Publications by authors named "M M Van Dongen"

Objective: Glucose metabolism status (GMS) is linked to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Higher levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are observed in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and NAFLD. We examined the association between GMS, non-invasive tests and AGEs, with liver steatosis and fibrosis.

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  • Immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) combined with chemotherapy is the standard treatment for stage II-III triple-negative breast cancer, but the effectiveness of ICI alone remains unclear.
  • The adaptive BELLINI trial found that short-term ICI treatments led to immune activation in a significant portion of patients, correlating immune response with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes.
  • A new cohort is being studied with patients who have high levels of these lymphocytes; early results show a notable rate of major and complete pathological responses post-treatment, suggesting that neoadjuvant ICI could be a promising approach without chemotherapy.
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Soft polymer nanocapsules and microgels, which can adapt their shape and, at the same time, sequester and release molecular payloads in response to an external trigger, are a challenging complement to vesicular structures like polymersomes. In this work, we report the synthesis of such capsules by photo-cross-linking of coumarin-substituted polyglycidyl ethers, which we prepared by Williamson etherification of epichlorohydrin (ECH) repeating units with 7-hydroxycoumarin in copolymers with -butyl glycidyl ether (BGE). To control capsule size, we employed the prepolymers in an o/w miniemulsion, where they formed a gel layer at the interface upon irradiation at 365 nm by [2π + 2π] photodimerization of the coumarin groups.

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  • High cognitive activity may help reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia, as suggested by the study.
  • The research examined the relationship between an individual's need to engage in cognitively stimulating activities (NFC) and brain health among 4209 participants, revealing that those with higher NFC scores had better cognitive functioning and lower odds of cognitive impairment and small vessel disease.
  • The findings indicate that having a strong motivation for cognitive engagement can positively impact cognitive abilities, especially in middle-aged individuals, though no significant links were found between NFC and certain brain structure measures.
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Photoisomerization of retinal is pivotal to ion translocation across the bacterial membrane and has served as an inspiration for the development of artificial molecular switches and machines. Light-driven synthetic systems in which a macrocyclic component transits along a nonsymmetric axle in a specific direction have been reported; however, unidirectional and repetitive translocation of protons has not been achieved. Herein, we describe a unique protonation-controlled isomerization behavior for hemi-indigo dyes bearing N-heterocycles, featuring intramolecular hydrogen bonds.

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