Adenosine promotes vascular barrier function in hyperoxic lung injury.

Hyperoxic lung injury is characterized by cellular damage from high oxygen concentrations that lead to an inflammatory response in the lung with cellular infiltration and pulmonary edema. Adenosine is a signaling molecule that is generated extracellularly by CD73 in response to injury. Extracellular adenosine signals through cell surface receptors and has been found to be elevated and plays a protective role in acute injury situations.

Negative Correlations in Visual Cortical Networks.

The amount of information encoded by cortical circuits depends critically on the capacity of nearby neurons to exhibit trial-to-trial (noise) correlations in their responses. Depending on their sign and relationship to signal correlations, noise correlations can either increase or decrease the population code accuracy relative to uncorrelated neuronal firing. Whereas positive noise correlations have been extensively studied using experimental and theoretical tools, the functional role of negative correlations in cortical circuits has remained elusive.

Open repair of chronic complicated type B aortic dissection using the open distal technique.

Aim: The present study aimed to analyze early and late outcomes after open repair of chronic type B aortic dissection.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed our cases of open descending thoracic aortic aneurysm (DTAA) with chronic dissection from 1991-2013. Long-term survival and aortic reinterventions were analyzed and patient comorbidities were evaluated in order to determine the risk of adverse outcomes.

Rapid detection of the active cardiac glycoside convallatoxin of lily of the valley using LOCI digoxin assay.

Objectives: To explore the luminescent oxygen channeling technology-based digoxin immunoassay (LOCI digoxin assay) for rapid detection of lily of the valley extract and convallatoxin. The potential in vitro binding of convallatoxin with Digibind was also evaluated.

Methods: Aliquots of a drug-free serum pool and a digoxin serum pool were supplemented with lily of the valley extract or convallatoxin, and then apparent digoxin concentrations were measured using the LOCI digoxin assay.

Visualization of retroviral envelope spikes in complex with the V3 loop antibody 447-52D on intact viruses by cryo-electron tomography.

Unlabelled: The gp120 portion of the envelope spike on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) plays a critical role in viral entry into host cells and is a key target for the humoral immune response, and yet many structural details remain elusive. We have used cryoelectron tomography to visualize the binding of the broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibody (MAb) 447-52D to intact envelope spikes on virions of HIV-1 MN strain. Antibody 447-52D has previously been shown to bind to the tip of the V3 loop.

Repair of extensive aortic aneurysms: a single-center experience using the elephant trunk technique over 20 years.

Objectives: We report the early and late outcomes after repair of extensive aortic aneurysms using the 2-stage elephant trunk (ET) technique.

Background: Management of aneurysm involving the entire aorta is a significant challenge. Given the anatomical complexity, the staged ET procedure was devised.

Sociosexual and communication deficits after traumatic injury to the developing murine brain.

Despite the life-long implications of social and communication dysfunction after pediatric traumatic brain injury, there is a poor understanding of these deficits in terms of their developmental trajectory and underlying mechanisms. In a well-characterized murine model of pediatric brain injury, we recently demonstrated that pronounced deficits in social interactions emerge across maturation to adulthood after injury at postnatal day (p) 21, approximating a toddler-aged child. Extending these findings, we here hypothesized that these social deficits are dependent upon brain maturation at the time of injury, and coincide with abnormal sociosexual behaviors and communication.

Dermatologic and dental aspects of the 2012 International Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Consensus Statements.

Importance: The 2012 International Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Clinical Consensus Conference was convened to update the last consensus statement in 1998. Skin and dental lesions are common in tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) and are a frequent concern for patients. Recognition of these lesions is imperative for early diagnosis, given the treatment advances that may improve patient outcomes.

Sevelamer is cost effective versus calcium carbonate for the first-line treatment of hyperphosphatemia in new patients to hemodialysis: a patient-level economic evaluation of the INDEPENDENT-HD study.

Background: The recent multicenter, randomized, open-label INDEPENDENT study demonstrated that sevelamer improves survival in new to hemodialysis (HD) patients compared with calcium carbonate. The objective of this study was to determine the cost-effectiveness of sevelamer versus calcium carbonate for patients new to HD, using patient-level data from the INDEPENDENT study.

Study Design: Cost-effectiveness analysis.

Deficient synthesis of class-switched, HIV-neutralizing antibodies to the CD4 binding site and correction by electrophilic gp120 immunogen.

Objective: HIV is vulnerable to antibodies that recognize a linear CD4 binding site epitope of gp120 (C), but inducing C-directed antibody synthesis by traditional vaccine principles is difficult. We wished to understand the basis for deficient C-directed antibody synthesis and validate correction of the deficiency by an electrophilic gp120 analog (E-gp120) immunogen that binds B-cell receptors covalently.

Methods: Serum antibody responses to a C peptide and full-length gp120 epitopes induced by HIV infection in humans and immunization of mice with gp120 or E-gp120 were monitored.

Molecular imprinting as a signal-activation mechanism of the viral RNA sensor RIG-I.

RIG-I activates interferon signaling pathways by promoting filament formation of the adaptor molecule, MAVS. Assembly of the MAVS filament is mediated by its CARD domain (CARD(MAVS)), and requires its interaction with the tandem CARDs of RIG-I (2CARD(RIG-I)). However, the precise nature of the interaction between 2CARD(RIG-I) and CARD(MAVS), and how this interaction leads to CARD(MAVS) filament assembly, has been unclear.

Limitations of EMIT benzodiazepine immunoassay for monitoring compliance of patients with benzodiazepine therapy even after hydrolyzing glucuronide metabolites in urine to increase cross-reactivity: comparison of immunoassay results with LC-MS/MS values.

Background: Benzodiazepines are widely prescribed, and compliance of patients with benzodiazepine therapy is often monitored using urine specimens. Although various commercially available benzodiazepines immunoassays are widely used for compliance monitoring, such immunoassays usually have low cross-reactivity with glucuronide metabolites. We studied the effect of hydrolyzing such glucuronide before analysis to reevaluate suitability of Enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique benzodiazepine immunoassay for monitoring compliance with benzodiazepine therapy.

Potential candidate camelid antibodies for the treatment of protein-misfolding diseases.

Protein-misfolding diseases (PMDs), including Alzheimer's disease would potentially reach epidemic proportion if effective ways to diagnose and treat them were not developed. The quest for effective therapy for PMDs has been ongoing for decades and some of the technologies developed so far show great promise. We report here the development of antibodies by immunization of camelids with prion (PrioV3) and Alzheimer's (PrioAD12, 13 & 120) disease-derived brain material.

Effect of Chinese Medicine Danshen and Indian Ayurvedic Medicine Bark of Arjuna Tree on a Relatively New LOCI Digoxin Assay for Application on the Vista 1500 Analyzer.

Background: Danshen is a traditional Chinese medicine and bark of Arjuna tree is an Ayurvedic medicine both indicated as heart tonic. Interference of Danshen in serum digoxin immunoassays has been reported but potential interference of extract of bark of Arjuna tree has not been reported. We studied potential interferences of Danshen and bark of Arjuna tree on a relatively new LOCI digoxin assay for application on the Vista 1500 analyzer (Siemens Diagnostics).

A slow-forming isopeptide bond in the structure of the major pilin SpaD from Corynebacterium diphtheriae has implications for pilus assembly.

The Gram-positive organism Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the cause of diphtheria in humans, expresses pili on its surface which it uses for adhesion and colonization of its host. These pili are covalent protein polymers composed of three types of pilin subunit that are assembled by specific sortase enzymes. A structural analysis of the major pilin SpaD, which forms the polymeric backbone of one of the three types of pilus expressed by C.

Myxococcus xanthus gliding motors are elastically coupled to the substrate as predicted by the focal adhesion model of gliding motility.

Myxococcus xanthus is a model organism for studying bacterial social behaviors due to its ability to form complex multi-cellular structures. Knowledge of M. xanthus surface gliding motility and the mechanisms that coordinated it are critically important to our understanding of collective cell behaviors.

Metal-dependent amyloid β-degrading catalytic antibody construct.

Catalytic antibodies (catabodies) that degrade target antigens rapidly are rare. We describe the metal-dependence of catabody construct 2E6, an engineered heterodimer of immunoglobulin light chain variable domains that hydrolyzes amyloid β peptides (Aβ) specifically. In addition to the electrophilic phosphonate inhibitor of serine proteases, the metal chelators ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and 1,10-phenanthroline completely inhibited the hydrolysis of Aβ by catabody 2E6.

CTP infarct core may predict poor outcome in stroke patients treated with IV t-PA.

Background: Computerized tomography perfusion (CTP) has been widely studied in assessing physiological brain tissue parameters in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). The utility of CTP to predict clinical outcome in patients with AIS treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (IV t-PA) is controversial. We reviewed CTP data in AIS patients treated with IV t-PA to uncover potential predictors of clinical outcome.

Physiological IgM class catalytic antibodies selective for transthyretin amyloid.

Peptide bond-hydrolyzing catalytic antibodies (catabodies) could degrade toxic proteins, but acquired immunity principles have not provided evidence for beneficial catabodies. Transthyretin (TTR) forms misfolded β-sheet aggregates responsible for age-associated amyloidosis. We describe nucleophilic catabodies from healthy humans without amyloidosis that degraded misfolded TTR (misTTR) without reactivity to the physiological tetrameric TTR (phyTTR).