Characteristics of contemporary drug clinical trials regarding the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

Background: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a chronic liver disease, has no United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs for treatment.

Objectives: To examine fundamental characteristics of drug clinical trials for NASH treatment on the global clinical trials registry platform.

Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of clinical trials with NASH as medical condition that are registered on ClinicalTrials.

A dual-function RNA balances carbon uptake and central metabolism in Vibrio cholerae.

Bacterial small RNAs (sRNAs) are well known to modulate gene expression by base pairing with trans-encoded transcripts and are typically non-coding. However, several sRNAs have been reported to also contain an open reading frame and thus are considered dual-function RNAs. In this study, we discovered a dual-function RNA from Vibrio cholerae, called VcdRP, harboring a 29 amino acid small protein (VcdP), as well as a base-pairing sequence.

Tumor membrane-based vaccine immunotherapy in combination with anti-CTLA-4 antibody confers protection against immune checkpoint resistant murine triple-negative breast cancer.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) afflicts women at a younger age than other breast cancers and is associated with a worse clinical outcome. This poor clinical outcome is attributed to a lack of defined targets and patient-to-patient heterogeneity in target antigens and immune responses. To address such heterogeneity, we tested the efficacy of a personalized vaccination approach for the treatment of TNBC using the 4T1 murine TNBC model.

Laparoscopic Hiatal Hernia Repair Followed by Transoral Incisionless Fundoplication With EsophyX Device (HH + TIF): Efficacy and Safety in Two Community Hospitals.

The TIF (transoral incisionless fundoplication) 2.0 procedure is indicated for patients with a hiatal hernia less than 2 cm. Many patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) require hiatal hernia repair.

Characterization of Distinct Populations of Carcinoma-Associated Fibroblasts from Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma Reveals a Role for ST8SIA2 in Cancer Cell Invasion.

Carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are abundant stromal cells in tumor microenvironment that are critically involved in cancer progression. Contrasting reports have shown that CAFs can have either pro- or antitumorigenic roles, indicating that CAFs are functionally heterogeneous. Therefore, to precisely target the cancer-promoting CAF subsets, it is necessary to identify specific markers to define these subpopulations and understand their functions.

Renal Complications of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: Report of a Case and Review of the Literature.

We report the development of minimal change disease superimposed on preexisting chronic kidney disease secondary to chronic calcineurin inhibitor nephrotoxicity in a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) recipient and review the renal complications of HSCT.

Immunosuppression Minimization and Avoidance Protocols: When Less Is Not More.

Kidney transplantation is well established as the best treatment option for end-stage kidney disease. It confers not only a better quality of life but also a significant survival advantage compared to dialysis. However, despite significant improvement in short-term kidney transplant graft survival over the past three decades, long-term graft survival remains suboptimal.

EFFECTS OF VARIOUS SEMEN EXTENDERS ON SEMEN PARAMETERS FOR THE PURPOSE OF HUMAN MALE FERTILITY PRESERVATION.

Background: Cryopreservation enables semen to be preserved at subzero temperatures, usually at -196 degrees C. There is a need in preparing good extender for the semen to be cryopreserved until use, especially in the field of assisted reproduction.

Objective: To elucidate the apt extender for preserving both infertile and fertile samples for a minimum period and to check the post thaw results for various extenders used.

Integrin α11β1 regulates cancer stromal stiffness and promotes tumorigenicity and metastasis in non-small cell lung cancer.

Integrin α11β1 is a stromal cell-specific receptor for fibrillar collagens and is overexpressed in carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). We have investigated its direct role in cancer progression by generating severe combined immune deficient (SCID) mice deficient in integrin α11 (α11) expression. The growth of A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells and two patient-derived non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) xenografts in these α11 knockout (α11(-/-)) mice was significantly impeded, as compared with wild-type (α11(+/+)) SCID mice.

Higher antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (C-ANCA) titers are associated with increased overall healthcare use in patients with sinonasal manifestations of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA).

Background: Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by necrotizing granulomatous airway inflammation and vasculitis. Sinonasal involvement occurs in more than 80% cases, with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (C-ANCA) titers used as a marker of disease severity. The purpose of this study was to determine whether C-ANCA levels impact radiographic findings and healthcare use in patients with sinonasal GPA.

Minimax Estimation of Functionals of Discrete Distributions.

We propose a general methodology for the construction and analysis of essentially minimax estimators for a wide class of functionals of finite dimensional parameters, and elaborate on the case of discrete distributions, where the support size is unknown and may be comparable with or even much larger than the number of observations . We treat the respective regions where the functional is nonsmooth and smooth separately. In the nonsmooth regime, we apply an unbiased estimator for the best polynomial approximation of the functional whereas, in the smooth regime, we apply a bias-corrected version of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE).

Incidence of contrast-induced nephropathy in kidney transplant recipients.

Unlabelled: Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is responsible for one-third of acute kidney injuries (AKI) in the hospital setting. The incidence of CIN varies from 3% to 30%, depending on the preexisting risk factors, with higher incidence noted with diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, and older age. Though CIN risk factors are common in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs), data about incidence of CIN in this population are sparse.

CaMoDi: a new method for cancer module discovery.

Background: Identification of genomic patterns in tumors is an important problem, which would enable the community to understand and extend effective therapies across the current tissue-based tumor boundaries. With this in mind, in this work we develop a robust and fast algorithm to discover cancer driver genes using an unsupervised clustering of similarly expressed genes across cancer patients. Specifically, we introduce CaMoDi, a new method for module discovery which demonstrates superior performance across a number of computational and statistical metrics.

The Utility of Serial Allograft Biopsies during Delayed Graft Function in Renal Transplantation under Current Immunosuppressive Regimens.

Delayed graft function (DGF) of kidney transplants increases risk of rejection. We aimed to assess the utility of weekly biopsies during DGF in the setting of currently used immunosuppression and identify variables associated with rejection during DGF. We reviewed all kidney transplants at our institution between January 2008 and December 2011.

The evolving approach to ethical issues in living donor kidney transplantation: a review based on illustrative case vignettes.

Living donor kidney transplantation which involves performing a major surgical procedure on a healthy person solely to benefit another person has always involved dealing with difficult ethical issues. Beneficence, non-maleficence, donor autonomy, altruistic donor motivation, coercion-free donation, fully informed consent and avoidance of medical paternalism have been the dominant ethical principles governing this field ever since the first successful living donor kidney transplant in 1954. The increasing reliance on living donors due to the rapidly growing disparity between the number of patients awaiting transplantation and the availability of deceased donor kidneys has brought with it a variety of new ethical issues of even greater complexity.

Renal allograft outcome in recipients of positive-crossmatch combined liver-kidney transplantation.

Background: Successful kidney transplantation despite positive crossmatch (+CXM) before transplantation is well recognized in combined liver-kidney transplant (CLKT) recipients. This is probably due to immunologic protection of the renal allograft (RA) conferred by the liver allograft. However, occurrences of antibody-mediated rejection and poor long-term RA outcome is also documented with +CXM CLKT recipients, suggesting that such immunologic protection may not be universal.

Increasing trend in infection-related death-censored graft failure in renal transplantation.

Background: Advances in kidney transplantation have significantly improved early outcomes but failed to improve long-term graft survival. Despite many causes, the contribution of infection to death-censored graft failure (DCGF) is unknown. The aim of our study is to assess the impact of infections on DCGF using United Network for Organ Sharing data.

Hepatorenal syndrome.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) secondary to hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) is an ominous complication of end-stage liver disease (ESLD). In HRS, splanchnic and peripheral vasodilatation with reduction in effective arterial volume causes activation of mechanisms leading to intense renal vasoconstriction and functional AKI. HRS is a diagnosis of exclusion and all other causes of AKI (especially prerenal azotemia) have to be considered and excluded.

Updated principles and clinical caveats in the management of infection in renal transplant recipients.

Renal transplantation is now considered the treatment of choice for patients with end-stage renal disease. In transplant recipients, infection and rejection are entwined and are unavoidable tribulations unless clinical tolerance becomes a reality. Although rejection rates have significantly decreased with the introduction of newer immunosuppressive agents, infections remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality, and the magnitude of the problem is on the rise.

Effect of alcohol consumption on bone mineral density and hormonal parameters in physically active male soldiers.

Background: Previous studies on the influence of alcohol intake and smoking on bone mineral density (BMD) in men are inconsistent and the effect of these variables on BMD in physically active men is yet to be explored.

Objective: To investigate the influence of alcohol intake and smoking on BMD in a cohort of males with well-defined lifestyle conditions.

Design: Men from the armed forces (n=400) having uniform and defined routines were enrolled.

Sequestration of active Cryptococcus neoformans infection in the parathyroid gland despite prolonged therapy in a renal transplant recipient.

Disseminated cryptococcal infection occurs mainly in the immunocompromised host, particularly in those with impaired cellular immunity. The treatment outcome depends not only on the duration and choice of antifungal therapy, but also on the activity of the organism to persist in different parts of the body despite therapy. We present a case of persistence of cryptococcal infection in the parathyroid gland in a kidney transplant recipient.

Mumbai harbour, India: gateway for introduction of marine organisms.

Ships have been identified as one of the important vectors in the translocation of organisms from one bioregion to another leading to bioinvasion. In this context, harbours serve as a gateway for the introduction of alien species. Surveys were carried out in the vicinity of ports of Mumbai for macrobenthic fauna, zooplankton and hard substratum community on three different occasions during 2001-2002.

Utility of estimated glomerular filtration rate in live kidney donation.

Live kidney donation is considered safe; nevertheless, data supporting such claims are almost exclusively of white origin with very limited long-term outcomes in ethnic minority donors. This prospective observational study consisted of a total of 103 previous kidney donors (54 black and 49 white) with mean follow-up days of 743.5 +/- 603.