Forebrain Acetylcholine Modulates Isoflurane and Ketamine Anesthesia in Adult Mice.

Background: Cholinergic drugs are known to modulate general anesthesia, but anesthesia responses in acetylcholine-deficient mice have not been studied. It was hypothesized that mice with genetic deficiency of forebrain acetylcholine show increased anesthetic sensitivity to isoflurane and ketamine and decreased gamma-frequency brain activity.

Methods: Male adult mice with heterozygous knockdown of vesicular acetylcholine transporter in the brain or homozygous knockout of the transporter in the basal forebrain were compared with wild-type mice.

Clinical outcomes of isolated acute instability of the syndesmosis treated with arthroscopy and percutaneous suture-button fixation.

Introduction: To present the short- to midterm clinical outcomes of a series of patients with isolated acute syndesmosis instability treated with arthroscopy and percutaneous suture-button fixation.

Materials And Methods: A review of 17 patients treated through the arthroscopic approach. The mean age of the patients was 27.

Homeless people: health aspects and experiences with health services.

Objectives: to analyze the understanding of homeless people living in a city in the countryside of São Paulo about what health is and about their experiences in health services.

Methods: a qualitative exploratory study developed through interviews with homeless people and a field diary. The data were organized by themes and the findings were compared to a collective health framework.

Increased Cholinergic Tone Causes Pre-synaptic Neuromuscular Degeneration and is Associated with Impaired Diaphragm Function.

In vertebrates, muscle activity is dependent on acetylcholine (ACh) released from neuromuscular junctions (NMJs), and changes in cholinergic neurotransmission are linked to a variety of neuromuscular diseases, including congenital myasthenic syndromes (CMS). The storage and release of ACh depends on the activity of the Vesicular Acetylcholine Transporter (VAChT), a rate-limiting step for cholinergic neurotransmission whose loss of function mutations was shown to cause human congenital myasthenia. However, we know much less about increased VAChT activity, due to copy number variations, for example.

Influence of the Electrolyte Salt Concentration on DNA Detection with Graphene Transistors.

Liquid-gated Graphene Field-Effect Transistors (GFET) are ultrasensitive bio-detection platforms carrying out the graphene's exceptional intrinsic functionalities. Buffer and dilution factor are prevalent strategies towards the optimum performance of the GFETs. However, beyond the Debye length (λD), the role of the graphene-electrolytes' ionic species interactions on the DNA behavior at the nanoscale interface is complicated.

Percutaneous plantar fasciotomy: An anatomical study about its safety and efficacy.

Background: Percutaneous plantar fasciotomy is one of the available options for recalcitrant cases of plantar fasciopathy, but there is a mismatch in the clinical results between different author's experience, possibly due to variability when choosing the exact cutaneous entry point. The purpose of this study is to validate the plantar approach in the surgical treatment of plantar fasciopathy, describing a safe path and cutaneous entry point to perform a percutaneous plantar fasciotomy with a 2 mm incision testing the procedure on cadavers.

Methods: a unicentric cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in 12 cadaveric feet to verify the accuracy of the percutaneous fasciotomy entry point.

Management of the Tarsometatarsal Joint in the Rotational Correction of Hallux Valgus by the Modified Lapidus Procedure: Intraoperative Technical Tips to Prevent Complications.

The modified Lapidus procedure is considered a useful tool for correction of multiplanar deformities in the hallux valgus, including first metatarsal pronation. It offers a greater power of correction compared to most other osteotomies. However, postoperative complications can occur in up to 12% of cases.

Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated formation of protein binding polynucleotides.

Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) enzyme plays an integral part in the V(D)J recombination, allowing for the huge diversity in expression of immunoglobulins and T-cell receptors within lymphocytes, through their unique ability to incorporate single nucleotides into oligonucleotides without the need of a template. The role played by TdT in lymphocytes precursors found in early vertebrates is not known. In this paper, we demonstrated a new screening method that utilises TdT to form libraries of variable sized (vsDNA) libraries of polynucleotides that displayed binding towards protein targets.

Multifaceted WNT Signaling at the Crossroads Between Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Autophagy in Glioblastoma.

Tumor cells can employ epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) or autophagy in reaction to microenvironmental stress. Importantly, EMT and autophagy negatively regulate each other, are able to interconvert, and both have been shown to contribute to drug-resistance in glioblastoma (GBM). EMT has been considered one of the mechanisms that confer invasive properties to GBM cells.

Increased cholinergic activity under conditions of low estrogen leads to adverse cardiac remodeling.

Cholinesterase inhibitors are used in postmenopausal women for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Despite their widespread use in the clinical practice, little is known about the impact of augmented cholinergic signaling on cardiac function under reduced estrogen conditions. To address this gap, we subjected a genetically engineered murine model of systemic vesicular acetylcholine transporter overexpression () to ovariectomy and evaluated cardiac parameters.

Information Processing in the Brain as Optimal Entropy Transport: A Theoretical Approach.

We consider brain activity from an information theoretic perspective. We analyze the information processing in the brain, considering the optimality of Shannon entropy transport using the Monge-Kantorovich framework. It is proposed that some of these processes satisfy an optimal transport of informational entropy condition.

Fabrication of bioactive novel scaffold by solid-state reaction sintering for bone regeneration.

In this work we present a new type of scaffold obtained by solid-state reaction, simultaneous sintering of a mixture of precursor oxides, carbonates, and organic substances, the latter used for pore generation. Having variable local composition, exhibits excellent overall physicochemical and bioactivity response. Open porosity is about 50%-60% and its permeability 10  m .

Protective and anti-inflammatory effects of acetylcholine in the heart.

The innate and adaptive immune systems play an important role in the development of cardiac diseases. Therefore, it has become critical to identify molecules that can modulate inflammation in the injured heart. In this regard, activation of the cholinergic system in animal models of heart disease has been shown to exert protective actions that include immunomodulation of cardiac inflammation.

A second attempt at pulp revascularisation on an immature traumatised anterior tooth: a case report with two-year follow-up.

This report describes the second attempt at pulp revascularisation, using an association between 2% chlorhexidine (CHX) and calcium hydroxide (CH) as intracanal dressing, in an immature traumatised anterior tooth with pulp necrosis. A 21-year-old woman complained of pain and dental crown darkening of a permanent maxillary right central incisor. Her medical records presented a history of dental trauma, and at age 15, the first attempt at revascularisation was performed, using triple antibiotic paste (TAP) as the intracanal dressing.

Tardive neurotoxicity of anticholinergic drugs: A review.

The cholinergic system is a complex neurotransmitter system with functional involvement at multiple levels of the nervous system including the cerebral cortex, spinal cord, autonomic nervous system, and neuromuscular junction. Anticholinergic medications are among the most prescribed medications, making up one-third to one-half of all medications prescribed for seniors. Recent evidence has linked long-term use of anticholinergic medications and dementia.

Establishment and Characterization of Canine Mammary Gland Carcinoma Cell Lines With Vasculogenic Mimicry Ability and .

Mammary tumors affect intact and elderly female dogs, and almost 50% of these cases are malignant. Cell culture offers a promising preclinical model to study this disease and creates the opportunity to deposit cell lines at a cell bank to allow greater assay reproducibility and more reliable validation of the results. Another important aspect is the possibility of establishing models and improving our understanding of tumor characteristics, such as vasculogenic mimicry.

Cholinergic dysfunction in the dorsal striatum promotes habit formation and maladaptive eating.

Dysregulation of habit formation has been recently proposed as pivotal to eating disorders. Here, we report that a subset of patients suffering from restrictive anorexia nervosa have enhanced habit formation compared with healthy controls. Habit formation is modulated by striatal cholinergic interneurons.

Application of Short Pre-enrichment, and Double Chemistry Real-Time PCR, Combining Fluorescent Probes and an Intercalating Dye, for Same-Day Detection and Confirmation of spp. and O157 in Ground Beef and Chicken Samples.

Molecular methods, particularly those based on real-time PCR (qPCR), have become a popular approach to detect pathogens in food samples. This technique may take advantage of hydrolysis fluorescent probes for increased specificity. Even though suitable, this approach loses the capacity of performing result confirmation by melt curve analysis.

Choriocarcinoma Presenting as Recurrent Intracranial Hemorrhage in an Adolescent Patient.

Background: Due to its highly metastatic and invasive nature, choriocarcinoma may affect other organ systems and mimic conditions not typical of gynecologic cancers. Recurrent intracranial hemorrhage secondary to rupture of multiple oncotic aneurysms is one of its rare initial presentations.

Case: We report a 2-month postpartum, 16-year old girl who initially presented with sudden-onset left-sided weakness.

Changes in abscisic acid metabolism in relation to the maturation of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L., cv. Mencía) somatic embryos.

Background: Somatic embryogenesis in grapevines is a complex process that depends on many physiological and genetic factors. One of its main limitations is the process of precocious germination of the somatic embryos in differentiation medium. This process lowers plant conversion rates from the somatic embryos, and it is probably caused by a low endogenous abscisic acid (ABA) content.

A New Take on Prion Protein Dynamics in Cellular Trafficking.

The mobility of cellular prion protein (PrP) in specific cell membrane domains and among distinct cell compartments dictates its molecular interactions and directs its cell function. PrP works in concert with several partners to organize signaling platforms implicated in various cellular processes. The scaffold property of PrP is able to gather a molecular repertoire to create heterogeneous membrane domains that favor endocytic events.

Evaluation and implementation of commercial antibodies for improved nanoparticle-based immunomagnetic separation and real-time PCR for faster detection of .

continues to be a major health issue in Europe, as well as worldwide. Faster methods, not only for detection, but also for sample preparation are of great interest particularly for this slow-growing pathogen. Immunomagnetic separation has been previously reported to be an effective way to concentrate bacteria, and remove inhibitors.