LTT-Validity in diagnosis and therapeutical decision making of neuroborreliosis: a prospective dual-centre study.

Objectives: The key objective of this study was to assess the validity of a commercially available in-house Lymphocyte Transformation Test (LTT) as a diagnostic parameter and indicator of disease activity/therapeutic efficacy in the context of Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB).

Methods: A prospective dual-centre study was conducted from 05/14 - 01/18. With respect to Borrelia-LTT a comparison was made between patients suffering from confirmed acute LNB and patients being affected by inflammatory neurologic diseases, defining the control group: Bell's palsy, viral meningitis, herpes zoster, Guillain-Barré-Syndrome and Encephalomyelitis disseminate.

COVID-19 and telehealth: How to complete a successful telehealth visit.

In the third and final article in this series, patient and provider dynamics are explored, built from real-life telehealth experiences. The Four Habits Model is utilized to examine the virtual visit.

COVID-19 and telehealth: Applying telehealth and telemedicine in a pandemic.

In this second article of a three-part series, we explore how stakeholders can be educated on the use of telehealth technology and telemedicine. We address the need for staff and patient support for the transition to telehealth and offer suggestions to NPs for appropriate presentation and interaction with interdisciplinary teams and patients regarding telehealth.

COVID-19 and telehealth: Issues facing healthcare in a pandemic.

Providing safe nonemergent care during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been challenging for NPs. This article, the first of a three-part series, will overview telehealth and telemedicine and provide a brief history of the two. The benefits, challenges, and temporary changes due to COVID-19 will also be addressed.

A directed network analysis of the cardiome identifies molecular pathways contributing to the development of HFpEF.

Aims: The metabolic syndrome and associated comorbidities, like diabetes, hypertension and obesity, have been implicated in the development of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The molecular mechanisms underlying the development of HFpEF remain to be elucidated. We developed a cardiome-directed network analysis and applied this to high throughput cardiac RNA-sequencing data from a well-established rat model of HFpEF, the obese and hypertensive ZSF1 rat.

Neurologic manifestations of Lyme Borreliosis.

In the first part of this review, a summarized description of the typical clinical manifestation as well as less frequent symptoms of early (acute) Lyme Neuroborreliosis (LNB) are presented. In the second part, insights into the controversial topic of "Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome" are given and the quite rare, but clearly defined picture of late (chronic) LNB is described.

The effects of neuroblastoma and chemotherapy on metabolism, fecal microbiome, volatile organic compounds, and gut barrier function in a murine model.

Background: Following transplantation of human neuroblastoma (NB) cells into athymic mice, we investigated the effects of tumor growth and cyclophosphamide (CTX) treatment on systemic metabolism, gut inflammation and permeability, fecal microbiome and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Methods: NB cells (MHH-NB11) were implanted into athymic mice (n=20); 20 healthy mice served as controls (sham).  CTX was given to 20 animals (10 NB and 10 sham) after 8 and 9 weeks.

NF-κB-mediated metabolic remodelling in the inflamed heart in acute viral myocarditis.

Acute viral myocarditis (VM), characterised by leukocyte infiltration and dysfunction of the heart, is an important cause of sudden cardiac death in young adults. Unfortunately, to date, the pathological mechanisms underlying cardiac failure in VM remain incompletely understood. In the current study, we investigated if acute VM leads to cardiac metabolic rewiring and if this process is driven by local inflammation.

A novel 72-kDa leukocyte-derived osteoglycin enhances the activation of toll-like receptor 4 and exacerbates cardiac inflammation during viral myocarditis.

Background: Viral myocarditis can severely damage the myocardium through excessive infiltration of immune cells. Osteoglycin (OGN) is part of the small leucine-rich repeat proteoglycan (SLRP) family. SLRP's may affect inflammatory and fibrotic processes, but the implication of OGN in cardiac inflammation and the resulting injury upon viral myocarditis is unknown.

The Network Library: a framework to rapidly integrate network biology resources.

Motivation: Much of the biological knowledge accumulated over the last decades is stored in different databases governed by various organizations and institutes. Integrating and connecting these vast knowledge repositories is an extremely useful method to support life sciences research and help formulate novel hypotheses.

Results: We developed the Network Library (NL), a framework and toolset to rapidly integrate different knowledge sources to build a network biology resource that matches a specific research question.

cyNeo4j: connecting Neo4j and Cytoscape.

Unlabelled: We developed cyNeo4j, a Cytoscape App to link Cytoscape and Neo4j databases to utilize the performance and storage capacities Neo4j offers. We implemented a Neo4j NetworkAnalyzer, ForceAtlas2 layout and Cypher component to demonstrate the possibilities a distributed setup of Cytoscape and Neo4j have.

Availability And Implementation: The app is available from the Cytoscape App Store at http://apps.

RNA Profiling in Human and Murine Transplanted Hearts: Identification and Validation of Therapeutic Targets for Acute Cardiac and Renal Allograft Rejection.

Acute cellular rejection (ACR) is the adverse response of the recipient's immune system against the allogeneic graft. Using human surveillance endomyocardial biopsies (EMBs) manifesting ACR and murine allogeneic grafts, we profiled implicated microRNAs (miRs) and mRNAs. MiR profiling showed that miR-21, -142-3p, -142-5p, -146a, -146b, -155, -222, -223, and -494 increased during ACR in humans and mice, whereas miR-149-5p decreased.

The microRNA-221/-222 cluster balances the antiviral and inflammatory response in viral myocarditis.

Aims: Viral myocarditis (VM) is an important cause of heart failure and sudden cardiac death in young healthy adults; it is also an aetiological precursor of dilated cardiomyopathy. We explored the role of the miR-221/-222 family that is up-regulated in VM.

Methods And Results: Here, we show that microRNA-221 (miR-221) and miR-222 levels are significantly elevated during acute VM caused by Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3).

White adipose tissue reference network: a knowledge resource for exploring health-relevant relations.

Optimal health is maintained by interaction of multiple intrinsic and environmental factors at different levels of complexity-from molecular, to physiological, to social. Understanding and quantification of these interactions will aid design of successful health interventions. We introduce the reference network concept as a platform for multi-level exploration of biological relations relevant for metabolic health, by integration and mining of biological interactions derived from public resources and context-specific experimental data.

MicroRNA profiling identifies microRNA-155 as an adverse mediator of cardiac injury and dysfunction during acute viral myocarditis.

Rationale: Viral myocarditis results from an adverse immune response to cardiotropic viruses, which causes irreversible myocyte destruction and heart failure in previously healthy people. The involvement of microRNAs and their usefulness as therapeutic targets in this process are unknown.

Objective: To identify microRNAs involved in viral myocarditis pathogenesis and susceptibility.

Functional data analysis for identifying nonlinear models of gene regulatory networks.

Background: A key problem in systems biology is estimating dynamical models of gene regulatory networks. Traditionally, this has been done using regression or other ad-hoc methods when the model is linear. More detailed, realistic modeling studies usually employ nonlinear dynamical models, which lead to computationally difficult parameter estimation problems.

Concept and application of a computational vaccinology workflow.

Background: The last years have seen a renaissance of the vaccine area, driven by clinical needs in infectious diseases but also chronic diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders. Equally important are technological improvements involving nano-scale delivery platforms as well as third generation adjuvants. In parallel immunoinformatics routines have reached essential maturity for supporting central aspects in vaccinology going beyond prediction of antigenic determinants.

Enhanced inflammatory hyperalgesia after recovery from burn injury.

Severe burn induces severe pain. While chronic as well as acute pain syndromes are reported, the peripheral mechanisms of burn-induced chronic pain syndromes have not been studied. We tested the hypothesis that burn induces plastic changes in primary afferent nociceptors that predispose to chronic pain states.

Proinflammatory cytokines mediating burn-injury pain.

Thermal burns induce pain at the site of injury, mechanical hyperalgesia, associated with a complex time-dependent inflammatory response. To determine the contribution of inflammatory mediators to burn injury-induced mechanical hyperalgesia, we measured dynamic changes in the levels of three potent hyperalgesic cytokines, interleukin IL-1 beta, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha), in skin of the rat, following a partial-thickness burn injury. Only IL-6 demonstrated a sustained increase ipsilateral but not contralateral to the burn, correlating with the prolonged ipsilateral mechanical hyperalgesia.

Burn injury pain: the continuing challenge.

Unlabelled: The development of more effective methods of relieving pain associated with burn injury is a major unmet medical need. Not only is acute burn injury pain a source of immense suffering, but it has been linked to debilitating chronic pain and stress-related disorders. Although pain management guidelines and protocols have been developed and implemented, unrelieved moderate-to-severe pain continues to be reported after burn injury.

TrkA and PKC-epsilon in thermal burn-induced mechanical hyperalgesia in the rat.

Unlabelled: Although mechanical hyperalgesia associated with medical procedures is the major source of severe pain in burn-injured patients, little is known about its underlying mechanism. One reason for this has been the lack of a model for mechanical hyperalgesia at the site of injury. We have modified an established partial-thickness burn model in the rat to produce long-lasting primary mechanical hyperalgesia, which is present from the first measurement at 0.

Sevoflurane in exhaled air of operating room personnel.

Unlabelled: Evidence on potential health hazards arising from exposure to volatile anesthetics remains controversial. Exposure may, in principle, be supervised by monitoring of ambient air or, alternatively, in vivo. We used the Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectrometry to screen the breath of 40 operating room staff members before operating room duty, 0, 1, 2, and 3 h after duty, and before commencing duty on the consecutive day, and control persons.

Monitoring pollution by proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry during paediatric anaesthesia with positive pressure ventilation via the laryngeal mask airway or uncuffed tracheal tube.

Twenty children aged 2-66 months were randomly allocated for airway management with either the laryngeal mask airway or uncuffed tracheal tube using intermittent positive pressure ventilation with a tidal volume of 8 ml.kg-1 and a respiratory rate adjusted to maintain end-expiratory carbon dioxide concentration at 5.3 kPa.

Management of surgical and procedural pain in a critical care setting.

Critical care nurses can serve as pain management advocates so that those patients who undergo surgery and other procedures do not suffer needless pain. Research findings indicate that surgical and procedural pain can contribute to pathologic pain states related to nerve injury, tissue inflammation, and prolonged peripheral nociceptive input. Animal research findings support clinical practices that avoid the development of these conditions by effectively interrupting ongoing nociceptive input from the injured site.