Identification of Potent Leucine-Rich Repeat Kinase 2 Inhibitors by Virtual Screening and Biological Evaluation.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease but has limited medications. Targeting leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) has been identified as a potential strategy for the treatment of PD. The development of LRRK2 inhibitors has attracted much interest, and various compounds have been reported with significant improvement in preclinical and clinical models.

Blocking the SIRPα-CD47 axis promotes macrophage phagocytosis of exosomes derived from visceral adipose tissue and improves inflammation and metabolism in mice.

Background: Adipose tissue plays a pivotal role in systemic metabolism and maintaining bodily homeostasis. Exosomes from adipose tissues, known as AT-Exos, are recognized as important messengers in the communication between adipose tissue and other organs. Despite this, the alterations in exosome composition and the functional disparities among depot-specific AT-Exos in obesity remain elusive.

Effects of long-term low-dose 2.45 GHz microwave electromagnetic radiation on vulnerable organs in humans: a retrospective study based on patients receiving microwave diathermies in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine.

Purpose: To retrospectively observe the effects of long-term low-dose 2.45 GHz microwave electromagnetic radiation on human vulnerable organs.

Methods: This single-center, retrospective cohort study investigated patients who received long-term (20-100 times of microwave therapy within three months) low-dose (≤20 W) microwave therapy in our department five years ago.

Preparation and characterization of active packaging film containing chitosan/gelatin/brassica crude extract.

Chitosan (CS), gelatin (GE), and brassica (BR) were utilized as the primary components to develop an active packaging film with outstanding properties. Active film-forming solutions were prepared using the solution casting method to produce these films. The resulting active films were characterized through various techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and light transmittance (T%), opacity, water solubility (WS), water vapour transmittance rate (WVTR), oxygen permeability (OP), mechanical properties, and antioxidant and antimicrobial properties.

Radiomics Integration of Mammography and DCE-MRI for Predicting Molecular Subtypes in Breast Cancer Patients.

Background: Accurate identification of the molecular subtypes of breast cancer is essential for effective treatment selection and prognosis prediction.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of a radiomics model, which integrates breast mammography and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) in predicting the molecular subtypes of breast cancer.

Methods: We retrospectively included 462 female patients with pathologically confirmed breast cancer, including 53 cases of triple-negative, 94 cases of HER2 overexpression, 95 cases of luminal A, and 215 cases of luminal B breast cancer.

Adverse prognosis gene expression patterns in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) is a heterogeneous disease. Several studies have identified transcriptional subtypes of mCRPC, but comprehensive analysis of prognostic gene expression pathways has been limited. Therefore, we aggregated a cohort of 1012 mCRPC tissue samples from 769 patients and investigated the association of gene expression-based pathways with clinical outcomes and intrapatient and intratumor heterogeneity.

Genome sequencing enhances the diagnostic yield and expands the genetic landscape of male breast cancer.

Purpose: To understand the broader genetic landscape of male breast cancer (MBC), focusing on the utility of genome sequencing (GS) beyond (HGNC: 1100, 1101) variants.

Methods: Twenty-four patients with MBC underwent a multistep genetic analysis. Initial screening targeted variants followed by GS to identify pathogenic/likely pathogenic germline variants through a 3-tiered classification.

GADD45α is a direct target of TFEB and contributes to tacrolimus-induced chronic nephrotoxicity.

Tacrolimus-induced chronic nephrotoxicity (TICN) hinders its long-term use, but its mechanism remains unclear. Tacrolimus exerts its pharmacological effect by inhibiting calcineurin and its substrate NFAT. Whether the inhibition of other calcineurin substrates is related to TICN remains to be explored.

Spatial and temporal changes of breast-conserving surgery rates and its influential factors among Chinese patients with breast cancer from 2013 to 2019: a registry-based study.

Objective: Our study aims to evaluate the spatial and temporal changes of breast-conserving surgery (BCS) rates and influential factors of BCS in Guangdong Province, China.

Design, Setting And Participants: This registry-based cohort study analysed the data of patients of all age groups, from the medical record cover page, which was mandatorily collected for inpatients by the Health Administrative Department of Guangdong Province, China. Patients with non-metastatic breast cancer, who underwent breast surgery between 2013 and 2019, were included.

Enhanced demodulation of perfect optical vortices shift keying in LDPC-coded FSO communication via conformal vision transformer.

We propose a conformal vision transformer (CViT)-based demodulation for the perfect optical vortices shift keying (POV-SK) signal in the low-density parity check (LDPC) coded free-space optical (FSO) link. Despite the growing interest in POV for FSO links, atmospheric turbulence (AT) induces phase distortions, resulting in POV-SK demodulation errors and degrading POV-SK FSO communication performance. The CViT demodulator utilizes conformal mapping to reshape the circular POV-SK patterns into rectangles, enabling more efficient feature learning.

Synergistic inhibition of colorectal cancer progression by silencing Aurora A and the targeting protein for Xklp2.

Background: Unraveling the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC) can aid in developing prevention and treatment strategies. Aurora kinase A (AURKA) is a key participant in mitotic control and interacts with its co-activator, the targeting protein for Xklp2 (TPX2) microtubule nucleation factor. AURKA is associated with poor clinical outcomes and high risks of CRC recurrence.

Advances in RNA secondary structure prediction and RNA modifications: Methods, data, and applications.

Due to the hierarchical organization of RNA structures and their pivotal roles in fulfilling RNA functions, the formation of RNA secondary structure critically influences many biological processes and has thus been a crucial research topic. This review sets out to explore the computational prediction of RNA secondary structure and its connections to RNA modifications, which have emerged as an active domain in recent years. We first examine the progression of RNA secondary structure prediction methodology, focusing on a set of representative works categorized into thermodynamic, comparative, machine learning, and hybrid approaches.

RIOK1: A Novel Oncogenic Driver in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common and highly lethal cancers worldwide. RIO kinase 1 (RIOK1), a protein kinase/ATPase that plays a key role in regulating translation and ribosome assembly, is associated with a variety of malignant tumors. However, the role of RIOK1 in HCC remains largely unknown.

Self-gripping versus polypropylene mesh for incisional hernia repair in a rat model.

Background: Self-gripping mesh, made of monofilament polypropylene and covered by a layer of polylactic acid micro-hooks, is applied in ventral hernia repair, whereas cytological change and collagen expression around the mesh are rarely reported. The objective of this research was to compare inflammatory response and collagen proliferation between self-gripping and polypropylene mesh in rat model of incisional hernia.

Methods: Forty-five rats were randomly divided into unrepaired (UR) group, polypropylene (PP) mesh group, and self-gripping (SG) mesh group and euthanized at 1, 2 and 4 weeks postoperatively.

Comparative Analysis of Single-Channel and Multi-Channel Classification of Sleep Stages Across Four Different Data Sets.

: Manually labeling sleep stages is time-consuming and labor-intensive, making automatic sleep staging methods crucial for practical sleep monitoring. While both single- and multi-channel data are commonly used in automatic sleep staging, limited research has adequately investigated the differences in their effectiveness. In this study, four public data sets-Sleep-SC, APPLES, SHHS1, and MrOS1-are utilized, and an advanced hybrid attention neural network composed of a multi-branch convolutional neural network and the multi-head attention mechanism is employed for automatic sleep staging.

Microenhancement as a Biomarker for Cerebral Microbleed in Inflammatory Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy: Insights From 3D T1 Black-Blood MR Imaging.

Objectives: Cerebral microbleeds (cMBs) are common imaging findings in conditions related to cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). Blood-brain barrier (BBB) leakage is considered pivotal in their pathogenesis. This study investigates the potential role of cerebral microenhancement (cME) as an imaging biomarker on 3D T1 black-blood MRI (BB-MRI) for BBB rupture, predicting the formation of cMBs in inflammatory CAA variants.

Association between dietary betaine intake and overweight or obesity.

Betaine exhibits significant physiological functions in organisms and has positive impacts on obesity, alcohol-induced and metabolic-associated liver disease, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and certain cancers. However, the evidence from epidemiological studies is limited and inconsistent. This study aimed to investigate the association between dietary betaine intake and the incidence of overweight or obesity.

Improvement of Electrochemical Performance with Cetylpyridinium Chloride for the Al Anode of Alkaline Al-Air Batteries.

Aluminum-air batteries (AABs) are considered among high-power battery systems with various potential applications. However, the strong self-corrosion of Al in alkaline electrolytes negatively affects its Coulombic efficiency and significantly limits their large-scale application. This work presents the use of cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) as an inexpensive and environmentally benign electrolyte additive in alkaline AABs.

Reliable amplification of highly repetitive or low complexity sequence DNA enabled by superhelicase-mediated isothermal amplification.

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) requires thermal cycling to melt DNA and proceed through the subsequent cycles of DNA synthesis needed for exponential amplification. Previously, we engineered a superhelicase, with enhanced processivity and speed, to replace this traditional PCR melting step with enzymatic DNA unwinding while retaining desired PCR characteristics, such as multi-kb amplicon size and applicability to cloning and gene editing outcome assessment. This isothermal amplification method is named SHARP (SSB-Helicase Assisted Rapid PCR) because single-stranded DNA binding protein (SSB) and superhelicases are added to standard PCR reagents.

Risk of nasal septal perforation following nasal packing for epistaxis in the emergency department.

Introduction: Nasal packing is commonly employed in the emergency department (ED) to manage epistaxis that does not respond to conservative treatments. However, this intervention may increase the risk of nasal septal perforation (NSP) due to reduced blood flow to the nasal septum. No prior study has explored the relationship between nasal packing and risk of NSP.

The application of neuroprosthesis in restoration of unilateral facial nerve paralysis: A scoping review.

Facial nerve palsy can pose functional, psychosocial, and cosmetic issues for patients. Although various surgical techniques can improve facial functions and appearance for patients who do not fully recover following conservative management, they can be extensively invasive with limited restoration of facial movement and symmetry. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a technology that has been developed to stimulate paralyzed nerves or muscles and has 2 different applications in facial nerve palsy treatment: facial rehabilitation and neuroprosthesis.

Isobutyrate exerts a protective effect against liver injury in a DSS-induced colitis by inhibiting inflammation and oxidative stress.

Background: Short-chain fatty acids have been reported to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant functions; whether isobutyrate, a short-chain fatty acid, is protective against liver injury in a dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis and its molecular mechanism is unknown. In this study, DSS was used to induce a liver injury from a colitis model in piglets, which was expected to prevent and alleviate DSS-induced liver injury by feeding sodium isobutyrate in advance.

Results: The results showed that sodium isobutyrate could restore DSS-induced histopathological changes in the liver, inhibit the activation of the toll-like receptor 4/myeloid differentiation primary response 88/nuclear factor kappa-B signaling pathway, and then reduce the DSS-induced release of pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin 1β, and interleukin 6, reducing inflammatory response.

The PKHD1 gene inhibits tumor proliferation and invasion in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma by activating the Notch pathway.

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), one type of highly malignant tumor, has a poor prognosis. However, the specific role of the polycystic kidney and hepatic disease 1 (PKHD1) gene in ICC has not yet been evaluated. This study aimed to investigate the potential function and mechanism of the PKHD1 gene in ICC.