Demographic, medical, and neighborhood barriers to clinical neuropsychological services in pediatric medulloblastoma patients treated in the United States.

Background: Medulloblastoma is the most commonly occurring malignant brain tumor of childhood. Treatment includes a combination of surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, all of which are associated with cognitive impairments. Despite appreciation of the value of neuropsychological evaluations to assess for cognitive impairments, there are barriers to these evaluations.

Buprenorphine Pharmacodynamics: A Bridge to Understanding Buprenorphine Clinical Benefits.

Buprenorphine is an agonist at the mu opioid receptor (MOR) and antagonist at the kappa (KOR) and delta (DOR) receptors and a nociceptin receptor (NOR) ligand. Buprenorphine has a relatively low intrinsic efficacy for G-proteins and a long brain and MOR dwell time. Buprenorphine ceiling on respiratory depression has theoretically been related multiple factors such as low intrinsic efficacy at MOR, binding to six-transmembrane MOR and interactions in MOR/NOR heterodimers.

Antiretroviral Use for HIV Prevention During Pregnancy: The Need to Strengthen Regulatory and Surveillance Systems in Africa.

HIV-prevention efforts focusing on women of child-bearing potential are needed to end the HIV epidemic in the African region. The use of antiretroviral drugs as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a critical HIV prevention tool. However, safety data on new antiretrovirals during pregnancy are often limited because pregnant people are excluded from drug development studies.

Pharmacoinformatics-based screening and construction of a neutralizing anti-SARS-CoV-2 camelidae nanobody drug conjugate.

Nanobodies or variable antigen-binding domains (VH) derived from heavy chain-only antibodies (HcAb) occurring in the Camelidae family offer certain superior physicochemical characteristics like enhanced stability, solubility, and low immunogenicity compared to conventional antibodies. Their efficient antigen-binding capabilities make them a preferred choice for next-generation small biologics. In the present work, we design an anti-SARS-CoV-2 bi-paratopic nanobody drug conjugate by screening a nanobody database.

Bioinformatics and immunoinformatics approaches in the design of a multi-epitope vaccine targeting CTLA-4 for melanoma treatment.

Melanoma, a highly aggressive skin cancer, remains a significant cause of mortality despite advancements in therapeutic strategies. There is an urgent demand for developing vaccines that can elicit strong and comprehensive immune responses against this malignancy. Achieving this goal is crucial to enhance the efficacy of immunological defense mechanisms in combating this disease.

Inhibition of amyloid-beta aggregation by phenyl butyric acid analogs and bile acids: a comprehensive in silico study.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a degenerative neurological disorder defined by the formation of β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles within the brain. Current pharmacological treatments for AD only provide symptomatic relief, and there is a lack of definitive disease-modifying therapies. Chemical chaperones, such as 4-Phenylbutyric acid (4PBA) and Tauroursodeoxycholic acid, have shown neuroprotective effects in animal and cell culture models.

Methodologies and characteristics of studies investigating the cost of the palliative phase of cancer: a systematic review.

Purpose: Improvements in the treatment of advanced cancer have increased life expectancy but have also increased the costs to healthcare systems, patients and their families. A systematic review is needed to summarize research work on the cost of cancer. The primary objective was to describe the characteristics and methodology of studies investigating the cost of cancer during the palliative phase.

Head and Neck Classic Hodgkin, T and NK Lymphomas with Eosinophilia.

Eosinophilia is a notable feature in various hematological malignancies, including specific types of leukemias and lymphomas that may occur in the head and neck. In hematologic malignancies, eosinophilia can be primary, driven by genetic abnormalities, or secondary, resulting from cytokine and chemokine production by the neoplastic cells or the tumor microenvironment. This review examines the association between eosinophilia and head and neck hematolymphoid malignancies including Classic Hodgkin lymphoma, T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia, mature T and NK-cell lymphomas, and Langerhans cell histiocytosis.

Cardiovascular preventive service access challenges among African immigrants: a discussion paper.

This paper highlights cardiovascular disease (CVD) preventive access challenges and potential intervention strategies that address cardiovascular preventive service access gaps among African immigrants living in developed countries. Migration, coupled with changes in dietary habits, socio-economic factors, and cultural adjustments, contributes to a heightened risk of CVD among African immigrants. This risk is compounded by a lack of targeted preventive interventions and culturally tailored programmes, as well as challenges related to language barriers, health literacy, and digital literacy.

Progesterone induces meiosis through two obligate co-receptors with PLA2 activity.

The steroid hormone progesterone (P4) regulates multiple aspects of reproductive and metabolic physiology. Classical P4 signaling operates through nuclear receptors that regulate transcription. In addition, P4 signals through membrane P4 receptors (mPRs) in a rapid nongenomic modality.

Carboxy-Amidated AamAP1-Lys has Superior Conformational Flexibility and Accelerated Killing of Gram-Negative Bacteria.

C-terminal amidation of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is a frequent minor modification used to improve antibacterial potency, commonly ascribed to increased positive charge, protection from proteases, and a stabilized secondary structure. Although the activity of AMPs is primarily associated with the ability to penetrate bacterial membranes, hitherto the effect of amidation on this interaction has not been understood in detail. Here, we show that amidation of the scorpion-derived membranolytic peptide AamAP1-Lys produces a potent analog with faster bactericidal activity, increased membrane permeabilization, and greater Gram-negative membrane penetration associated with greater conformational flexibility.

Time dependency for human papillomavirus circulating tumor DNA detection after chemoradiation as a prognostic biomarker for localized anal cancer.

Background: While detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) weeks after surgery is linked to recurrence for other solid tumors, the optimal time point for ctDNA assessment as a prognostic biomarker following chemoradiation for anal cancer is undefined.

Methods: Patients with stages I-III anal cancer treated with chemoradiation between 12/2020-5/2024 were evaluated for HPV ctDNA status at baseline, at the end of chemoradiation, and during surveillance using a droplet digital HPV ctDNA PCR assay targeting HPV E6 and E7 oncogenes for 13 oncogenic HPV types. Median recurrence-free survival (RFS) according to HPV ctDNA status was estimated via Kaplan-Meier and compared using a log-rank test.

Association of Obesity and Skeletal Muscle with Postoperative Survival in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Background A comprehensive assessment of skeletal muscle health is crucial to understanding the association between improved clinical outcomes and obesity as defined by body mass index (BMI; calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) in lung cancer, but limited studies have been conducted on this topic. Purpose To investigate the association between BMI-defined obesity and survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer who underwent curative resection, with a specific focus on the status of skeletal muscle assessed at CT. Materials and Methods This retrospective study investigated Korean patients with non-small cell lung cancer who underwent curative resection between January 2008 and December 2019.

Open-Source Large Language Models in Radiology: A Review and Tutorial for Practical Research and Clinical Deployment.

Integrating large language models (LLMs) into health care holds substantial potential to enhance clinical workflows and care delivery. However, LLMs also pose serious risks if integration is not thoughtfully executed, with complex challenges spanning accuracy, accessibility, privacy, and regulation. Proprietary commercial LLMs (eg, GPT-4 [OpenAI], Claude 3 Sonnet and Claude 3 Opus [Anthropic], Gemini [Google]) have received much attention from researchers in the medical domain, including radiology.

Are Tailored Interventions to Modifiable Psychosocial Risk Factors Effective in Reducing Pain Intensity and Disability in Low Back Pain? A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials.

To determine whether tailored interventions based on patients' psychological profiles enhanced the outcomes of interventions in people with nonspecific low back pain, compared to usual care. Intervention systematic review with meta-analysis. Embase, Cochrane, Medline, Web of Science, CINAHL, and PsycINFO were searched from their inception until November 2, 2023.

Wildland Firefighters Suffer Increasing Risk of Job-Related Death.

Wildland firefighting is a niche specialization in the fire service - inherently dangerous with unique risks. Over the past decade, fatalities amongst all firefighters have decreased; however, wildland firefighter fatalities have increased. This subject has only been described in the grey literature, and a paucity of medical literature exists.

Tumour size is associated with growth rates of >0.5 cm/year and delayed intervention in small renal masses in patients on active surveillance.

Objective: To evaluate the association between tumour size and the growth rate (GR) of small renal masses (SRMs) in patients managed by active surveillance (AS).

Materials And Methods: We queried the prospective, multi-institutional Delayed Intervention and Surveillance for Small Renal Masses (DISSRM) registry for patients on AS with an imaging interval of ≥6 months, identifying 456 patients. We tracked tumour size over time; a GR >0.

Measurement of multidifferential cross sections for dijet production in proton-proton collisions at .

A measurement of the dijet production cross section is reported based on proton-proton collision data collected in 2016 at by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 36.3 . Jets are reconstructed with the anti- algorithm for distance parameters of and 0.

Efficacy and Safety of Mechanical Thrombectomy in Distal Medium Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion Ischemic Stroke Patients on Low-Dose Aspirin.

Background: Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) from distal medium vessel occlusion (DMVO) presents unique treatment challenges. Mechanical thrombectomy (MT) is emerging as a viable option for these patients, yet the role of pre-stroke aspirin treatment is unclear. This study evaluates the impact of pre-stroke low-dose aspirin on outcomes in DMVO patients undergoing MT.

Glycocalyx disruption, endothelial dysfunction and vascular remodeling as underlying mechanisms and treatment targets of chronic venous disease.

The glycocalyx is an essential structural and functional component of endothelial cells. Extensive hemodynamic changes cause endothelial glycocalyx disruption and vascular dysfunction, leading to multiple arterial and venous disorders. Chronic venous disease (CVD) is a common disorder of the lower extremities with major health and socio-economic implications, but complex pathophysiology.