Publications by authors named "P Cmielewski"

Phase contrast x-ray imaging (PCXI) provides high-contrast images of weakly-attenuating structures like the lungs. PCXI, when paired with 4D X-ray Velocimetry (XV), can measure regional lung function and non-invasively assess the efficacy of emerging therapeutics. Bacteriophage therapy is an emerging antimicrobial treatment option for lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF), particularly with increasing rates of multi-drug-resistant infections.

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Article Synopsis
  • Two cystic fibrosis rat models were studied to assess lung function, revealing that although they had CFTR mRNA reductions, they did not show typical signs of CF lung disease.
  • Using advanced imaging techniques, the study measured how localized physical obstructions affected lung ventilation and found increased ventilation issues in CF rats compared to healthy controls.
  • The findings highlighted that CF rats exhibit altered respiratory mechanics, necessitating more effort to breathe due to stiffer lungs, and demonstrated the effectiveness of XV imaging for assessing lung ventilation.
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Mutation-agnostic treatments such as airway gene therapy have the potential to treat any individual with cystic fibrosis (CF), irrespective of their CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene variants. The aim of this study was to employ two CF rat models, Phe508del and CFTR knockout (KO), to assess the comparative effectiveness of CFTR modulators and lentiviral (LV) vector-mediated gene therapy. Cells were isolated from the tracheas of rats and used to establish air-liquid interface (ALI) cultures.

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Magnetic nanoparticles can be used as a targeted delivery vehicle for genetic therapies. Understanding how they can be manipulated within the complex environment of live airways is key to their application to cystic fibrosis and other respiratory diseases.Dark-field x-ray imaging provides sensitivity to scattering information, and allows the presence of structures smaller than the detector pixel size to be detected.

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