Intrafraction motion in intra-cranial multi-target stereotactic radiosurgery plans: A multi-institutional investigation on robustness.

Purpose: Even with modern immobilisation devices, some amount of intrafraction patient motion is likely to occur during stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) delivery. The aim of this work was to investigate how robustness of plans to intrafraction motion is affected by plan geometry and complexity.

Methods: In 2018, the Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Group conducted a multiple-target SRS international planning challenge, the data from which was utilised in this study.

Lack of canonical activities of connexins in highly aggressive human prostate cancer cells.

Connexins (Cxs) have the ability to form channels that allow the exchange of ions/metabolites between adjacent cells (gap junction channels, GJC) or between the intra- and extra-cellular compartments (hemichannels, HC). Cxs were initially classified as tumor suppressors. However, more recently, it has been shown that Cxs exert anti- and pro-tumorigenic effects depending on the cell and tissue context.

Gold(I) Complexes Based on Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Derivatives as Multi-Target Drugs against Colon Cancer.

Targeting inflammation and the molecules involved in the inflammatory process could be an effective cancer prevention and therapy strategy. Therefore, the use of anti-inflammatory strategies, such as NSAIDs and metal-based drugs, has become a promising approach for preventing and treating cancer by targeting multiple pathways involved in tumor progression. The present work describes new phosphane gold(I) complexes derived from nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as multitarget drugs against colon cancer.

Is the Imaging Radiation Oncology Core Head and Neck Credentialing Phantom an Effective Surrogate for Different Anatomic Sites?

Purpose: The Imaging Radiation Oncology Core (IROC) head and neck (H&N) phantom is used to credential institutions for intensity modulated radiation therapy delivery for all anatomic sites where delivery of modulated therapy is a primary challenge. This study evaluated how appropriate the use of this phantom is for varied clinical anatomy by evaluating how closely the IROC H&N phantom described clinical dose errors from beam modeling compared with various anatomic sites.

Methods And Materials: The multileaf collimator (MLC) offset, transmission, percent depth dose, and 7 additional beam modeling parameters for a Varian accelerator were modified in RayStation to match community data at the 2.

Pharmacology of boldine: summary of the field and update on recent advances.

Over the past decade, boldine, a naturally occurring alkaloid found in several plant species including the Chilean Boldo tree, has garnered attention for its efficacy in rodent models of human disease. Some of the properties that have been attributed to boldine include antioxidant activities, neuroprotective and analgesic actions, hepatoprotective effects, anti-inflammatory actions, cardioprotective effects and anticancer potential. Compelling data now indicates that boldine blocks connexin (Cx) hemichannels (HCs) and that many if not all of its effects in rodent models of injury and disease are due to CxHC blockade.

Evaluating the ability of non-tuberculous mycobacteria to induce non-specific reactions in bovine tuberculosis diagnostic tests in guinea pigs and cattle.

Limitations in diagnostic test performance are one of the major challenges hampering the eradication of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are considered one of the main causes of non-specific reactions in the intradermal tuberculin test, the most widely used bTB diagnostic test. To determine the role of NTMs in bTB misdiagnosis in Spain, an experimental study including the NTM species most commonly found in bTB-positive animals from bTB-free farms in the country (M.

Heteronuclear Complexes with Promising Anticancer Activity against Colon Cancer.

This study investigates the activity of novel gold(I) and copper(I)/zinc(II) heteronuclear complexes against colon cancer. The synthesised heteronuclear Au(I)-Cu(I) and Au(I)-Zn(II) complexes were characterised and evaluated for their anticancer activity using human colon cancer cell lines (Caco-2). The complexes exhibited potent cytotoxicity, with IC values in the low micromolar range, and effectively induced apoptosis in cancer cells.

Compact Class-conditional Attribute Category Clustering: Amino Acid Grouping for Enhanced HIV-1 Protease Cleavage Classification.

Categorical attributes are common in many classification tasks, presenting certain challenges as the number of categories grows. This situation can affect data handling, negatively impacting the building time of models, their complexity and, ultimately, their classification performance. In order to mitigate these issues, this research proposes a novel preprocessing technique for grouping attribute categories in classification datasets.

Pathophysiological role of connexin and pannexin hemichannels in neuromuscular disorders.

A growing body of research has provided evidence that de novo expression of connexin hemichannels and upregulation of pannexin hemichannels (Cx HCs and Panx HCs, respectively) in the cytoplasmic membrane of skeletal muscle (sarcolemma) are critical steps in the pathogenesis of muscle dysfunction of many genetic and acquired muscle diseases. This review provides an overview of the current understanding of the molecular mechanisms regulating the expression of Cx and Panx HCs in skeletal muscle, as well as their roles in both muscle physiology and pathologies. Additionally, it addresses existing gaps in knowledge and outlines future challenges in the field.

The angiotensin (1-7) glycopeptide PNA5 improves cognition in a chronic progressive mouse model of Parkinson's disease through modulation of neuroinflammation.

Cognitive decline in Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a prevalent and undertreated aspect of disease. Currently, no therapeutics adequately improve this aspect of disease. It has been previously shown that MAS receptor agonism via the glycosylated Angiotensin (1-7) peptide, PNA5, effectively reduces cognitive decline in models of vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID).

Duodeno-ileal diversion with self-forming magnets in a sutureless neodymium anastomosis procedure (SNAP) for weight recidivism after sleeve gastrectomy: feasibility and 9-month results.

Background: The sleeve gastrectomy (SG) has become the most common bariatric procedure worldwide. However, insufficient weight loss or weight recidivism is frequent, which may require effective and safe revisional procedures.

Objective: To determine the technical feasibility and safety of a minimally invasive, duodeno-ileal side-to-side anastomosis using a Sutureless Neodymium Anastomosis Procedure (SNAP) for patients with weight recidivism or inadequate weight loss following SG.

Multi-institutional investigation into the robustness of intra-cranial multi-target stereotactic radiosurgery plans to patient setup errors.

Purpose: This study aimed to analyse correlations between planning factors including plan geometry and plan complexity with robustness to patient setup errors.

Methods: Multiple-target brain stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) plans were obtained through the Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG) international treatment planning challenge (2018). The challenge dataset consisted of five intra-cranial targets with a 20 Gy prescription.

Inhibition of astroglial hemichannels prevents synaptic transmission decline during spreading depression.

Background: Spreading depression (SD) is an intriguing phenomenon characterized by massive slow brain depolarizations that affect neurons and glial cells. This phenomenon is repetitive and produces a metabolic overload that increases secondary damage. However, the mechanisms associated with the initiation and propagation of SD are unknown.

Ca permeation through C-terminal cleaved, but not full-length human Pannexin1 hemichannels, mediates cell death.

Pannexin1 hemichannels (Panx1 HCs) are found in the membrane of most mammalian cells and communicate the intracellular and extracellular spaces, enabling the passive transfer of ions and small molecules. They are involved in physiological and pathophysiological conditions. During apoptosis, the C-terminal tail of Panx1 is proteolytically cleaved, but the permeability features of hemichannels and their role in cell death remain elusive.

Differentiating Pressure Ulcer Risk Levels through Interpretable Classification Models Based on Readily Measurable Indicators.

Pressure ulcers carry a significant risk in clinical practice. This paper proposes a practical and interpretable approach to estimate the risk levels of pressure ulcers using decision tree models. In order to address the common problem of imbalanced learning in nursing classification datasets, various oversampling configurations are analyzed to improve the data quality prior to modeling.

CD74 supports accumulation and function of regulatory T cells in tumors.

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are plastic cells playing a pivotal role in the maintenance of immune homeostasis. Tregs actively adapt to the microenvironment where they reside; as a consequence, their molecular and functional profiles differ among tissues and pathologies. In tumors, the features acquired by Tregs remains poorly characterized.

Autocrine activation of P2X7 receptors mediates catecholamine secretion in chromaffin cells.

Background And Purpose: ATP is highly accumulated in secretory vesicles and secreted upon exocytosis from neurons and endocrine cells. In adrenal chromaffin granules, intraluminal ATP reaches concentrations over 100 mM. However, how these large amounts of ATP contribute to exocytosis has not been investigated.

Incorporating plan complexity into the statistical process control of volumetric modulated arc therapy pre-treatment verifications.

Background: Statistical process control (SPC) is a powerful statistical tool for process monitoring that has been highly recommended in healthcare applications, including radiation therapy quality assurance (QA). The AAPM TG-218 report described the clinical implementation of SPC for Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) pre-treatment verifications, pointing out the need to adjust tolerance limits based on plan complexity. However, the quantification of plan complexity and its integration into SPC remains an unresolved challenge.

A Dye Uptake Assay to Measure Large-Pore Channel Activity in Trypanosoma cruzi.

Large-pore channels allow the exchange of ions and molecules between the intra- and extracellular compartments. These channels are structures formed by several protein families with little or no evolutionary linkages that include connexins (Cxs), pannexins (Panxs), innexins (Inxs), CALHM1, and LRRC8 proteins. Recently, we have described the unnexins (Unxs) proteins expressed in Trypanosoma cruzi (T.

Cx43 hemichannels and panx1 channels contribute to ethanol-induced astrocyte dysfunction and damage.

Background: Alcohol, a widely abused drug, significantly diminishes life quality, causing chronic diseases and psychiatric issues, with severe health, societal, and economic repercussions. Previously, we demonstrated that non-voluntary alcohol consumption increases the opening of Cx43 hemichannels and Panx1 channels in astrocytes from adolescent rats. However, whether ethanol directly affects astroglial hemichannels and, if so, how this impacts the function and survival of astrocytes remains to be elucidated.

A radiotherapy community data-driven approach to determine which complexity metrics best predict the impact of atypical TPS beam modeling on clinical dose calculation accuracy.

Purpose: To quantify the impact of treatment planning system beam model parameters, based on the actual spread in radiotherapy community data, on clinical treatment plans and determine which complexity metrics best describe the impact beam modeling errors have on dose accuracy.

Methods: Ten beam modeling parameters for a Varian accelerator were modified in RayStation to match radiotherapy community data at the 2.5, 25, 50, 75, and 97.