13,270 results match your criteria: "Saarland University.[Affiliation]"

Machine learning (ML) techniques are being widely implemented to fill the gap in simple molecular design guidelines for newer therapeutic modalities in the extended and beyond rule of five chemical space (eRo5, bRo5). These ML techniques predict molecular properties directly from the structure, allowing for the prioritization of promising compounds. However, the performance of models varies greatly among ML use cases.

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Vulnerability of transport through evolving spatial networks.

Phys Rev E

October 2024

Department of Theoretical Physics and Center for Biophysics, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany.

Insight into the blockage vulnerability of evolving spatial networks is important for understanding transport resilience, robustness, and failure of a broad class of real-world structures such as porous media and utility, urban traffic, and infrastructure networks. By exhaustive search for central transport hubs on porous lattice structures, we recursively determine and block the emerging main hub until the evolving network reaches the impenetrability limit. We find that the blockage backbone is a self-similar path with a fractal dimension which is distinctly smaller than that of the universality class of optimal path crack models.

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Nanotechnological approaches for efficient N2B delivery: from small-molecule drugs to biopharmaceuticals.

Beilstein J Nanotechnol

November 2024

Department of Pharmacy, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, PharmaScienceHub, Saarland University, Campus C4 1, Saarbrücken D-66123, Germany.

Central nervous system diseases negatively affect patients and society. Providing successful noninvasive treatments for these diseases is challenging because of the presence of the blood-brain barrier. While protecting the brain's homeostasis, the barrier limits the passage of almost all large-molecule drugs and most small-molecule drugs.

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Benchmarking Cross-Docking Strategies in Kinase Drug Discovery.

J Chem Inf Model

December 2024

In Silico Toxicology and Structural Bioinformatics, Institute of Physiology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353 Berlin, Germany.

In recent years, machine learning has transformed many aspects of the drug discovery process, including small molecule design, for which the prediction of bioactivity is an integral part. Leveraging structural information about the interactions between a small molecule and its protein target has great potential for downstream machine learning scoring approaches but is fundamentally limited by the accuracy with which protein-ligand complex structures can be predicted in a reliable and automated fashion. With the goal of finding practical approaches to generating useful kinase-inhibitor complex geometries for downstream machine learning scoring approaches, we present a kinase-centric docking benchmark assessing the performance of different classes of docking and pose selection strategies to assess how well experimentally observed binding modes are recapitulated in a realistic cross-docking scenario.

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Recently, it has been proposed that self-relevance of a stimulus enhances executive control and reduces the impact of distractors on current task performance. The present study aimed to test whether the binding between a distractor and a response is influenced by self-relevance, too. We assumed that targets' self-relevance should increase executive control processes and therefore reduce the influence of distractors on current performance.

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Purpose: The emergence of multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa isolates poses a challenge to healthcare systems worldwide. Rising numbers in deaths, duration of hospitalization as well as failing treatments prove the hazards posed by these pathogens.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers studied plasma proteomic profiles linked to subclinical mutations in blood cells, particularly focusing on clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) and its connection to various health outcomes, including coronary artery disease (CAD).
  • The study involved a large, diverse group of participants and identified a significant number of unique proteins associated with key driver genes, showing differences based on genetics, sex, and race.
  • Methods like Mendelian randomization and mouse model tests helped clarify the causal effects of these proteins, revealing shared plasma proteins between CHIP and CAD that could inform future clinical insights.
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  • The goal of gene therapy is to target specific cell types using endogenous microRNA, but the link between microRNA expression and its effects is not well understood.
  • The researchers conducted an experiment measuring the stability of synthetic microRNA-responsive elements in various cell lines, overcoming biases in existing microRNA data.
  • They developed a predictive model based on this data, allowing them to create gene constructs with new response patterns, beneficial for designing microRNA-responsive devices in different contexts.
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The first measures to reduce the environmental harm from volatile anaesthetics are implementation of minimal fresh gas flow strategies and avoidance of desflurane. Although anaesthetic waste gas capture systems generally exert high capturing efficiencies, only about half of volatile anaesthetics used in the operating room are accessible for capture. Industry-sponsored reports promise a reduction of the global warming potential by both incineration and recycling of captured volatile anaesthetics.

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Study Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Objective: A major risk factor for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is advanced age. Ablative surgery combined with microvascular reconstruction has become routine for OSCC.

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Multiple sham-controlled clinical trials have demonstrated significant reductions in both office and 24-h blood pressure (BP) following radiofrequency renal denervation (RDN) in the uncontrolled hypertension population. Notably, the blood pressure response varies widely within individual participants, thus showing a clinical need to identify potential RDN "responders" prior to the procedure. Despite multiple analytic efforts, no single parameter, aside from baseline blood pressure, has been consistently associated with BP reduction following RDN.

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Heavy Pentaisopropylcyclopentadienyltriylenes and their Heterobimetallic Complexes.

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl

November 2024

Department of Chemistry; Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology, Saarland University Campus Saarbrücken, 66123, Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany.

A series of triylenes of the heavy group 13 elements gallium, indium and thallium, carrying the pentaisopropylcyclopentadienyl ligand is reported. The compounds were characterized in solution and in the solid-state and their donor ligand properties in heterobimetallic complexes were investigated, whereby a series of tungsten carbonyl complexes was isolated. Furthermore, a new synthetic route towards a previously described lithium-aluminum heterobimetallic dimetallocene is reported, which also enabled the isolation of a heterobimetallic polydecker of lithium and gallium.

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Chemical diversity of cyanobacterial natural products.

Nat Prod Rep

November 2024

Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade de São Paulo, CEP 05508-000, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

Covering: 2010 to 2023Cyanobacterial natural products are a diverse group of molecules with promising biotechnological applications. This review examines the chemical diversity of 995 cyanobacterial metabolites reported from 2010 to 2023. A computational analysis using similarity networking was applied to visualize the chemical space and to compare the diversity of cyanobacterial metabolites among taxonomic orders and environmental sources.

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Article Synopsis
  • MiRNAs are a type of non-coding RNA that regulates gene expression and are crucial for various biological pathways, with most studies focused on humans and mice.
  • The miRNATissueAtlas has been developed to provide a comprehensive overview of miRNA expression across different tissues in both Homo sapiens and Mus musculus, now incorporating significantly more data and samples in its latest release.
  • The 2025 update features expression data from 799 billion reads across 61,593 samples, an increase in the variety of tissues studied, and new calculations that enhance the understanding of tissue specificity and cross-species comparisons.
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Introduction: Activation of NLRP3-containing inflammasome, which is responsible for IL-1β maturation, has been shown to contribute to Alzheimer's disease (AD)-associated pathogenesis in both APP- and tau-transgenic mice. However, effects of NLRP3 on pericytes and subsequent cerebrovascular pathology in AD remain unknown.

Methods: NLRP3-deficient and wild-type AD animal models were generated by crossing human P301S tau-transgenic mice and knockout mice.

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Article Synopsis
  • * It uses an adapted CFIR questionnaire to analyze responses from 31 healthcare professionals, highlighting that while the interventions themselves are seen positively, resource shortages, poor policy integration, and lack of incentives are major obstacles.
  • * Recommendations to overcome these barriers include designing patient-focused tools, creating user manuals, conducting workshops, and enhancing communication through interdisciplinary meetings, alongside integrating psychosocial care into public health policies to improve treatment standards.
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Peptide drugs have seen rapid advancement in biopharmaceutical development, with over 80 candidates approved globally. Despite their therapeutic potential, the clinical translation of peptide drugs is hampered by challenges in production yields and stability. Engineered bacterial therapeutics is a unique approach being explored to overcome these issues by using bacteria to produce and deliver therapeutic compounds at the body site of use.

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Reply to Denina et al.

J Infect Dis

November 2024

Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology, Children's Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Membrane contact sites (MCSs) help organelles coordinate activities, but their small size and dynamic nature make them hard to study with traditional imaging methods.
  • - Researchers developed chemogenetic reporters that enhance the imaging of MCSs in both lab and living systems, enabling the exploration of complex biological questions.
  • - They introduced a new biosensor, PRINCESS, which can detect MCSs and measure calcium dynamics simultaneously, revealing a mechanism where calcium signaling affects the positioning of the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria.
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High-grade gliomas are associated with intratumoral thrombosis, tumor cell necrosis, and hemorrhage. The resulting blood clot serves as an adhesive matrix for glioma cell integrins that activate FAK. Knocking down FAK with CRISPR cas9, on the other hand, is highly effective at halting GBM growth in mice.

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Dissipative split-charge formalism: Ohm's law, Nyquist noise, and non-contact friction.

J Chem Phys

November 2024

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany.

The split-charge equilibration method is extended to describe dissipative charge transfer similarly as the Drude model, whereby the complex-valued frequency-dependent dielectric permittivities or conductivities of dielectrics and metals can be mimicked at non-zero frequencies. To demonstrate its feasibility, a resistor-capacitor circuit is simulated using an all-atom representation for the resistor and capacitor. The dynamics reproduce the expected charging process and Nyquist noise, the latter resulting from the thermal voltages acting on individual split charges.

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Structured surgical education has become increasingly important in recent years. Intraventricular neuroendoscopic procedures have been widely established. However, training surgical skills with these techniques is crucial for young residents due to the potential harm to adjacent tissue.

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Targeting the IspE Enzyme.

ACS Omega

November 2024

Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS)-Saarland University, Department of Pharmacy, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), Campus Building E8.1, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany.

The enzyme IspE in is considered an attractive drug target, as it is essential for parasite survival and is absent in the human proteome. Yet it still has not been addressed by a small-molecule inhibitor. In this study, we conducted a high-throughput screening campaign against the IspE enzyme.

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Infiltration of salivary proteins into dentin during erosive processes.

J Dent

January 2025

Clinic of Operative Dentistry, Periodontology and Preventive Dentistry, University Hospital, Saarland University, Building 73, 66421 Homburg Saar, Germany.

Objective: Ultrastructural analyses showed that during erosion under oral cavity conditions, dentin is infiltrated by a substrate morphologically similar to salivary proteins. This in-situ study aimed to investigate the presence of salivary proteins in demineralized dentin.

Methods: Bovine dentin specimens were attached to individual maxillary splints (n = 1 per subject and condition) and worn intraorally by four subjects for 1 min.

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