Cerebrovascular Complications Associated With Iatrogenic Fungal Meningitis Following Surgical Procedures in Mexico.

Background: The current fungal meningitis outbreak caused by contaminated epidural anesthesia with among patients who underwent surgical procedures in Matamoros, Mexico remains a cause of concern. Its association with an increased susceptibility for cerebrovascular complications (CVC) has not been reported. This single-center study describes 3 patients with a unique pattern of CVC attributed to fungal meningitis.

oHSV-P10 reduces glioma stem cell enrichment after oncolytic HSV therapy.

Longstanding evidence implicate glioma stem-like cells as the main drivers contributing toward glioblastoma (GBM) therapy resistance and tumor recurrence. Although oncolytic herpes simplex virus (oHSV) viral therapy is a promising biological therapy recently approved for melanoma (in the United States and Europe) and GBM (in Japan); however, the impact of this therapy on GBM stem-like cells (GSCs) is understudied. Here we show that post-oHSV virotherapy activated AKT signaling results in an enrichment of GSC signatures in glioma, which mimics the enrichment in GSC observed after radiation treatment.

PKR induces TGF-β and limits oncolytic immune therapy.

Background: Mammalian cells have developed multiple intracellular mechanisms to defend against viral infections. These include RNA-activated protein kinase (PKR), cyclic GMP-AMP synthase and stimulation of interferon genes (cGAS-STING) and toll-like receptor-myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (TLR-MyD88). Among these, we identified that PKR presents the most formidable barrier to oncolytic herpes simplex virus (oHSV) replication in vitro.

The chicken wing training model in cerebrovascular microsurgery for the side-to-side bypass.

In the expanding era of endovascular treatment and minimally invasive techniques, the neurosurgical trainees have a steady decrease in the exposure to microsurgical skills. However, there remain a need for neurosurgical trainees to be proficient at such skills, particularly for performing high-stakes interventions such as vascular bypasses. The scarcity of cerebrovascular bypasses coupled with the technical expertise it demands necessitates the presence of a training model for neurosurgical residents and fellows.

Replication and Spread of Oncolytic Herpes Simplex Virus in Solid Tumors.

Oncolytic herpes simplex virus (oHSV) is a highly promising treatment for solid tumors. Intense research and development efforts have led to first-in-class approval for an oHSV for melanoma, but barriers to this promising therapy still exist that limit efficacy. The process of infection, replication and transmission of oHSV in solid tumors is key to obtaining a good lytic destruction of infected cancer cells to kill tumor cells and release tumor antigens that can prime anti-tumor efficacy.

Posttreatment Maturation of Medulloblastoma into Gangliocytoma: Report of 2 Cases.

Introduction: We report 2 cases of medulloblastoma maturing into gangliocytoma after receiving multimodal therapy. Here we present 2 cases of diagnosed medulloblastoma which on re-resection were noted to be gangliocytoma without heterogeneity, which is an extremely rare occurrence.

Case Presentation: The first patient, an 11-year-old boy diagnosed with high-risk (non-WNT, non-SHH) medulloblastoma, was treated with near-total surgical resection followed by craniospinal radiation therapy with weekly vincristine.

Distributed acoustic cues for caller identity in macaque vocalization.

Individual primates can be identified by the sound of their voice. Macaques have demonstrated an ability to discern conspecific identity from a harmonically structured 'coo' call. Voice recognition presumably requires the integrated perception of multiple acoustic features.

Intrinsic Connections of the Core Auditory Cortical Regions and Rostral Supratemporal Plane in the Macaque Monkey.

In the ventral stream of the primate auditory cortex, cortico-cortical projections emanate from the primary auditory cortex (AI) along 2 principal axes: one mediolateral, the other caudorostral. Connections in the mediolateral direction from core, to belt, to parabelt, have been well described, but less is known about the flow of information along the supratemporal plane (STP) in the caudorostral dimension. Neuroanatomical tracers were injected throughout the caudorostral extent of the auditory core and rostral STP by direct visualization of the cortical surface.