Safety protocols at the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry Oral Clinical Examination during COVID-19.

Background: There are continued concerns about holding large group gatherings with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The American Board of Pediatric Dentistry (ABPD) made the decision to cancel the Oral Clinical Examination (OCE) in 2020 with a goal to host the exam in 2021. This cancellation postponed the board certification of over 400 pediatric dentists.

Env-independent protection of intrarectal SIV challenge by vaccine induction of Gag/Vif-specific CD8 T cells but not CD4 T cells.

Effective T cell induction is an important strategy in HIV-vaccine development. However, it has been indicated that vaccine-induced HIV-specific CD4 T cells, the preferential targets of HIV infection, might increase viral acquisition after HIV exposure. We have recently developed an immunogen (CaV11), tandemly connected overlapping 11-mer peptides spanning the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) Gag capsid and Vif proteins, to selectively induce Gag- and Vif-specific CD8 T cells but not CD4 T cells.

Pilot Study Assessing Tolerability and Metabolic Effects of Metformin in Patients With Li-Fraumeni Syndrome.

Background: Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is a highly penetrant autosomal dominant cancer predisposition disorder caused by germline pathogenic variants. Patients with LFS have increased oxidative phosphorylation capacity in skeletal muscle and oxidative stress in blood. Metformin inhibits oxidative phosphorylation, reducing available energy for cancer cell proliferation and decreasing production of reactive oxygen species that cause DNA damage.

Toward prevention of bipolar disorder in at-risk children: Potential strategies ahead of the data.

Background: Despite the well-documented negative impact of untreated bipolar illness, approaches to early intervention in childhood-onset bipolar and related disorders are not well delineated.

Methods: We reviewed the extant treatment literature on children at high risk for bipolar disorder, with definitions based on family history, childhood adversity, and prodromal symptoms.

Results: A panoply of approaches have been described, but most interventions are based on an inadequate database to support their routine implementation.

Validation of cardiac magnetic-resonance-derived left ventricular strain measurements from free-breathing motion-corrected cine imaging.

Background: Myocardial strain is an important measure of cardiac function and can be assessed on cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) through the current gold standard of breath-held segmented steady-state free precession (SSFP) cine imaging. Novel free-breathing techniques have been validated for volumetry and systolic function, allowing for evaluation of sicker and younger children who cannot reliably hold their breath. It is unclear whether strain measurements can be reliably performed on free-breathing, motion-corrected, re-binning cine images.

Improved Workflow for Quantification of Right Ventricular Volumes Using Free-Breathing Motion Corrected Cine Imaging.

Cardiac MR traditionally requires breath-holding for cine imaging. Younger or less stable patients benefit from free-breathing during cardiac MR but current free-breathing cine images can be spatially blurred. Motion corrected re-binning (MOC) is a novel approach that acquires and then reformats real-time images over multiple cardiac cycles with high spatial resolution.

Reactive oxygen species activate NFκB (p65) and p53 and induce apoptosis in RVFV infected liver cells.

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) infection is often associated with pronounced liver damage. Previously, our studies revealed altered host phospho-signaling responses (NFκB, MAPK and DNA damage responses) in RVFV infected epithelial cells that correlated with a cellular stress response. Here, we report that RVFV infection of liver cells leads to an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS).