Biological characterization of breast cancer spheroid formed by fast fabrication method.

Unlabelled: Engineered three-dimensional (3D) tissue culture platforms are useful for reproducing and elucidating complex in vivo biological phenomena. Spheroids, 3D aggregates of living cells, are produced based on physicochemical or microfabrication technologies and are commonly used even in cancer pathology research. However, conventional methods have difficulties in constructing 3D structures depending on the cell types, and require specialized techniques/lab know-how to reproducibly control the spheroid size and shape.

A short screen for lifetime sexual victimization experiences: Expanding research on the Sexual Abuse History Questionnaire (SAHQ) across cultures, genders, and sexual identities.

The Sexual Abuse History Questionnaire (SAHQ), a widely used screening tool for childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and adolescent/adult sexual assault (AASA) experiences, has limited examination of its psychometric properties in diverse populations. Our study assessed the SAHQ's psychometric properties (i.e.

Fieldwork on animals living in extreme conditions as a source of biomedical innovation.

Most biomedical research on animals is based on the handful of the so-called standard model organisms, i.e. laboratory mice, rats or , but the keys to some important biomedical questions may simply not be found in these.

Quantifying Muscle Volume Deficits Among 38 Lower Extremity Muscles in Collegiate Football Athletes After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction.

Background: Quadriceps dysfunction is ubiquitous after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction (ACLR). Addressing quadriceps dysfunction is crucial to improve function, reduce the reinjury risk, and maintain long-term knee health. While deficits specific to the quadriceps are well documented, less is known about the effect of an ACL injury on other lower extremity muscle groups.

Cell-specific transcriptional signatures of vascular cells in Alzheimer's disease: perspectives, pathways, and therapeutic directions.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease that is marked by profound neurovascular dysfunction and significant cell-specific alterations in the brain vasculature. Recent advances in high throughput single-cell transcriptomics technology have enabled the study of the human brain vasculature at an unprecedented depth. Additionally, the understudied niche of cerebrovascular cells, such as endothelial and mural cells, and their subtypes have been scrutinized for understanding cellular and transcriptional heterogeneity in AD.

Barriers to and facilitators of healthcare professionals in ADR reporting in a tertiary care hospital in India.

Introduction: Several adverse drug reactions (ADRs) go unreported within a healthcare setting despite the risks they cause. We therefore decided to conduct this study in order to recognize the obstacles that hinder the healthcare professionals (HCPs) in a tertiary care hospital in Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu from reporting ADRs and what strategies ought to be implemented.

Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional study among the HCPs such as doctors, pharmacists and nurses within our institution.

The acceptability of a novel seismocardiography device for measuring VO max in a workplace setting: a mixed methods approach.

Background: Workplace health screening rarely includes measures of cardiorespiratory fitness, despite it being a greater predictor of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality than other routinely measured risk factors. This study aimed to determine the comparative acceptability of using a novel seismocardiography device to measure cardiorespiratory fitness via VO max during a workplace health check.

Methods: Participants were invited to participate in workplace health screening sessions where VO max was assessed by both seismocardiography at rest and sub-maximal exercise testing, in order for acceptability of both to be compared across multiple domains.

Virtual biopsy for non-invasive identification of follicular lymphoma histologic transformation using radiomics-based imaging biomarker from PET/CT.

Background: This study aimed to construct a radiomics-based imaging biomarker for the non-invasive identification of transformed follicular lymphoma (t-FL) using PET/CT images.

Methods: A total of 784 follicular lymphoma (FL), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and t-FL patients from 5 independent medical centers were included. The unsupervised EMFusion method was applied to fuse PET and CT images.

Dental and oral health assessments in the German National Cohort (NAKO).

Background: Despite considerable improvements in oral health in recent decades, caries and periodontitis are still widespread, ranking among the most prevalent diseases worldwide and requiring future research. The German National Cohort (NAKO Gesundheitsstudie, NAKO) is a large-scaled, multidisciplinary, nationwide, multi-centre, population-based, prospective cohort study with oral examinations that aims to provide a resource to study risk factors for major diseases. The aim of the present article is to provide the methodological background, to report on the data quality, and to present initial results of the oral examinations.

The interaction network and potential clinical effectiveness of dimensional psychopathology phenotyping based on EMR: a Bayesian network approach.

The current DSM-oriented diagnostic paradigm has introduced the issue of heterogeneity, as it fails to account for the identification of the neurological processes underlying mental illnesses, which affects the precision of treatment. The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework serves as a recognized approach to addressing this heterogeneity, and several assessment and translation techniques have been proposed. Among these methods, transforming RDoC scores from electronic medical records (EMR) using Natural Language Processing (NLP) has emerged as a suitable technique, demonstrating clinical effectiveness.

Oxygenation improvement and duration of prone positioning are associated with ICU mortality in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients.

Background: Prone position has been diffusely applied in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients. Our aim is ascertaining the association between the physiologic response and the length of the first cycle of prone position and intensive care unit (ICU) mortality.

Methods: International registry including COVID-19 adult patients who underwent prone positioning.

Micropeptide hSPAR regulates glutamine levels and suppresses mammary tumor growth via a TRIM21-P27KIP1-mTOR axis.

mTOR plays a pivotal role in cancer growth control upon amino acid response. Recently, CDK inhibitor P27KIP1 has been reported as a noncanonical inhibitor of mTOR signaling in MEFs, via unclear mechanisms. Here, we find that P27KIP1 degradation via E3 ligase TRIM21 is inhibited by human micropeptide hSPAR through its C-terminus (hSPAR-C), causing P27KIP1's cytoplasmic accumulation in breast cancer cells.

Enhancing quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) with advanced artificial intelligence: comparison with manual QCA and visual estimation.

Artificial intelligence-based quantitative coronary angiography (AI-QCA) was introduced to address manual QCA's limitations in reproducibility and correction process. The present study aimed to assess the performance of an updated AI-QCA solution (MPXA-2000) in lesion detection and quantification using manual QCA as the reference standard, and to demonstrate its superiority over visual estimation. This multi-center retrospective study analyzed 1,076 coronary angiography images obtained from 420 patients, comparing AI-QCA and visual estimation against manual QCA as the reference standard.

Management factors affecting milk yield, composition, and quality on smallholder dairy farms.

A cross-sectional study on 156 smallholder dairy farms in Rwanda was carried out to assess the association between farm management practices and milk yield and quality. A pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data on cow characteristics and farm management practices. Milk yield was recorded at household level, milk composition was monitored using a Lactoscan device (Milk Analyzer).

Childhood BMI trajectories and sociodemographic factors in an Italian pediatric population.

Childhood obesity is a growing global concern due to its long-term health consequences. Yet, more research relying on multiple time-point BMI measurements is warranted to gain further insight into obesity's temporal trends. We aimed to identify BMI trajectories in children aged 2-10 years and evaluate their association with sociodemographic factors.

fMRI data acquisition and analysis for task-free, anesthetized rats.

Templates for the acquisition of large datasets such as the Human Connectome Project guide the neuroimaging community to reproducible data acquisition and scientific rigor. By contrast, small animal neuroimaging often relies on laboratory-specific protocols, which limit cross-study comparisons. The establishment of broadly validated protocols may facilitate the acquisition of large datasets, which are essential for uncovering potentially small effects often seen in functional MRI (fMRI) studies.

Isolation of PCSK9-specific nanobodies from synthetic libraries using a combined protein selection strategy.

Nanobodies (Nbs) hold great potential to replace conventional antibodies in various biomedical applications. However, conventional methods for their discovery can be time-consuming and expensive. We have developed a reliable protein selection strategy that combines magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS)-based screening of yeast surface display (YSD) libraries and functional ligand-binding identification by Tat-based recognition of associating proteins (FLI-TRAP) to isolate antigen-specific Nbs from synthetic libraries.

A study on the production of extracellular vesicles derived from novel immortalized human placental mesenchymal stromal cells.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are not only involved in cell-to-cell communications but have other functions as "garbage bags", as bringing nutrients to cells, and as inducing mineral during bone formation and ectopic calcification. These minuscule entities significantly contribute to the regulation of bodily functions. However, the clinical application of EVs faces challenges due to limited production yield and targeting efficiency.

The effect of sarpogrelate compared to aspirin in high- or very-high-risk diabetes for primary prevention.

The benefit of aspirin in primary prevention for atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (ASCVD) is questionable due to bleeding complications. We analyzed the Korean National Health Insurance data to compare the efficacy and overall bleeding of sarpogrelate, an antiplatelet agent with lower bleeding risk, versus aspirin in high-/very-high-risk diabetic populations without prior ASCVD. The primary endpoint was net adverse clinical events (NACE), defined as a composite of efficacy and overall bleeding.

Symptom-based depression subtypes: brain dynamic specificity and its association with gene expression profiles.

At least 227 combinations of symptoms meet the criteria for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). However, in clinical practice, patients consistently present symptoms in a regular rather than random manner, and the neural basis underlying the MDD subtypes remains unclear. To help clarify the neural basis, patients with MDD were clustered by symptom combinations to investigate the neural underpinning of each subtype using functional resonance imaging (fMRI).

Anisotropic hydrogel microelectrodes for intraspinal neural recordings in vivo.

Creating durable, motion-compliant neural interfaces is crucial for accessing dynamic tissues under in vivo conditions and linking neural activity with behaviors. Utilizing the self-alignment of nano-fillers in a polymeric matrix under repetitive tension, here, we introduce conductive carbon nanotubes with high aspect ratios into semi-crystalline polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels, and create electrically anisotropic percolation pathways through cyclic stretching. The resulting anisotropic hydrogel fibers (diameter of 187 ± 13 µm) exhibit fatigue resistance (up to 20,000 cycles at 20% strain) with a stretchability of 64.

Receptor-ligand interactions for optimized endocytosis in targeted therapies.

Receptor-mediated endocytosis plays a crucial role in the success of numerous therapies and remains central to advancing drug development. This process begins with ligand binding to specific receptors, triggering the internalization and intracellular trafficking of receptor-ligand complexes. These complexes are subsequently directed into distinct routes, either toward lysosomal degradation or recycling to the cell surface, with implications for therapeutic outcomes.

The brain-gut microbiota network (BGMN) is correlated with symptom severity and neurocognition in patients with schizophrenia.

The association between the human brain and gut microbiota, known as the "brain-gut-microbiota axis", is involved in the neuropathological mechanisms of schizophrenia (SZ); however, its association patterns and correlations with symptom severity and neurocognition are still largely unknown. In this study, 43 SZ patients and 55 normal controls (NCs) were included, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and gut microbiota data were acquired for each participant. First, the brain features of brain images and functional brain networks were computed from rs-fMRI data; the gut features of gut microbiota abundance and the gut microbiota network were computed from gut microbiota data.

Selective activation of mesoscale functional circuits via multichannel infrared stimulation of cortical columns in ultra-high-field 7T MRI.

To restore vision in the blind, advances in visual cortical prosthetics (VCPs) have offered high-channel-count electrical interfaces. Here, we design a 100-fiber optical bundle interface apposed to known feature-specific (color, shape, motion, and depth) functional columns that populate the visual cortex in humans, primates, and cats. Based on a non-viral optical stimulation method (INS, infrared neural stimulation; 1,875 nm), it can deliver dynamic patterns of stimulation, is non-penetrating and non-damaging to tissue, and is movable and removable.

Monitoring of inflammatory preterm responses via myometrial cell based multimodal electrophysiological and optical biosensing platform.

Preterm birth (PTB) remains a leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality, with inflammation-induced PTB posing a significant challenge due to its complex pathophysiology. To address this, we developed an in vitro platform utilizing hTERT-immortalized human myometrial (hTERT-HM) cells integrated with a multielectrode array (MEA) biosensing system and optical calcium imaging. Compared to primary uterine myometrial cells, hTERT-HM cells exhibit superior reproducibility, high scalability, and convenient manipulation, facilitating the consistent and large-scale investigations.