Prostaglandin F2 Receptor Negative Regulator (PTGFRN) Expression Correlates With a Metastatic-like Phenotype in Epidermoid Carcinoma, Pediatric Medulloblastoma, and Mesothelioma.

Prostaglandin F2 receptor negative regulator (PTGFRN) is a transmembrane protein associated with metastatic characteristics of certain cancer types. However, it remains poorly characterized and its direct function in cancer remains unclear. The study presented here aims to further examine whether PTGFRN expression affects a cancer cell's phenotype, as well as metastatic-like characteristics.

Effect of PTFGRN Expression on the Proteomic Profile of A431 Cells and Determination of the PTGFRN Interactome.

Prostaglandin F2 receptor negative regulator (PTGFRN) is a transmembrane protein whose expression has been previously implicated in cancer metastasis. However, the exact molecular mechanisms by which PTGFRN influences cancer progression are still unknown. As such, our laboratory set out to investigate how PTGFRN knockdown affected the expression of other proteins.

Listeria exploits IFITM3 to suppress antibacterial activity in phagocytes.

The type I interferon (IFN) signaling pathway has important functions in resistance to viral infection, with the downstream induction of interferon stimulated genes (ISG) protecting the host from virus entry, replication and spread. Listeria monocytogenes (Lm), a facultative intracellular foodborne pathogen, can exploit the type I IFN response as part of their pathogenic strategy, but the molecular mechanisms involved remain unclear. Here we show that type I IFN suppresses the antibacterial activity of phagocytes to promote systemic Lm infection.

Identification of Prostaglandin F2 Receptor Negative Regulator (PTGFRN) as an internalizable target in cancer cells for antibody-drug conjugate development.

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) are effective antibody-based therapeutics for hematopoietic and lymphoid tumors. However, there is need to identify new targets for ADCs, particularly for solid tumors and cancers with unmet needs. From a hybridoma library developed against cancer cells, we selected the mouse monoclonal antibody 33B7, which was able to bind to, and internalize, cancer cell lines.

Adjustable Strabismus Surgery under Topical Anesthesia: Alignment in Supine vs Seated Position.

Purpose: To compare ocular deviation in the operating room depending on whether the patient is in supine decubitus or seated after single-stage adjustable strabismus surgery under topical anesthesia.

Material And Method: We performed a prospective observational study of 30 patients with horizontal and/or vertical strabismus who underwent single stage adjustable strabismus surgery under topical anesthesia. Both distance and near deviation were evaluated before surgery, during surgery in both positions (seated and supine), and at 1 day, 1 month, and 3 months after surgery.

Building a three-dimensional model of the upper gastrointestinal tract for computer simulations of swallowing.

We aimed to provide realistic three-dimensional (3D) models to be used in numerical simulations of peristaltic flow in patients exhibiting difficulty in swallowing, also known as dysphagia. To this end, a 3D model of the upper gastrointestinal tract was built from the color cryosection images of the Visible Human Project dataset. Regional color heterogeneities were corrected by centering local histograms of the image difference between slices.

Family caregivers' narratives of mental health treatment usage processes by their Latino adult relatives with serious and persistent mental illness.

Family caregivers' views and experiences related to treatment usage processes by their adult relatives with serious and persistent mental illness (SPMI) were empirically examined in a sample of Latino caregivers (n = 17) who were users of services at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in a predominantly Latino- (80%) and Mexican-descent large city in the Southwest United States. We conducted a stability check of qualitative findings with a second sample of Latino caregivers with no exposure to NAMI (n = 15). Overall, the combined sample (N = 32) compared similarly with larger samples of Latino adults and caregivers in quantitative measures of acculturation, familism, caregiver stigma, and depression symptoms.

Family caregivers' monitoring of medication usage: a qualitative study of Mexican-origin families with serious mental illness.

Despite the high level of involvement of many family caregivers of adults with serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, little is known about their experiences with and beliefs about monitoring the psychiatric medication usage of their relatives. We used consensual qualitative research methods to analyze narratives on this topic by 12 Mexican-descent caregivers (160 pages of transcripts). The caregivers predominantly represented parent (mother) caregivers with levels of psychological distress and burden that were similar to those of larger samples of Mexican-descent caregivers.

Enhancing watershed segmentation of touching and weakly-connected features in biomedical images.

We report how to improve and control watershed segmentation of touching features in optical-microscope images of immunochemically stained cells and in three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of weak-connected components in transmission electron microscopy images from ultra-thin slices of compact chromatin clumps, from rat lymphocytes. Our approach includes image processing of the distance-transform domain, and a discrete-boundary formulation of morphological operators, to speed up the 3D watershed segmentation. The adjustment for connectivity criteria, as well as other tuning parameters, come from the Nyquist sampling criterion, applied to spatial resolution, and are obtained from biological considerations, such as the average size of a normal cell.

A mesh-free mechanical model of the upper gastrointestinal system.

Realistic behavior in Computer Simulation of biological system (e.g. humans organs) is essential to 3D modeling in medicine.

Image-fusion operators for 3D anatomical and functional analysis of the brain.

The goal of the present work is to obtain images combining in a useful and precise way the information present in 3D volumes of medical imaging sets. We address two modalities combining anatomy (Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI) and functional information (Positron Emission Tomography or PET). Commercial imaging software often offers image fusion tools based on fixed blending or color-channel combination of different modalities, and various popular color Look-Up Tables (LUTs), without considering the anatomical and functional character of the image features.

Modeling interactions with a computer representation of the upper gastrointestinal system.

Our goal is to simulate interactions with a computer model of the esophagus and the stomach, built from the Visible Human database, and reported in previous works. The optical distortion of the endoscope was simulated during navigation allowing the user a quantitative assessment of distortion when measures an injury. Another improvement to our model is the inclusion of abnormal anatomy, from two types, the first one is related to the color features of the disease and the second is a direct modification in the triangle structure of the mesh, with the goal to simulate blisters and injures in the model.

Applications of computer assisted surgery and medical robotics at the ISSSTE, México: preliminary results.

We present the first results of four projects of a second phase of a Mexican Project Computer Assisted Surgery and Medical Robotics, supported by the Mexican Science and Technology National Council (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología) under grant SALUD-2002-C01-8181. The projects are being developed by three universities (UNAM, UAM, ITESM) and the goal of this project is to integrate a laboratory in a Hospital of the ISSSTE to give service to surgeons or clinicians of Endoscopic surgeons, urologist, gastrointestinal endoscopist and neurosurgeons.