Elucidating Extracellular Vesicle Isolation Kinetics via an Integrated Off-Stoichiometry Thiol-Ene and Cyclic Olefin Copolymer Microfluidic Device.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are promising biomarkers for diagnosing complex diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Yet, their clinical application is hindered by challenges in isolating cancer-derived EVs efficiently due to their broad size distribution in biological samples. This study introduces a microfluidic device fabricated using off-stoichiometry thiol-ene and cyclic olefin copolymer, addressing the absorption limitations of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).

A Repurposed Drug Selection Pipeline to Identify CNS-Penetrant Drug Candidates for Glioblastoma.

Background: Glioblastoma is an aggressive and incurable type of brain cancer. Little progress has been made in the development of effective new therapies in the past decades. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) and drug efflux pumps, which together hamper drug delivery to these tumors, play a pivotal role in the gap between promising preclinical findings and failure in clinical trials.

Drug Safety During Breastfeeding: A Comparative Analysis of FDA Adverse Event Reports and LactMed.

Background/objectives: While breastfeeding is highly recommended, breastfed infants may be exposed to drugs by milk due to maternal pharmacotherapy, resulting in a risk of adverse drug events (ADE) or reactions (ADRs). The U.S.

The Causal Role of Ectopic Fat Deposition in the Pathogenesis of Metabolic Syndrome.

Consuming a "modern" Western diet and overnutrition may increase insulin secretion. Additionally, nutrition-mediated hyperinsulinemia is a major driver of ectopic fat deposition. The global prevalence of metabolic syndrome is high and growing.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of an Angiotensin Receptor-Neprilysin Inhibitor in Patients Using a Durable Left Ventricular Assist Device.

Sacubitril/valsartan is an angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) drug used to treat patients with heart failure and has shown improvement in outcomes. Different studies reported the use of an ARNI in patients using left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). However, there are limited data on the use of ARNIs in this population.

Advancing 3D Engineered In Vitro Models for Heart Failure Research: Key Features and Considerations.

Heart failure is characterized by intricate myocardial remodeling that impairs the heart's pumping and/or relaxation capacity, ultimately reducing cardiac output. It represents a major public health burden, given its high prevalence and associated morbidity and mortality rates, which continue to challenge healthcare systems worldwide. Despite advancements in medical science, there are no treatments that address the disease at its core.

Long-Term Results After Salter Innominate Osteotomy for the Treatment of Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip-Only 8% Rate of Total Hip Arthroplasty at a Median Follow-Up of 22 Years.

Background/objectives: The redirection or reshaping of the acetabulum might be warranted to attain a concentric and stable hip in children with developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). The aim of this study is to assess the late clinical and radiological results, and to determine the number of patients requiring secondary surgery or a total hip arthroplasty at a long-term follow-up.

Methods: Our institution performed 99 Salter osteotomies on 76 patients without underlying neuromuscular conditions over a 21-year period, from 1981 to 2002.

Scoping Review of Climate Change Adaptation Interventions for Health: Implications for Policy and Practice.

Climate change is among the greatest threats to health in the 21st century, requiring the urgent scaling-up of adaptation interventions. We aim to summarise adaptation interventions that were funded by the Belmont Forum and the European Union, the largest global funders of climate change and health research. A systematic search was conducted (updated February 2023) to identify articles on adaptation interventions for health within this funding network.

Properties of Maxentropic DNA Synthesis Codes.

Low-weight codes have been proposed for efficiently synthesizing deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) for massive data storage, where a multiple of DNA strands are synthesized in parallel. We report on the redundancy and information rate of maxentropic low-weight codes for asymptotically large codeword length. We compare the performance of low-complexity nibble replacement (NR) codes, which are designed to minimize the synthesis time, with the performance of maxentropic low-weight codes.

Added Value of Biological Effective Dose in Dosiomics-Based Modelling of Late Rectal Bleeding in Prostate Cancer.

Background/objectives: Extracting spatial features (texture analysis) from dose distributions (dosiomics) for outcome prediction is a rapidly evolving field in radiotherapy. To account for fraction size differences, the biological effective dose (BED) is often calculated. We evaluated the impact and added value of the BED in the dosiomics prediction modelling of grade ≥ 2 late rectal bleeding (LRB) probability within 5 years after treatment in three parts.

Oncological resection and perioperative outcomes of robotic, laparoscopic and open pancreatoduodenectomy for ampullary adenocarcinoma: a propensity score matched international multicenter cohort study.

Background: Ampullary adenocarcinoma (AAC) typically presents at an early stage due to biliary obstruction and therefore might be specifically suitable for minimally invasive pancreatoduodenectomy (MIPD). However, studies assessing MIPD specifically for AAC, including the robotic and laparoscopic approach, are limited. The aim of this study is to compare short- and long-term oncological resection and perioperative outcomes of robotic (RPD), laparoscopic (LPD) and open pancreatoduodenectomy (OPD) performed specifically for AAC.

Developmental trajectories of visual orienting functions in children born very or extremely preterm.

Background And Aims: Preterm birth increases the risk of neurodevelopmental impairments, such as Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI), which affects visual processing. Assessing visual functions in young children is challenging with traditional methods that often rely on verbal/motor responses. The aim of the study was to investigate the developmental trajectories of Visual Orienting Functions (VOF) in children born very preterm (<32 weeks gestational age) between 2 and 5 years corrected age (CA) using eye tracking.

microGalaxy: A gateway to tools, workflows, and training for reproducible and FAIR analysis of microbial data.

Microbial research generates vast and complex data from diverse omics technologies, necessitating innovative analytical solutions. microGalaxy (Galaxy for Microbiology) addresses these needs with a user-friendly platform that integrates >220 tool suites and >65 curated workflows for microbial analyses, including taxonomic profiling, assembly, annotation, and functional analysis. Hosted on the main EU Galaxy server (microgalaxy.

The blood metabolome of cognitive function and brain health in middle-aged adults - influences of genes, gut microbiome, and exposome.

Increasing evidence suggests the involvement of metabolic alterations in neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), and highlights the significance of the peripheral metabolome, influenced by genetic factors and modifiable environmental exposures, for brain health. In this study, we examined 1,387 metabolites in plasma samples from 1,082 dementia-free middle-aged participants of the population-based Rotterdam Study. We assessed the relation of metabolites with general cognition (G-factor) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) markers using linear regression and estimated the variance of these metabolites explained by genes, gut microbiome, lifestyle factors, common clinical comorbidities, and medication using gradient boosting decision tree analysis.

Two-Step Transfer Learning Improves Deep Learning-Based Drug Response Prediction in Small Datasets: A Case Study of Glioblastoma.

While deep learning (DL) is used in patients' outcome predictions, the insufficiency of patient samples limits the accuracy. In this study, we investigated how transfer learning (TL) alleviates the small sample size problem. A 2-step TL framework was constructed for a difficult task: predicting the response of the drug temozolomide (TMZ) in glioblastoma (GBM) cell cultures.

Understanding the dynamics driving obesity in socioeconomically deprived urban neighbourhoods: an expert-based systems map.

Background: Over the past decades, the prevalence of obesity among adults has rapidly increased, particularly in socioeconomically deprived urban neighbourhoods. To better understand the complex mechanisms behind this trend, we created a system map exposing the underlying system driving obesity prevalence in socioeconomically deprived urban neighbourhoods over the last three decades in the Netherlands.

Methods: We conducted Group Model Building (GMB) sessions with a group of thirteen interdisciplinary experts to develop a Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) of the obesogenic system.

Transforming dementia research into practice: a multiple case study of academic research utilization strategies in Dutch Alzheimer Centres.

Background: Non-pharmacological dementia research products, such as social and behavioural interventions, are generated in traditional university settings. These often experience challenges to impact practices that they were developed for. The Netherlands established five specialized academic health science centres, referred to as Alzheimer Centres, to structurally coordinate and facilitate the utilization of dementia research knowledge.

Joint EANM/EANO/RANO/SNMMI practice guideline/procedure standard for PET imaging of brain metastases: version 1.0.

This joint practice guideline/procedure standard was collaboratively developed by the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM), the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), the European Association of Neuro-Oncology (EANO), and the PET task force of the Response Assessment in Neurooncology Working Group (PET/RANO). Brain metastases are the most common malignant central nervous system (CNS) tumors. PET imaging with radiolabeled amino acids and to lesser extent [F]FDG has gained considerable importance in the assessment of brain metastases, especially for the differential diagnosis between recurrent metastases and treatment-related changes which remains a limitation using conventional MRI.

Errors in the Spontaneous Language of Survivors of Pediatric Cerebellar Tumors.

Pediatric cerebellar tumor survivors may present with spontaneous language impairments following treatment, but the nature of these impairments is still largely unclear. A recent study by Svaldi et al. (Cerebellum.

Polycystic ovary syndrome negatively affects sexual function and lower urinary tract symptoms in syrian women: a case-control study.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most prevalent endocrine disorder in women of reproductive age worldwide, and its related features like obesity, mental health issues and hyperandrogenism may contribute to inadequately investigated health problems such as sexual dysfunction (SD) and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Therefore, this study examined the impact of PCOS on sexual function (SF) and lower urinary tract in Syrian women by recruiting a total of 178 women of reproductive age, of whom 88 were diagnosed with PCOS according to the Rotterdam criteria and 90 without PCOS were considered as the control group. Female sexual function index (FSFI) and Bristol Female Lower Urinary Tract Symptom Questionnaire (BFLUTS) were used to assess SF and LUTS respectively.

Association of real life postural transitions kinematics with fatigue in neurodegenerative and immune diseases.

Fatigue is prevalent in immune-mediated inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases, yet its assessment relies largely on patient-reported outcomes, which capture perception but not fluctuations over time. Wearable sensors, like inertial measurement units (IMUs), offer a way to monitor daily activities and evaluate functional capacity. This study investigates the relationship between sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transitions and self-reported physical and mental fatigue in participants with Parkinson's, Huntington's, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, primary Sjögren's syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease.

Past, present and future of injury prevalence in high-income countries: insights and projections up to 2030 from the Global Burden of Disease Study.

Background: Injury prevalence is a metric which can be used to understand healthcare utilisation and prioritise injuries based on the magnitude of the injury rate. Given the ageing population in high-income countries and subsequently ageing of the injured population, the probability of long-term or permanent consequences of injuries is also likely to increase. By understanding past trends and exploiting patterns of prevalence injury rates (PIRs), future PIRs can be predicted.

Tract-specific white matter hyperintensities and neuropsychiatric syndromes: a multicentre memory clinic study.

Background: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia but the functional significance of WMH in specific white matter (WM) tracts is unclear. We investigate whether WMH burden within major WM fibre classes and individual WM tracts are differentially associated with different neuropsychiatric syndromes in a large multicentre study.

Method: Neuroimaging and neuropsychiatric data of seven memory clinic cohorts through the Meta VCI Map consortium were harmonised.