DNA MemoChip: Long-Term and High Capacity Information Storage and Select Retrieval.

Over the course of history, human beings have never stopped seeking effective methods for information storage. From rocks to paper, and through the past several decades of using computer disks, USB sticks, and on to the thin silicon "chips" and "cloud" storage of today, it would seem that we have reached an era of efficiency for managing innumerable and ever-expanding data. Astonishingly, when tracing this technological path, one realizes that our ancient methods of informational storage far outlast paper (10,000 vs.

Author Correction to: L-Acetyl-carnitine in Patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Effects on Nerve Protection, Hand Function and Pain.

In the original publication the name of third author was incorrectly published.

L-Acetyl-carnitine in Patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Effects on Nerve Protection, Hand Function and Pain.

Background And Aim: L-Acetyl-carnitine (LAC) exerts an energetic effect on nerves and muscles. Recently, preclinical experiments have demonstrated a central anti-nociceptive action.

Objective: Our objective was to assess the effects of LAC on neuroprotection, pain, and function in carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), a very frequent chronic compressive neuropathy.

Impact of potentially inappropriate medications and polypharmacy on 3-month readmission among older patients discharged from acute care hospital: a prospective study.

Background: Polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) are known to affect several negative outcomes in older patients. However, studies comparatively assessing polypharmacy and PIMs in relation to readmission are distinctively lacking.

Aims: To compare the impact of polypharmacy and PIMs on 3-month readmission among older patients discharged from acute care hospital.

An Unusual Case of Simultaneous Bilateral Trigeminal Neuralgia Due to Multiple Sclerosis.

Although several reports have indicated that trigeminal neuralgia related to multiple sclerosis may occur bilaterally in the orofacial region, trigeminal neuralgia pain usually involves the two sides in different time lapses, and the simultaneous involvement of trigeminal territories on both sides is commonly considered incompatible with its diagnosis. This case report describes a patient with bilateral trigeminal neuralgia related to multiple sclerosis that started simultaneously on both sides of the orofacial region. A 55-year-old man presented with a 16-year history of relapsing/remitting multiple sclerosis.

Advances in Plant ER Architecture and Dynamics.

Recent advances highlight mechanisms that enable the morphological integrity of the plant ER in relation to the other organelles and the cytoskeleton.

Pain outside the body: defensive peripersonal space deformation in trigeminal neuralgia.

Perception of space has been guiding effective therapeutic interventions in a number of unilateral chronic pain conditions. However little is known about how trigeminal neuralgia (TN), a condition in which trigeminal stimulation triggers paroxysmal facial pain, affects defensive peripersonal space (DPPS), the portion of space surrounding the body within which defensive responses are enhanced. Given that TN is unilateral, in TN patients the DPPS of the face might not be horizontally symmetric as in pain-free individuals, but instead larger around the affected side.

Giant primary scrotal lipoma: A case report.

Lipomas are benign mesenchymal tumours that are rarely seen in the scrotum. Few cases of primary scrotal lipomas originating from the scrotal wall have been reported in the literature. We describe the case of a giant primary intrascrotal lipoma presenting as scrotal swelling and discomfort.

Skin denervation does not alter cortical potentials to surface concentric electrode stimulation: A comparison with laser evoked potentials and contact heat evoked potentials.

Background: In the neurophysiological assessment of patients with neuropathic pain, laser evoked potentials (LEPs), contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) and the evoked potentials by the intraepidermal electrical stimulation via concentric needle electrode are widely agreed as nociceptive specific responses; conversely, the nociceptive specificity of evoked potentials by surface concentric electrode (SE-PREPs) is still debated.

Methods: In this neurophysiological study we aimed at verifying the nociceptive specificity of SE-PREPs. We recorded LEPs, CHEPs and SE-PREPs in eleven healthy participants, before and after epidermal denervation produced by prolonged capsaicin application.

Synthetic Lethality Triggered by Combining Olaparib with BRCA2-Rad51 Disruptors.

In BRCA2-defective cells, poly(adenosine diphosphate [ADP]-ribose) polymerase inhibitors can trigger synthetic lethality, as two independent DNA-repairing mechanisms are simultaneously impaired. Here, we have pharmacologically induced synthetic lethality, which was triggered by combining two different small organic molecules. When administered with a BRCA2-Rad51 disruptor in nonmutant cells, Olaparib showed anticancer activity comparable to that shown when administered alone in BRCA2-defective cells.

Pharmacological treatment of trigeminal neuralgia.

Unique among the different neuropathic pain conditions, trigeminal neuralgia frequently has an excellent response to some selected drugs, which, on the other hand, often entail disabling side effects. Physicians should be therefore acquainted with the management of these drugs and the few alternative options. Areas covered: This article, based on a systematic literature review, describes the pharmacological options, and indicates the future perspectives for treating trigeminal neuralgia.

Artificial Intelligence, DNA Mimicry, and Human Health.

The molecular evolution of genomic DNA across diverse plant and animal phyla involved dynamic registrations of sequence modifications to maintain existential homeostasis to increasingly complex patterns of environmental stressors. As an essential corollary, driver effects of positive evolutionary pressure are hypothesized to effect concerted modifications of genomic DNA sequences to meet expanded platforms of regulatory controls for successful implementation of advanced physiological requirements. It is also clearly apparent that preservation of updated registries of advantageous modifications of genomic DNA sequences requires coordinate expansion of convergent cellular proofreading/error correction mechanisms that are encoded by reciprocally modified genomic DNA.

Triggering trigeminal neuralgia.

Introduction Although it is widely accepted that facial pain paroxysms triggered by innocuous stimuli constitute a hallmark sign of trigeminal neuralgia, very few studies to date have systematically investigated the role of the triggers involved. In the recently published diagnostic classification, triggered pain is an essential criterion for the diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia but no study to date has been designed to address this issue directly. In this study, we set out to determine, in patients with trigeminal neuralgia, how frequently triggers are present, which manoeuvres activate them and where cutaneous and mucosal trigger zones are located.

Biosensors: Enhancing the Natural Ability to Sense and Their Dependence on Bioinformatics.

Single cells, as part of their evolution, acquired the ability to sense their internal and external environment, move to or away from a particular environment, the latter depending on the appropriate integration of the sensory input with motor ability. Clearly, the ability to sense stimuli must be a rapid process and one that has been selected upon for survival over long periods of time in concert with environmental challenges. Interestingly, various differing sensory inputs have their own receptors to respond to a specific stimulus.

Microbiome: A Potential Component in the Origin of Mental Disorders.

It is not surprising to find microbiome abnormalities present in psychiatric disorders such as depressive disorders, bipolar disorders, etc. Evolutionary pressure may provide an existential advantage to the host eukaryotic cells in that it survives in an extracellular environment containing non-self cells (e.g.

Ictal blinking, an under-recognized phenomenon: our experience and literature review.

Ictal blinking (IB) is a very rare disease manifesting as an epileptic motor event in children and adults. Until now it has not been included in any classification of focal seizures of the International League Against Epilepsy Commission. It could be unilateral or bilateral, isolated or in association with other motor manifestations such as limbs' clonus and spasms.

Reciprocal Evolution of Opiate Science from Medical and Cultural Perspectives.

Over the course of human history, it has been common to use plants for medicinal purposes, such as for providing relief from particular maladies and self-medication. Opium represents one longstanding remedy that has been used to address a range of medical conditions, alleviating discomfort often in ways that have proven pleasurable. Opium is a combination of compounds obtained from the mature fruit of opium poppy, papaver somniferum.

Aging Reversal and Healthy Longevity is in Reach: Dependence on Mitochondrial DNA Heteroplasmy as a Key Molecular Target.

Recent trends in biomedical research have highlighted the potential for effecting significant extensions in longevity with enhanced quality of life in aging human populations. Within this context, any proposed method to achieve enhanced life extension must include therapeutic approaches that draw upon essential biochemical and molecular regulatory processes found in relatively simple single cell organisms that are evolutionarily conserved within complex organ systems of higher animals. Current critical thinking has established the primacy of mitochondrial function in maintaining good health throughout plant and animal phyla.

Mitochondrial Heteroplasmy.

Genetic polymorphisms, in concert with well-characterized etiology and progression of major pathologies, plays a significant role in aberrant processes afflicting human populations. Mitochondrial heteroplasmy represents a dynamically determined co-expression of inherited polymorphisms and somatic pathology in varying ratios within individual mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genomes with repetitive patterns of tissue specificity. The ratios of the MtDNA genomes represent a balance between healthy and pathological cellular outcomes.

Lowered expression of microRNA-125a-5p in human hepatocellular carcinoma and up-regulation of its oncogenic targets sirtuin-7, matrix metalloproteinase-11, and c-Raf.

Human microRNA-125a-5p (miR-125a) is expressed in most tissues where it downregulates the expression of membrane receptors or intracellular transductors of mitogenic signals, thus limiting cell proliferation. Expression of this miRNA generally increases with cell differentiation whereas it is downregulated in several types of tumors, such as breast, lung, ovarian, gastric, colon, and cervical cancers, neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma, glioblastoma, and retinoblastoma. In this study, we focused on hepatocellular carcinoma and used real-time quantitative PCR to measure miR-125a expression in 55 tumor biopsies and in matched adjacent non-tumor liver tissues.

Decreased Central Nervous System Grey Matter Volume (GMV) in Smokers Affects Cognitive Abilities: A Systematic Review.

Although cigarette smoking is a leading cause of preventable mortality, tobacco is consumed by approximately 22% of the adult population worldwide. Smoking is also a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, affects brain processing, and is a recognized risk factor for Alzheimer disease (AD). Tobacco toxins (e.

Robotic Surgery: Fast Forward to Telemedicine.

Since the realization that certain maladies can be corrected via surgical techniques, we have been consumed by the desire to constantly advance the tools of surgery, as well as the techniques. In recent times, computer-assisted surgical tools have emerged and are growing in their use. The Puma 560 emerged in 1985 for brain biopsies and laparoscopic surgery.