Dodecafluoropentane improves neuro-behavioral outcomes and return of spontaneous circulation rate in a swine model of cardiac arrest.

Introduction: Dodecafluoropentane emulsion (DDFPe) administration has previously demonstrated improved gas exchange in single-organ perfusion models. This could translate to prevention of brain injury in cardiac arrest.

Methods: We induced cardiac arrest in 12 pigs, performing CPR after 5-minute downtime.

Artificial Intelligence: Fundamentals and Breakthrough Applications in Epilepsy.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning are increasingly being used in all medical fields including for epilepsy research and clinical care. Already there have been resultant cutting-edge applications in both the clinical and research arenas of epileptology. Because there is a need to disseminate knowledge about these approaches, how to use them, their advantages, and their potential limitations, the goal of the 2023 Merritt-Putnam Symposium and of this synopsis review of that symposium has been to present the background and state of the art and then to draw conclusions on current and future applications of these approaches through the following: (1) Initially provide an explanation of the fundamental principles of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning.

Nanoscale Optical Imaging, Reconstruction, and Spatial Analysis of Whole Mouse Glomeruli.

Renal glomeruli have traditionally been studied by micrometer-scale optical microscopy to interrogate overall physiology or molecular distributions and by nanoscale electron microscopy to interrogate the ultrastructure of thin sections. While these approaches are powerful, they have been limited in their ability to obtain detailed views of the glomeruli as holistic 3D functional units. To fill this knowledge gap, we have developed a novel pipeline for imaging, reconstructing, and analyzing whole mouse glomeruli at 100 nm resolution using super-resolution fluorescence microscopy.

Behavioral and Biological Bases of Herding and Conformity.

Humans are inherently complex creatures, and this issue became even more complicated when they decided to construct social relationships. Research into human behavior is an interdisciplinary and multifaceted endeavor studied by various disciplines, such as psychology, economics, sociology, anthropology, and neurosciences. Today, with the cooperation of researchers in different fields, it is possible to link the cellular dynamic of neurons to brain function and human behavior.

Reviewing the landscape of the decision-making process for pain assessment and management for people living with dementia: A systematic review.

Aim: To understand the steps in the decision-making process regarding pain assessment and management for people living with dementia from the perspectives and experiences of people with dementia, formal and informal carers.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted. Seven English databases were searched, including PubMed, Psychological Information Database, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Web of Science, and ProQuest, using synonyms and derivatives for "dementia", "cognitive impairment", "pain", "pain assessment", "pain management", "decision", "decision support", and "decision-making".

Individualised prediction of major bleeding in patients with atrial fibrillation treated with anticoagulation.

Background: Anticoagulation in atrial fibrillation (AF) increases the risk of major bleeding. No predictive model has hitherto provided estimates of the absolute risk for individual patients.

Aim: To predict the individual 1-year risk of major bleeding in patients with AF taking anticoagulants and evaluate the importance of individual risk factors.

Cognitive reserve against Alzheimer's pathology is linked to brain activity during memory formation.

The cognitive reserve (CR) hypothesis posits that individuals can differ in how their brain function is disrupted by pathology associated with aging and neurodegeneration. Here, we test this hypothesis in the continuum from cognitively normal to at-risk stages for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) to AD dementia using longitudinal data from 490 participants of the DELCODE multicentric observational study. Brain function is measured using task fMRI of visual memory encoding.

Healthcare costs in relation to kidney function among older people: the SCOPE study.

Purpose: In this study, a comprehensive analysis of costs of chronic kidney disease (CKD) was performed, to understand factors associated with the economic burden of the disease in a multicentre international framework.

Methods: The impact on costs of demographics, socio-economics, clinical, and functional variables was tested in 2204 subjects aged 75 years or more attending outpatient clinics in Europe using a multicentre 2-year prospective cohort study. By means of collected resources consumption and unit cost data a comprehensive cost database was built and then investigated using multilevel regression modeling.

Contributions of mirror-image hair cell orientation to mouse otolith organ and zebrafish neuromast function.

Otolith organs in the inner ear and neuromasts in the fish lateral-line harbor two populations of hair cells oriented to detect stimuli in opposing directions. The underlying mechanism is highly conserved: the transcription factor EMX2 is regionally expressed in just one hair cell population and acts through the receptor GPR156 to reverse cell orientation relative to the other population. In mouse and zebrafish, loss of Emx2 results in sensory organs that harbor only one hair cell orientation and are not innervated properly.

Outputs from a model of co-research with older care-experienced people in Sweden to advance eldercare services.

Background: Within the contemporary policy turn towards co-production and co-research in Sweden, older people, practitioners and researchers alike have expressed uncertainty about how to undertake co-research. Moreover, scepticism persists about the merits and contributions of co-research and co-production to research and service development. In this paper, we aim to describe a co-research model developed with older care-experienced lay co-researchers and explore the utility of our model's outcomes to social care research and practice.

Distribution and calcium signaling function of somatostatin receptor subtypes in rat pituitary.

The somatostatin (SST) receptor family controls pituitary hormone secretion, but the distribution and specific roles of these receptors on the excitability and voltage-gated calcium signaling of hormone producing pituitary cells have not been fully characterized. Here we show that the rat pituitary gland expressed Sstr1, Sstr2, Sstr3, and Sstr5 receptor genes in a cell type-specific manner: Sstr1 and Sstr2 in thyrotrophs, Sstr3 in gonadotrophs and lactotrophs, Sstr2, Sstr3, and Sstr5 in somatotrophs, and none in corticotrophs and melanotrophs. Most gonadotrophs and thyrotrophs spontaneously fired high-amplitude single action potentials, which were silenced by SST without affecting intracellular calcium concentrations.

The rise of cochlear gene therapy.

Recent evidence provides strong support for the safe and effective use of gene therapy in humans with hearing loss. By means of a single local injection of a set of adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors, hearing was partially restored in several children with neurosensory nonsyndromic autosomal recessive deafness 9 (DFNB9), harboring variants in the OTOF gene. Current research focuses on refining endoscopic and transmastoid injection procedures to reduce risks of side effects, as emerging evidence suggests bidirectional fluid exchanges between the ear and the brain.

The microRNA profile of brain-derived extracellular vesicles: A promising step forward in developing pharmacodynamic biomarkers for psychiatric disorders.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have the potential to affect drug metabolism, and some drugs affect cellular miRNA expression. miRNAs are found inside extracellular vesicles (EVs), and the profile of these EV-miRNAs can change across different diseases and disease states. Consequently, in recent years EV-miRNAs have attracted increasing attention as possible non-invasive biomarkers.

Efficient enzyme-free isolation of brain-derived extracellular vesicles.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have gained significant attention as pathology mediators and potential diagnostic tools for neurodegenerative diseases. However, isolation of brain-derived EVs (BDEVs) from tissue remains challenging, often involving enzymatic digestion steps that may compromise the integrity of EV proteins and overall functionality. Here, we describe that collagenase digestion, commonly used for BDEV isolation, produces undesired protein cleavage of EV-associated proteins in brain tissue homogenates and cell-derived EVs.

Host genetics and gut microbiota influence lipid metabolism and inflammation: potential implications for ALS pathophysiology in SOD1 mice.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the progressive loss of motor neurons, with genetic and environmental factors contributing to its complex pathogenesis. Dysregulated immune responses and altered energetic metabolism are key features, with emerging evidence implicating the gut microbiota (GM) in disease progression. We investigated the interplay among genetic background, GM composition, metabolism, and immune response in two distinct ALS mouse models: 129Sv_G93A and C57Ola_G93A, representing rapid and slow disease progression, respectively.

Quantitative structural organization of the sclera in chicks after deprivation myopia measured with second harmonic generation microscopy.

Visual deprivation causes enhanced eye growth and the development of myopia, which is associated with a change in the arrangement of collagen fibers within the sclera. A second harmonic generation (SHG) microscope has been used to image the collagen fibers of unstained scleral punches from the posterior part of chicken eyes. We aimed to analyze the fibrous scleral tissue and quantify the changes in collagen organization in relation to the extent of induced deprivation myopia.

Retinal "sweet spot" for myopia treatment.

We studied which retinal area controls short-term axial eye shortening when human subjects were exposed to + 3.0D monocular defocus. A custom-built infrared eye tracker recorded the point of fixation while subjects watched a movie at a 2 m distance.

Spatially resolved gene signatures of white matter lesion progression in multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system characterized by myelin loss and progressive neurodegeneration. To understand MS lesion initiation and progression, we generate spatial gene expression maps of white matter (WM) and grey matter (GM) MS lesions. In different MS lesion types, we detect domains characterized by a distinct gene signature, including an identifiable rim around active WM lesions.