Laparoscopic surgery has become a widely accepted standard of care for numerous procedures in the modern world. Nearly every major surgical procedure previously only possible by employing open techniques may now be completed laparoscopically, attributable to the quick advancement of technology and surgeons' abilities. There are several complications associated with the laparoscopic port site, either infective, non-infective, or neoplastic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGallbladder stones with common bile duct (CBD) stones can be managed by a single-stage laparoscopic approach with transcystic or transcholedochal CBD exploration and cholecystectomy or a two-stage approach with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) for stone extraction followed by laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Comparative outcomes between these approaches remain controversial. The objective was to compare single-stage laparoscopic CBD exploration and cholecystectomy versus two-stage ERCP stone removal followed by laparoscopic cholecystectomy for clearance of CBD stones, complications, length of stay, and costs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Major bile duct injury during cholecystectomy often requires surgical reconstruction. The optimal timing of repair is debated.
Objectives: To assess the association between the timing of hepaticojejunostomy and postoperative morbidity, mortality, and anastomotic stricture.
Laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (LPD) has gained popularity as an alternative to open pancreaticoduodenectomy (OPD), but comparative outcomes remain debated. The objective is to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis comparing LPD and OPD on operative time, oncologic outcomes, bleeding, morbidity, and mortality. The inclusion criteria were comparative studies on LPD vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBreast cancer has the highest incidence and second-highest mortality rate among all cancers. The management of breast cancer is being revolutionized by artificial intelligence (AI), which is improving early detection, pathological diagnosis, risk assessment, individualized treatment recommendations, and treatment response prediction. Nuclear medicine has used artificial intelligence (AI) for over 50 years, but more recent advances in machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) have given AI in nuclear medicine additional capabilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is well known that influenza A viruses (IAV) initiate host cell infection by binding to sialic acid, a sugar molecule present at the ends of various sugar chains called glycoconjugates. These sugar chains can vary in chain length, structure, and composition. However, it remains unknown if IAV strains preferentially bind to sialic acid on specific glycoconjugate type(s) for host cell infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFType III IFNs (IFNLs) are newly discovered cytokines, acting at epithelial and other barriers, that exert immunomodulatory functions in addition to their primary roles in antiviral defense. In this study, we define a role for IFNLs in maintaining autoreactive T cell effector function and limiting recovery in a murine model of multiple sclerosis (MS), experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Genetic or Ab-based neutralization of the IFNL receptor (IFNLR) resulted in lack of disease maintenance during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, with loss of CNS Th1 effector responses and limited axonal injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction Basic knowledge of anatomy is crucial in providing predictable, safe, and efficacious mandibular anesthesia as the mandibular nerve is vulnerable to injury during dental procedures and other surgical manoeuvers. The lack of availability of the appropriate topographical bony landmarks for the location of the branches of this nerve often accounts for iatrogenic injuries and the failure to obtain adequate local anesthaesia. Hence we aimed to describe the topographical landmarks of the branches of the mandibular nerve and their variations in the infratemporal fossa.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFType III interferons (IFNs) or the lambda IFNs (IFNLs or IFN-λs) are antimicrobial cytokines that play key roles in immune host defense at endothelial and epithelial barriers. IFNLs signal their heterodimeric receptor, comprised of two subunits, IFNLR1 and interleukin (IL)10Rβ, which defines the cellular specificity of the responses to the cytokines. Recent studies show that IFNL signaling regulates CD4+ T cell differentiation, favoring Th1 cells, which has led to the identification of IFNL as a putative therapeutic target for autoimmune diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch activities with infectious severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are currently permitted only under biosafety level 3 (BSL3) containment. Here, we report the development of a single-cycle infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus replicon particle (VRP) system with a luciferase and green fluorescent protein (GFP) dual reporter that can be safely handled in BSL2 laboratories to study SARS-CoV-2 biology. The spike (S) gene of SARS-CoV-2 encodes the envelope glycoprotein, which is essential for mediating infection of new host cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is well documented that influenza A viruses selectively package 8 distinct viral ribonucleoprotein complexes (vRNPs) into each virion; however, the role of host factors in genome assembly is not completely understood. To evaluate the significance of cellular factors in genome assembly, we generated a reporter virus carrying a tetracysteine tag in the NP gene (NP-Tc virus) and assessed the dynamics of vRNP localization with cellular components by fluorescence microscopy. At early time points, vRNP complexes were preferentially exported to the MTOC; subsequently, vRNPs associated on vesicles positive for cellular factor Rab11a and formed distinct vRNP bundles that trafficked to the plasma membrane on microtubule networks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring multiple sclerosis (MS), an inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS), symptoms, and outcomes are determined by the location of inflammatory lesions. While we and others have shown that T cell cytokines differentially regulate leukocyte entry into perivascular spaces and regional parenchymal localization in murine models of MS, the molecular mechanisms of this latter process are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that astrocytes exhibit region-specific responses to T cell cytokines that promote hindbrain versus spinal cord neuroinflammation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurotropic RNA viruses continue to emerge and are increasingly linked to diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) despite viral clearance. Indeed, the overall mortality of viral encephalitis in immunocompetent individuals is low, suggesting efficient mechanisms of virologic control within the CNS. Both immune and neural cells participate in this process, which requires extensive innate immune signaling between resident and infiltrating cells, including microglia and monocytes, that regulate the effector functions of antiviral T and B cells as they gain access to CNS compartments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFood Chem Toxicol
April 2018
The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of diet derived AGEs (dAGEs) on the circulatory levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and to evaluate the protective efficacy of natural anti-oxidants curcumin (CU) and gallic acid (GA) respectively against the dAGEs-induced systemic inflammation in experimental Swiss albino mice. The experimental mice were fed with dAGEs in the presence and absence of CU and GA for 6 months. The levels of 40 circulatory pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines were evaluated using Proteome-Cytokine Array kit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochem Biophys Res Commun
September 2017
Npr1 gene (coding for NPR-A) and Npr2 gene (coding for NPR-B) are identified as intrinsic anti-hypertrophic genes that opposes abnormal cardiac remodeling. However, the functional role of Npr1 and Npr2 genes during cardiac hypertrophic growth is not well understood. Hence, the present investigation was aimed to study the effect of Npr1 and Npr2 gene silencing, respectively on β-AR activation induced cardiac hypertrophic growth in H9c2 cells in vitro.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study was aimed to determine whether stimulating Npr1 gene activity using Valporic acid (VA), a small short chain fatty acid molecule can enhance ANP mediated anti-hypertrophic activity in isoproterenol (ISO) - treated H9c2 cells in vitro. H9c2 cells were treated with ISO (10 M) and co-treated with VA (10 M) in the presence and absence of ANP (10M), for 48h. ATRA (10 M) was used as a positive inducer of Npr1 gene transcription.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Actinic keratosis is a precursor to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Long treatment durations and severe side effects have limited the efficacy of current actinic keratosis treatments. Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) is an epithelium-derived cytokine that induces a robust antitumor immunity in barrier-defective skin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe sought to determine the effect of chronic activation of β-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) on the left ventricular (LV) expression profile of Npr1 and Npr2 (coding for NPR-A and NPR-B, respectively) genes, and the functional activity of these receptors in adult Wistar rat hearts. The Npr1 gene expression was markedly reduced (3.5-fold), while the Npr2 gene expression was up regulated (4-fold) in Isoproterenol (ISO)-treated heart as compared with controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdvances in the field of cancer immunology, including studies on tumor-infiltrating CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), have led to new immunotherapeutics with proven efficacy against late-stage cancers. However, the antitumor potential of the immune system in targeting early-stage cancers remains uncertain. Here, we demonstrated that both genetic and chemical induction of thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) at a distant site leads to robust antitumor immunity against spontaneous breast carcinogenesis in mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Chem Theory Comput
December 2015
Four diagnostic criteria have been examined to identify the suitability of single-reference wave function-based quantum chemistry methods for a set of 118 4d transition metal species. These diagnostics include the weight of the leading configuration of the CASSCF wave function, C0(2); the Frobenius norm of the coupled cluster amplitude vector related to single excitations, T1; the matrix 2-norm of the coupled cluster T1 amplitude vector arising from coupled cluster calculations, D1; and the percent total atomization energy, %TAE, corresponding to a relationship between energies determined with CCSD and CCSD(T) calculations. New criteria, namely, T1 ≥ 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAtrial natriuretic peptide (ANP)/natriuretic peptide receptor-A (NPR-A) system is suggested as an endogenous anti-hypertrophic protective mechanism of the heart. We have shown previously that Angiotensin II (ANG II), an effector molecule of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, down-regulates NPR-A expression and its activity in vivo rat heart. However, the underlying mechanism by which ANG II down-regulates NPR-A expression in the heart is not well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe relativistic-pseudopotential correlation consistent composite approach (rp-ccCA) was used to determine the enthalpy of formation (ΔHf) of 24 first row (3d) transition metal compounds. The rp-ccCA-derived ΔHf's were compared to ΔHf's previously obtained with an all-electron composite method for transition metals (ccCA-TM). For the 3d metal systems, rp-ccCA achieves transition metal accuracy, within 3 kcal/mol of reliable experimental data, overall.
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