Acute Ankle Diastasis Injuries Treated with Dynamic, Static Fixation or Anatomic Repair: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review of Comparison Studies.

Background: Acute ankle diastasis injuries are complex and debilitating. These injuries occur when the syndesmotic complex becomes compromised. Treatments of acute syndesmotic injuries include static fixation with screws, dynamic fixation with an elastic device, or anatomic repair of the damaged ligament.

Immunosenescence and multiple sclerosis: inflammaging for prognosis and therapeutic consideration.

Aging is associated with a progressive decline of innate and adaptive immune responses, called immunosenescence. This phenomenon links to different multiple sclerosis (MS) disease courses among different age groups. While clinical relapse and active demyelination are mainly related to the altered adaptive immunity, including invasion of T- and B-lymphocytes, impairment of innate immune cell (e.

Development and Validation of Patient Education Tools for Deprescribing in Patients on Hemodialysis.

Background: Deprescribing is a patient-centered solution to reducing polypharmacy in patients on hemodialysis (HD). In a deprescribing pilot study, patients were hesitant to participate due to limited understanding of their own medications and their unfamiliarity with the concept of deprescribing. Therefore, patient education materials designed to address these knowledge gaps can overcome barriers to shared decision-making and reduce hesitancy regarding deprescribing.

Familial multiple sclerosis in patients with Von Hippel-Lindau disease.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive autoimmune demyelinating disorder. Recent studies suggest that a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental insult contributes to its pathogenesis. Many candidate genes have been discovered to modulate susceptibility for developing MS by genome wide association studies (GWAS); these include major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes and non-MHC genes.

A review of the BCG vaccine and other approaches toward tuberculosis eradication.

Despite aggressive eradication efforts, Tuberculosis (TB) remains a global health burden, one that disproportionally affects poorer, less developed nations. The only vaccine approved for TB, the Bacillus of Calmette and Guérin (BCG) vaccine remains controversial because it's stated efficacy has been cited as anywhere from 0 to 80%. Nevertheless, there have been exciting discoveries about the mechanism of action of the BCG vaccine that suggests it has a role in immunization schedules today.

Elucidating the Efficacy of the Bacille Calmette-Guérin Vaccination in Conjunction with First Line Antibiotics and Liposomal Glutathione.

() is the etiological agent that is responsible for causing tuberculosis (TB). Although every year infection affects millions of people worldwide, the only vaccine that is currently available is the Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine. However, the BCG vaccine has varying efficacy.

Biochemical and structural characterization of a novel cooperative binding mode by Pit-1 with CATT repeats in the macrophage migration inhibitory factor promoter.

Overexpression of the proinflammatory cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is linked to a number of autoimmune diseases and cancer. MIF production has been correlated to the number of CATT repeats in a microsatellite region upstream of the MIF gene. We have characterized the interaction of pituitary-specific positive transcription factor 1 (Pit-1) with a portion of the MIF promoter region flanking a microsatellite polymorphism (-794 CATT5-8).

Structural basis for decreased induction of class IB PI3-kinases expression by MIF inhibitors.

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a master regulator of proinflammatory cytokines and plays pathological roles when not properly regulated in rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, atherosclerosis, asthma and cancer. Unlike canonical cytokines, MIF has vestigial keto-enol tautomerase activity. Most of the current MIF inhibitors were screened for the inhibition of this enzymatic activity.

New Insights into Mechanisms and Functions of Chemokine (C-X-C Motif) Receptor 4 Heteromerization in Vascular Smooth Muscle.

Recent evidence suggests that C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) heteromerizes with α1A/B-adrenoceptors (AR) and atypical chemokine receptor 3 (ACKR3) and that CXCR4:α1A/B-AR heteromers are important for α₁-AR function in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). Structural determinants for CXCR4 heteromerization and functional consequences of CXCR4:α1A/B-AR heteromerization in intact arteries, however, remain unknown. Utilizing proximity ligation assays (PLA) to visualize receptor interactions in VSMC, we show that peptide analogs of transmembrane-domain (TM) 2 and TM4 of CXCR4 selectively reduce PLA signals for CXCR4:α1A-AR and CXCR4:ACKR3 interactions, respectively.

A wearable fingernail chemical sensing platform: pH sensing at your fingertips.

This article demonstrates an example of a wearable chemical sensor based on a fingernail platform. Fingernails represent an attractive wearable platform, merging beauty products with chemical sensing, to enable monitoring of our surrounding environment. The new colorimetric pH fingernail sensor relies on coating artificial nails with a recognition layer consisted of pH indicators entrapped in a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) matrix.

Chronic centrosome amplification without tumorigenesis.

Centrosomes are microtubule-organizing centers that facilitate bipolar mitotic spindle assembly and chromosome segregation. Recognizing that centrosome amplification is a common feature of aneuploid cancer cells, we tested whether supernumerary centrosomes are sufficient to drive tumor development. To do this, we constructed and analyzed mice in which centrosome amplification can be induced by a Cre-recombinase-mediated increase in expression of Polo-like kinase 4 (Plk4).

An Analysis of MIF Structural Features that Control Functional Activation of CD74.

For more than 15 years, the tautomerase active site of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) and its catalytic residue Pro1 have been being targeted for the development of therapeutics that block activation of its cell surface receptor, CD74. Neither the biological role of the MIF catalytic site nor the mechanistic details of CD74 activation are well understood. The inherently unstable structure of CD74 remains the biggest obstacle in structural studies with MIF for understanding the basis of CD74 activation.

Optogenetic control of chemokine receptor signal and T-cell migration.

Adoptive cell transfer of ex vivo-generated immune-promoting or tolerogenic T cells to either enhance immunity or promote tolerance in patients has been used with some success. However, effective trafficking of the transferred cells to the target tissue sites is the main barrier to achieving successful clinical outcomes. Here we developed a strategy for optically controlling T-cell trafficking using a photoactivatable (PA) chemokine receptor.

Mortality predictions using current physiologic scoring systems in patients meeting criteria for early goal-directed therapy and the severe sepsis resuscitation bundle.

Physiologic scoring systems are often used to prognosticate mortality in critically ill patients. This study examined the performance of Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II, Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II, Mortality in Emergency Department Sepsis (MEDS), and Mortality Probability Models (MPM) II0 in predicting in-hospital mortality of patients in the emergency department meeting criteria for early goal-directed therapy and the severe sepsis resuscitation bundle. The discrimination and calibration characteristics of APACHE II, SAPS II, MEDS, and MPM II0 were evaluated.

Implementation of a bundle of quality indicators for the early management of severe sepsis and septic shock is associated with decreased mortality.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the outcome implications of implementing a severe sepsis bundle in an emergency department as a quality indicator set with feedback to modify physician behavior related to the early management of severe sepsis and septic shock.

Design: Two-year prospective observational cohort.

Setting: Academic tertiary care facility.

Early goal-directed therapy, corticosteroid, and recombinant human activated protein C for the treatment of severe sepsis and septic shock in the emergency department.

Objectives: To describe our experience with early goal-directed therapy (EGDT), corticosteroid administration, and recombinant human activated protein C (rhAPC) administration in patients with severe sepsis or septic shock and an Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score > or =25 in the emergency department (ED).

Methods: This was a retrospective case series of a prospectively maintained ED sepsis registry. Data are presented as median (25th, 75th percentile).