Resting-state functional connectome predicts sleep quality two months after the first negative COVID-19 antigen test.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to long-term neurological and psychological effects, including sleep disturbances. While prior studies have identified altered brain function post-COVID-19, specific functional connectivity (FC) patterns predicting sleep quality after recovery remain unclear. This study aims to identify FC patterns associated with sleep quality two months after the first negative COVID-19 antigen test.

Effectiveness of a Triple Antiarrhythmic Drug Strategy for Arrhythmia Recurrence after Persistent Atrial Fibrillation Ablation.

Background And Objective: Treating recurrent atrial arrhythmias after persistent atrial fibrillation (PeAF) ablation is often challenging. This single-center, prospective study aimed to observe the effectiveness of different combinations of oral antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) in reverting to sinus rhythm (SR) in patients with recurrent atrial arrhythmias after PeAF ablation.

Methods: Forty-five patients who experienced recurrent atrial arrhythmias after PeAF ablation were included.

S100 protein family: Emerging role and mechanism in digestive tract cancer (Review).

Digestive tract cancer is one of the most common types of cancers globally, with ~4.8 million new cases and 3.4 million cancer‑associated deaths in 2018, accounting for 26% of cancer incidence and 35% of cancer‑related deaths worldwide.

Muscle quality index and cardiovascular disease among US population-findings from NHANES 2011-2014.

Background And Objective: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. However, current evidence on the association between muscle quality and CVD is limited. This study investigates the potential association between the muscle quality index (MQI) and the prevalence of CVD and CVD-related mortality.

A normative model of brain responses to social scenarios reflects the maturity of children and adolescents' social-emotional abilities.

The rapid brain maturation in childhood and adolescence accompanies the development of socio-emotional functioning. However, it is unclear how the maturation of the neural activity drives the development of socio-emotional functioning and individual differences. This study aimed to reflect the age dependence of inter-individual differences in brain responses to socio-emotional scenarios and to develop naturalistic imaging indicators to assess the maturity of socio-emotional ability at the individual level.

Identification of a Self-Assembling Small-Molecule Cancer Vaccine Adjuvant with an Improved Toxicity Profile.

Protein or peptide cancer vaccines usually include immune potentiators, so-called adjuvants. However, it remains challenging to identify structurally simple, chemically accessible synthetic molecules that are effective and safe as vaccine adjuvant. Here, we present cholicamideβ (), a self-assembling small-molecule vaccine adjuvant with an improved toxicity profile and proven efficacy .

High-Power, Short-Duration Ablation under the Guidance of Relatively Low Ablation Index Values for Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation: Long-Term Outcomes and Characteristics of Recurrent Atrial Arrhythmias.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the difference in effectiveness and safety of high-power, short-duration (HPSD) radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFA) guided by relatively low ablation index (AI) values and conventional RFA in paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) patients.

Methods: The HPSD RFA strategy (40-50 W, AI 350-400 for anterior, 320-350 for posterior wall; = 547) was compared with the conventional RFA strategy (25-40 W, without AI; = 396) in PAF patients who underwent their first ablation. Propensity-score matching analyses were used to compare the outcomes of the two groups while controlling for confounders.

Aberrant functional connectivity of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and its age dependence in children and adolescents with social anxiety disorder.

Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a prevalent and impairing mental disorder among children and adolescents. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) plays a critical role in anxiety disorders, including valence surveillance and hypervigilance for potential threats. However, the role of BNST and its related functional network in children and adolescents with SAD has not been fully investigated.

Age-dependent alterations in the coordinated development of subcortical regions in adolescents with social anxiety disorder.

Subcortical brain regions play essential roles in the pathology of social anxiety disorder (SAD). While adolescence is the peak period of SAD, the relationships between altered development of the subcortical regions during this period and SAD are still unclear. This study investigated the age-dependent alterations in structural co-variance among subcortical regions and between subcortical and cortical regions, aiming to reflect aberrant coordination during development in the adolescent with SAD.

Self-assembling small-molecule adjuvants as antigen nano-carriers.

The effective co-delivery of antigens and immune potentiators (adjuvants) and the high degree of antigen presentation have been two major challenges in the development of subunit vaccines. Here, we address these issues by conjugating peptide antigens with cholicamide, a self-assembling small molecule adjuvant. Co-assemblies of the conjugates and cholicamide achieved high levels of both cytokine induction and MHC class II peptide presentation.

Comparison of Effectiveness and Safety between High-Power Short-Duration Ablation and Conventional Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Aim: We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety between high-power short-duration (HPSD) radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and conventional RFA in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF).

Methods: Studies comparing HPSD and traditional applications in patients undergoing initial catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation from inception through December 2021 were searched on Pubmed, Medline, Cochrane, and Clinicaltrials.gov.

Comparing the Effectiveness of Brain Structural Imaging, Resting-state fMRI, and Naturalistic fMRI in Recognizing Social Anxiety Disorder in Children and Adolescents.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common anxiety disorder in childhood and adolescence. Studies on SAD in adults have reported both structural and functional aberrancies of the brain at the group level. However, evidence has shown differences in anxiety-related brain abnormalities between adolescents and adults.

Discovery of Self-Assembling Small Molecules as Vaccine Adjuvants.

Immune potentiators, termed adjuvants, trigger early innate immune responses to ensure the generation of robust and long-lasting adaptive immune responses of vaccines. Presented here is a study that takes advantage of a self-assembling small-molecule library for the development of a novel vaccine adjuvant. Cell-based screening of the library and subsequent structural optimization led to the discovery of a simple, chemically tractable deoxycholate derivative (molecule 6, also named cholicamide) whose well-defined nanoassembly potently elicits innate immune responses in macrophages and dendritic cells.

Discovery of 4-Aminoquinoline-3-carboxamide Derivatives as Potent Reversible Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors for the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

A structure-hopping strategy was applied to discover a series of novel 4-aminoquinoline-3-carboxamide derivatives as potent, reversible BTK inhibitors. Compared to the previously described cinnoline scaffold compounds, the 4-aminoquinoline analogues showed significantly improved drug-like properties, especially in their aqueous solubility. The most potent compound, , displayed a stronger inhibitory effect on both BTK (IC = 5.

[Design, synthesis and antiproliferative activity in cancer cells of novel 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid derivatives].

To investigate the anticancer effects of ring C in 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid (GA), a series of GA derivatives featured with 9(11)-ene moiety in ring C were designed and synthesized. The structures were confirmed by IR, LC-MS and 1H NMR. Their inhibitory effects towards human prostate cancer PC-3 and leukemia HL-60 cell lines were determined.

Design and synthesis of substituted pyrido[3,2-d]-1,2,3-triazines as potential Pim-1 inhibitors.

A novel series of substituted pyrido[3,2-d]-1,2,3-triazines were designed and synthesized as Pim-1 inhibitors through scaffold hopping. Most of the derivatives showed potent in vitro Pim-1 inhibitory activities and anti-proliferative effects toward prostate cancer cells. Among them, 6b, 6h and 6m showed the best Pim-1 inhibitory activity with IC50 values of 0.