Insect Mol Biol
March 2025
Sperm delivers genetic information from the male to the ovum, playing vital roles in sexual reproduction. Like other Lepidoptera, Bombyx mori exhibits dimorphic spermatogenesis, generating coexisting nucleated eupyrene sperm and anucleated apyrene sperm. The mechanism of dimorphic spermatogenesis is still to be clarified.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndometriosis is common and poses significant morbidity of lasting impact to young, pre-menopausal women, while ovarian cancer is a lethal gynecologic condition. Both conditions need better treatment. The human omentum is an apron of adipose tissue in the abdominopelvic cavity, the same space in which endometriosis and ovarian cancer manifest.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSabah, Malaysia, has amongst the highest burden of human Plasmodium knowlesi infection in the world, associated with increasing encroachment on the parasite's macaque host habitat. However, the genomic make-up of P. knowlesi in Sabah was previously poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn industrialized areas, air pollution is a recurring problem, especially in areas with high manufacturing and energy-intensive businesses. The challenge lies in the tension between industrial growth and environmental protection, as these sectors significantly contribute to pollution, resource depletion, and climate change. The objectives of the study were (1) to assess the contribution of each industrial group to the air quality in and around the Pasir Gudang industrial area, Malaysia, and (2) to evaluate the Air Pollution Index (API).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTraining deep learning models generally requires large, costly datasets which can limit their application towards in-house segmentation tasks. This study investigates the trade-off in dataset size within the context of pelvic multi-organ MR segmentation where we evaluate the performance of nnU-Net, a well-known segmentation model, under conditions of limited domain and data availability. 12 participants undergoing treatment on an Elekta Unity were recruited, acquiring 58 MR images, with 4 participants (12 images) withheld for testing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients are usually highly stressed during the immediate perioperative period. It remains unclear whether increased stress contributes to postoperative brain dysfunction. Here, the clinical perioperative setting was mimicked via exploratory laparotomy and perioperative restraint stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutophagy plays a crucial role in innate and adaptive immunity against invading microorganisms. However, the mechanism underlying autophagy in Macrobrachium rosenbergii remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that Aeromonas hydrophila activates autophagy in M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To evaluate the effect of timing of antenatal steroids (ANS) administration and its interaction with pre-eclampsia (PE) on respiratory outcome among infants born preterm.
Study Design: This was an analysis of a prospective, single-center cohort of infants born between 23 to 30 weeks of gestation between 2012 through 2021. Endpoints were severe RDS (sRDS) and moderate-severe BPD (msBPD).
The intricate role of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in regulating cardiac physiology has long been recognized. Aberrant function of the ANS is central to the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases. It stands to reason, therefore, that neuroscience-based cardiovascular therapeutics hold great promise in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in humans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To update evidence-based medicine recommendations for treating motor fluctuations of Parkinson's disease (PD).
Background: The International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS) Evidence Based Medicine in Movement Disorders Committee recommendations for the treatments of PD were first published in 2002 and regularly updated. The current review uses a new methodology, including the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool and a modified version of GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations).
Background: Huntington's disease (HD) is a rare, fatal, chronic progressive neurodegenerative disorder with a significant unmet medical need for effective treatments. Pridopidine is a novel, first-in-class, highly selective and potent sigma-1 receptor (S1R) agonist in development for HD. Pridopidine has been extensively studied in adult HD across the full spectrum of disease severity and age ranges, and its safety profile has been characterized in approximately 1600 participants across multiple studies and a broad range of doses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThroughout quantum science and technology, measurement is used as a powerful resource for nonlinear operations and quantum state engineering. In particular, single-photon detection is commonly employed for quantum-information applications and tests of fundamental physics. By contrast, and perhaps counterintuitively, measurement of the absence of photons also provides useful information, and offers significant potential for a wide range of new experimental directions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To optimize the psychometric properties of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) quality of life (QoL) item banks (IBs), and evaluate their performance using computerized adaptive testing (CAT) simulations.
Design: Cross-sectional, clinical study.
Methods: 261 AMD patients answered 219 items within seven IBs: Activity Limitation (AL); Lighting (LT); Mobility (MB); Emotional (EM); Concerns (CN); AMD Management (AM); and Work (WK), referred to collectively as "MacCAT".
Polymeric nanocapsules comprised of hydrophobic shells and hollow aqueous interiors are an extremely useful class of nanomaterial, particularly in the encapsulation and controlled delivery of hydrophilic cargo. Generally prepared via droplet or latex templation approaches, polymeric nanocapsules are mostly spherical. Controlling the morphology of hollow nanocapsules is an intriguing design challenge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTakeda G protein-coupled receptor 5 (TGR5), also known as G protein-coupled bile acid receptor 1 (GPBAR1), is a cell surface receptor involved in key physiological processes, including glucose homeostasis and energy metabolism. Recent research has focused on the role of TGR5 activation in preventing or treating diabetes while also highlighting its potential impact on the progression of diabetic complications. Functional foods and edible plants have emerged as valuable sources of natural compounds that can activate TGR5, offering potential therapeutic benefits for diabetes management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: For ventral/incisional hernias between 1 and 4 cm, there is still controversy regarding open or laparoscopic mesh repairs. The study evaluated via a propensity-score adjusted analysis, the differences in outcomes between a laparoscopic and open ventral hernia mesh repair.
Methodology: A single institution retrospective cohort study was performed.
The complex tumor microenvironment (TME) presents significant challenges to the development of effective therapies against solid tumors, highlighting the need for advanced in vitro models that better recapitulate TME biology. To address this, we developed a vascularized human liver tumor model using a microfluidic platform, designed to test both drug and cell-based therapies. This model mimics critical tumorigenic features such as hypoxia, extracellular matrix (ECM), and perfusable vascular networks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To determine the performance of a multi-gene copy number variation (MG-CNV) risk score in metastatic tissue and plasma biospecimens from treatment-naïve metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients for prediction of clinical outcomes.
Methods: mCRPC tissue and plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) biospecimen sequencing results obtained from publicly accessed cohorts in dbGaP, cBioPortal, and an institutional mCRPC cohort were used to develop a MG-CNV risk score derived from gains in AR, MYC, COL22A1, PIK3CA, PIK3CB, NOTCH1 and losses in TMPRSS2, NCOR1, ZBTB16, TP53, NKX3-1 in independent cohorts for determining overall survival (OS), progression free survival (PFS) to first-line Androgen Receptor Pathway Inhibitors (ARPIs). The range of the risk scores for each cohort was dichotomized into "high-risk" group and "low-risk" groups and association with OS/PFS determined.
Background: The predictive value of PD-L1 to select patients for immunotherapy in resectable NSCLC remains imprecise, confounded by different assays used across trials and intra-tumoural heterogeneity (ITH). We sought to compare the concordance between 3 PD-L1 antibodies stratified by EGFR mutation status, evaluate ITH and implications on survival outcomes.
Methods: Tissue microarrays were constructed from stage IA-IIIA NSCLC with 3 tumour cores per patient.
Introduction: Obesity (OB) in children remains a national epidemic. This trial targets children suffering from overweight (OW) and OB living in rural Appalachia. Rural Appalachia is fraught with unhealthy behaviours, high rates of OB, pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes among children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In the USA, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people report higher rates of tobacco use than non-LGBTQ+ people due to diverse factors, from anti-LGBTQ stigma to targeted marketing by the tobacco industry. There is an opportunity to support behavioural changes by delivering evidence-based health communication campaigns through community-based organisations (CBOs), but an insufficient evidence base and organisational resource restrictions limit this potential. Our previous research with CBO staff and leaders serving LGBTQ+ communities identified gaps in evidence-based campaigns, such as insufficient centering of LGBTQ+ communities in campaign development and execution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: While Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) T1 cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (CSCCs) are overall low risk, a small subset develop poor outcomes.
Objective: To evaluate the impact of minor risk factors on poor outcomes in T1 tumors.
Methods: Data was collected retrospectively from 11 centers.
Aim: We describe a single-center burden of admissions for irAE management and rechallenge feasibility.
Methods: A retrospective single-center study of patients receiving immunotherapy between 2015-2018 assessing irAE and immunotherapy rechallenge outcomes.
Results: 69 of 307 patients (22%) required 124 hospitalizations for irAEs.