Medical Specialties Commons^™

Self-Guided Smartphone Application To Manage Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Randomized, Controlled Pilot Trial, Chao Hsing Yeh, Jennifer Kawi, Lauren Grant, Xinran Huang, Hulin Wu, Robin L Hardwicke, Paul J Christo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: The goal of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of an auricular point acupressure smartphone app (mAPA) to self-manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. Methods: A prospective, longitudinal, randomized, controlled pilot trial was conducted using a three-group design (self-guided mAPA (n = 14); in-person mAPA (n = 12); and control (n = 11)). The primary outcomes included physical function and pain intensity. Results: After a 4-week APA intervention, participants in the in-person mAPA group had improved physical function of 32% immediately post-intervention and 29% at the 1M follow-up. Participants in the self-guided mAPA group had …

Pancreatic Tumor Microenvironmental Acidosis And Hypoxia Transform Gold Nanorods Into Cell-Penetrant Particles For Potent Radiosensitization, Pradipta Ranjan Rauta, Yuri Mackeyev, Keith Sanders, Joseph B K Kim, Valeria V Gonzalez, Yasmin Zahra, Muhammad A Shohayeb, Belal Abousaida, Geraldine V Vijay, Okan Tezcan, Paul Derry, Anton V Liopo, Eugene R Zubarev, Rickey Carter, Pankaj Singh, Sunil Krishnan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Coating nanoparticles with stealth epilayers increases circulation time by evading opsonization, macrophage phagocytosis, and reticuloendothelial sequestration. However, this also reduces internalization by cancer cells upon reaching the tumor. We designed gold nanorods (GNRs) with an epilayer that retains stealth properties in circulation but transforms spontaneously in the acidotic tumor microenvironment to a cell-penetrating particle. We used a customized stoichiometric ratio of l-glutamic acid and l-lysine within an amphiphilic polymer of poly(l-glutamic acid-co-l-lysine), or P(Glu-co-Lys), to effect this transformation in acidotic environments. P(Glu-co-Lys)-GNRs were internalized by cancer cells to facilitate potent in vitro radiosensitization. When administered intravenously in mice, they accumulate …

Pancreatic Tumor Microenvironmental Acidosis And Hypoxia Transform Gold Nanorods Into Cell-Penetrant Particles For Potent Radiosensitization, Pradipta Ranjan Rauta, Yuri Mackeyev, Keith Sanders, Joseph B K Kim, Valeria V Gonzalez, Yasmin Zahra, Muhammad A Shohayeb, Belal Abousaida, Geraldine V Vijay, Okan Tezcan, Paul Derry, Anton V Liopo, Eugene R Zubarev, Rickey Carter, Pankaj Singh, Sunil Krishnan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Coating nanoparticles with stealth epilayers increases circulation time by evading opsonization, macrophage phagocytosis, and reticuloendothelial sequestration. However, this also reduces internalization by cancer cells upon reaching the tumor. We designed gold nanorods (GNRs) with an epilayer that retains stealth properties in circulation but transforms spontaneously in the acidotic tumor microenvironment to a cell-penetrating particle. We used a customized stoichiometric ratio of l-glutamic acid and l-lysine within an amphiphilic polymer of poly(l-glutamic acid-co-l-lysine), or P(Glu-co-Lys), to effect this transformation in acidotic environments. P(Glu-co-Lys)-GNRs were internalized by cancer cells to facilitate potent in vitro radiosensitization. When administered intravenously in mice, they accumulate …

Repeated Out-Of-Africa Expansions Of Helicobacter Pylori Driven By Replacement Of Deleterious Mutations, Harry A Thorpe, Elise Tourrette, Koji Yahara, Filipa F Vale, Siqi Liu, Mónica Oleastro, Teresa Alarcon, Tsachi-Tsadok Perets, Saeid Latifi-Navid, Yoshio Yamaoka, Beatriz Martinez-Gonzalez, Ioannis Karayiannis, Timokratis Karamitros, Dionyssios N Sgouras, Wael Elamin, Ben Pascoe, Samuel K Sheppard, Jukka Ronkainen, Pertti Aro, Lars Engstrand, Lars Agreus, Sebastian Suerbaum, Kaisa Thorell, Daniel Falush

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Helicobacter pylori lives in the human stomach and has a population structure resembling that of its host. However, H. pylori from Europe and the Middle East trace substantially more ancestry from modern African populations than the humans that carry them. Here, we use a collection of Afro-Eurasian H. pylori genomes to show that this African ancestry is due to at least three distinct admixture events. H. pylori from East Asia, which have undergone little admixture, have accumulated many more non-synonymous mutations than African strains. European and Middle Eastern bacteria have elevated African ancestry at the sites of these mutations, implying …

Clinical And In Vitro Evidence Favoring Immunoglobulin Treatment Of A Chronic Norovirus Infection In A Patient With Common Variable Immunodeficiency, Jeroen J A Van Kampen, Virgil A S H Dalm, Pieter L A Fraaij, Bas B Oude Munnink, Claudia M E Schapendonk, Ray W Izquierdo-Lara, Nele Villabruna, Khalil Ettayebi, Mary K Estes, Marion P G Koopmans, Miranda De Graaf

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Immunocompromised individuals can become chronically infected with norovirus, but effective antiviral therapies are not yet available.

METHODS: Treatments with nitazoxanide, ribavirin, interferon alpha-2a, and nasoduodenally administered immunoglobulins were evaluated sequentially in an immunocompromised patient chronically infected with norovirus. In support, these components were also applied to measure norovirus inhibition in intestinal enteroid cultures in vitro. Viral RNA levels were determined in fecal and plasma samples during each treatment and viral genomes were sequenced.

RESULTS: None of the antivirals resulted in a reduction of viral RNA levels in feces or plasma. However, during ribavirin treatment, there was an increased accumulation …

Targeting The Mdm2-P53 Pathway In Dedifferentiated Liposarcoma, Raymond S Traweek, Brandon M Cope, Christina L Roland, Emily Z Keung, Elise F Nassif, Derek J Erstad

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Dedifferentiated liposarcoma (DDLPS) is an aggressive adipogenic cancer with poor prognosis. DDLPS tumors are only modestly sensitive to chemotherapy and radiation, and there is a need for more effective therapies. Genetically, DDLPS is characterized by a low tumor mutational burden and frequent chromosomal structural abnormalities including amplification of the 12q13-15 chromosomal region and the MDM2 gene, which are defining features of DDLPS. The MDM2 protein is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that targets the tumor suppressor, p53, for proteasomal degradation. MDM2 amplification or overexpression in human malignancies is associated with cell-cycle progression and worse prognosis. The MDM2-p53 interaction has thus garnered …

De Novo Identification Of Microbial Contaminants In Low Microbial Biomass Microbiomes With Squeegee, Yunxi Liu, R A Leo Elworth, Michael D Jochum, Kjersti M Aagaard, Todd J Treangen

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Computational analysis of host-associated microbiomes has opened the door to numerous discoveries relevant to human health and disease. However, contaminant sequences in metagenomic samples can potentially impact the interpretation of findings reported in microbiome studies, especially in low-biomass environments. Contamination from DNA extraction kits or sampling lab environments leaves taxonomic "bread crumbs" across multiple distinct sample types. Here we describe Squeegee, a de novo contamination detection tool that is based upon this principle, allowing the detection of microbial contaminants when negative controls are unavailable. On the low-biomass samples, we compare Squeegee predictions to experimental negative control data and show that …

Assessing The Contribution Of Rare Genetic Variants To Phenotypes Of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Using Whole-Genome Sequence Data, Wonji Kim, Julian Hecker, R Graham Barr, Eric Boerwinkle, Brian Cade, Adolfo Correa, Josée Dupuis, Sina A Gharib, Leslie Lange, Stephanie J London, Alanna C Morrison, George T O'Connor, Elizabeth C Oelsner, Bruce M Psaty, Ramachandran S Vasan, Susan Redline, Stephen S Rich, Jerome I Rotter, Bing Yu, Christoph Lange, Ani Manichaikul, Jin J Zhou, Tamar Sofer, Edwin K Silverman, Dandi Qiao, Michael H Cho, Nhlbi Trans-Omics In Precision Medicine (Topmed) Consortium And Topmed Lung Working Group

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Rationale: Genetic variation has a substantial contribution to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung function measurements. Heritability estimates using genome-wide genotyping data can be biased if analyses do not appropriately account for the nonuniform distribution of genetic effects across the allele frequency and linkage disequilibrium (LD) spectrum. In addition, the contribution of rare variants has been unclear.

Objectives: We sought to assess the heritability of COPD and lung function using whole-genome sequence data from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program.

Methods: Using the genome-based restricted maximum likelihood method, we partitioned the genome into bins based on minor allele frequency …

Erk Inhibitor Ulixertinib Inhibits High-Risk Neuroblastoma Growth In Vitro And In Vivo, Yang Yu, Yanling Zhao, Jongmin Choi, Zhongcheng Shi, Linjie Guo, John Elizarraras, Andy Gu, Feng Cheng, Yanxin Pei, Dai Lu, Muller Fabbri, Saurabh Agarwal, Chunchao Zhang, Sung Yun Jung, Jennifer H Foster, Jianhua Yang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a pediatric tumor of the peripheral nervous system. Approximately 80% of relapsed NB show RAS-MAPK pathway mutations that activate ERK, resulting in the promotion of cell proliferation and drug resistance. Ulixertinib, a first-in-class ERK-specific inhibitor, has shown promising antitumor activity in phase 1 clinical trials for advanced solid tumors. Here, we show that ulixertinib significantly and dose-dependently inhibits cell proliferation and colony formation in different NB cell lines, including PDX cells. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that ulixertinib extensively inhibits different oncogenic and neuronal developmental pathways, including EGFR, VEGF, WNT, MAPK, NGF, and NTRK1. The proteomic analysis further revealed …

Sars-Cov-2 Incubation Period According To Vaccination Status During The Fifth Covid-19 Wave In A Tertiary-Care Center In Spain: A Cohort Study, Jordi Cortés Martínez, Daewoo Pak, Gabriela Abelenda-Alonso, Klaus Langohr, Jing Ning, Alexander Rombauts, Mireia Colom, Yu Shen, Guadalupe Gómez Melis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: The incubation period of an infectious disease is defined as the elapsed time between the exposure to the pathogen and the onset of symptoms. Although both the mRNA-based and the adenoviral vector-based vaccines have shown to be effective, there have been raising concerns regarding possible decreases in vaccine effectiveness for new variants and variations in the incubation period.

Methods: We conducted a unicentric observational study at the Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, Barcelona, using a structured telephone survey performed by trained interviewers to estimate the incubation period of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in a cohort of Spanish hospitalized patients. The …

Envenomation By The Green Bush Viper Atheris Squamigera, Sam T Ontiveros, Priya Srihari, Garret A Winkler, Jake Del Rosso, Julia Sobel, Richard F Clark, Alicia B Minns

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The Green Bush Viper, Atheris squamigera, is native to West and Central Africa and has few well reported envenomations. Bite victims experience dizziness, nausea, headache, regional lymphadenopathy, and localized edema. Most reports also detail severe effects including thrombocytopenia, coagulopathy, hemolysis, hemorrhage, or renal failure. Fatalities are reported, but poorly described. There is no specific antivenom for A. squamigera, but non-species specific antivenom has been reported helpful in several cases. We report the case of a 36-year-old woman who was bitten by a green bush viper and was treated with several non-species specific antivenoms. There were no complications to antivenom administration …

Multi-Organ Segmentation Of Abdominal Structures From Non-Contrast And Contrast Enhanced Ct Images, Cenji Yu, Chidinma P Anakwenze, Yao Zhao, Rachael M Martin, Ethan B Ludmir, Joshua S Niedzielski, Asad Qureshi, Prajnan Das, Emma B Holliday, Ann C Raldow, Callistus M Nguyen, Raymond P Mumme, Tucker J Netherton, Dong Joo Rhee, Skylar S Gay, Jinzhong Yang, Laurence E Court, Carlos E Cardenas

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Manually delineating upper abdominal organs at risk (OARs) is a time-consuming task. To develop a deep-learning-based tool for accurate and robust auto-segmentation of these OARs, forty pancreatic cancer patients with contrast-enhanced breath-hold computed tomographic (CT) images were selected. We trained a three-dimensional (3D) U-Net ensemble that automatically segments all organ contours concurrently with the self-configuring nnU-Net framework. Our tool's performance was assessed on a held-out test set of 30 patients quantitatively. Five radiation oncologists from three different institutions assessed the performance of the tool using a 5-point Likert scale on an additional 75 randomly selected test patients. The mean (± …

Body Mass Index And Survival After Cancer Diagnosis: A Pan-Cancer Cohort Study Of 114 430 Patients With Cancer, Huakang Tu, Jennifer L Mcquade, Michael A Davies, Maosheng Huang, Kunlin Xie, Yuanqing Ye, Wong-Ho Chow, Alma Rodriguez, Xifeng Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The recommendation encouraging patients with cancer to keep a normal body mass index (BMI) is largely extrapolated from data on risk of developing cancer. We tested the prospective association between peri-diagnostic (within 1 year post-diagnosis) BMI and all-cause mortality in patients with incident cancers. During 7.2 years of follow-up, 42% (48,340) of the 114 430 patients with cancer died. Spline analysis revealed that compared with a BMI of 22.5, a BMI lower than 22.5 was associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality across 24 cancer types. A BMI higher than 22.5 was associated with reduced all-cause mortality, while a non-linear …

Omics Analyses Of A Somatic Trp53r245w/+ Breast Cancer Model Identify Cooperating Driver Events Activating Pi3k/Akt/Mtor Signaling, Xiaojie Yu, Yun Zhang, Shunbin Xiong, Joy M Mcdaniel, Chang Sun, Gilda P Chau, Jovanka Gencel-Augusto, Dhruv Chachad, Rhiannon L Morrissey, Xiayu Rao, Jing Wang, Guillermina Lozano

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Alterations of the tumor suppressor

Antibody-Drug Conjugates For The Treatment Of Her2-Positive Breast Cancer, Mariana K Najjar, Sara G Manore, Angelina T Regua, Hui-Wen Lo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) receptor tyrosine kinase is overexpressed in 20–30% of breast cancers and is associated with poor prognosis and worse overall patient survival. Most women with HER2-positive breast cancer receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus HER2-targeted therapies. The development of HER2-directed therapeutics is an important advancement in targeting invasive breast cancer. Despite the efficacy of anti-HER2 monoclonal antibodies, they are still being combined with adjuvant chemotherapy to improve overall patient outcomes. Recently, significant progress has been made towards the development of a class of therapeutics known as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), which leverage the high specificity of HER2-targeted …

A High-Resolution 3d Atlas Of The Spectrum Of Tuberculous Andcovid-19 Lung Lesions, Gordon Wells, Joel N Glasgow, Kievershen Nargan, Kapongo Lumamba, Rajhmun Madansein, Kameel Maharaj, Leon Y Perumal, Malcolm Matthew, Robert L Hunter, Hayden Pacl, Jacelyn E Peabody Lever, Denise D Stanford, Satinder P Singh, Prachi Bajpai, Upender Manne, Paul V Benson, Steven M Rowe, Stephan Le Roux, Alex Sigal, Muofhe Tshibalanganda, Carlyn Wells, Anton Du Plessis, Mpumelelo Msimang, Threnesan Naidoo, Adrie J C Steyn

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Our current understanding of the spectrum of TB and COVID-19 lesions in the human lung is limited by a reliance on low-resolution imaging platforms that cannot provide accurate 3D representations of lesion types within the context of the whole lung. To characterize TB and COVID-19 lesions in 3D, we applied micro/nanocomputed tomography to surgically resected, postmortem, and paraffin-embedded human lung tissue. We define a spectrum of TB pathologies, including cavitary lesions, calcium deposits outside and inside necrotic granulomas and mycetomas, and vascular rearrangement. We identified an unusual spatial arrangement of vasculature within an entire COVID-19 lobe, and 3D segmentation of …

A Randomized Pilot Study Of Oncology Massage To Treat Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy, Gabriel Lopez, Cathy Eng, Michael Overman, David Ramirez, Wenli Liu, Curtiss Beinhorn, Pamela Sumler, Sarah Prinsloo, Yisheng Li, Minxing Chen, Eduardo Bruera, Lorenzo Cohen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This pilot randomized controlled trial investigated massage therapy for symptomatic relief of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) to determine the ideal weekly frequency and number of weeks of providing massage. We evaluated the feasibility and initial efficacy of a Swedish massage protocol to treat lower extremity (LE) CIPN. Inclusion criteria: LE neuropathy attributed to oxaliplatin, paclitaxel, or docetaxel, with no other attributable causes; ≥ 6 months since last chemotherapy; self-reported neuropathy score ≥ 3, 0-10 scale; age ≥ 18. Participant randomization (2:2:1:1) to one of four groups: LE (2) or head/neck/shoulder (control; 1) massage 3 times (3X) a week for 4 …

Prevalence Of Sleep-Related Problems And Risks In A Community-Dwelling Older Adult Population: A Cross-Sectional Survey-Based Study, Nancy P Gordon, Jimmy H Yao, Leslea A Brickner, Joan C Lo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Despite evidence of adverse health consequences of inadequate restorative sleep for older adults, assessment of sleep quantity, quality, and use of sleep aids is not routinely done. We aimed to characterize sleep problems, sleep risks, and advice received about sleep in a community-dwelling older adult population, overall and in subgroups with health conditions and functional difficulties.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study used weighted self-report data for 5074 Kaiser Permanente Northern California members aged 65-79y who responded to a 2017 or 2020 Member Health Survey. We estimated usual amount of sleep (< 6, 6 to < 7, ≥7 hours) and prevalence of sleep problems (frequent insomnia, frequent daytime fatigue, poor quality sleep, and potential sleep apnea (OSA) symptoms (frequent very loud snoring, apnea episodes)) for older adults overall, by self-rated health, and in subgroups reporting hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, frequent problems with balance/walking, and frequent memory problems. We also estimated percentages who regularly used sleep aids and had discussed sleep adequacy with a healthcare professional in the past year.

RESULTS: Approximately 30% of older adults usually got less …

Two Neuronal Peptides Encoded From A Single Transcript Regulate Mitochondrial Complex Iii In Drosophila, Justin A Bosch, Berrak Ugur, Israel Pichardo-Casas, Jordan Rabasco, Felipe Escobedo, Zhongyuan Zuo, Ben Brown, Susan Celniker, David A Sinclair, Hugo J Bellen, Norbert Perrimon

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Naturally produced peptides (<100 amino acids) are important regulators of physiology, development, and metabolism. Recent studies have predicted that thousands of peptides may be translated from transcripts containing small open-reading frames (smORFs). Here, we describe two peptides in Drosophila encoded by conserved smORFs, Sloth1 and Sloth2. These peptides are translated from the same bicistronic transcript and share sequence similarities, suggesting that they encode paralogs. Yet, Sloth1 and Sloth2 are not functionally redundant, and loss of either peptide causes animal lethality, reduced neuronal function, impaired mitochondrial function, and neurodegeneration. We provide evidence that Sloth1/2 are highly expressed in neurons, imported to mitochondria, and regulate mitochondrial complex III assembly. These results suggest that phenotypic analysis of smORF genes in Drosophila can provide a wealth of information on the biological functions of this poorly characterized class of …

Association Between Preoperative Hemodialysis Timing And Postoperative Mortality In Patients With End-Stage Kidney Disease, Vikram Fielding-Singh, Matthew W Vanneman, Tristan Grogan, Jacques P Neelankavil, Wolfgang C Winkelmayer, Tara I Chang, Vincent X Liu, Eugene Lin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Importance: For patients with end-stage kidney disease treated with hemodialysis, the optimal timing of hemodialysis prior to elective surgical procedures is unknown.

Objective: To assess whether a longer interval between hemodialysis and subsequent surgery is associated with higher postoperative mortality in patients with end-stage kidney disease treated with hemodialysis.

Design, setting, and participants: Retrospective cohort study of 1 147 846 procedures among 346 828 Medicare beneficiaries with end-stage kidney disease treated with hemodialysis who underwent surgical procedures between January 1, 2011, and September 30, 2018. Follow-up ended on December 31, 2018.

Exposures: One-, two-, or three-day intervals between the most …

Polygenic Risk Score Improves The Accuracy Of A Clinical Risk Score For Coronary Artery Disease, Austin King, Lang Wu, Hong-Wen Deng, Hui Shen, Chong Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The value of polygenic risk scores (PRSs) towards improving guideline-recommended clinical risk models for coronary artery disease (CAD) prediction is controversial. Here we examine whether an integrated polygenic risk score improves the prediction of CAD beyond pooled cohort equations. METHODS: An observation study of 291,305 unrelated White British UK Biobank participants enrolled from 2006 to 2010 was conducted. A case-control sample of 9499 prevalent CAD cases and an equal number of randomly selected controls was used for tuning and integrating of the polygenic risk scores. A separate cohort of 272,307 individuals (with follow-up to 2020) was used to examine …

Radiation Therapy Induces Immunosenescence Mediated By P90rsk, Masaki Imanishi, Haizi Cheng, Sivareddy Kotla, Anita Deswal, Nhat-Tu Le, Eduardo Chini, Kyung Ae Ko, Venkata S K Samanthapudi, Ling-Ling Lee, Joerg Herrmann, Xiaolei Xu, Cielito Reyes-Gibby, Sai-Ching J Yeung, Keri L Schadler, Syed Wamique Yusuf, Zhongxing Liao, Roza Nurieva, El-Ad David Amir, Jared K Burks, Nicolas L Palaskas, John P Cooke, Steven H Lin, Michihiro Kobayashi, Momoko Yoshimoto, Jun-Ichi Abe

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Radiation therapy (RT) to the chest increases the patients’ risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). A complete understanding of the mechanisms by which RT induces CVD could lead to specific preventive, therapeutic approaches. It is becoming evident that both genotoxic chemotherapy agents and radiation induce mitochondrial dysfunction and cellular senescence. Notably, one of the common phenotypes observed in cancer survivors is accelerated senescence, and immunosenescence is closely related to both cancer risk and CVD development. Therefore, suppression of immunosenescence can be an ideal target to prevent cancer treatment-induced CVD. However, the mechanism(s) by which cancer treatments induce immunosenescence are incompletely characterized. …

High-Contrast Detection Of Somatostatin Receptor Subtype-2 For Fluorescence-Guided Surgery, Servando Hernandez Vargas, Solmaz Aghaamiri, Sukhen C Ghosh, Michael P Luciano, Luis C Borbon, Po Hien Ear, James R Howe, Jennifer M Bailey-Lundberg, Gregory D Simonek, Daniel M Halperin, Hop S Tran Cao, Naruhiko Ikoma, Martin J Schnermann, Ali Azhdarinia

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Dye design can influence the ability of fluorescently labeled imaging agents to generate tumor contrast and has become an area of significant interest in the field of fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS). Here, we show that the charge-balanced near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) dye FNIR-Tag enhances the imaging properties of a fluorescently labeled somatostatin analogue.

Prognostic Performance Of Cystatin C In Covid-19: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Michal Matuszewski, Yurii Reznikov, Michal Pruc, Frank W Peacock, Alla Navolokina, Raúl Júarez-Vela, Lukasz Jankowski, Zubaid Rafique, Lukasz Szarpak

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Cystatin C is a specific biomarker of kidney function. We perform this meta-analysis to determine the association of Cystatin C with the COVID-19 severity. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library, and Web of Science for studies published until 2nd September 2022 that reported associations between Cystatin C levels and COVID-19 severity. The analysis was performed using a random-effects model to calculate pooled standard mean difference (SMD). Twenty-five studies were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled analysis showed statistically significant differences of Cystatin C levels among survive vs. decreased patients (0.998 ± 0.225 vs. 1.328 ± …

Prediction Value Of Krebs Von Den Lungen-6 (Kl-6) Biomarker In Covid-19 Patients: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Michal Matuszewski, Lukasz Szarpak, Zubaid Rafique, Frank W Peacock, Michal Pruc, Piotr Szwed, Francesco Chirico, Alla Navolokina, Jerzy R Ladny, Andrea Denegri

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic is a major issue that necessitates the use of cutting-edge disease prediction models. The aim of the study was to assess the existing evidence regarding association between Krebs von den Lungen-6 levels and COVID-19 severity. A literature search was performed on Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases from 1 January 2020 up to 2 August 2022. The electronic database search was supplemented by searching Google Scholar. In addition, reference lists of relative articles were also reviewed. KL-6 levels among COVID-19 positive vs. negative patients varied and amounted to 443.37 …

New Non-Fullerene Acceptor With Extended Conjugation Of Cyclopenta [2,1-B:3,4-B’] Dithiophene For Organic Solar Cells, Cheng Sun, Sanseong Lee, Changeun Choi, Soyeong Jeong, Juhui Oh, Ju-Hyeon Kim, Jaeyoung Kim, Ho Eon Baek, Hongkyu Kang, Soo-Young Jang, Hyun Ho Choi, Kwanghee Lee, Yun-Hi Kim

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Herein, we design and characterize 9-heterocyclic ring non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) with the extended backbone of indacenodithiophene by cyclopenta [2,1-b:3,4-b'] dithiophene (CPDT). The planar conjugated CPDT donor enhances absorption by reducing vibronic transition and charge transport. Developed NFAs with different end groups shows maximum absorption at approximately 790-850 nm in film. Because of the electronegative nature of the end-group, the corresponding acceptors showed deeper LUMO energy levels and red-shifted ultraviolet absorption. We investigate the crystallinity, film morphology, surface energy, and electronic as well as photovoltaic performance. The organic photovoltaic cells using novel NFAs with the halogen end groups fluorine or chlorine …

Elective Surgery System Strengthening: Development, Measurement, And Validation Of The Surgical Preparedness Index Across 1632 Hospitals In 119 Countries, Nihr Global Health Unit On Global Surgery, Covidsurg Collaborative

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The 2015 Lancet Commission on global surgery identified surgery and anaesthesia as indispensable parts of holistic health-care systems. However, COVID-19 exposed the fragility of planned surgical services around the world, which have also been neglected in pandemic recovery planning. This study aimed to develop and validate a novel index to support local elective surgical system strengthening and address growing backlogs.

METHODS: First, we performed an international consultation through a four-stage consensus process to develop a multidomain index for hospital-level assessment (surgical preparedness index; SPI). Second, we measured surgical preparedness across a global network of hospitals in high-income countries (HICs), …

Blockade Of Fgf2/Fgfr2 Partially Overcomes Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Mediated Progression Of T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, Chen Tian, Yueyang Li, Lina Wang, Junqi Si, Yaxin Zheng, Junnan Kang, Yafei Wang, M James You, Guoguang Zheng

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The development of acute lymphoblastic leuakemia (ALL) is partly attributed to the effects of bone marrow (BM) microenvironment, especially mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), which interact bilaterally with leukaemia cells, leading to ALL progression. In order to find MSCs-based microenvironment targeted therapeutic strategies, Notch1-induced T-cell ALL (T-ALL) mice models were used and dynamic alterations of BM-MSCs with increased cell viability during T-ALL development was observed. In T-ALL mice derived stroma-based condition, leukaemia cells showed significantly elevated growth capacity indicating that MSCs participated in leukaemic niche formation. RNA sequence results revealed that T-ALL derived MSCs secreted fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), which …

Technology-Based Obesity Prevention Interventions Among Hispanic Adolescents In The United States: Scoping Review, Erica G Soltero, Callie Lopez, Edith Hernandez, Teresia M O'Connor, Debbe Thompson

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background: Given that today's adolescents are digital front-runners, technology-based obesity prevention strategies are age-appropriate for this population. The use of remote and wireless technologies may be suitable for extending the reach and engagement of obesity prevention efforts among high-risk Hispanic youths, as this subgroup is disproportionately affected by barriers that limit participation in traditional, in-person interventions.

Objective: The purpose of this scoping review was to examine the intervention and sample characteristics of technology-based obesity prevention interventions among Hispanic adolescents. We also examined feasibility criteria to assess the acceptability and appropriateness of technology-based strategies among Hispanic youths.

Methods: A comprehensive search …

Mitochondrial Protective Effects Caused By The Administration Of Mefenamic Acid In Sepsis, Diogo Dominguini, Monique Michels, Leticia B Wessler, Emilio L Streck, Tatiana Barichello, Felipe Dal-Pizzol

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The pathophysiology of sepsis may involve the activation of the NOD-type receptor containing the pyrin-3 domain (NLPR-3), mitochondrial and oxidative damages. One of the primary essential oxidation products is 8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG), and its accumulation in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) induces cell dysfunction and death, leading to the hypothesis that mtDNA integrity is crucial for maintaining neuronal function during sepsis. In sepsis, the modulation of NLRP-3 activation is critical, and mefenamic acid (MFA) is a potent drug that can reduce inflammasome activity, attenuating the acute cerebral inflammatory process. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the administration of MFA and its implications for …