Publications by authors named "Thomas Kent"

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are chemicals of concern-they are ubiquitous, persistent, with known and suspected health impacts. Well studied, primary sources of exposure to PFAS are drinking water and food. The presence of PFAS in human tissue of general populations suggests other important exposure sources/pathways.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Down syndrome (DS) is a multisystemic disorder that includes accelerated aging caused by trisomy 21. In particular, overexpression of cystathionine-β-synthase (CBS) is linked to excess intracellular hydrogen sulfide (HS), a mitochondrial toxin at higher concentrations, which impairs cellular viability. Concurrent overexpression of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) may increase oxidative stress by generating excess hydrogen peroxide (HO) while also mitigating the toxic HS burden via a non-canonical sulfide-oxidizing mechanism.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The focus of current research work was to develop and validate size-exclusion chromatography method and develop and evaluate gel formulation of deferoxamine conjugated with PEGylated carbon nanoparticles (DEF-PEG-CNP) for topical delivery. Size-exclusion chromatography-based method was validated as per ICH guidelines. Effect of Carbopol® 974P and Transcutol® on the nanoparticles' permeation was studied by 3-level full factorial design of experiment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the pro-energetic properties of oxidized carbon nanozymes (OCNs), which are derived from oxidizing carbon materials and show beneficial enzymatic activities that mimic natural enzymes.
  • OCNs enhance energy metabolism by supporting glycolysis and mitochondrial function, especially during conditions of impaired mitochondrial energy metabolism, such as traumatic brain injury (TBI).
  • When linked with the iron chelator deferoxamine, OCNs promote a metabolic shift in both lab studies and a rat model of TBI, reducing hemorrhage volumes and showing potential for improving resilience to injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The patient was an 84-year-old man who presented with a palpable, left breast mass. Following ultrasound, mammography, and ultrasound-guided core needle biopsy, the lesion was diagnosed as papillary carcinoma. Findings included a complex, cystic mass on ultrasound; a well-circumscribed, high-density lesion on mammogram; and a lack of highlighting of myoepithelial cells within fibrovascular cores on immunostaining.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

LCS-1, a putative selective inhibitor of SOD1, is a substituted pyridazinone with rudimentary similarity to quinones and naphthoquinones. As quinones catalytically oxidize HS to biologically active reactive sulfur species (RSS), we hypothesized LCS-1 might have similar attributes. Here, we examine LCS-1 reactions with HS and SOD1 using thiol-specific fluorophores, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), UV-vis spectrometry, and oxygen consumption.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Elevated blood ketone levels (ketosis) in inpatients with diabetes can herald diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). However, ketosis can also occur in individuals without diabetes in certain settings. It is unclear what proportion of inpatients with ketosis are in DKA and which patients are at the highest risk of DKA.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) poses acute fatality and long-term neurological risks due to hemin and iron accumulation from hemoglobin breakdown. Our observation that hemin induces DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), prompting a senescence-like phenotype in neurons, necessitating deeper exploration of cellular responses. Using experimental ICH models and human ICH patient tissue, we elucidate hemin-mediated DNA damage response (DDR) inducing transient senescence and delayed expression of heme oxygenase (HO-1).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The ingestion of soil and dust by children and adults is a potential source of exposure to environmental contaminants. To advance beyond the simple averaging of estimates used in the U.S.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The calcaneus is the most commonly fractured tarsal bone. Diagnosis is often challenging due to subtle radiographic changes and requires timely identification to prevent complications, including subtalar arthritis, neurovascular injury, malunion, osteomyelitis, and compartment syndrome. Treatment varies based on fracture type, with non-surgical methods for non-displaced stress fractures and surgical interventions for displaced or intra-articular fractures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely used in industry and have been linked to various adverse health effects. Communities adjacent to sites where PFAS are manufactured, stored, or used may be at elevated risk. In these impacted communities, significant exposure often occurs through contaminated drinking water, yet less is known about the role of other pathways such as residential exposure through house dust.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely observed in environmental media and often are found in indoor environments as well as personal-care and consumer products. Humans may be exposed through water, food, indoor dust, air, and the use of PFAS-containing products. Information about relationships between PFAS exposure sources and pathways and the amounts found in human biomatrices can inform source-contribution assessments and provide targets for exposure reduction.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Granular cell tumors are uncommon neoplasms of Schwannian origin that can present nearly anywhere in the body, but are most commonly seen in the head and neck region. While the majority of these tumors are benign, a subset can behave aggressively and even have metastatic potential. We are reporting a case of a 35-year-old female with a history morbid obesity presenting for bariatric surgery (sleeve gastrectomy).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The patient was a 65-year-old White woman who presented to dermatology with a painless, rapidly growing exophytic nodule on her left upper cheek.

Aims/purpose: In this case report, we aim to demonstrate the difficulty of diagnosing Epstein-Barr virus-negative extranodal NK cell lymphomas given the broad differential of NK cell lymphomas and the rarity of EBV-negative extranodal NK cell lymphoma.

Methods: Immunohistochemical studies confirmed the diagnosis of cutaneous, extranodal NK cell lymphoma.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Measurement uncertainty has long been a concern in the characterizing and interpreting environmental and toxicological measurements. We compared statistical analysis approaches when there are replicates: a Naı̈ve approach that omits replicates, a Hybrid approach that inappropriately treats replicates as independent samples, and a Measurement Error Model (MEM) approach in a random effects analysis of variance (ANOVA) model that appropriately incorporates replicates. A simulation study assessed the effects of sample size and levels of replication, signal variance, and measurement error on estimates from the three statistical approaches.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There is strong scientific evidence for multiple pathways of human exposure to lead (Pb) in residential settings, particularly for young children; however, less is known about maternal exposure during pregnancy and children's exposure during early lifestages. A robust, multi-faceted secondary analysis was conducted using data collected by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in the 2009-2014 National Children's Study Vanguard Studies. Descriptive statistics summarized Pb concentrations of maternal blood, maternal urine, and house dust vacuum samples collected during pregnancy and residence surface wipes collected both during pregnancy and six months post-partum.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Historically, soil ingestion rate estimates were based on trace element-based mass balance (MB) study results. These were used in assessing exposures and health risks for children residing in Superfund or chemically contaminated communities. However, soil and dust can have considerable differences with respect to their sources, chemical, physical, and toxicological characteristics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hydrogen sulfide (H S) is a noxious, potentially poisonous, but necessary gas produced from sulfur metabolism in humans. In Down Syndrome (DS), the production of H S is elevated and associated with degraded mitochondrial function. Therefore, removing H S from the body as a stable oxide could be an approach to reducing the deleterious effects of H S in DS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The patient was a 46-year-old woman who presented with right sixth cranial nerve (CN VI) palsy following severe head trauma secondary to a motor vehicle collision one month prior. In this case report, we aim to add to the literature an additional example of unilateral CN VI avulsion as visualized by MRI secondary to head trauma. 3D T2 MRI was used to visualize the CN VI avulsion.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Germinal matrix haemorrhage/intraventricular haemorrhage (GMH-IVH) is a multifactorial injury with both anatomic and haemodynamic involvement. Normal variants in preterm deep cerebral venous anatomy associated with GMH-IVH have been previously described using MRI susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI). The aims of this study were to use SWI to compare the deep venous systems of a cohort of preterm neonates with various grades of GMH-IVH to a group of age-matched controls without GMH-IVH and to present novel retrospective SWI imaging findings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Telomere maintenance is a hallmark of malignant cells and allows cancers to divide indefinitely. In some cancers, this is achieved through the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) pathway. Whilst loss of ATRX is a near universal feature of ALT-cancers, it is insufficient in isolation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Given that human biomonitoring surveys show per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to be ubiquitous, humans can be exposed to PFAS through various sources, including drinking water, food, and indoor environmental media. Data on the nature and level of PFAS in residential environments are required to identify important pathways for human exposure. This work investigated important pathways of exposure to PFAS by reviewing, curating, and mapping evidence for the measured occurrence of PFAS in exposure media.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Carbon-based superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimetic nanozymes have recently been employed as promising antioxidant nanotherapeutics due to their distinct properties. The structural features responsible for the efficacy of these nanomaterials as antioxidants are, however, poorly understood. Here, the process-structure-property-performance properties of coconut-derived oxidized activated charcoal (cOAC) nano-SOD mimetics are studied by analyzing how modifications to the nanomaterial's synthesis impact the size, as well as the elemental and electrochemical properties of the particles.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: While major pathways of human PFAS exposure are thought to be drinking water and diet, other pathways and sources have also been shown to contribute to a person's cumulative exposure. However, the degree of contribution of these other sources to PFAS body burdens is still not well understood and occurrence data for PFAS in conssumer products and household materials are sparse. Questionnaire data concordant with biomonitoring may improve understanding of associations between other PFAS exposure pathways and exposure in human populations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF