1,010 results match your criteria: "Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology.[Affiliation]"

Lithium, Inflammation and Neuroinflammation with Emphasis on Bipolar Disorder-A Narrative Review.

Int J Mol Sci

December 2024

Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience and Zelman Center-The School of Brain Sciences and Cognition, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel.

This narrative review examines lithium's effects on immune function, inflammation and cell survival, particularly in bipolar disorder (BD) in in vitro studies, animal models and clinical studies. In vitro studies show that high lithium concentrations (5 mM, beyond the therapeutic window) reduce interleukin (IL)-1β production in monocytes and enhance T-lymphocyte resistance, suggesting a protective role against cell death. Lithium modulates oxidative stress in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated macrophages by inhibiting nuclear factor (NF)-ƙB activity and reducing nitric oxide production.

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Using whole-genome sequencing (WGS) might offer insights into rare genetic variants associated with healthy aging and extreme longevity (EL), potentially pointing to useful therapeutic targets. In this study, we conducted a genome-wide association study using WGS data from the Long Life Family Study and identified a novel longevity-associated variant rs6543176 in the SLC9A2 gene. This SNP also showed a significant association with reduced hypertension risk and an increased, though not statistically significant, cancer risk.

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A Selective Nuclear Factor-κB Inhibitor, JSH-23, Exhibits Antidepressant-like Effects and Reduces Brain Inflammation in Rats.

Pharmaceuticals (Basel)

September 2024

Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel.

Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that nuclear factor (NF)-κB is involved in the pathophysiology of mood disorders.

Objectives And Methods: We conducted two experimental protocols in rats to investigate the effects of a selective NF-κB inhibitor (JSH-23) on (i) lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation and (ii) on behavioral phenotypes in rat models of depression (sucrose consumption test and forced swim test) and mania (amphetamine-induced hyperactivity test). Additionally, we tested the effects of JSH-23 on levels of inflammatory components (interleukin-6, prostaglandin E2, nuclear phospho-p65, and tumor necrosis factor-α) in the brain.

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Osteoporosis is a common, age-related disease caused by imbalanced bone remodeling. Current treatments either shut down bone resorption or robustly stimulate bone formation. Here, we describe a novel compound that inhibits osteoclast activity without causing apparent disruptions to bone formation by targeting both c-FMS (i.

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Targeting prolonged short-term central venous catheters to reduce hospital-wide catheter days and CLABSI rates.

Am J Infect Control

October 2024

Pharmacy Department, Hillel Yaffe Medical Centre, Hadera, Israel; Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.

Background: The risk of central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) is associated with central venous catheter (CVC) dwelling time. We implemented a hospital-wide intervention aimed to alert physicians to CVC duration and necessity and to improve the monitoring of CLABSI prevention process measures outside the intensive care unit (ICU).

Methods: A retrospective, before-after study that evaluated short-term, nonhemodialysis CVCs in and out of the ICU.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study compares the effectiveness of the CAC-score and 19 biomarkers in predicting cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, suggesting the CAC-score adds value beyond traditional risk factors.
  • Researchers collected data from 1211 participants and tracked cardiovascular events over 10 years, finding a significant association between higher CAC-scores and increased risk of CVD events.
  • While the CAC-score improved risk prediction significantly, the selected biomarkers (like cholesterol and inflammatory markers) did not enhance the predictive capacity for cardiovascular events.
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Predictive modeling of medication adherence in post myocardial infarction patients: a bayesian approach using beta-regression.

Eur J Prev Cardiol

October 2024

Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, PO Box 653, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel.

Aims: Predicting medication adherence in post myocardial infarction (MI) patients has the potential to improve patient outcomes. Most adherence prediction models dichotomize adherence metrics and status. This study aims to develop medication adherence prediction models that avoid dichotomizing adherence metrics and to test whether a simplified model including only 90-days adherence data would perform similarly to a full multivariable model.

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Dendritic cells (DCs) within the tumor microenvironment (TME) have an insufficient capacity to activate T cells through antigen presentation. Furthermore, the programmed cell-death ligand 1 (PD-L1), abundantly expressed on tumor-associated DCs, binds the programmed cell-death 1 (PD-1)-positive T cells and suppresses their immune function. The binding of PD-L1 to CD80 (B7.

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Tissue-aware interpretation of genetic variants advances the etiology of rare diseases.

Mol Syst Biol

November 2024

Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, 84105, Israel.

Pathogenic variants underlying Mendelian diseases often disrupt the normal physiology of a few tissues and organs. However, variant effect prediction tools that aim to identify pathogenic variants are typically oblivious to tissue contexts. Here we report a machine-learning framework, denoted "Tissue Risk Assessment of Causality by Expression for variants" (TRACEvar, https://netbio.

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Skin aging is associated with the increased production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) due to mitochondrial dysfunction, and various phytonutrients and estrogens have been shown to improve skin health. Thus, the aim of the current study was to examine damage to dermal fibroblasts by chemically induced mitochondrial dysfunction and to study the mechanism of the protective effects of carotenoids, polyphenols, and estradiol. Rotenone, a Complex I inhibitor, caused mitochondrial dysfunction in human dermal fibroblasts, substantially reducing respiration and ATP levels, followed by increased mitochondrial and cytosolic ROS, which resulted in apoptotic cell death, an increased number of senescent cells, increased matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP1) secretion, and decreased collagen secretion.

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Cumulative rib fracture risk after stereotactic body radiotherapy in patients with localized non-small cell lung cancer.

Radiother Oncol

November 2024

Department of Oncology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark; Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark; Academy of Geriatric Cancer Research (AgeCare), Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark.

Article Synopsis
  • - This study investigates the risk of rib fractures in patients with localized non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), examining both patient-related and dosimetric factors.
  • - Out of 602 patients analyzed, 19% experienced rib fractures, with significant risk factors including female gender, bone density, and specific dosimetric parameters like V20 and V30 to the rib.
  • - The findings indicate that while 19% of patients developed rib fractures, dosimetric parameters were more influential in predicting this risk than patient-related factors, highlighting the importance of treatment planning in SBRT.
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Objectives: Stability of concentrations of urinary stone-related metabolites was analyzed from samples of recurrent urinary stone formers to assess necessity and effectiveness of urine acidification during collection and storage.

Methods: First-morning urine was collected from 20 adult calcium-stone forming patients at Tomas Bata Hospital in the Czech Republic. Urine samples were analyzed for calcium, magnesium, inorganic phosphate, uric acid, sodium, potassium, chloride, citrate, oxalate, and urine particles.

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Deconvolution algorithms mostly rely on single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data applied onto bulk RNA-sequencing (bulk RNA-seq) to estimate tissues' cell-type composition, with performance accuracy validated on deposited databases. Adipose tissues' cellular composition is highly variable, and adipocytes can only be captured by single-nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq). Here we report the development of sNucConv, a Scaden deep-learning-based deconvolution tool, trained using 5 hSAT and 7 hVAT snRNA-seq-based data corrected by (i) snRNA-seq/bulk RNA-seq highly correlated genes and (ii) individual cell-type regression models.

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Cortical plasticity is associated with blood-brain barrier modulation.

Elife

July 2024

Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The School of Brain Sciences and Cognition, Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Brain microvessels possess the unique properties of a blood-brain barrier (BBB), tightly regulating the passage of molecules from the blood to the brain neuropil and vice versa. In models of brain injury, BBB dysfunction and the associated leakage of serum albumin to the neuropil have been shown to induce pathological plasticity, neuronal hyper-excitability, and seizures. The effect of neuronal activity on BBB function and whether it plays a role in plasticity in the healthy brain remain unclear.

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Cannabinoids (the endocannabinoids, the synthetic cannabinoids, and the phytocannabinoids) are well known for their various pharmacological properties, including neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory features, which are fundamentally important for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The aging of the global population is causing an increase in these diseases that require the development of effective drugs to be even more urgent. Taking into account the unavailability of effective drugs for neurodegenerative diseases, it seems appropriate to consider the role of cannabinoids in the treatment of these diseases.

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High capacity clinical SARS-CoV-2 molecular testing using combinatorial pooling.

Commun Med (Lond)

June 2024

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic led to unprecedented testing demands, causing major testing delays globally. One strategy used for increasing testing capacity was pooled-testing, using a two-stage technique first introduced during WWII. However, such traditional pooled testing was used in practice only when positivity rates were below 2%.

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Pseudonormokalemia case report - What does it mean to have normal blood potassium?

Biochem Med (Zagreb)

June 2024

Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Medical Faculty, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czechia.

This case report describes a case of pseudonormokalemia, true hypokalemia. Often, only laboratory values outside the normal range gain attention and false normal results are at risk of not being noticed. However, a disease state may be masked by another pathological process.

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The rhizosphere is a complex ecosystem, consisting of a narrow soil zone influenced by plant roots and inhabited by soil-borne microorganisms. Plants actively shape the rhizosphere microbiome through root exudates. Some metabolites are signaling molecules specifically functioning as chemoattractants rather than nutrients.

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Proteome and Dihydrorhodamine Profiling of Bronchoalveolar Lavage in Patients with Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis.

J Fungi (Basel)

April 2024

South Danish Center for Interstitial Lung Diseases (SCILS) and Pulmonary Aspergillosis Center Denmark (PACD), Department of Respiratory Medicine, Odense University Hospital, DK-5000 Odense, Denmark.

Neutrophil and (alveolar) macrophage immunity is considered crucial for eliminating . Data derived from bronchoalveloar lavage (BAL) characterizing the human immuno-pulmonary response to are non-existent. To obtain a comprehensive picture of the immune pathways involved in chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA), we performed proteome analysis on AL of 9 CPA patients and 17 patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD).

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The Role of FKBPs in Complex Disorders: Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Cancer, and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Cells

May 2024

Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health Sciences, The Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience and Zelman Center-The School of Brain Sciences and Cognition, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel.

Stress is a common denominator of complex disorders and the FK-506 binding protein (FKBP)51 plays a central role in stress. Hence, it is not surprising that multiple studies imply the involvement of the FKBP51 protein and/or its coding gene, , in complex disorders. This review summarizes such reports concentrating on three disorder clusters-neuropsychiatric, cancer, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

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Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system characterized by neuroinflammation, demyelination and axonal loss. Cannabis, an immunomodulating agent, is known for its ability to treat MS effectively. However, due to variations in the profile of secondary metabolites, especially cannabinoids, among cannabis cultivars, the effectiveness of cannabis treatment can vary, with significant variability in the effects on different biological parameters.

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High quality laboratory results are critical for patient management. However, poor sample quality can impact these results and patient safety. To ensure reliable and accurate results laboratories must be aware of each analyte's stability under various storage conditions and matrices to guarantee correct and dependable outcomes.

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