Cell death in glioblastoma and the central nervous system.

Glioblastoma is the commonest and deadliest primary brain tumor. Glioblastoma is characterized by significant intra- and inter-tumoral heterogeneity, resistance to treatment and dismal prognoses despite decades of research in understanding its biological underpinnings. Encompassed within this heterogeneity and therapy resistance are severely dysregulated programmed cell death pathways.

Bereaved parents' perceptions of their cancer-ill child's last month with or without palliative care - a nationwide study.

Background: Cancer is still the leading cause of non-accidental death in childhood, although the majority of children diagnosed in high-income countries survive their illness. In accordance with international standards, equal and early access to palliative care should be available to children and adults. Yet communication and prognostic disclosure may influence the timing of involvement in palliative care.

Altered sleep and inflammation are related to outcomes in neonatal encephalopathy.

Aim: Immune dysregulation and delayed onset of sleep wake cycling (SWC) are associated with worse outcome in neonatal encephalopathy (NE), however the association between sleep and immune dysfunction in NE remains unclear. Aimed to evaluate association of sleep and systemic inflammation with outcomes in NE.

Methods: Amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) recordings were collected on infants undergoing therapeutic hypothermia (TH).

Are we better together? Addressing a combined treatment of pitavastatin and temozolomide for brain cancer.

Pitavastatin is commonly prescribed to treat hypercholesterolemia through the regulation of cholesterol biosynthesis. Interestingly, it has also demonstrated a great potential for treating brain tumors, although the detailed cytotoxic mechanism, particularly in glioblastoma, remains incompletely understood. This work explores the activity of pitavastatin in 2D and 3D glioblastoma models, in an attempt to provide a more representative and robust overview of its anticancer potential in glioblastoma.

Risk factors for abusive head trauma in the pediatric population.

Objective: Abusive head trauma (AHT) is the leading cause of death from physical child abuse in children younger than 5 years of age in the United States. The mortality rate among patients with AHT is 25%, and the recurrence rate of child abuse rises to 35% when there is a lack of intervention. Thus, identifying child abuse is crucial yet especially challenging for infants and toddlers as they are preverbal.

Re-programming by a six-factor-secretome in the patient tumor ecosystem during nutrient stress and drug response.

Cancer cells need nutrients to grow and proliferate. During nutrient stress in the microenvironment, it is unclear or cancer cells can adopt alternative resources to re-wire and survive in patients. We discovered a 6-factor-secretome remarkably sustains a critical cell mass during nutrient stress in a pediatric embryonal brain tumor, atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT).

SMPD4-mediated sphingolipid metabolism regulates brain and primary cilia development.

Genetic variants in multiple sphingolipid biosynthesis genes cause human brain disorders. A recent study looked at people from 12 unrelated families with variants in the gene SMPD4, a neutral sphingomyelinase that metabolizes sphingomyelin into ceramide at an early stage of the biosynthesis pathway. These individuals have severe developmental brain malformations, including microcephaly and cerebellar hypoplasia.

Ascites production and prognosis after ventriculoperitoneal shunt for diffuse midline gliomas in children: A case series.

Rationale: DMG is a highly invasive and lethal type of brain tumor. As these tumors progress, they often compromise the CSF circulation, leading to hydrocephalus. Ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) is commonly employed to manage hydrocephalus; however, the complication of VPS-induced ascites, particularly in the presence of tumor cells, is a significant concern that merits attention.

Tackling Anticancer Drug Resistance and Endosomal Escape in Aggressive Brain Tumors Using Bioelectronics.

Resistance mechanisms in brain tumors, such as medulloblastoma and glioblastoma, frequently involve the entrapment of chemotherapeutic agents within endosomes and the extracellular expulsion of drugs. These barriers to effective treatment are exacerbated in nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems, where therapeutic nanoparticles often remain confined within endosomes, thus diminishing their therapeutic efficacy. Addressing this challenge necessitates the development of novel strategies to enhance the efficiency of cancer therapies.

The peripheral chemoreflex and fetal defenses against intrapartum hypoxic-ischemic brain injury at term gestation.

Fetal hypoxemia is ubiquitous during labor and, when severe, is associated with perinatal death and long-term neurodevelopmental disability. Adverse outcomes are highly associated with barriers to care, such that developing countries have a disproportionate burden of perinatal injury. The prevalence of hypoxemia and its link to injury can be obscure, simply because the healthy fetus has robust coordinated defense mechanisms, spearheaded by the peripheral chemoreflex, such that hypoxemia only becomes apparent in the minority of cases associated with stillbirth, severe metabolic acidemia or adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Advances in mesenchymal stem cell-centered stem cell therapy in the treatment of hypoxic-ischemic injury.

Hypoxic-ischemic brain damage (HIBD) is a leading cause of neonatal death and neurological dysfunction for which no particularly effective treatment is available. Stem cells possess multi-directional differentiation potential and can secrete a variety of cytokines. They not only have the ability to replace tissue and repair lesions but also improve neurological damage caused by HIBD through paracrine mechanisms, including anti-apoptosis, reduction of inflammation, and promotion of endogenous repair.

Radiotherapy Improves Survival in NSCLC After Oligoprogression on Immunotherapy: A Cohort Study.

Introduction: The patterns of oligoprogression after first-line immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for metastatic NSCLC are yet to be well established. An increasing volume of data suggests that directed radiotherapy improves survival outcomes in patients with progression after ICIs.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed on patients with metastatic NSCLC who had completed first-line programmed death-(ligand) 1 inhibitor therapy with or without chemotherapy at two high-volume cancer centers.