Publications by authors named "William Simmons"

Article Synopsis
  • IgA vasculitis (IgAV) is a common type of blood vessel disease in kids, and while most get better, some can have long-term kidney problems.
  • A group of 28 experts worked for over a year to create guidelines on how to treat IgAV and its complications by reviewing many studies and getting feedback from others.
  • The new guidelines have been approved by important health organizations and aim to help doctors provide better care for kids with this condition.
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Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a significant health problem that contributes to high morbidity and mortality in diverse cardiac, pulmonary, and systemic diseases in children. Evidence-based advances in PH care have been challenged by a paucity of quality endpoints for assessing clinical course and the lack of robust clinical trial data to guide pharmacologic therapies in children. While the landmark adult AMBITION trial demonstrated the benefit of up-front combination PH therapy with ambrisentan and tadalafil, it remains unknown whether upfront combination therapy leads to more rapid and sustained clinical benefits in children with various categories of PH.

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Bacterial superinfection and antibiotic prescribing in the setting of the current mpox outbreak are not well described in the literature. This retrospective observational study revealed low prevalence (11%) of outpatient antibiotic prescribing for bacterial superinfection of mpox lesions; at least 3 prescriptions (23%) were unnecessary.

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PBRM1 is a subunit of the PBAF chromatin remodeling complex, which is mutated in 40-50% of clear cell renal cell carcinoma patients. It is thought to largely function as a chromatin binding subunit of the PBAF complex, but the molecular mechanism underlying this activity is not fully known. PBRM1 contains six tandem bromodomains which are known to cooperate in binding of nucleosomes acetylated at histone H3 lysine 14 (H3K14ac).

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A patient with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) had persistent, progressive pneumonia with viremia after 5 months of infection despite monoclonal antibodies, intravenous (IV) remdesivir and prolonged oral steroids. Twenty days of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir and 10 days of IV remdesivir led to full recovery.

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Improving maternal and child health is a global priority. Although infection with (LM), a small facultative anaerobic, gram-positive motile bacillus is rare, when it infects the maternal-fetoplacental unit, it can result in adverse fetal sequelae such as chorioamnionitis, preterm labour, neonatal sepsis, meningitis and neonatal death. Pregnancy-associated listeriosis may present with a plethora of diverse, non-specific symptoms such as fever, influenza-like or gastrointestinal symptoms, premature contractions and preterm labour.

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Background: Pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection experience higher rates of stillbirth and preterm birth. A unique pattern of chronic histiocytic intervillositis (CHI) and/or massive perivillous fibrin deposition (MPFD) has emerged, coined as SARS-CoV-2 placentitis.

Methods: The aim of this study was to describe a cohort of placentas diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 placentitis during October 2020-March 2021.

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During a myocardial infarction or ischemic stroke, blood flow to the heart or brain is partially blocked. This results in reduced delivery of oxygen and nutrients and, ultimately, tissue damage. Initial treatment involves removing the clot and restoring blood flow (reperfusion).

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Clinical research coordinators are increasingly tasked with a multitude of complex study activities critical to scientific rigor and participant safety, though more than half report not receiving appropriate training. To determine the reproducibility of an established clinical research workforce orientation program, collaborative partners across Clinical and Translational Science Award institutions seeded core principles and structure from Mayo Clinic's Clinical Research Orientation program within Penn State University and the University of Mississippi Medical Center from 2019 to 2021. Training concepts were established and tied to those domains deemed critical by the Joint Task Force for Clinical Trial Competency for the conduct of clinical research at the highest levels of safety and quality possible.

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Article Synopsis
  • Over 65% of body iron in mammals is found in erythrocytes, mainly as part of hemoglobin, requiring both dietary intake and recycling of iron from old blood cells.
  • The SLC48A1 protein plays a crucial role in transporting heme from lysosomes to the cytoplasm, and in genetically modified mice lacking this protein, heme accumulates as hemozoin crystals in macrophages.
  • These SLC48A1-deficient mice show visible hemozoin at just 8 days old, illustrating disrupted erythrocyte recycling, while studies suggest SLC48A1 is responsible for recycling a significant amount of iron equivalent to dietary levels, potentially linking human mutations of this protein to iron disorders.
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Background: Accurate measurements of mucosal eosinophil concentrations in gastrointestinal tracts of healthy children are necessary to differentiate health and disease states in general, and better define eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases.

Study: We retrospectively reviewed gastrointestinal biopsies from children with macroscopically normal endoscopies, who, after a minimal follow-up of one year, were not diagnosed with any organic disease. Peak eosinophil concentrations and distributions were assessed from each segment of the gastrointestinal tract.

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Because of ethnic and cultural violence in Myanmar, approximately a million Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh starting from August 2017, in what the UN has called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". Those arriving in Bangladesh were able to escape decade-long ethnic violence in Myanmar, but the Rohingya's immediate destination, Cox's Bazar district is one of the most climate-vulnerable and disaster-prone areas in Bangladesh. Currently, they have been subjected to extreme rainfalls, landslides, and flashfloods.

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Wastewater-based monitoring for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) at the individual building level could be an efficient, passive means of early detection of new cases in congregate living settings, but this approach has not been validated. Preliminary samples were collected from a hospital and a local municipal wastewater treatment plant. Molecular diagnostic methods were compared side by side to assess feasibility, performance, and sensitivity.

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Introduction: Assimilate a general radiology division into a subspecialty-focused radiology department at an academic medical center.

Methods: This Institutional Review Board-approved quality improvement initiative was performed at an academic medical centers' subspecialty-focused academic radiology department, aiming to assimilate a general radiology division providing interpretive services for a distributed set of community ambulatory practices. An Oversight Committee charged by the department chair created a charter with unambiguous goal, timelines, clear decision-making, and conflict resolution processes.

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The 2017 revitalization of the controversial Security Communities program, which requires local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration officials in the United States, has made it urgent to better understand such enforcement programs' effects on the well-being of Latinas/os, especially the foreign-born. Social isolation from increased immigration enforcement can have significant impacts on economic, social, and health outcomes among Latina/o immigrants and non-immigrants. This article analyzes the gendered impacts of different levels of increased local involvement in immigration enforcement on social isolation, using a survey of over 2000 Latinas/os in four large US cities, all considered to be traditional destinations.

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Free heme is cytotoxic as exemplified by hemolytic diseases and genetic deficiencies in heme recycling and detoxifying pathways. Thus, intracellular accumulation of heme has not been observed in mammalian cells to date. Here we show that mice deficient for the heme transporter SLC48A1 (also known as HRG1) accumulate over ten-fold excess heme in reticuloendothelial macrophage lysosomes that are 10 to 100 times larger than normal.

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The tight coupling between cerebral blood flow and neural activity is a key feature of normal brain function and forms the basis of functional hyperemia. The mechanisms coupling neural activity to vascular responses, however, remain elusive despite decades of research. Recent studies have shown that cerebral functional hyperemia begins in capillaries, and red blood cells (RBCs) act as autonomous regulators of brain capillary perfusion.

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Although the over-expression of angiogenic factors is reported in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the poor response to anti-VEGF drugs observed in clinical trials suggests that angiogenesis in these tumours might be driven by VEGF-independent pathways. We show that sphingosine kinase-1 (SPHK1), which generates the potent bioactive sphingolipid sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), is over-expressed in DLBCL. A meta-analysis of over 2000 cases revealed that genes correlated with SPHK1 mRNA expression in DLBCL were significantly enriched for tumour angiogenesis meta-signature genes; an effect evident in both major cell of origin (COO) and stromal subtypes.

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SLIT2 has been classified as a major tumour suppressor gene due to its frequent inactivation in different cancer types. However, alterations of SLIT2 expression and relation to patient outcomes in diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) remain undefined. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and the methylation status of SLIT2 gene as well as its relation to patient outcomes in DLBCL.

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The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is found almost exclusively in the activated B-cell (ABC) subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), yet its contribution to this tumour remains poorly understood. We have focused on the EBV-encoded latent membrane protein-1 (LMP1), a constitutively activated CD40 homologue expressed in almost all EBV-positive DLBCLs and which can disrupt germinal centre (GC) formation and drive lymphomagenesis in mice. Comparison of the transcriptional changes that follow LMP1 expression with those that follow transient CD40 signalling in human GC B cells enabled us to define pathogenic targets of LMP1 aberrantly expressed in ABC-DLBCL.

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Plasticity, the capacity of an organism to respond to its environment, is thought to evolve through changes in development altering the integration of environmental cues. In polyphenism, a discontinuous plastic response produces two or more phenotypic morphs. Here we describe evolutionary change in wing polyphenism and its underlying developmental regulation in natural populations of the red-shouldered soapberry bug, Jadera haematoloma (Insecta: Hemiptera: Rhopalidae) that have adapted to a novel host plant.

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Bumblebees are important pollinators in wild and agricultural settings. In recent decades pollinator declines have been linked to the effects of increased pesticide use and the spread of disease. Synergy between these factors has been suggested, but no physiological mechanism has been identified.

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This qualitative research study examines the experiences of immigrant women crossing the U.S./Mexico border and the proliferation of "drop houses" in Arizona as a new phenomenon, one that is often marked by kidnappings and sexual assault.

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