Convergent evolution of oxidized sugar metabolism in commensal and pathogenic microbes in the inflamed gut.

Inflammation-associated perturbations of the gut microbiome are well characterized, but poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that disparate taxa recapitulate the metabolism of the oxidized sugars glucarate and galactarate, utilizing enzymatically divergent, yet functionally equivalent, gud/gar pathways. The divergent pathway in commensals includes a putative 5-KDG aldolase (GudL) and an uncharacterized ABC transporter (GarABC) that recapitulate the function of their non-homologous counterparts in pathogens.

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.

Vaccine effectiveness against influenza-associated hospitalizations in adults with liver disease, 2015-2020: US Hospitalized Adult Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Network (HAIVEN).

Influenza causes 100,000-710,000 hospitalizations annually in the U.S. Patients with liver disease are at higher risk of severe outcomes following influenza infection.

Take your PIC (Program Improvement Committee): The benefits of a resident-run initiative to improve graduate medical education.

The evolving landscape of graduate medical education (GME) necessitates innovative approaches to residency program evaluation and improvement. At Detroit Medical Center/Wayne State University, a novel resident-led Program Improvement Committee (PIC) was established in June 2022 within the Diagnostic Radiology Residency Program. The PIC serves as a flexible, resident-driven structure designed to enhance engagement, provide continuous feedback, and implement actionable solutions in collaboration with residency leadership.

The number of central nervous system-driven symptoms predicts subsequent chronic primary pain: evidence from UK Biobank.

Background: Chronic primary pain describes conditions where pain is the principal problem rather than a consequence of another disease. Primary pain is thought to be primarily owing to nociplastic pain (i.e.

The Role of Nutrition in Managing Muscle Disorders.

Many myopathies in horses can be managed by exercise regimes and dietary modifications. This includes modifying the amount of nonstructural carbohydrate, fat, amino acids, vitamin E, and selenium based on the horse's specific myopathy, metabolic status, exercise program, and optimal body weight. Because dietary recommendations differ substantially between myopathies, it is imperative to establish a specific diagnosis.

Interobserver agreement and practice patterns for grading of colorectal carcinoma: World Health Organization (WHO) classification of tumours 5th edition versus American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 8th edition staging manual.

Aims: The current American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging manual and the College of American Pathologists (CAP) colorectal carcinoma (CRC) protocol specify use of a four-tiered grading system (i.e. grades 1-4; well-differentiated-undifferentiated) for CRC, based on percentage of gland formation.

Epstein-Barr virus associated multicentric Castleman's disease disguised as infectious mononucleosis.

Castleman's disease (CD), also called angiofollicular lymphoid hyperplasia, is a rare lymphoproliferative illness with two unique variants: unicentric disease and multicentric disease (MCD). The multicentric variant is rare and presents as a systemic illness with symptoms like peripheral lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly, anaemia and systemic inflammatory symptoms. Given the vague and systemic presentation, this variant can be difficult to differentiate from infection and other autoimmune diseases.

Partner fidelity, not geography, drives co-diversification of gut microbiota with hominids.

Bacterial strains that inhabit the gastrointestinal tracts of hominids have diversified in parallel (co-diversified) with their host species. The extent to which co-diversification has been mediated by partner fidelity between strains and hosts or by geographical distance between hosts is not clear due to a lack of strain-level data from clades of hosts with unconfounded phylogenetic relationships and geographical distributions. Here, I tested these competing hypotheses through meta-analyses of 7121 gut bacterial genomes assembled from wild-living ape species and subspecies sampled throughout their ranges in equatorial Africa.

Olfactory testing in infants with perinatal asphyxia: enhancing encephalopathy risk stratification for future health outcomes.

Perinatal asphyxia (PA) is a leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality, often resulting in long-term neurodevelopmental challenges. Despite advancements in perinatal care, predicting long-term outcomes remains difficult. Early diagnosis is essential for timely interventions to reduce brain injury, with tools such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging, brain ultrasound, and emerging biomarkers playing a possible key role.

A network-enabled pipeline for gene discovery and validation in non-model plant species.

Identifying key regulators of important genes in non-model crop species is challenging due to limited multi-omics resources. To address this, we introduce the network-enabled gene discovery pipeline NEEDLE, a user-friendly tool that systematically generates coexpression gene network modules, measures gene connectivity, and establishes network hierarchy to pinpoint key transcriptional regulators from dynamic transcriptome datasets. After validating its accuracy with two independent datasets, we applied NEEDLE to identify transcription factors (TFs) regulating the expression of cellulose synthase-like F6 (CSLF6), a crucial cell wall biosynthetic gene, in Brachypodium and sorghum.

FIGG at 5: An update on U.S. public perspectives on forensic investigative genetic genealogy five years after its introduction to criminal investigations.

In 2018, after law enforcement announced it had used a technique called forensic investigative genetic genealogy (FIGG) to identify the Golden State Killer, we conducted a U.S. general population survey and found most respondents supported using FIGG to solve violent crimes.

Unveiling the trends: Growing cancer and venous thromboembolism mortality in older adults in the United States, 1999-2020.

Background: While cancer mortality rates in the United States (U.S.) have decreased due to advances in chemotherapy, older adults with cancer face an elevated risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE).

Bacterial vaginosis is associated with transcriptomic changes but not higher concentrations of cervical leukocytes in a study of women at high risk for HIV acquisition.

Background: The association between bacterial vaginosis (BV) and increased HIV acquisition risk may be related to concentrations of HIV-susceptible immune cells in the cervix.

Methods: Participants (31 with BV and 30 with normal microbiota) underwent cervical biopsy at a single visit. Immune cells were quantified and sorted using flow cytometry (N=55), localization assessed by immunofluorescence (N=16), and function determined by bulk RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of live CD45+ cells (N=21).

One-Year Real-World Outcomes of Ab-Externo Gel Stent Placement From the EXPAND Study.

Prcis: In the real-world, retrospective, EXPAND study of consecutive adults with glaucoma, ab-externo gel stent implantation effectively lowered intraocular pressure (34%) and the medication burden (61%), with transient/self-resolving hypotony as the most frequent adverse event (28%).

Purpose: To assess effectiveness and safety of ab-externo gel stent (GS) implantation in glaucoma.

Methods: Multicenter, real-world, retrospective study.

Lupus and inflammatory bowel disease share a common set of microbiome features distinct from other autoimmune disorders.

Objectives: This study aims to elucidate the microbial signatures associated with autoimmune diseases, particularly systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), compared with colorectal cancer (CRC), to identify unique biomarkers and shared microbial mechanisms that could inform specific treatment protocols.

Methods: We analysed metagenomic datasets from patient cohorts with six autoimmune conditions-SLE, IBD, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, Graves' disease and ankylosing spondylitis-contrasting these with CRC metagenomes to delineate disease-specific microbial profiles. The study focused on identifying predictive biomarkers from species profiles and functional genes, integrating protein-protein interaction analyses to explore effector-like proteins and their targets in key signalling pathways.

Microbiome research in autoimmune and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: lessons, advances and unmet needs.

The increasing prevalence of autoimmune and immune-mediated diseases (AIMDs) underscores the need to understand environmental factors that contribute to their pathogenesis, with the microbiome emerging as a key player. Despite significant advancements in understanding how the microbiome influences physiological and inflammatory responses, translating these findings into clinical practice remains challenging. This viewpoint reviews the progress and obstacles in microbiome research related to AIMDs, examining molecular techniques that enhance our understanding of microbial contributions to disease.

Incident heart failure and recurrent coronary events following acute myocardial infarction.

Background And Aims: Recurrent myocardial infarction (MI) and incident heart failure (HF) are major post-MI complications. Herein, contemporary post-MI risks for recurrent MI and HF are described.

Methods: A total of 6804 patients with a primary discharge diagnosis of MI at 28 Baylor Scott & White Health hospitals (January 2015 to December 2021) were studied.

Pathogen Binding and Entry: Molecular Interactions with the Insect Gut.

The point of entry for the majority of arthropod pathogens and arthropod-vectored pathogens of plant, animal, and human health importance is the arthropod midgut. Pathogen interaction with the midgut therefore represents a primary target for intervention to prevent pathogen infection and transmission. Despite this key role in pathogen invasion, relatively little is known of the specific molecular interactions between pathogens and the surface of the arthropod gut epithelium, with few pathogen receptors having been definitively identified.

The bioavailability and blood levels of low-dose rapamycin for longevity in real-world cohorts of normative aging individuals.

Rapamycin, also known as sirolimus, has demonstrated great potential for application in longevity medicine. However, the dynamics of low-dose rapamycin bioavailability, and any differences in bioavailability for different formulations (e.g.

Trigeminal Neuralgia: Disease Characterization and Prediction of Response to Surgical Intervention.

Purpose Of Review: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a highly heterogeneous condition with a wide choice of successful treatment options. However, differences between subtypes are poorly understood and it remains unknown which patients will respond to different treatments. This review aims to summarize the current state of the TN field and explore the problem of predicting surgical outcomes.

A novel polysaccharide in the envelope of influences the septal secretion of preproteins with a YSIRK/GXXS motif.

Unlabelled: Bacteria transport proteins across the plasma membrane to assemble their envelope, acquire nutrients, and establish appropriate interactions with their environment. The majority of these proteins are synthesized as precursors with a cleavable N-terminal signal sequence for recognition by the Sec machinery. In , a small subset of secreted precursors carries a YSIRK/GXXS motif.

Ribosome profiling reveals differences in global translational vs transcriptional gene expression changes during early biofilm formation.

a major human fungal pathogen, can form biofilms on a variety of inert and biological surfaces. biofilms allow for immune evasion, are highly resistant to antifungal therapies, and represent a significant complication for a wide variety of immunocompromised patients in clinical settings. While transcriptional regulators and global transcriptional profiles of biofilm formation have been well-characterized, much less is known about translational regulation of this important virulence property.