating fear enjoyment.

The extent to which deficits in the perception and experience of fear contribute to psychopathic symptoms is an ongoing matter of debate. Traditional theories emphasize diminished threat processing as the core fear deficit in psychopathic individuals, whereas recent approaches, such as the fear enjoyment hypothesis (FEH), propose that anomalies in the subjective experience of fear are related to interpersonal-affective psychopathic traits. In order to test predictions of the FEH, we conducted an online experimental study to examine whether approach and avoidance tendencies in response to fear-eliciting stimuli are related to specific psychopathic traits (interpersonal-affective symptoms and boldness).

SOS1 inhibitor BI-3406 shows in vivo antitumor activity akin to genetic ablation and synergizes with a KRAS inhibitor in KRAS LUAD.

We evaluated the in vivo therapeutic efficacy and tolerability of BI-3406-mediated pharmacological inhibition of SOS1 in comparison to genetic ablation of this universal Ras-GEF in various KRAS-dependent experimental tumor settings. Contrary to the rapid lethality caused by SOS1 genetic ablation in SOS2 mice, SOS1 pharmacological inhibition by its specific inhibitor BI-3406 did not significantly affect animal weight/viability nor cause noteworthy systemic toxicity. Allograft assays using different KRAS cell lines showed that treatment with BI-3406 impaired RAS activation and RAS downstream signaling and decreased tumor burden and disease progression as a result of both tumor-intrinsic and -extrinsic therapeutic effects of the drug.

Advancing Glass Engineering: Harnessing Focused Electron Beams for Direct Microstructuring.

A technological approach for direct glass structuring is presented by exploiting electron-beam-induced defect generation utilizing a conventional scanning electron microscope (SEM). The structuring process is assumed to be linked to electron-beam-induced ion migration and allows to create structures of several hundred nanometers in depth. It is demonstrated that the structuring can be realized in literally any SEM, which thus enables a comparatively simple implementation in support of a broad field of applications.

Role of antiviral CD8+ T cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly enhanced our understanding of CD8+ T cell immunity and their role in natural infection and vaccine-induced protection. Rapid and early SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cell responses have been associated with efficient viral clearance and mild disease. Virus-specific CD8+ T cell responses can compensate for waning, morbidity-related, and iatrogenic reduction of humoral immunity.

Role of the ETV5/p38 signaling axis in aggressive thyroid cancer cells.

Patients with poorly differentiated thyroid cancer (PDTC) and anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) face a much poorer prognosis than those with differentiated thyroid cancers. Around 25% of PDTCs and 35% of ATCs carry the BRAFV600E mutation, which constitutively activates the MAPK pathway, a key driver of cell growth. Although combining BRAF and MEK inhibitors can shrink tumors, resistance often develops.