Spontaneous cutaneous-parotid fistula of the cheek caused by sialolithiasis in a child: a case report.

Introduction: Cheek fistulas of salivary origin in children are very rare, predominantly of congenital or traumatic origin but rarely caused by parotid sialolithiasis given its low prevalence in paediatric populations.

Case Presentation: A 3-year-old child with no history other than substantial left-cheek swelling for 2 months was referred. We identified a cutaneous fistula with seropurulent discharge.

Repositioning chair treatment procedure for cupulolithiasis: case report (with video).

Introduction: A cupulolithiasis of the lateral semicircular canal is an accumulation of otolithic debris at the level of the cupula of the same canal. Its pathophysiology generally generates a specific clinical presentation. This situation can be very disabling for the patient and tricky to treat for the clinician.

Dietary restriction modulates ultradian rhythms and autocorrelation properties in mice behavior.

Animal behavior emerges from integration of many processes with different spatial and temporal scales. Dynamical behavioral patterns, including daily and ultradian rhythms and the dynamical microstructure of behavior (i.e.

Coronavirus disease 2019 and lung cancer: where are we?

Oncology patients are more susceptible to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection due to hospital contact and an immunological system that can be compromised by antineoplastic therapy and supportive treatments. Certain similarities have been described in the physiopathology of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and lung cancer (LC) that may explain the higher probability of these patients of developing a more serious disease with more frequent hospitalizations and even death, especially with the addition of smoking, cardiovascular and respiratory comorbidities, old age and corticosteroids use. Pre-existing lesions and cancer therapies change the normal architecture of the lungs, so diagnostic scales such as COVID-19 Reporting and Data System (CO-RADS) are of vital importance for a correct diagnosis and patient homogenization, with a high inter-observer correlation.

Synthesis and interaction with growth factors of sulfated oligosaccharides containing an anomeric fluorinated tail.

Compounds that mimic the biological properties of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and can be more easily prepared than the native GAG oligosaccharides are highly demanded. Here, we present the synthesis of sulfated oligosaccharides displaying a perfluorinated aliphatic tag at the reducing end as GAG mimetics. The preparation of these molecules was greatly facilitated by the presence of the fluorinated tail since the reaction intermediates were isolated by simple fluorous solid-phase extraction.

High-Mannose Oligosaccharide Hemimimetics that Recapitulate the Conformation and Binding Mode to Concanavalin A, DC-SIGN and Langerin.

The "carbohydrate chemical mimicry" exhibited by sp -iminosugars has been utilized to develop practical syntheses for analogs of the branched high-mannose-type oligosaccharides (HMOs) Man and Man . In these compounds, the terminal nonreducing Man residues have been substituted with 5,6-oxomethylidenemannonojirimycin (OMJ) motifs. The resulting oligomannoside hemimimetic accurately reproduce the structure, configuration, and conformational behavior of the original mannooligosaccharides, as confirmed by NMR and computational techniques.

Glycosaminoglycans: What Remains To Be Deciphered?

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are complex polysaccharides exhibiting a vast structural diversity and fulfilling various functions mediated by thousands of interactions in the extracellular matrix, at the cell surface, and within the cells where they have been detected in the nucleus. It is known that the chemical groups attached to GAGs and GAG conformations comprise "glycocodes" that are not yet fully deciphered. The molecular context also matters for GAG structures and functions, and the influence of the structure and functions of the proteoglycan core proteins on sulfated GAGs and vice versa warrants further investigation.

A dynamically coherent pattern of rhythms that matches between distant species across the evolutionary scale.

We address the temporal organization of circadian and ultradian rhythms, crucial for understanding biological timekeeping in behavior, physiology, metabolism, and alignment with geophysical time. Using a newly developed five-steps wavelet-based approach to analyze high-resolution time series of metabolism in yeast cultures and spontaneous movement, metabolism, and feeding behavior in mice, rats, and quails, we describe a dynamically coherent pattern of rhythms spanning over a broad range of temporal scales (hours to minutes). The dynamic pattern found shares key features among the four, evolutionary distant, species analyzed.

Mannobioside biomimetics that trigger DC-SIGN binding selectivity.

Selective DC-SIGN targeting . langerin might lead to anti-infective agents, given their counteracting effects upon infection by some pathogens. Here we show that multivalent sp-iminosugar-containing mannobioside analogs can achieve total DC-SIGN selectivity by levering the canonic binding mode towards high-mannose oligosaccharide ligands, behaving as factual biomimics.

Use of soil moisture active passive satellite data and WorldClim 2.0 data to predict the potential distribution of visceral leishmaniasis and its vector Lutzomyia longipalpis in Sao Paulo and Bahia states, Brazil.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a neglected tropical disease transmitted by Lutzomyia longipalpis, a sand fly widely distributed in Brazil. Despite efforts to strengthen national control programs reduction in incidence and geographical distribution of VL in Brazil has not yet been successful; VL is in fact expanding its range in newly urbanized areas. Ecological niche models (ENM) for use in surveillance and response systems may enable more effective operational VL control by mapping risk areas and elucidation of eco-epidemiologic risk factors.

Pleiotrophin Interaction with Synthetic Glycosaminoglycan Mimetics.

Chondroitin sulfate (CS) E is the natural ligand for pleiotrophin (PTN) in the central nervous system (CNS) of the embryo. Some structures of PTN in solution have been solved, but no precise location of the binding site has been reported yet. Using N-labelled PTN and HSQC NMR experiments, we studied the interactions with a synthetic CS-E tetrasaccharide corresponding to the minimum binding sequence.

Computational Approaches and Tools as Applied to the Study of Rhythms and Chaos in Biology.

The temporal dynamics in biological systems displays a wide range of behaviors, from periodic oscillations, as in rhythms, bursts, long-range (fractal) correlations, chaotic dynamics up to brown and white noise. Herein, we propose a comprehensive analytical strategy for identifying, representing, and analyzing biological time series, focusing on two strongly linked dynamics: periodic (oscillatory) rhythms and chaos. Understanding the underlying temporal dynamics of a system is of fundamental importance; however, it presents methodological challenges due to intrinsic characteristics, among them the presence of noise or trends, and distinct dynamics at different time scales given by molecular, dcellular, organ, and organism levels of organization.

Cost-minimisation analysis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia in Spain in the era of oral targeted therapies.

Objective: Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia places a considerable economic burden on the Spanish National Health System. This study estimated the direct costs of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia oral targeted therapies from 2011 to 2025, inclusive, in a scenario with fixed  treatment oral targeted therapies and in a scenario without them. Method: The clinical course of adult chronic lymphocytic leukaemia patients  was represented by a Markov model with four health states: watchful waiting,  first-line treatment, relapse, and death.

The Interaction between Chondroitin Sulfate and Dermatan Sulfate Tetrasaccharides and Pleiotrophin.

Pleiotrophin (PTN) is a neurotrophic factor that participates in the development of the embryonic central nervous system (CNS) and neural stem cell regulation by means of an interaction with sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Chondroitin sulfate (CS) is the natural ligand in the CNS. We have previously studied the complexes between the tetrasaccharides used here and MK (Midkine) by ligand-observed NMR techniques.

Surgical treatments of superior semicircular canal dehiscence: A single-centre experience in 63 cases.

Objective: Different procedures have been described to treat superior canal dehiscence. The present study aims to describe the results obtained with middle fossa approach, transmastoid approach, and round window reinforcement in a large series of patients.

Methods And Design: In this single-center retrospective study, we report the results of the procedures performed between 2006 and 2019 using the three main surgical approaches, middle fossa approach (MFA), transmastoid approach (TMA), and round window reinforcement (RWR).

Fluorous-Tag-Assisted Synthesis of GAG-Like Oligosaccharides.

The classic, solution-phase synthesis of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) oligosaccharides is hampered by the numerous, time-consuming chromatographic purifications required for the isolation of the glycosylation products after each coupling step between sugar building blocks. Here, we present a detailed experimental procedure for a glycosylation reaction involving a glycosyl acceptor unit that is equipped with a perfluorinated tag. The presence of this fluorous tail allows the quick purification of the desired glycosylation product by performing a simple fluorous solid-phase extraction (F-SPE).

A single-cell tumor immune atlas for precision oncology.

The tumor immune microenvironment is a main contributor to cancer progression and a promising therapeutic target for oncology. However, immune microenvironments vary profoundly between patients, and biomarkers for prognosis and treatment response lack precision. A comprehensive compendium of tumor immune cells is required to pinpoint predictive cellular states and their spatial localization.

Synthesis, self-assembly and Langerin recognition studies of a resorcinarene-based glycocluster exposing a hyaluronic acid thiodisaccharide mimetic.

Herein, we report the synthesis of an octavalent glycocluster exposing a thiodisaccharide mimetic of the repetitive unit of hyaluronic acid, βSGlcA(1 → 3)βSGlcNAc, constructed on a calix[4]resorcinarene scaffold by CuAAC reaction of suitable precursors. This glycocluster showed a strong tendency toward self-aggregation. DOSY-NMR and DLS experiments demonstrated the formation of spherical micelles of d ≅ 6.

GAG Multivalent Systems to Interact with Langerin.

Langerin is a C-type Lectin expressed at the surface of Langerhans cells, which play a pivotal role protecting organisms against pathogen infections. To address this aim, Langerin presents at least two recognition sites, one Ca-dependent and another one independent, which are capable to recognize a variety of carbohydrate ligands. In contrast to other lectins, Langerin recognizes sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), a family of complex and heterogeneous polysaccharides present in the cell membrane and the extracellular matrix, at the interphase generated in the trimeric form of Langerin but absent in the monomeric form.

Midkine Interaction with Chondroitin Sulfate Model Synthetic Tetrasaccharides and Their Mimetics: The Role of Aromatic Interactions.

Midkine (MK) is a neurotrophic factor that participates in the embryonic central nervous system (CNS) development and neural stem cell regulation, interacting with sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Chondroitin sulfate (CS) is the natural ligand in the CNS. In this work, we describe the interactions between a library of synthetic models of CS-types and mimics.

Synthesis, structure and midkine binding of chondroitin sulfate oligosaccharide analogues.

The preparation of chondroitin sulfate (CS) oligosaccharide mimetics, more easily synthesized than natural sequences, is a highly interesting task because these compounds pave the way for modulation of the biological processes in which CS is involved. Herein, we report the synthesis of CS type E analogues which present easily accessible glucose units instead of glucuronic acid (GlcA) moieties. NMR experiments and molecular dynamics simulations showed that the 3D structure of these compounds is similar to the structure of the natural CS-E oligosaccharides.

Single human oocyte transcriptome analysis reveals distinct maturation stage-dependent pathways impacted by age.

Female fertility is inversely correlated with maternal age due to a depletion of the oocyte pool and a reduction in oocyte developmental competence. Few studies have addressed the effect of maternal age on the human mature oocyte (MII) transcriptome, which is established during oocyte growth and maturation, however, the pathways involved remain unclear. Here, we characterize and compare the transcriptomes of a large cohort of fully grown germinal vesicle stage (GV) and in vitro matured (IVM-MII) oocytes from women of varying reproductive age.

SPOTlight: seeded NMF regression to deconvolute spatial transcriptomics spots with single-cell transcriptomes.

Spatially resolved gene expression profiles are key to understand tissue organization and function. However, spatial transcriptomics (ST) profiling techniques lack single-cell resolution and require a combination with single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) information to deconvolute the spatially indexed datasets. Leveraging the strengths of both data types, we developed SPOTlight, a computational tool that enables the integration of ST with scRNA-seq data to infer the location of cell types and states within a complex tissue.