Cost-effectiveness of a machine learning risk prediction model (LungFlag) in the selection of high-risk individuals for non-small cell lung cancer screening in Spain.

Objective: The LungFlag risk prediction model uses individualized clinical variables to identify individuals at high-risk of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT). This study evaluates the cost-effectiveness of LungFlag implementation in the Spanish setting for the identification of individuals at high-risk of NSCLC.

Methods: A model combining a decision-tree with a Markov model was adapted to the Spanish setting to calculate health outcomes and costs over a lifetime horizon, comparing two hypothetical scenarios: screening with LungFlag versus non-screening, and screening with LungFlag versus screening the entire population meeting 2013 US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) criteria.

Insulin-like growth factor-1 reduces cardiac autosis through decreasing AMPK/FOXO1 signaling and Na/K-ATPase-Beclin-1 interaction.

Introduction: Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) promotes survival and inhibits cardiac autophagy disruption.

Methods: Male Wistar rats were treated with IGF-1 (50 µg/kg), and 24 h after injection hearts were excised. The level of interaction between Beclin-1 and the α subunit of sodium/potassium-adenosine triphosphates (Na/K-ATPase), and phosphorylated forms of IGF-1 receptor/insulin receptor (IGF-1R/IR), forkhead box protein O1 (FOXO1) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) were measured.

Impact of different hormones on the regulation of nitric oxide in diabetes.

Polymetabolic syndrome achieved pandemic proportions and dramatically influenced public health systems functioning worldwide. Chronic vascular complications are the major contributors to increased morbidity, disability, and mortality rates in diabetes patients. Nitric oxide (NO) is among the most important vascular bed function regulators.

Experimental Intraperitoneal Infection of Piglets.

Streptococcus suis is a swine bacterial pathogen that predominantly causes disease in weaned piglets characterized by swelling of joints, arthritis, septicemia, meningitis, and sudden death. Intravenous, intramuscular, intraperitoneal, and intranasal infection models were developed to study the bacterial pathogenicity and efficacy of vaccines and various therapeutics. The selection of the appropriate infection model is a critical step in any study, as it may impact the outcomes of the study.

Immune response induced by a Streptococcus suis multi-serotype autogenous vaccine used in sows to protect post-weaned piglets.

Streptococcus suis is a bacterial pathogen that causes important economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. Since there are no current commercial vaccines, the use of autogenous vaccines applied to gilts/sows to enhance transfer of passive immunity is an attractive alternative to protect weaned piglets. However, there is no universal standardization in the production of autogenous vaccines and the vaccine formulation may be highly different among licenced manufacturing laboratories.

The involvement of Akt, mTOR, and S6K in the in vivo effect of IGF-1 on the regulation of rat cardiac Na/K-ATPase.

Background: We previously demonstrated that insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) regulates sodium/potassium adenosine triphosphatase (Na/K-ATPase) in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) via phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K). Taking into account that others' work show that IGF-1 activates the PI3K/protein kinase B (Akt) signaling pathway in many different cells, we here further questioned if the Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)/ribosomal protein p70 S6 kinase (S6K) pathway stimulates Na/K-ATPase, an essential protein for maintaining normal heart function.

Methods And Results: There were 14 adult male Wistar rats, half of whom received bolus injections of IGF-1 (50 μg/kg) for 24 h.

Single-cell Analysis Reveals Inter- and Intratumour Heterogeneity in Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths of breast cancer patients. Some cancer cells in a tumour go through successive steps, referred to as the metastatic cascade, and give rise to metastases at a distant site. We know that the plasticity and heterogeneity of cancer cells play critical roles in metastasis but the precise underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive.

Nitric oxide, thyroglobulin, and calcitonin: unraveling the nature of thyroid nodules.

Background: Thyroid nodules (TN) are localized morphological changes in the thyroid gland and can be benign or malignant.

Objective: The present study investigates the relationships between biochemical markers in serum (s) and their homologs in washout (w) after fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) of the TN of interest and their correlation with cytology specimen findings.

Methods: We investigated the relationships between serum biochemical markers nitric oxide (NO), thyroglobulin (TG), and calcitonin (CT), their homologs in washout after FNAB of the TN of interest, and cytology findings of biopsy samples classified according to the Bethesda system for thyroid cytopathology in this study, which included 86 subjects.

ECAP-controlled closed-loop versus open-loop SCS for the treatment of chronic pain: 36-month results of the EVOKE blinded randomized clinical trial.

Introduction: The evidence for spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has been criticized for the absence of blinded, parallel randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and limited evaluations of the long-term effects of SCS in RCTs. The aim of this study was to determine whether evoked compound action potential (ECAP)-controlled, closed-loop SCS (CL-SCS) is associated with better outcomes when compared with fixed-output, open-loop SCS (OL-SCS) 36 months following implant.

Methods: The EVOKE study was a multicenter, participant-blinded, investigator-blinded, and outcome assessor-blinded, randomized, controlled, parallel-arm clinical trial that compared ECAP-controlled CL-SCS with fixed-output OL-SCS.

The Na/K-ATPase: A potential therapeutic target in cardiometabolic diseases.

Cardiometabolic diseases (CMD) are a direct consequence of modern living and contribute to the development of multisystem diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus (DM). CMD has reached epidemic proportions worldwide. A sodium pump (Na/K-ATPase) is found in most eukaryotic cells' membrane and controls many essential cellular functions directly or indirectly.

A high-throughput drug screen reveals means to differentiate triple-negative breast cancer.

Plasticity delineates cancer subtypes with more or less favourable outcomes. In breast cancer, the subtype triple-negative lacks expression of major differentiation markers, e.g.

Association Between Telomere Length and Cardiovascular Risk: Pharmacological Treatments Affecting Telomeres and Telomerase Activity.

Telomeres represent the ends of chromosomes, and they are composed of an extensive number of - TTAGGG nucleotide sequence repeats in humans. Telomeres prevent chromosome degradation, participate in stabilization, and regulate the DNA repair system. Inflammation and oxidative stress have been identified as important processes causing cardiovascular disease and accelerating telomere shortening rate.

The Role of miRNAs in Metabolic Diseases.

Metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance are characterized by glucose and lipid metabolism alterations and represent a global health problem. Many studies have established the crucial role of micro-ribonucleic acids (miRNAs) in controlling metabolic processes in various tissues. miRNAs are single- stranded, highly conserved non-coding RNAs containing 20-24 oligonucleotides that are expressed in a tissue-specific manner.

Hypothyroidism and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease.

Thyroid hormones (TH) have a significant impact on cellular oxidative metabolism. Besides that, they maintain vascular homeostasis by positive effects on endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells. Subclinical (SCH) and clinical (CH) hypothyroidism influences target organs by changing their morphology and function and impaired blood and oxygen supply induced by accelerated atherosclerosis.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes mellitus: where do we stand today?

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), metabolic syndrome (MetS), and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) are metabolic disorders that belong to a highly prevalent disease cluster with a significant impact on public health worldwide. MetS is a complex condition characterized by metabolism perturbations that include glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, associated pro-inflammatory state, and arterial hypertension. Because the components of MetS commonly co-occur, the management of these disorders cannot be considered separate issues.

Role of C-Reactive Protein in Diabetic Inflammation.

Even though type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) represents a worldwide chronic health issue that affects about 462 million people, specific underlying determinants of insulin resistance (IR) and impaired insulin secretion are still unknown. There is growing evidence that chronic subclinical inflammation is a triggering factor in the origin of T2DM. Increased C-reactive protein (CRP) levels have been linked to excess body weight since adipocytes produce tumor necrosis factor (TNF-) and interleukin 6 (IL-6), which are pivotal factors for CRP stimulation.

A Prospective Multicenter Case Series Utilizing Intraoperative Neuromonitoring With Evoked Compound Action Potentials to Confirm Spinal Cord Stimulation Lead Placement.

Objectives: The use of intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) has been adapted to address issues of safety and proper lead positioning in spinal cord stimulation. This multicenter case series seeks to incorporate the use of evoked compound action potential (ECAP) and late response (LR) recording and compare it with the results obtained with IONM, specifically electromyography (EMG), for the confirmation of lead placement. This study aimed to establish a correlation between ECAPs, LR, and EMG and publish human recordings of ECAPs and LR during their use with IONM.

Durability of Clinical and Quality-of-Life Outcomes of Closed-Loop Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Back and Leg Pain: A Secondary Analysis of the Evoke Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Chronic pain is debilitating and profoundly affects health-related quality of life. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a well-established therapy for chronic pain; however, SCS has been limited by the inability to directly measure the elicited neural response, precluding confirmation of neural activation and continuous therapy. A novel SCS system measures the evoked compound action potentials (ECAPs) to produce a real-time physiological closed-loop control system.

Levothyroxine Treatment and the Risk of Cardiac Arrhythmias - Focus on the Patient Submitted to Thyroid Surgery.

Levothyroxine (LT4) is used to treat frequently encountered endocrinopathies such as thyroid diseases. It is regularly used in clinical (overt) hypothyroidism cases and subclinical (latent) hypothyroidism cases in the last decade. Suppressive LT4 therapy is also part of the medical regimen used to manage thyroid malignancies after a thyroidectomy.

Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis Coupled with Western Blot as a Method to Detect Potential Neutralizing Antibody Targets from Gram-Negative Intracellular Bacteria.

Antigen selection is a critical step in subunit vaccine design, especially if the goal is to identify antigens that can be bound by neutralizing antibodies to prevent invasion of cells by intracellular bacteria. Here, we describe a method involving two dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) coupled with western blotting (WB) and mass spectrometry (MS) to identify bacterial proteins that: (1) interact with the host target cell proteins, and (2) are targeted by antibodies from sera from infected animals. Subsequent steps would be performed to validate that the bacteria are targeted by neutralizing antibodies to prevent invasion of the eukaryotic cells.

Experimental evaluation of protection and immunogenicity of Streptococcus suis bacterin-based vaccines formulated with different commercial adjuvants in weaned piglets.

Streptococcus suis is an important swine pathogen responsible for economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. There is no effective commercial vaccine against S. suis.