Effect of Feeding Mice Soluble Metals and Heavy Metal Contaminated Soil on Feces Metal Concentrations.

The effect of heavy metal availability and interaction in feed on feces heavy metal excretion in mice has rarely been investigated. In this work, feed containing a polluted soil (total Cd = 6.34, total Pb = 387 mg kg) amended with phosphate, bentonite and lime, or feed spiked with soluble Pb and Cd were fed to mice for 10 days.

Bright and Specific Targeting of Metastatic Lymph Nodes in Orthotopic Mouse Models of Gastric Cancer with a Fluorescent Anti-CEA Antibody.

Background: Gastric cancer poses a major diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Improved visualization of tumor margins and lymph node metastases with tumor-specific fluorescent markers could improve outcomes.

Methods: To establish orthotopic models of gastric cancer, one million cells of the human gastric cancer cell line, MKN45, were suspended in 50 μl of equal parts PBS and Matrigel and injected into the nude mouse stomach with a 29-gauge needle.

Baricitinib Provides Significant Improvements in Quality of Life and Functioning in Adults with Moderate-to-Severe Atopic Dermatitis with Baseline Body Surface Area ≤ 40% and Severe Itch.

Introduction: Patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD), a body surface area (BSA) of ≤ 40%, and an itch numerical rating scale (NRS) score of ≥ 7 ("BARI itch dominant") have been characterized as an important group to consider for the oral janus kinase (JAK) 1/2 inhibitor baricitinib (BARI). Herein we aim to evaluate quality of life (QoL) and functioning outcomes in adult patients with BSA ≤ 40% and itch NRS ≥ 7 at baseline (BL) who received BARI 4 mg in the topical corticosteroid (TCS) combination trial BREEZE-AD7.

Materials: BREEZE-AD7 was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group outpatient study involving adult patients with moderate-to-severe AD who received once-daily placebo or 2-mg or 4-mg BARI in combination with TCS for 16 weeks.

Decay of self-incompatibility within a lifespan in Physalis acutifolia (Solanaceae).

Self-incompatibility decays with age in plants of Physalis acutifolia, and plants that have transitioned to selfing produce fewer seeds but with comparable viability. Self-compatibility in this system is closely related to flower size, which is in turn dependent on the direction of the cross, suggesting parental effects on both morphology and compatibility. The sharpleaf groundcherry, Physalis acutifolia, is polymorphic for self-compatibility, with naturally occurring self-incompatible (SI) and self-compatible (SC) populations.

Age-related differences in eye movements and the association with Archimedes spiral tracing performance in young and older adults.

Age-related hand motor impairments may critically depend on visual information though few studies have examined eye movements during tasks of hand function in older adults. The purpose of this study was to assess eye movements and their association with performance while tracing on a touchscreen in young and older adults. Eye movements of 21 young (age 20-38 years; 12 females, 9 males) and 20 older (65-85 years; 10 females, 10 males) adults were recorded while performing an Archimedes spiral tracing task, a common clinical assessment sensitive to age-associated impairments in hand function.

The ImageGuideEcho Registry: Using Data Science to Understand and Improve Echocardiography.

Purpose Of Review: To provide a contemporary update on the American Society of Echocardiography's ImageGuideEcho Registry and present a case study of an individual institution's experience with enrollment.

Recent Findings: Technical innovation in clinical echocardiography has expanded the impact of echocardiography in cardiovascular care and provides new opportunities to leverage clinical data to inform quality improvement initiatives and research. The ImageGuideEcho Registry is the first echocardiography-specific imaging registry in the United States and provides a data infrastructure for quality improvement and multicenter research.

Pain and Headache in Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein Antibody-Associated Disease.

Purpose Of Review: The purpose of this review is to evaluate the current knowledge and recent findings on different pain and headache presentations associated with Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein Antibody-Associated Disease (MOGAD) disease.

Recent Findings: MOGAD is an inflammatory autoimmune disease affecting mostly the central nervous system, presenting with optic neuritis, transverse myelitis and other forms of inflammatory demyelination. Pain and headache in MOGAD have been recognized more recently and acute and chronic forms of pain can occur in both the adult and pediatric population.

Prioritizing questions and topics for the development of guidelines and consensus-based recommendations supported by ILAE: A scoping review and proposal of prioritization criteria.

Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) and consensus-based recommendations (CBRs) require considerable effort, collaboration, and time-all within the constraints of finite resources. Professional societies, such as the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), must prioritize what topics and questions to address. Implementing evidence-based care remains a crucial challenge in clinical practice.

The B Chromosome of Pseudococcus viburni: A Selfish Chromosome that Exploits Whole-Genome Meiotic Drive.

Meiosis is generally a fair process: each chromosome has a 50% chance of being included into each gamete. However, meiosis can become aberrant with some chromosomes having a higher chance of making it into gametes than others. Yet, why and how such systems evolve remains unclear.

Urban, formerly incarcerated, black, heterosexual men with substance use disorders: eligible for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) but unaware of their vulnerability to HIV acquisition.

Research on incarcerated men indicates low PrEP access even though HIV disproportionately affects them. Intersecting attributes - urban, incarcerated, Black, heterosexual men with substance use diagnoses (SUDs) - improves the odds of HIV transmission/acquisition. It is crucial to determine, among "key populations," who might be eligible to take PrEP.

A Novel Rabbit Model of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction-Induced Dry Eye.

Purpose: The objective of this three-phase study was to develop a model of mild to moderate evaporative dry eye to be used to evaluate tear film stability endpoints during product development.

Methods: Rabbits were sedated prior to ophthalmic cautery of meibomian gland orifices. The orifices of eyelid meibomian glands were half-cauterized (to yield obstruction of every other meibomian gland orifices), fully cauterized (to yield obstruction of all meibomian gland orifices), or untreated.

Ocular Safety and Toxicology of Subretinal Gene Therapy With rAAV.hPDE6A in Nonhuman Primates.

Purpose: Reports of gene therapy-associated retinal atrophies and inflammation have highlighted the importance of preclinical safety assessments of adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector systems. We evaluated in nonhuman primates (NHPs) the ocular safety and toxicology of a novel AAV gene therapy targeting retinitis pigmentosa caused by mutations in PDE6A, which has since been used in a phase I/II clinical trial (NCT04611503).

Methods: A total of 34 healthy cynomolgus animals (Macaca fascicularis) were treated with subretinal injections of rAAV.

Racial Differences in Discrepancies Between Subjective Ratings and Objective Assessments of Hearing Impairment.

Background And Objectives: To better understand racial/ethnic disparities in hearing aid use, we examined racial differences in discrepancies between subjective hearing ratings and objective hearing tests as a potential source of this disparity.

Research Design And Methods: A cross-sectional assessment was conducted using the data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Our analytic sample included 2,568 participants aged 50 and older: 1,814 non-Hispanic White Americans and 754 non-Hispanic Black Americans.

Oculomotor challenges in macular degeneration impact motion extrapolation.

Macular degeneration (MD), which affects the central visual field including the fovea, has a profound impact on acuity and oculomotor control. We used a motion extrapolation task to investigate the contribution of various factors that potentially impact motion estimation, including the transient disappearance of the target into the scotoma, increased position uncertainty associated with eccentric target positions, and increased oculomotor noise due to the use of a non-foveal locus for fixation and for eye movements. Observers performed a perceptual baseball task where they judged whether the target would intersect or miss a rectangular region (the plate).

Baseline Alpha-Fetoprotein Elevation and the Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Chronic Hepatitis B: A Multicentre Cohort Study.

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level and its changes in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) may influence the risk of future hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aims to evaluate the HCC risk in CHB patients with no overt HCC but with elevated AFP level and to explore the prognostic role of longitudinal changes in AFP and liver-related laboratory values. This multicentre cohort study included 10,639 CHB patients without a history of HCC from seven medical facilities in South Korea.

Family Size across the Life Course and Cognitive Decline in Older Mexican Adults.

Objectives: A growing body of research has identified associations between family size and cognition in older adults. These studies largely focus on older adults' own fertility history instead of sibship size, defined as one's number of siblings. Sibship size may impact cognitive development during early childhood, creating differences that may persist into late-life.

Developing an Intervention to Enhance Aging in Place for Older Veterans Living in Permanent Supportive Housing.

Background And Objectives: The Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supported Housing (HUD-VASH) program provides rental subsidies, case management, and supportive services to Veterans who are currently or formerly homeless, 77% of whom are ages ≥50. Few interventions have been developed to address the needs of older Veterans in HUD-VASH.

Research Design And Methods: We conducted a 2-stage study to inform the development of an intervention to promote aging in place in HUD-VASH.

[Gene editing is changing the treatment of hereditary diseases].

Gene editing is a novel technology within gene therapy, which changes sequences in chromosomal DNA with precision. Even if there are alternative strategies, the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR/Cas technology has become the dominating principle. During recent years base editing and prime editing, permitting editing without DNA double-strand breaks, have been developed.

Mechanism of chaperone recruitment and retention on mitochondrial precursors.

Nearly all mitochondrial proteins are imported into mitochondria from the cytosol. How nascent mitochondrial precursors acquire and sustain import-competence in the cytosol under normal and stress conditions is incompletely understood. Here, we show that under normal conditions, the Hsc70 and Hsp90 systems interact with and redundantly minimize precursor degradation.

Hepatocyte Rho-associated kinase signaling is required for mice to survive experimental porphyria-associated liver injury.

Background: Rho-associated kinases 1 and 2 (ROCK1 and ROCK2) regulate critical cell functions, including actomyosin contractility, apoptosis, and proliferation. Some studies suggest that ROCK inhibition may serve as a treatment for liver fibrosis. More investigation is needed to understand the role of hepatocyte ROCK signaling in vivo, especially in the context of profibrotic liver injury.

Fatal overdoses among people with HIV experiencing nonfatal overdoses in British Columbia, Canada.

The breadth of the overdose crisis is underestimated because of a lack of quantifying nonfatal overdoses. We estimate the proportion of nonfatal overdoses among all people with HIV (PWH) in British Columbia, Canada, and the prevalence of fatal overdoses among people who had a nonfatal overdose, stratified by sex. A small proportion of PWH who experienced a nonfatal overdose subsequently died of a fatal overdose, signaling opportunities for crucial interventions and treatment to prevent overdose death.