The death and clearance of nurse cells is a consequential milestone in Drosophila melanogaster oogenesis. In preparation for oviposition, the germline-derived nurse cells bequeath to the developing oocyte all their cytoplasmic contents and undergo programmed cell death. The death of the nurse cells is controlled non-autonomously and is precipitated by epithelial follicle cells of somatic origin acquiring a squamous morphology and acidifying the nurse cells externally.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHow might one embed a chemist's knowledge into an automated materials-discovery pipeline? In generative design for inorganic crystalline materials, generating candidate compounds is no longer a bottleneck - there are now synthetic datasets of millions of compounds. However, weeding out unsynthesizable or difficult to synthesize compounds remains an outstanding challenge. Post-generation "filters" have been proposed as a means of embedding human domain knowledge, either in the form of scientific laws or rules of thumb.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: We examined adverse event (AE) reports relating to cabotegravir/rilpivirine (CAB/RPV) in the US FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), focusing on therapeutic failure (TF) and non-therapeutic failure (NTF) outcomes.
Methods: FAERS is a database of AE and medication error reports from post-marketing surveillance. The study was granted exempt approval by the Binghamton University Institutional Review Board.
Background: Florida, which led the country in terms of its number of opioid-prescribing physicians, was unique during the height of the opioid epidemic because of its lax prescribing laws and high number of unregulated pain clinics. Here, we address differences in the distribution rates of oxycodone and hydrocodone across Florida counties during the peak years of the opioid epidemic using an under-utilized database.
Methods: The Washington Post and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration's Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS) databases provided longitudinal oxycodone and hydrocodone distribution data in grams per county (2006-2014) and state (2006-2021).
Cell death is an important process in the body, as it occurs throughout every tissue during development, disease, and tissue regeneration. Phagocytes are responsible for clearing away dying cells and are typically characterized as either professional or nonprofessional phagocytes. Professional phagocytes, such as macrophages, are found in nearly every part of the body while nonprofessional phagocytes, such as epithelial cells, are found in every tissue type.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmall modifications in the chemical structure of ligands are known to dramatically change their ability to inhibit the activity of a protein. Unraveling the mechanisms that govern these dramatic changes requires scrutinizing the dynamics of protein-ligand binding and unbinding at the atomic level. As an exemplary case, we have studied Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3β (GSK-3β), a multifunctional kinase that has been implicated in a host of pathological processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn older inpatients, anticholinergic medications can increase the risk of complications that may increase length of stay (LOS). Cyclobenzaprine is an anticholinergic medication associated with mental status changes, falls, and injuries in older patients. The purpose of this study is to determine whether use of a lower cyclobenzaprine dose (5 mg) compared with higher dosing (10 mg) will affect LOS, 30-day readmission rates, and need for injectable psychotropic agents in inpatients 65 years of age and older.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolar and chiral crystal symmetries confer a variety of potentially useful functionalities upon solids by coupling otherwise noninteracting mechanical, electronic, optical, and magnetic degrees of freedom. We describe two phases of the 3D perovskite, CsSnBr, which emerge below 85 K due to the formation of Sn(II) lone pairs and their interaction with extant octahedral tilts. Phase II (77 K < < 85 K, space group 2/) exhibits ferroaxial order driven by a noncollinear pattern of lone pair-driven distortions within the plane normal to the unique octahedral tilt axis, preserving the inversion symmetry observed at higher temperatures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHalide perovskites show great optoelectronic performance, but their favorable properties are paired with unusually strong anharmonicity. It was proposed that this combination derives from the ns electron configuration of octahedral cations and associated pseudo-Jahn-Teller effect. We show that such cations are not a prerequisite for the strong anharmonicity and low-energy lattice dynamics encountered in these materials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring a SARS-CoV-2 infection, macrophages recognize viral components resulting in cytokine production. While this response fuels virus elimination, overexpression of cytokines can lead to severe COVID-19. Previous studies suggest that the spike protein (S) of SARS-CoV-2 can elicit cytokine production via the transcription factor NF-κB and the toll-like receptors (TLRs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Opioid overdoses in the USA have increased to unprecedented levels. Administration of the opioid antagonist naloxone can prevent overdoses.
Objective: This study was conducted to reveal the pharmacoepidemiologic patterns in naloxone prescribing to Medicaid patients from 2018 to 2021 as well as Medicare in 2019.
Purpose: Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a severe, progressive disease, which may be caused by exposure to certain medications.
Methods: We queried the U.S.
Vacuole formation is a key hallmark of age-dependent neurodegeneration in the Drosophila brain. Here, we present a protocol to analyze 3D neurodegenerative vacuoles in the whole-mount Drosophila melanogaster brain. We describe steps for whole-brain dissection, staining, 3D imaging, and z-stack image processing using Fiji ImageJ.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study aims to characterise oxycodone's distribution and opioid-related overdoses in the USA by state from 2000 to 2021.
Design: This is an observational study.
Setting: More than 80 000 Americans died of an opioid overdose in 2021 as the USA continues to struggle with an opioid crisis.
The United States (US) opioid epidemic is a persistent and pervasive public health emergency that claims the lives of over 80,000 Americans per year as of 2021. There have been sustained efforts to reverse this crisis over the past decade, including a number of measures designed to decrease the use of prescription opioids for the treatment of pain. This study analyzed the changes in federal production quotas for prescription opioids and the distribution of prescription opioids for pain and identified state-level differences between 2010 and 2019.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), recently renamed metabolic (dysfunction) associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), is the most common chronic liver disease in the United States. Presently, there is an intense and ongoing effort to identify and develop novel therapeutics for this disease. In this study, we explored the anti-inflammatory activity of a new compound, termed IOI-214, and its therapeutic potential to ameliorate NAFLD/MAFLD in male C57BL/6J mice fed a high fat (HF) diet.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a major public health concern in the USA, resulting in high rates of overdose and other negative outcomes. Methadone, an OUD treatment, has been shown to be effective in reducing the risk of overdose and improving overall health and quality of life. This study analysed the distribution of methadone for the treatment of OUD across the USA over the past decade and through the COVID-19 pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn nervous system development, disease, and injury, neurons undergo programmed cell death, leaving behind cell corpses that are removed by phagocytic glia. Altered glial phagocytosis has been implicated in several neurological diseases including Alzheimer's disease. To untangle the links between glial phagocytosis and neurodegeneration, we investigated mutants lacking the phagocytic receptor Draper.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroPubl Biol
September 2023
Traumatic injuries (TIs) from intimate partner violence, vehicular collisions, high-impact sports, and even mundane activities can be fatal. However, survivors of TIs can have pathophysiological disturbances post-injury, including neurodegenerative diseases, mental illness, and metabolic disorders.Reproductive issues are a known consequence of TI especially in women, however this has remained poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLipomatous hypertrophy of the interatrial septum (LHIS) is a benign non-neoplastic cardiac lesion that previously has not been readily described, but with the increasing usage of computed tomography and echocardiography, this is now becoming a more well-characterized incidental finding. This case highlights an incidental finding of LHIS while a patient was undergoing treatment for a routine gastrointestinal bleed.
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