Publications by authors named "McClain E"

This study explored the facilitators and barriers of community bike share use in a mid-sized city with high incidence of poverty and racial diversity using a community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) photovoice framework with the Stanford (OV) Discovery Tool digital application. Community members participated in one of three community citizen science walks with follow up focus groups facilitated by osteopathic medical student researcher to address "What makes it easy or hard to ride a bike using the bike share?" Twenty-seven diverse community members partnered with four osteopathic medical students exploring vulnerable individuals' lived experiences, beliefs/understanding of the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) and access to the bike share program. A total of 322 photos and narrative comments from citizen science walk audits developed deductive themes and follow up focus groups informed inductive themes.

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  • Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a chronic autoimmune liver disease primarily affecting small bile ducts, with limited treatment options and a reliance on liver transplants in severe cases.
  • Researchers studied T cell responses to a specific protein (PDC-E2) linked to PBC, focusing on a common genetic marker (HLA Class II DRB4∗01:01) found in many patients.
  • They discovered unique T cell receptors (TCRs) that can target a new PDC-E2 epitope, leading to the development of engineered regulatory T cells (EngTreg) that could help suppress harmful immune responses in PBC patients, offering potential for new therapies.
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  • Incidental durotomy (ID) is a common issue in spine surgeries that can lead to longer hospital stays and complications like pseudomeningocele formation, prompting a study comparing traditional open vs. minimally invasive (MIS) microdiscectomy techniques.
  • The study included 192 MIS patients and 2902 open surgery patients, ultimately analyzing 156 matched patients from both groups for ID occurrences and complications.
  • Results showed a similar incidence rate of ID in both methods (3.1% total), with one re-operation in the open cohort for pseudomeningocele, but no significant difference in re-operation rates between the two groups, highlighting the need for more extensive future research.
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P-15 is a 15-amino-acid-long biomimetic peptide widely demonstrated to enhance osteogenesis in vivo. Despite the prevalence of polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) in interbody device manufacturing, a growing body of evidence suggests it may produce an unfavorable immune response. The purpose of this preliminary study was to characterize the immune response and new bone growth surrounding PEEK implants with and without a P-15 peptide-based osteobiologic.

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Musculoskeletal (MSK) pathology encompasses an array of conditions that can cause anything from mild discomfort to permanent injury. Their prevalence and impact on disability have sparked interest in more effective treatments, particularly within orthopedics. As a result, the human placenta has come into focus within regenerative medicine as a perinatal derivative (PnD).

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  • Adoptive cellular therapy (ACT) using memory-like natural killer (NK) cells activated with specific cytokines shows promise in treating blood cancers, especially when combined with new fusion molecules.
  • The multifunctional fusion molecule HCW9206 improves the expansion of NK cells that have been primed with another molecule (HCW9201), leading to a significant increase in their quantity and activity.
  • The "Prime and Expand" strategy enhances NK cell metabolism and durability, making it a more efficient method for preparing clinical-grade NK cells for future cancer treatments.
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Bone regeneration is a complex multicellular process involving the recruitment and attachment of osteoprogenitors and their subsequent differentiation into osteoblasts that deposit extracellular matrixes. There is a growing demand for synthetic bone graft materials that can be used to augment these processes to enhance the healing of bone defects resulting from trauma, disease or surgery. P-15 is a small synthetic peptide that is identical in sequence to the cell-binding domain of type I collagen and has been extensively demonstrated in vitro and in vivo to enhance the adhesion, differentiation and proliferation of stem cells involved in bone formation.

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  • Personalized cancer vaccines targeting neoantigens show promise for treating follicular lymphoma (FL) by using advanced sequencing technologies to identify unique tumor mutations.
  • In a study involving 58 tumor samples from 57 FL patients, researchers predicted and filtered high-quality neoantigens, finding an average of 52 mutations per patient with multiple high-quality neoantigens identified.
  • A pilot clinical trial using these personalized neoantigen vaccines combined with PD-1 blockade has been initiated, showing early signs of feasibility, safety, and potential therapeutic benefits for patients with relapsed or refractory FL.
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Azaspiro[3.3]heptanes are valuable synthetic targets for drug discovery programs. The challenges associated with the preparation and diversification of this moiety as compared to other small, saturated rings have led to limited applications of compounds containing this spirocycle.

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  • Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is challenging to treat, especially with PD-1 blockade therapy, prompting researchers to explore enhancing natural killer (NK) cell therapies.
  • The study generated memory-like (ML) NK and conventional (c)NK cells, assessing their effectiveness in attacking HNSCC cells, particularly when combined with cetuximab or engineered with an anti-EphA2 CAR.
  • Results showed that ML NK cells were significantly more effective at killing HNSCC cells and that their performance improved further with cetuximab, supporting the potential of these combined therapies in clinical trials.
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Since the T-box transcription factors (TFs) T-BET and EOMES are necessary for initiation of NK cell development, their ongoing requirement for mature NK cell homeostasis, function, and molecular programming remains unclear. To address this, T-BET and EOMES were deleted in unexpanded primary human NK cells using CRISPR/Cas9. Deleting these TFs compromised in vivo antitumor response of human NK cells.

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Study Design: A laboratory study comparing polyether ether ketone (PEEK)-zeolite and PEEK spinal implants in an ovine model.

Objective: This study challenges a conventional spinal implant material, PEEK, to PEEK-zeolite using a nonplated cervical ovine model.

Summary Of Background Data: Although widely used for spinal implants due to its material properties, PEEK is hydrophobic, resulting in poor osseointegration, and elicits a mild nonspecific foreign body response.

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Neoantigens are tumor-specific peptide sequences resulting from sources such as somatic DNA mutations. Upon loading onto major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules, they can trigger recognition by T cells. Accurate neoantigen identification is thus critical for both designing cancer vaccines and predicting response to immunotherapies.

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DNA-encoded library (DEL) screens have significantly impacted new lead compound identification efforts within drug discovery. An advantage of DELs compared to traditional screening methods is that an exponentially broader chemical space can be effectively screened using only nmol quantities of billions of DNA-tagged, drug-like molecules. The synthesis of DELs containing diverse, sp-rich spirocycles, an important class of molecules in drug discovery, has not been previously reported.

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Objective (study Question): To use systems thinking with diverse system actors to (a) characterize current problems at the intersection of chronic conditions (CCs) and reproductive health (RH) care and their determinants, (b) determine necessary system actors for change, and (c) document cross-system actions that can improve identified problems in the United States.

Data Sources/study Setting: Data were collected from six groups of system actors via online focus groups.

Study Design: This is a qualitative multilevel study using the iceberg systems thinking framework.

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Recent advances in synthetic chemistry have seen a resurgence in the development of methods for visible light-mediated radical generation. Herein, we report the development of a photoactive ester based on a quinoline -oxide core structure, that provides a strong oxidant in its excited state. The heteroaromatic -oxide provides access to primary, secondary, and tertiary radical intermediates, and its application toward the development of a photochemical Minisci alkylation is reported.

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DNA-encoded libraries have proven their tremendous value in the identification of new lead compounds for drug discovery. To access libraries in new chemical space, many methods have emerged to transpose traditional mol-scale reactivity to nmol-scale, on-DNA chemistry. However, procedures to access libraries with a greater fraction of C(sp) content are still limited, and the need to "escape from flatland" more readily on-DNA remains.

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In this paper we present a method for control and stabilizing a pacing quadruped robot using state feedback switching. In the pacing gait, a quadruped cycles between the left and right pairs of legs to achieve locomotion. This results in two discrete stance configurations, each being unstable.

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Natural killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic innate lymphoid cells that are emerging as a cellular immunotherapy for various malignancies. NK cells are particularly dependent on interleukin (IL)-15 for their survival, proliferation, and cytotoxic function. NK cells differentiate into memory-like cells with enhanced effector function after a brief activation with IL-12, IL-15, and IL-18.

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Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphoid cells that eliminate cancer cells, produce cytokines, and are being investigated as a nascent cellular immunotherapy. Impaired NK cell function, expansion, and persistence remain key challenges for optimal clinical translation. One promising strategy to overcome these challenges is cytokine-induced memory-like (ML) differentiation, whereby NK cells acquire enhanced antitumor function after stimulation with interleukin-12 (IL-12), IL-15, and IL-18.

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Introduction: Women with infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) encounter multiple challenges following childbirth, including greater burden of chronic disease and increased risk for depression, compared with women with well infants. At the same time, they are confronted with the trauma of a hospitalized infant while also managing their postpartum recovery. Limited research exists describing the health needs of these women, despite the many numbers living this experience daily.

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  • Pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) after stem cell transplant usually have a very poor outlook, and current treatments like standard chemotherapy and donor lymphocyte infusions are not very effective.
  • A phase 1 trial treated 9 patients with memory-like natural killer (ML NK) cells that were generated from their original stem cell donors, showing promising results with 4 out of 8 evaluable patients achieving complete remission after two weeks.
  • The study found that these ML NK cells can expand and persist in the body with strong anti-leukemia responses, indicating they could be an effective new immunotherapy option for relapsed AML without significant toxicity.
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Natural killer (NK) cells are a promising alternative to T cells for cancer immunotherapy. Adoptive therapies with allogeneic, cytokine-activated NK cells are being investigated in clinical trials. However, the optimal cytokine support after adoptive transfer to promote NK cell expansion, and persistence remains unclear.

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Despite the significant progress in both scientific understanding and regulations, the safety of agricultural pesticides continues to be called into question. The need for complementary analytics to identify dysregulation events associated with chemical exposure and leverage this information to predict biological responses remains. Here, we present a platform that combines a model organ-on-chip neurovascular unit (NVU) with targeted mass spectrometry (MS) and electrochemical analysis to assess the impact of organophosphate (OP) exposure on blood-brain barrier (BBB) function.

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