Using Serum Metabolomic Signatures to Investigate Effects of Acupuncture on Pain-Fatigue-Sleep Disturbance in Breast Cancer Survivors.

Background/objectives: Acupuncture is an efficacious integrative therapy for treating pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbance (the psychoneurological symptom cluster) in breast cancer survivors. However, the mechanisms underlying its effects remain unclear, and related metabolomics studies are limited. This study aimed to examine serum metabolite changes after acupuncture and their relationships to symptom improvement.

Evaluating Resonant Acoustic Mixing as a Wet Granulation Process.

Control of powder properties is crucial for industrial processes across the food, pharmaceutical, agriculture, and mineral processing industries, and granulation is an important tool for providing agglomerated particles with controllable properties. However, existing granulation processes are not readily integrated with other processing steps and are not appropriate for some types of materials. Adding resonant acoustic-based granulation to the toolkit has the potential to widen the achievable parameter space and, importantly, integrate granulation into chemistry and blending operations that are already being performed on the RAM platform, resulting in process intensification.

Tai Chi and Wellness Interventions for Veterans with Gulf War Illness: A Randomized Controlled Feasibility Trial.

Background: Gulf War Illness (GWI) is a chronic multi-symptom illness that affects up to one-third of the 700,000 American military personnel deployed to the Persian Gulf region in 1990 and 1991. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine feasibility and the relative efficacy of two 12-week in-person group treatments (Tai Chi and Wellness) to address GWI symptoms of chronic pain, fatigue, and changes in mood and cognitive functioning.

Method: Male and female veterans were randomly assigned to Tai Chi (n = 27) or Wellness (n = 26) group interventions and assessed at four time points: baseline, post-treatment, 3-, and 9-month follow-up.

Integrated analysis of immunometabolic interactions in Down syndrome.

Down syndrome (DS), caused by trisomy 21 (T21), results in immune and metabolic dysregulation. People with DS experience co-occurring conditions at higher rates than the euploid population. However, the interplay between immune and metabolic alterations and the clinical manifestations of DS are poorly understood.

Trait-level somatic anxiety modulates functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neural synchrony to naturalistic stimuli.

Somatic anxiety refers to the tendency to appraise situations as threatening, leading to heightened physiological arousal. Symptoms associated with higher levels of somatic anxiety that reflect autonomic arousal and perceptions of threat include elevated heartbeat perception, difficulty breathing, and palpitation. Somatic anxiety is generally associated with increased stimulus-driven attention; however, it is currently unknown how somatic anxiety modulates neural synchrony, measured by intersubject correlations (ISC), in response to complex audiovisual stimuli.

Multi-omic network analysis identifies dysregulated neurobiological pathways in opioid addiction.

Background: Opioid addiction is a worldwide public health crisis. In the United States, for example, opioids cause more drug overdose deaths than any other substance. Yet, opioid addiction treatments have limited efficacy, meaning that additional treatments are needed.

C5aR expression in kidney tubules, macrophages and fibrosis.

The anaphylatoxin C5a and its receptor C5aR (CD88) are complement pathway effectors implicated in renal diseases, including ANCA-associated vasculitis. We investigated the kidney expression of C5aR and a second C5a receptor C5L2 by using immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, and spatial gene expression on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded human and mouse kidney. C5aR was detected on interstitial macrophages and in multiple tubular regions, including distal and proximal; C5L2 had a similar expression pattern.

controls sugar reward valuation in .

The genes - which include and ( ) - evolved from Ty3 retrotransposons and encode proteins that form virus-like capsids. These capsids enable a novel form of intercellular communication by transferring RNAs between cells. However, the specific neuronal circuits and brain processes Arc intercellular signaling regulates remain unknown.

A Hearing Intervention and Health-Related Quality of Life in Older Adults: A Secondary Analysis of the ACHIEVE Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Health-related quality of life is a critical health outcome and a clinically important patient-reported outcome in clinical trials. Hearing loss is associated with poorer health-related quality-of-life in older adults.

Objective: To investigate the 3-year outcomes of hearing intervention vs health education control on health-related quality of life.

The impact of the early environment on oxytocin receptor epigenetics and potential therapeutic implications.

Oxytocin research is rapidly evolving and increasingly reveals that epigenetic modifications to the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) are functional, plastic, and reliable components of oxytocinergic system function. This review outlines how OXTR epigenetics are shaped by the early life environment, impact social-developmental outcomes, and have strong potential to serve as therapeutic targets. We first establish the malleability of OXTR epigenetics in infancy in both animal models and humans through research demonstrating the impact of the early life environment on OXTR DNA methylation (OXTRm) and subsequent social behavior.

Two-Stage Recruitment Design to Reduce Magnetic Resonance Imaging Screening Cost for a Theoretical Clinical Trial of White Matter Hyperintensity Progression.

Background: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) and their progression are associated with risk of dementia and stroke, so are an important target for clinical trials. The cost of broad magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) screening to identify eligible individuals, however, limits the feasibility of designing clinical trials targeting WMH. A low-cost retinal or clinical screening measure before MRI could reduce recruitment costs versus an MRI-only screening design in a hypothetical clinical trial.

Healthcare disparities in access to surgical management and outcomes of patients with nonmetastatic primary liver cancer: A population based study from Louisiana tumor registry.

Background: This study aims to identify factors associated with disparities in receipt and outcomes of surgical interventions in patients with primary nonmetastatic liver cancers.

Methods: Cases from 2010 to 2020 were identified using Louisiana Tumor Registry. Four surgical categories were utilized: none, ablation, resection, transplant.

Different view of the diagnostics test accuracy measures and optimal cut-off point selection procedure under tree or umbrella ordering.

In the realm of medical diagnostic testing, diagnostic tests can assume either binary forms, distinguishing between diseased and non-diseased states, or ordinal forms, categorizing states from non-diseased to various stages (1 to K). Another significant classification scheme for multi-class scenarios is tree or umbrella ordering, which entails several unordered sub-classes (subtypes) within a biomarker. Within tree or umbrella ordering, the classifier assesses whether the marker measurement for one class surpasses or falls below those for the other classes.

Hematopoietic Cell Transplant compared with Standard Care in Adolescents and Young Adults with Sickle Cell Disease.

Disease-modifying therapies are standard of care (SOC) for sickle cell disease (SCD), but hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) has curative potential. We compared outcomes prospectively through 2-years after biologic assignment to a Donor or No Donor (SOC) Arm based on the availability of an HLA-matched sibling or unrelated donor (BMTCTN 1503; NCT02766465). A donor search was commenced after eligibility confirmation.

Relative Bioavailability Studies With Mitapivat: Formulation and Food Effect Assessments in Healthy Subjects.

Pyruvate kinase (PK) deficiency is a rare, hereditary, hemolytic anemia caused by mutations in the PKLR gene encoding the PK enzyme. Mitapivat (previously designated AG-348) is a first-in-class, oral, allosteric activator of PK. We report results from 5 Phase 1 trials in healthy adults to characterize and compare mitapivat pharmacokinetics across different formulations and analyze food effects on mitapivat bioavailability (Studies 1-5).

Impact of Acupuncture on Human Metabolomic Profiles: A Systematic Review.

Background/objectives: Metabolomics provides insights into the biological underpinnings of disease development and treatment. This systematic review investigated the impact of acupuncture on metabolite levels and associated metabolic pathways using a metabolomic approach.

Methods: Five databases (i.

A Scoping Review of Physical Activity Interventions Among Sexual Minority Adults: A Call to Action for Future Research.

Unlabelled: Physical activity (PA) has a variety of well-established benefits for physical and mental health. However, there are PA disparities based on numerous sociodemographic characteristics, including sexual orientation. Mapping of PA interventions tailored to sexual minorities (ie, nonheterosexual) is currently absent from the literature.

Expectancy Effect of Acupuncture on Cancer-Related Outcomes: A Systematic Review.

Problem Identification: Previous reviews have reported the efficacy of acupuncture in managing cancer-related symptoms. However, there is a lack of comprehensive reviews examining how patients' expectancy regarding acupuncture influences treatment outcomes in the context of cancer survivorship.

Literature Search: 9 databases were searched for articles published through August 2023.

Nerve agent exposure and physiological stress alter brain microstructure and immune profiles after inflammatory challenge in a long-term rat model of Gulf War Illness.

Gulf War Illness (GWI) is a disorder experienced by many veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, with symptoms including fatigue, chronic pain, respiratory and memory problems. Exposure to toxic chemicals during the war, such as oil well fire smoke, pesticides, physiological stress, and nerve agents, is thought to have triggered abnormal neuroinflammatory responses that contribute to GWI. Previous studies have examined the acute effects of combined physiological stress and chemical exposures using GWI rodent models and presented findings related to neuroinflammation and changes in diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures, suggesting a neuroimmune basis for GWI.