Perinatal dysfunction of innate immunity in cystic fibrosis.

In patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), repeated cycles of infection and inflammation eventually lead to fatal lung damage. Although diminished mucus clearance can be restored by highly effective CFTR modulator therapy, inflammation and infection often persist. To elucidate the role of the innate immune system in CF etiology, we investigated a CF pig model and compared these results with those for preschool children with CF.

Unfolding of von Willebrand Factor Type D Like Domains Promotes Mucin Adhesion.

Mucins are the macromolecular key components of mucus. On wet epithelia of mammals, mucin solutions and gels act as powerful biolubricants and reduce friction and wear by generating a sacrificial layer and establishing hydration lubrication. Yet the structure-function relationship of mucin adhesion and lubrication remains elusive.

Depressive Symptoms and Amyloid Pathology.

Importance: Depressive symptoms are associated with cognitive decline in older individuals. Uncertainty about underlying mechanisms hampers diagnostic and therapeutic efforts. This large-scale study aimed to elucidate the association between depressive symptoms and amyloid pathology.

Two-layered immune escape in AML is overcome by Fcγ receptor activation and inhibition of PGE2 signaling in NK cells.

Loss of anticancer NK cell function in AML patients is associated with fatal disease progression and remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that AML-blasts isolated from patients rapidly inhibit NK cell function and escape NK cell-mediated killing. Transcriptome analysis of NK cells exposed to AML-blasts revealed increased CREM expression and transcriptional activity, indicating enhanced cAMP signalling, confirmed by uniform production of the cAMP-inducing prostanoid PGE2 by all AML-blast isolates from patients.

Advancements in bioengineered and autologous skin grafting techniques for skin reconstruction: a comprehensive review.

The reconstruction of complex skin defects challenges clinical practice, with autologous skin grafts (ASGs) as the traditional choice due to their high graft take rate and patient compatibility. However, ASGs have limitations such as donor site morbidity, limited tissue availability, and the necessity for multiple surgeries in severe cases. Bioengineered skin grafts (BSGs) aim to address these drawbacks through advanced tissue engineering and biomaterial science.

Shifting Paradigms: A Deep Dive Into Public Perceptions of Gender-affirming Surgery.

Background: Given the growing demand for gender-affirming surgery (GAS) in recent years, it is essential to explore the public perceptions of GAS. Understanding the public's opinions and attitudes toward GAS will provide valuable insights for shaping educational initiatives to enhance public knowledge and awareness.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used the Prolific Academic platform to distribute an online survey among adult participants residing in the United States in August 2023.

Gemcitabine and ATR inhibitors synergize to kill PDAC cells by blocking DNA damage response.

The DNA-damaging agent Gemcitabine (GEM) is a first-line treatment for pancreatic cancer, but chemoresistance is frequently observed. Several clinical trials investigate the efficacy of GEM in combination with targeted drugs, including kinase inhibitors, but the experimental evidence for such rationale is often unclear. Here, we phenotypically screened 13 human pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cell lines against GEM in combination with 146 clinical inhibitors and observed strong synergy for the ATR kinase inhibitor Elimusertib in most cell lines.

Current applications and challenges in large language models for patient care: a systematic review.

Background: The introduction of large language models (LLMs) into clinical practice promises to improve patient education and empowerment, thereby personalizing medical care and broadening access to medical knowledge. Despite the popularity of LLMs, there is a significant gap in systematized information on their use in patient care. Therefore, this systematic review aims to synthesize current applications and limitations of LLMs in patient care.

The Co-IMPACT Consortium: Integrating Prostate-specific Membrane Antigen Positron Emission Tomography and Radiotherapy in Prostate Cancer Care.

The Co-IMPACT consortium addresses knowledge gaps in prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography-guided radiotherapy for prostate cancer by establishing a global database (46 centres from 16 countries) to standardise and analyse data across four distinguished clinical scenarios. A collaborative model with the Advanced Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference aligns urgent clinical needs with actionable research insights.

The impact of linguistic complexity on feasibility and reliability of language mapping in aphasic glioma patients.

Background: Reliable language mappings require sufficient language skills. This study evaluated whether linguistic task properties impact feasibility and reliability of navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS)-based language mappings in aphasic glioma patients.

Methods: The effect of linguistic complexity on naming accuracy during baseline testing without stimulation and on the number of errors during nTMS was evaluated for 16 moderately and 4 severely expressive aphasic patients.

Deep Learning-Enabled Assessment of Right Ventricular Function Improves Prognostication After Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair for Mitral Regurgitation.

Background: Right ventricular (RV) function has a well-established prognostic role in patients with severe mitral regurgitation (MR) undergoing transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) and is typically assessed using echocardiography-measured tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion. Recently, a deep learning model has been proposed that accurately predicts RV ejection fraction (RVEF) from 2-dimensional echocardiographic videos, with similar diagnostic accuracy as 3-dimensional imaging. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of the deep learning-predicted RVEF values in patients with severe MR undergoing TEER.

Identification of a vimentin-expressing α-cell phenotype in CF and normal pancreas.

Endocrine dysfunction and diabetes can develop secondary to fibrotic diseases within the pancreas including cystic fibrosis (CF). Phenotypic shift within epithelial cells has been recognised in association with pro-fibrotic signalling. We sought evidence of endocrine cell epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in CF and non-CF pancreas.

Impact of Multimodal Prompt Elements on Diagnostic Performance of GPT-4V in Challenging Brain MRI Cases.

Background Studies have explored the application of multimodal large language models (LLMs) in radiologic differential diagnosis. Yet, how different multimodal input combinations affect diagnostic performance is not well understood. Purpose To evaluate the impact of varying multimodal input elements on the accuracy of OpenAI's GPT-4 with vision (GPT-4V)-based brain MRI differential diagnosis.

Earth-abundant transition metal complexes in light-emitting electrochemical cells: successes, challenges and perspectives.

Light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) are an attractive technology in the field of solid state light devices (SSLDs) as their simple architectures allow the preparation of cost-effective lighting devices. Consequently, low-cost and sustainable emitters are highly desirable. Transition metal complexes are attractive in this field as they have been proved to possess compatible optoelectronic properties.

Redox-induced dimerisations of a phosphacyclic biradicaloid.

Despite the first examples being isolated more than two decades ago, little is known about the redox chemistry of stable phosphacyclic biradicaloids. Here, we demonstrate that a biradicaloid featuring a diphosphaindenyl backbone is able to undergo both oxidation and reduction reactions. One-electron oxidation results in the formation of a dicationic cage compound structurally related to an isomer of hypostrophene (CH).

Dengue virus and Zika virus alter endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria contact sites to regulate respiration and apoptosis.

During infection, dengue virus (DENV) and Zika virus (ZIKV), two (ortho)flaviviruses of public health concern worldwide, induce alterations of mitochondria morphology to favor viral replication, suggesting a viral co-opting of mitochondria functions. Here, we performed an extensive transmission electron microscopy-based quantitative analysis to demonstrate that both DENV and ZIKV alter endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria contact sites (ERMC). This correlated at the molecular level with an impairment of ERMC tethering protein complexes located at the surface of both organelles.

Only IF/TA in the Histological Evaluation of Post-Reperfusion Baseline Biopsies Correlates With Kidney Transplant Outcome.

Here, we retrospectively evaluated the informational yield of 338 post-reperfusion kidney transplant biopsies (including 95 living donations) assessed according to BANFF for the histological characteristics interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (IF/TA), glomerulosclerosis, arteriosclerosis, and acute tubular injury (ATI). Associations with delayed graft function (DGF) and death-censored graft survival were explored through Cox-regression analyses. The maximum follow-up time was 11.

Features of intermediate and late dry age-related macular degeneration on adaptive optics ophthalmoscopy: Pinnacle Study Report 8.

Background/objectives: Adaptive optics ophthalmoscopy (AOO) has the potential to provide insights into AMD pathology and to assess the risk of progression. We aim to utilise AOO to describe detailed features of intermediate AMD and to characterise microscopic changes during atrophy development.

Subjects/methods: Patients with intermediate AMD were recruited into PINNACLE, a prospective observational cohort study.

Exploring Environmental Microfungal Diversity Through Serial Single Cell Screening.

Known for its remarkable diversity and ecological importance, the fungal kingdom remains largely unexplored. In fact, the number of unknown and undescribed fungi is predicted to exceed the number of known fungal species by far. Despite efforts to uncover these dark fungal taxa, we still face inherent sampling biases and methodological limitations.

From MRI to FEM: an automated pipeline for biomechanical simulations of vertebrae and intervertebral discs.

Introduction: Biomechanical simulations can enhance our understanding of spinal disorders. Applied to large cohorts, they can reveal complex mechanisms beyond conventional imaging. Therefore, automating the patient-specific modeling process is essential.

De novo and inherited dominant variants in U4 and U6 snRNAs cause retinitis pigmentosa.

The U4 small nuclear RNA (snRNA) forms a duplex with the U6 snRNA and, together with U5 and ~30 proteins, is part of the U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP complex, located at the core of the major spliceosome. Recently, recurrent variants in the U4 RNA, transcribed from the gene, and in at least two other genes were discovered to cause neurodevelopmental disorder.

Assisted Parkinsonism Diagnosis Using Multimodal MRI-The Role of Clinical Insights.

Background: While automated methods for differential diagnosis of parkinsonian syndromes based on MRI imaging have been introduced, their implementation in clinical practice still underlies considerable challenges.

Objective: To assess whether the performance of classifiers based on imaging derived biomarkers is improved with the addition of basic clinical information and to provide a practical solution to address the insecurity of classification results due to the uncertain clinical diagnosis they are based on.

Methods: Retro- and prospectively collected data from multimodal MRI and standardized clinical datasets of 229 patients with PD (n = 167), PSP (n = 44), or MSA (n = 18) underwent multinomial classification in a benchmark study comparing the performance of nine machine learning methods.

Optimizing the growth conditions of superconducting MoSi thin films for single photon detection.

We investigate the growth of amorphous MoSi thin films using magnetron co-sputtering and optimize the growth conditions with respect to crystal structure and superconducting properties (e.g., critical temperature [Formula: see text]).

Insights into Homogeneous Bulk Boron Doping at the Tetrahedral Site of NCM811 Cathode Materials: Structure Stabilization by Inductive Effect on TM-O-B Bonds.

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are critical for enabling sustainable energy storage. The capacity of cathode materials is a major limiting factor in the LIB performance, and doping has emerged as an effective strategy for enhancing the electrochemical properties of nickel-rich layered oxides such as NCM811. In this study, boron is homogeneously incorporated into the tetrahedral site of NCM811 through co-precipitation, leading to an inductive effect on transition metal (TM)-O-B bonds that delayed structural collapse and reduced oxygen release.