Fatal cases of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Udmurtia,Russia, 2010 to 2019

European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases - Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) continues to be a cause of death in Europe. Our aim was to describe the clinical...     

E-Cadherin in Colorectal Cancer: Relation to Chemosensitivity

Background

The conventional chemotherapy of colorectal cancer with irinotecan, 5-fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin remains one of the front-line treatments worldwide. However, its efficacy is quite low. Recently studies of the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) have become the focus of investigations into the cause of chemoresistance in several types of cancer, including colorectal cancer. The data about the role of EMT in chemosensitivity are controversial.

A Practical Application of Data Mining Methods to Build Predictive Models for Autism Spectrum Disorder Based on Biosensor Data From Janssen Autism Knowledge Engine (JAKE®)

Abstract

The Janssen Autism Knowledge Engine (JAKE^®) collects a large number of features from five biosensors across a range of tasks. The application of data mining methods to these data may be a useful approach to enable objective discrimination between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) participants. Following a prospective observational study using JAKE, ASD participants classified as “moderate” or “severe” based on total scores on the Social Responsiveness Scale, and TD participants were used to build models, using repeated cross-validation, to identify biosensor features contributing to diagnosis. Four different models (partial least squares, random forest, elastic net, and C5.0) were chosen to build diagnostic classifiers using the training set, and the fitted models were evaluated on the test set. Model performance on the training set, based on receiver operating characteristics (ROC), was moderate (area under ROC curve = 0.61–0.72), and model performance on the test set based on kappa statistic was between 0.40 and 0.46 across the four models. Data mining methods applied to biosensor data can lead to models that discriminate ASD from TD. This method may prove useful in creating new diagnostic tests for ASD.     

Effect of Architecture of Thermoresponsive Copolymer Brushes on Switching of Their Adsorption Properties

Herein, the effect of architecture of stimuli‐responsive polymer brushes on the switching of colloidal particle adsorption is reported. Thermoresponsive copolymer brushes containing positively charged amino groups are used and investigated how negatively charged colloidal particles electrostatically adsorb onto them. The distribution of charged groups (block or random copolymer architecture) and the conformation of the polymer chains (extended or collapsed state) are varied. It is found that the strongest adsorption is achieved at high fractions of charged groups in the brushes, while the amount of adsorbed particles is independent of the polymer chain conformation; that is, the adsorption of particles cannot be switched. On the contrary to this, the most pronounced switching of adsorption is achieved at low fractions of charged/adhesive groups in the brushes when the adsorption of particles is weak. The lowest fraction of charged/adhesive groups (one group per few polymer chains) can be exclusively achieved by random copolymerization and not by block copolymers. An explanation of the adsorption behavior of colloidal particles on switchable brushes is proposed.     

Hydrogen sulfide causes apoptosis in human pulp stem cells

Introduction

Untreated dental caries will eventually lead to pulpal inflammation. Although much is known regarding the interaction of microbial antigens and the immunologic defense systems of pulp, many aspects of the pathogenesis of pulpitis are not fully understood. The relationship between human pulp stem cells (HPSCs) and the pathogenesis of pulpitis remains among the poorly understood areas. Many of the invading bacteria are known to produce considerable amounts of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), which causes apoptosis in some tissues. The aims of this study were to determine whether H₂S causes apoptosis in HPSCs and to examine its signaling pathway.

Methods

Stem cells were isolated from human dental pulp and incubated with 50 ng/mL H₂S for 48 hours. To detect apoptosis, the cells were analyzed by using flow cytometry. The mitochondrial signaling pathway was examined by determining mitochondrial membrane depolarization. Activation of the key apoptotic enzymes caspase-9, caspase-8, and caspase-3 was assessed by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Release of cytochrome C from mitochondria was also determined.

Results

The number of apoptotic cells increased significantly with H₂S treatment from 1.6% to 16.3% (P < .01). Significant increases were also measured in the amounts of caspase-9 and caspase-3 and in cytochrome C release (all P < .01) and in mitochondrial membrane depolarization (P < .05), whereas caspase-8 activity was not found.

Conclusions

H₂S causes apoptosis in HPSCs by activating the mitochondrial pathway. It is suggested that H₂S might be one of the factors modifying the pathogenesis of pulpitis by causing loss of viability of HPSCs through apoptosis.     

Intestinal helminths and protozoan infections in patients with colorectal cancer: prevalence and possible association with cancer pathogenesis

Parasitology Research - The purpose of the present study was to determine the prevalence of intestinal helminths and protozoa in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and to evaluate the possible...     

Circulating miR-618 Has Prognostic Significance in Patients with Metastatic Colon Cancer

The present study evaluated the prognostic role of circulating miRNA-618 in patients with metastatic colon cancer (mCC) and whether miR-618 gene rs2682818 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) are associated with colon cancer susceptibility and expression levels of mature miR-618. In total, 104 patients with mCC before starting the chemotherapy were investigated. The expression status of circulating miR-618 in mCC was evaluated by quantitative PCR. TaqMan PCR assay was used for rs2682818 SNP genotyping. miR-618 was overexpressed in serum of mCC patients. Patients with high and intermediate expression of miR-618 had a significantly longer mean overall survival (OS) of 21 months than patients with low expression—16 months. In addition, multivariate Cox regression analysis confirmed the association between high/intermediate levels of miRNA-618 and longer OS, HR = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.30–0.86, p = 0.012. miR-618 rs2682818 SNP significantly decreased the risk of colon cancer susceptibility in both heterozygous codominant (AC vs. CC, OR = 0.39, 95% CI: 0.17–0.88, p = 0.024) and overdominant (AC vs. CC + AA, OR = 0.37, 95% CI: 0.16–0.85, p = 0.018) genetic models. Our data suggest that circulating miRNA-618 could be useful as a prognostic biomarker in mCC. Patients harboring AC rs2682818 genotype have a decreased risk for colon cancer in comparison with patients with CC and AA genotypes.