Publications by authors named "Pilar Simmons"

Introduction: Chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment colloquially referred to as chemobrain is a poorly understood phenomenon affecting a highly variable proportion of patients with breast cancer. Here we investigate the association between anxiety and despair-like behaviors in mice treated with cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil (CMF) along with host histological, proteomic, gene expression, and gut microbial responses.

Methods: Forced swim and sociability tests were used to evaluate depression and despair-like behaviors.

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Space exploration has advanced substantially over recent decades and plans to increase the duration of deep space missions are in preparation. One of the primary health concerns is potential damage to the central nervous system (CNS), resulting in loss of cognitive abilities and function. The majority of ground-based research on space radiation-induced health risks has been conducted using single particle simulations, which do not effectively model real-world scenarios.

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The environment outside the Earth's protective magnetosphere is a much more threatening and complex space environment. The dominant causes for radiation exposure, solar particle events and galactic cosmic rays, contain high-energy protons. In space, astronauts need healthy and highly functioning cognitive abilities, of which the hippocampus plays a key role.

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Advances in the early diagnosis and treatment have led to increases in breast cancer survivorship. Survivors report cognitive impairment symptoms such as loss of concentration and learning and memory deficits which significantly reduce the patient's quality of life. Additional therapies are needed to prevent these side effects and, the precise mechanisms of action responsible are not fully elucidated.

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Space is a high-stress environment. One major risk factor for the astronauts when they leave the Earth's magnetic field is exposure to ionizing radiation from galactic cosmic rays (GCR). Several adverse changes occur in mammalian anatomy and physiology in space, including bone loss.

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This neural dissociation protocol (an adaptation of the protocol accompanying a commercial adult brain dissociation kit) optimizes tissue processing in preparation for detailed downstream analysis such as flow cytometry or single-cell sequencing. Neural dissociation can be conducted via mechanical dissociation (such as using filters, chopping techniques, or pipette trituration), enzymatic digestion, or a combination thereof. The delicate nature of neuronal cells can complicate efforts to obtain the highly viable, true single-cell suspension with minimal cellular debris that is required for single-cell analysis.

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In the past few years, breast cancer has become the most prevalent type of cancer. The majority of patients receive combinatorial chemotherapy treatments, which may result in increased risk of developing drug resistance, a reduced quality of life, and substantial side effects. Treatment modalities that could lessen the physical toll of standard treatments or act in synergy with chemotherapeutic treatments would benefit women worldwide.

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Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women and it is estimated that about 30% of newly diagnosed cancers in women will be breast cancers. While advancements in treating breast cancer have led to an average 5-year survival rate of 90%, many survivors experience cognitive impairments as a result of chemotherapy treatment. Doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and docetaxel (TAC) are commonly administered as breast cancer treatments; however, there are few studies that have tested the cognitive effects of TAC.

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Artificial extracellular matrices (aECMs) are an extension of biomaterials that were developed as model environments for tissue cells that mimic the native in vivo target tissues' structure. This bibliometric analysis evaluated the research productivity regarding aECM based on tissue engineering technology. The Web of Science citation index was examined for articles published from 1990 through 2019 using three distinct aECM‑related topic sets.

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