Higher detectability of amyloid with phenol Congo red compared with alkaline Congo red.

Introduction: Amyloidosis is a heterogeneous group of conditions associated with tissue deposition of insoluble abnormal proteins that damage vital organs. Early diagnosis, when the deposits are minimal, determines the prognosis and requires histological confirmation. The commonly adopted gold standard technique is alkaline Congo red (ACR) staining, though its sensitivity is limited.

Clinical features, etiology, and survival in patients with restrictive cardiomyopathy: A single-center experience.

Background: Numerous prognostic factors have been proposed for cardiac amyloidosis (CA). The knowledge about other subtypes of restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM) is scant.

Aims: This study aimed to elucidate the etiology and prognostic factors of RCM as well as assess cardiac biomarkers: high-sensitive troponin T (hs-TnT), growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15), N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2, as mortality predictors in RCM.

Association between the acquisition of antibodies against Lyme disease and the risk of atrial arrhythmias.

Introduction: The impact of antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi (BB) on the occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias in patients without typical symptoms of Lyme disease (LD) is largely unknown.

Objectives: We aimed to assess the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) and other atrial arrhythmias (AAs) in patients who tested positive for anti-LD antibodies.

Patients And Methods: We included consecutive patients referred for the diagnosis and treatment of AAs who had no history of erythema migrans or other symptoms of LD.

Automatic Segmentation of Kidneys and Kidney Tumors: The KiTS19 International Challenge.

Clinicians rely on imaging features to calculate complexity of renal masses based on validated scoring systems. These scoring methods are labor-intensive and are subjected to interobserver variability. Artificial intelligence has been increasingly utilized by the medical community to solve such issues.

Computer-Generated R.E.N.A.L. Nephrometry Scores Yield Comparable Predictive Results to Those of Human-Expert Scores in Predicting Oncologic and Perioperative Outcomes.

Purpose: We sought to automate R.E.N.

Generation of Functional Human 3D Cortico-Motor Assembloids.

Neurons in the cerebral cortex connect through descending pathways to hindbrain and spinal cord to activate muscle and generate movement. Although components of this pathway have been previously generated and studied in vitro, the assembly of this multi-synaptic circuit has not yet been achieved with human cells. Here, we derive organoids resembling the cerebral cortex or the hindbrain/spinal cord and assemble them with human skeletal muscle spheroids to generate 3D cortico-motor assembloids.

The state of the art in kidney and kidney tumor segmentation in contrast-enhanced CT imaging: Results of the KiTS19 challenge.

There is a large body of literature linking anatomic and geometric characteristics of kidney tumors to perioperative and oncologic outcomes. Semantic segmentation of these tumors and their host kidneys is a promising tool for quantitatively characterizing these lesions, but its adoption is limited due to the manual effort required to produce high-quality 3D segmentations of these structures. Recently, methods based on deep learning have shown excellent results in automatic 3D segmentation, but they require large datasets for training, and there remains little consensus on which methods perform best.

Evaluating the Perceived Importance of Male Ejaculatory Function.

Objective: To assess the perceived importance of male ejaculatory function (EjF) from the perspective of adult men and their sexual partners.

Methods: In a large survey study, men were asked about the importance of their own EjF. Sexual partners of men were asked about the general importance their partner's EjF, and whether they would support a partner's decision to pursue BPH treatment despite ejaculatory dysfunction.

Quantitation of mRNA Transcripts and Proteins Using the BD Rhapsody™ Single-Cell Analysis System.

In this review, we describe the BD Rhapsody™ Single-Cell Analysis System, a platform that allows high-throughput capture of nucleic acids from single cells using a simple cartridge workflow and a multitier barcoding system. The resulting captured information can be used to generate various types of next-generation sequencing (NGS) libraries, including whole transcriptome analysis for discovery biology and targeted RNA analysis for high sensitivity transcript detection. The BD Rhapsody system can be used with emerging applications, such as BD™ AbSeq assays, to profile gene expression in both mRNA and protein level to provide ultra-high resolution analysis of single cells.

Reliability of human cortical organoid generation.

The differentiation of pluripotent stem cells in three-dimensional cultures can recapitulate key aspects of brain development, but protocols are prone to variable results. Here we differentiated multiple human pluripotent stem cell lines for over 100 d using our previously developed approach to generate brain-region-specific organoids called cortical spheroids and, using several assays, found that spheroid generation was highly reliable and consistent. We anticipate the use of this approach for large-scale differentiation experiments and disease modeling.

COP1/DET1/ETS axis regulates ERK transcriptome and sensitivity to MAPK inhibitors.

Aberrant activation of MAPK signaling leads to the activation of oncogenic transcriptomes. How MAPK signaling is coupled with the transcriptional response in cancer is not fully understood. In 2 MAPK-activated tumor types, gastrointestinal stromal tumor and melanoma, we found that ETV1 and other Pea3-ETS transcription factors are critical nuclear effectors of MAPK signaling that are regulated through protein stability.

Aberrant Activation of a Gastrointestinal Transcriptional Circuit in Prostate Cancer Mediates Castration Resistance.

Prostate cancer exhibits a lineage-specific dependence on androgen signaling. Castration resistance involves reactivation of androgen signaling or activation of alternative lineage programs to bypass androgen requirement. We describe an aberrant gastrointestinal-lineage transcriptome expressed in ∼5% of primary prostate cancer that is characterized by abbreviated response to androgen-deprivation therapy and in ∼30% of castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Impaired right ventricular function as a predictor of early mortality in patients with light‑ chain cardiac amyloidosis assessed in a cardiology department.

INTRODUCTION    Light‑chain (AL) amyloidosis is the most common cardiac amyloidosis. Despite progress in treatment, early mortality remains a substantial problem in these patients. OBJECTIVES    The aim of this study was to determine a clinical profile of patients diagnosed with AL amyloidosis in a cardiology department, as well as to define the cut‑off point for early mortality and identify predictors of early mortality in this population.

ETV1-Positive Cells Give Rise to -Mutant Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is the most common subtype of sarcoma. Despite clinical advances in the treatment of -mutant GIST, similar progress against wild-type GIST, including mutant BRAF-driven tumors, has been limited by a lack of model systems. ETV1 is a master regulator in the intestinal cells of Cajal (ICC), thought to be the cells of origin of GIST.

Excited-state minima and emission energies of retinal chromophore analogues: Performance of CASSCF and CC2 methods as compared with CASPT2.

This study provides gas-phase S excited-state geometries along with emission and adiabatic energies for methylated/demethylated and ring-locked analogues of protonated Schiff base retinal models comprising system of five conjugated double bonds (PSB5), using second order multiconfiguration perturbation theory (CASPT2). CASPT2 results serve as reference data to assess the performance of CC2 (second-order approximate coupled cluster singles and doubles) and a commonly used CASSCF/CASPT2 protocol, that is, complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) geometry optimization followed by CASPT2 energy calculation. We find that the CASSCF methodology fails to locate planar S minimum energy structures for four out of five investigated planar models in contrast to CC2 and CASPT2 methods.

Recurrent activating mutations of G-protein-coupled receptor CYSLTR2 in uveal melanoma.

Uveal melanomas are molecularly distinct from cutaneous melanomas and lack mutations in BRAF, NRAS, KIT, and NF1. Instead, they are characterized by activating mutations in GNAQ and GNA11, two highly homologous α subunits of Gαq/11 heterotrimeric G proteins, and in PLCB4 (phospholipase C β4), the downstream effector of Gαq signaling. We analyzed genomics data from 136 uveal melanoma samples and found a recurrent mutation in CYSLTR2 (cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 2) encoding a p.

Assessing the Accuracy of Various Ab Initio Methods for Geometries and Excitation Energies of Retinal Chromophore Minimal Model by Comparison with CASPT3 Results.

The effect of the quality of the ground-state geometry on excitation energies in the retinal chromophore minimal model (PSB3) was systematically investigated using various single- (within Møller-Plesset and coupled-cluster frameworks) and multiconfigurational [within complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) and CASSCF-based perturbative approaches: second-order CASPT2 and third-order CASPT3] methods. Among investigated methods, only CASPT3 provides geometry in nearly perfect agreement with the CCSD(T)-based equilibrium structure. The second goal of the present study was to assess the performance of the CASPT2 methodology, which is popular in computational spectroscopy of retinals, in describing the excitation energies of low-lying excited states of PSB3 relative to CASPT3 results.

Impacts of retinal polyene (de)methylation on the photoisomerization mechanism and photon energy storage of rhodopsin.

Ab initio multiconfigurational quantum chemical methodology combined with molecular mechanics (CASPT2//CASSCF/AMBER) was applied to probe impacts of retinal protonated Schiff base (RPSB) polyene methylation and/or demethylation on the mechanism of photochemical isomerization in bovine rhodopsin. We have examined structural and spectroscopic properties of wild-type rhodopsin (with 11-cis-9,13-dimethyl-RPSB) and artificial rhodopsins, hosting four 11-cis-RPSB derivatives, 13-demethyl-, 9-demethyl-, 10-methyl-13-demethyl-, and 10-methyl-RPSB, evolving along the photoisomerization coordinate. It is found that the addition of 10-methyl or/and deletion of 9-/13-methyl groups do not appear to interfere structurally with the photoisomerization pathway in the S1 excited state.

Biotransformation of acetophenone and its halogen derivatives by strains.

The ability of 16 strains of to biotransform acetophenone and its derivatives has been studied. Thirteen of these strains were derived from a wild-type strain A-101; six had the invertase gene () from integrated into their genome, as well as the damaged or undamaged gene encoding orotidine-5'-phosphate decarboxylase (), three had integrated the damaged gene into their genome and three were UV acetate-negative mutants, not able to growth on acetate as the sole carbon source. The other tested strains included two wild strains, A-101 and PMR-1, and an adenine auxotroph ATCC 32-338A.

Harvest and primary culture of the murine aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron.

The aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron (ASDN) exhibits axial heterogeneity in structure and function from the distal convoluted tubule to the medullary collecting duct. Ion and water transport is primarily divided between the cortex and medulla of the ASDN, respectively. Transcellular transport in this segment is highly regulated in health and disease and is integrated across different cell types.

Rapid progression of primary sclerosing cholangitis complicated with ulcerative colitis.

Primary sclerosing cholangitis is a cholestatic condition with unknown etiology and long-standing, progressive course, leading to cirrhosis and requiring orthotropic liver transplant. In approximately 80%, primary sclerosing cholangitis is accompanied by inflammatory bowel disease, and in most cases the recognition of bowel disease precedes the diagnosis of primary sclerosing cholangitis. We describe a case of 22-year-old male diagnosed simultaneously with primary sclerosing cholangitis and ulcerative colitis, with a medical history suggesting uncommon prior development of the liver disease.

Heterotopic pancreatic tissue in the gastric cardia: a case report and literature review.

The heterotopic pancreas, which is usually described as an untypical presence of pancreatic tissue without any anatomic or vascular continuity with the pancreas, is relatively rare. Clinical manifestations may include bleeding, inflammation, pain and obstruction; however, in most cases it remains silent and is diagnosed during autopsy. Here, we report a case of ectopic pancreatic lesion located in the gastric cardia.