Publications by authors named "McManus G"

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder typified by the loss of dopamine (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) leading to motor symptoms including resting tremor, rigidity, akinesia, and postural instability. DA replacement therapy with levodopa (L-DOPA) remains the gold-standard treatment for the motor symptoms of PD. Unfortunately, chronic use of L-DOPA leads to the development of side effects known as L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The text discusses a newly developed workflow for phylogenomic analyses of microbial eukaryotes using single-cell RNA sequencing, aimed at overcoming challenges related to genome complexity and non-target sequences.
  • The researchers tested the workflow on transcriptomes from the Oligotrichea group of marine ciliates, comparing their results with traditional ribosomal RNA analyses and examining phylogenomic approaches using both single-copy and multi-copy genes.
  • Overall, the study found that their workflow, particularly the use of the Asteroid method, yielded consistent and well-supported phylogenetic relationships, making it adaptable for studying other uncultivable microbial eukaryotes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Glioblastoma is a Grade 4 primary brain tumor defined by therapy resistance, diffuse infiltration, and near-uniform lethality. The underlying mechanisms are unknown, and no treatment has been curative. Using a recently developed creatine kinase inhibitor (CKi), we explored the role of this inhibitor on GBM biology in vitro.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study explores how different strains of an anaerobic bacterium found in the mouth impact oral cells, especially in relation to oral cancers, using two distinct cancer cell lines from varying stages of a specific type of oral cancer (OSCC).
  • Findings show that bacteria adhered more strongly to advanced-stage OSCC cells, triggered responses linked to cancer cell movement and growth, and influenced levels of important proteins that promote cancer progression and blood vessel formation.
  • The research highlights that different bacterial strains and host cell types significantly affect how invasive growth occurs in oral cells, suggesting that treatment strategies could be tailored based on these factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT is emerging as a tool in the diagnosis and evaluation of pulmonary sarcoidosis, however, there is limited consensus regarding its diagnostic performance and prognostic value.

Method: A meta-analysis was conducted with PubMed, Science Direct, MEDLINE, Scopus, and CENTRAL databases searched up to and including September 2023. 1355 studies were screened, with seventeen (n = 708 patients) suitable based on their assessment of the diagnostic performance or prognostic value of FDG-PET/CT.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Most drugs struggle to effectively treat glioblastoma (GBM) due to limited penetration across the blood-brain barrier, which makes their efficacy low.
  • This study utilizes low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPU) combined with microbubbles (MB) to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier, significantly increasing the delivery of liposomal doxorubicin and PD-1 blocking antibodies (aPD-1) in both human and animal models.
  • Results show that this method improves drug concentrations, enhances immune responses in cells, and contributes to long-term survival in GBM mouse models, highlighting its potential for improving GBM treatments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative movement disorder characterized by dopamine (DA) cell loss in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). As PD progresses, patients display disruptions in gait such as changes in posture, bradykinesia, and shortened stride. DA replacement via L-DOPA alleviates many PD symptoms, though its effects on gait are not well demonstrated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Cellular functions hinge on the meticulous orchestration of protein transport, both spatially and temporally. Central to this process is retrograde trafficking, responsible for targeting proteins to the nucleus. Despite its link to many diseases, the implications of retrograde trafficking in glioblastoma (GBM) are still unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Phago-mixotrophy, the combination of photoautotrophy and phagotrophy in mixoplankton, organisms that can combine both trophic strategies, have gained increasing attention over the past decade. It is now recognized that a substantial number of protistan plankton species engage in phago-mixotrophy to obtain nutrients for growth and reproduction under a range of environmental conditions. Unfortunately, our current understanding of mixoplankton in aquatic systems significantly lags behind our understanding of zooplankton and phytoplankton, limiting our ability to fully comprehend the role of mixoplankton (and phago-mixotrophy) in the plankton food web and biogeochemical cycling.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Excessive inflammation-associated coagulation is a feature of infectious diseases, occurring in such conditions as bacterial sepsis and COVID-19. It can lead to disseminated intravascular coagulation, one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Recently, type I interferon (IFN) signaling has been shown to be required for tissue factor (TF; gene name F3) release from macrophages, a critical initiator of coagulation, providing an important mechanistic link between innate immunity and coagulation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Intraspecific variation in host susceptibility to individual parasite species is common, yet how these effects scale to mediate the structure of diverse parasite communities in nature is less well understood. To address this knowledge gap, we tested how host genetic identity affects parasite communities on restored reefs seeded with juvenile oysters from different sources-a regional commercial hatchery or one of two wild progenitor lines. We assessed prevalence and intensity of three micro- and two macroparasite species for 4 years following restoration.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor symptoms that result from loss of nigrostriatal dopamine (DA) cells. While L-DOPA provides symptom alleviation, its chronic use often results in the development of L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID). Evidence suggests that neuroplasticity within the serotonin (5-HT) system contributes to LID onset, persistence, and severity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Protist plankton are major members of open-water marine food webs. Traditionally divided between phototrophic phytoplankton and phagotrophic zooplankton, recent research shows many actually combine phototrophy and phagotrophy in the one cell; these protists are the "mixoplankton." Under the mixoplankton paradigm, "phytoplankton" are incapable of phagotrophy (diatoms being exemplars), while "zooplankton" are incapable of phototrophy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Depression is a common condition among cancer patients, across several points in the disease trajectory. Although presenting higher prevalence rates than the general population, it is often not reported or remains unnoticed. Moreover, somatic symptoms of depression are common in the oncological context and should not be dismissed as a general symptom of cancer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Charge transfer (CT) interaction induced formation of a hierarchical supramolecular assembly has attracted attention due to its wide diversity of structural and functional characteristics. In the present work, we report the generation of green luminescent microspheres from the charge transfer interaction induced co-assembly of a bis-naphthyl dipicolinic amide (DPA) derivative with tetracyanobenzene (TCNB) for the first time. The properties of these self-assemblies were studied both in solution and the solid-state using spectroscopic and a variety of microscopy techniques.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A unique V-shaped "chiral" supramolecular scaffold, -(4-pyridyl)-4-amino-1,8-naphthalimide Tröger's base (), was synthesized in good yield from a precursor -(4-pyridyl)-4-amino-1,8-naphthalimide (). was characterized using different spectroscopic methods and the molecular structure was elucidated by diffraction analysis. A new -cymene-Ru(II)-curcumin conjugate () was designed by reacting dipyridyl donor and ruthenium-curcuminato acceptor [ (-cymene)Ru-(curcuminato)Cl] in the presence of silver triflate.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The purpose of this study is to determine which taxonomic methods can elucidate clear and quantifiable differences between two cryptic ciliate species, and to test the utility of genome architecture as a new diagnostic character in the discrimination of otherwise indistinguishable taxa. Two cryptic tintinnid ciliates, Schmidingerella arcuata and Schmidingerella meunieri, are compared via traditional taxonomic characters including lorica morphometrics, ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene barcodes and ecophysiological traits. In addition, single-cell 'omics analyses (single-cell transcriptomics and genomics) are used to elucidate and compare patterns of micronuclear genome architecture between the congeners.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Genetic differentiations and phylogeographical patterns of small organisms may be shaped by spatial isolation, environmental gradients, and gene flow. However, knowledge about genetic differentiation of rotifers at the intercontinental scale is still limited. and .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The ionic conductivity of solid polymer electrolytes is influenced by interactions between lithium ions and the polymer, as well as lithium ions and anions.
  • - Density functional calculations were conducted to explore molecular interactions in a specific polymer system (CH-(CH-CF)-CH-Li-(CFSO)N) for different configurations.
  • - Changes in lithium coordination numbers and their effects on the vibrational spectrum were examined to gain insights into ionic association at the molecular level for specific polymer systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A family of six Ru(II) polypyridyl complexes (-) which contain phenanthroline-based ligands functionalized with alkyl chains of different lengths (one methyl group, 10 and 21 carbon alkyl chains) and either 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) or 1,4,5,8-tetraazaphenanthrene (TAP) as ancillary ligands have been synthesized and characterized. The influence of the alkyl chain length on their photophysical and photochemical properties as well as in their photobiological applications has been elucidated by monitoring the changes in their MLCT-centered absorption and emission bands. The presence of one methyl group or 10 carbon alkyl chains does not seem to significantly affect the photophysical and photochemical properties of the resulting Ru(II) complexes when compared to the well-known [Ru(phen)] and [Ru(TAP)phen].

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Real-time tracking of prodrug uptake, delivery and activation in vivo represents a major challenge for prodrug development. Herein, we demonstrate the use of novel glycosylated theranostics of the cancer pharmacophore Amonafide in highly-selective, enzymatic triggered release. We show that the use of endogenous enzymes for activated release of the therapeutic component can be observed, in real time, and monitored using one and two-photon bioimaging, offering unique insight into the prodrug pharmacokinetic profile.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ciliates are abundant microplankton that are widely distributed in the ocean. In this paper, the distribution patterns of ciliate diversity in the South China Sea (SCS) were analyzed by compiling community data from previous publications. Based on morphological identification, a total of 592 ciliate species have been recorded in the SCS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

CD44 is emerging as an important receptor biomarker for various cancers. Amongst these is oral cancer, where surgical resection remains an essential mode of treatment. Unfortunately, surgery is frequently associated with permanent disfigurement, malnutrition, and functional comorbidities due to the difficultly of tumour removal.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Chemists are actively searching for new covalent organic framework (COF) linkages to enhance material properties and structures.
  • A new strategy has been developed using HPO as a bifunctional catalyst to create amine-linked COFs from common amine and aldehyde linkers.
  • The resulting amine-linked COFs are more effective than their imine counterparts in promoting Knoevenagel condensation due to their better basicity and stability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF