Objectives
To investigate peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) changes in patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).
Methods
We included 21 PSP patients (36 eyes) who underwent ...peripapillary optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans at 2.5 ± 1.3 years of disease, without ophthalmologic co-morbidities. We compared pRNFL thicknesses in PSP eyes with age-matched 22 controls (22 eyes) using generalized estimating equation model adjusting for intra-subject inter-eye correlations, age and sex. We also analyzed the correlation between the pRNFL thickness and clinical severity using Spearman’s correlation. In twelve PSP patients with 3 T brain MRI volumetric scan within 1 year of OCT exam, we investigated the correlation between the pRNFL thickness and brain atrophy using Pearson’s correlation.
Results
PSP patients had global pRNFL thinning compared to controls (beta = − 6.436,
p
= 0.025). Global pRNFL thickness correlated with Hoehn & Yahr stages (
r
= − 0.487,
p
= 0.025), and nasal pRNFL thinning showed a trend of correlation (uncorrected
p
< 0.05). Exploratory correlation analysis between global pRNFL thickness and nonmotor items in the PSP rating scale showed a trend toward association with sleep disturbances (uncorrected
p
= 0.008) and urinary incontinence (uncorrected
p
= 0.031), although not significant after Bonferroni correction (all 28 items). The patients had significant atrophy in the posterior cingulate cortex, third ventricle, pallidum, and midbrain with reduced midbrain-to-pons ratio, but no correlation was found between pRNFL thickness and brain volumes.
Conclusion
The pRNFL seems to be affected in PSP, which is more severe with advanced disease stages. Retinal investigation in a larger longitudinal cohort would help elucidate the pathophysiological role of retinal thinning in PSP.
Background: Surface functionalization of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) has emerged as a promising field of research with enormous biomedical applications. The folate (FA)-attached polymer-gold ...nanoconjugates play vital role in targeting the cancer cells. Methods: AuNPs were synthesized by using di- or tri-carboxylate-polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymers, including citrate-PEG (CPEG), malate-PEG (MAP), and tartrate-PEG (TAP), as a reducing and stabilizing agent. After synthesis of polymer-AuNPs, the freely available hydroxyl and carboxylate groups of CPEG, MAP, and TAP were used to attach a cancer cell- targeting agent, FA, via a 1-Ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide/N-hydroxy succinimide coupling reaction to obtain FA-CPEG-AuNP, FA-MAP-AuNP, and FA-TAP-AuNP nanoconjugates, respectively. The 5-fluorouracil (5FU) was attached to pi back-bonded carbonyl oxygens of the nanoconjugates, and the in vitro drug release profile was studied by high pressure liquid chromatography. Biocompatibility profiles of the FA-CPEG-AuNP, FA-MAP-AuNP, and FATAP-AuNP nanoconjugates were investigated using adult human dermal fibroblasts. Anti- breast cancer activity of 5FU-loaded nanoconjugates was investigated using MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Results: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analyses confirmed that AuNPs attached to CPEG, MAP, or TAP via the formation of pi back bonding between AuNPs and the ester carbonyl group. The pi back-bonded nanoconjugates exhibited sustained release of 5FU up to 27 days. FA-MAP-AuNPs exhibited an IC.sub.50 at 5 microlg/mL, while FACPEG-AuNPs and FA-TAP-AuNPs showed the IC.sub.50 at 100 microg/mL toward MCF-7 cancer cells. Conclusion: The developed polymer pi back-bonded multifunctional gold nanoconjugates could be used as a potential drug delivery system for targeting MCF-7 cancer cells. Keywords: polymer-gold nanoconjugates, 5-fluorouracil, anticancer activity, MCF- 7 cells, green synthesis
We assessed the psychological well-being and workplace functioning of hospital workers in South Korea after an infectious disease outbreak by focusing on the effects of risk appraisal, emotional ...experience, and coping ability. Participants were 280 hospital workers who experienced the
2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak. We found that high risk appraisal decreased psychological resilience, whereas coping ability increased psychological resilience. Additionally, emotional disruption was associated with low resilience and also mediated the effect of perceived risk
on psychological resilience. Results varied across occupational type (health-care workers vs. non-health-care workers), which implies that different considerations are needed for resilience-building among hospital workers responding to an outbreak. In particular, lowering perceived risk was
most beneficial to health-care workers, whereas strengthening coping ability and relieving the intensity of negative emotions experienced were the most effective strategies for non-health-care workers. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a common feature of isolated rapid-eye-movement sleep behavior disorder (iRBD). Here, we assessed cognitive functions and MCI in a prospective iRBD cohort and ...investigated their association with disease-specific brain metabolic patterns.
Forty-four patients with polysomnography-confirmed iRBD performed a standardized battery of neuropsychological examinations every two years. We used previously established spatial covariance patterns from de novo drug-naïve Parkinson's disease with concomitant RBD (denovoPDRBD-RP) and iRBD (iRBD-RP) using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET scan. We compared those expressions between iRBD with normal cognition (iRBD-NC) and with mild cognitive impairment (iRBD-MCI), and evaluated whether they predict progressive cognitive deterioration.
Twenty iRBD patients (45 %) had MCI at baseline and 12 patients (27 %, about 7 % per year) had clinically significant cognitive deterioration after 4 years. The iRBD-MCI and iRBD-NC groups showed similar rates of cognitive change, but iRBD-MCI consistently performed worse in the domains of verbal memory and executive function. Elevated denovoPDRBD-RP expression predicted cognitive deterioration (hazard ratio = 5.98 1.70–21.06), whereas iRBD-RP did not.
Increased disease-specific brain metabolic patterns are associated with iRBD-MCI and impending cognitive deterioration with the risk of progression to Lewy body dementia.
•The iRBD-MCI consistently shows verbal memory and executive dysfunctions.•The iRBD-MCI and iRBD-NC show similar rate of cognitive decline.•The denovoPDRBD-RP expression is significantly increased in iRBD-MCI group.•Elevated denovoPDRBD-RP expression predicts cognitive deterioration of iRBD.
Plants produce numerous secondary metabolites with diverse physicochemical properties. Because different parts of a single plant produce various components, several spectroscopic methods are ...necessary to inspect their chemical profiles. Mass spectral data are recognized as one of the most useful tools for analyzing components with a wide range of polarities. However, interpreting mass spectral data generated from positive and negative ionization modes is a challenging task because of the diverse chemical profiles of secondary metabolites. Herein, we combine and analyze mass spectral data generated in two ionization modes to detect as many metabolites as possible using the molecular networking approach. We selected different parts of a single plant, Morus alba (Moraceae), which are used in the functional food and medicinal herb industries. The mass spectral data generated from two ionization modes were combined and analyzed using various molecular networking workflows. We confirmed that our approach could be applied to simultaneously analyze the different types of secondary metabolites with different physicochemical properties.
Critical limb ischemia (CLI) is the most advanced stage of peripheral artery disease, associated with significant risk of limb loss, morbidity and mortality; however, there remains unmet therapeutic ...needs for arterial revascularization and ischemic tissue repair. Stem cell therapies have emerged as compelling candidates due to beneficial proangiogenic and immunosuppressive function. Nevertheless, in vivo efficacy was insufficient in proliferation, differentiation and survival/engraftment rate. Cardiac stem cells (CSCs) was firstly attempted for CLI as a novel therapeutic modality to provide superior angiogenic potency to bone marrow-derived stem cells (BMSCs). It was noted that CSCs demonstrated 3.2-fold in HGF, 2.9-fold in VEGF and 8.7-fold in PDGF-B higher gene expressions compared to BMSCs. To enhance the hypoxia-induced proangiogenic effect, CSCs were transfected with hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α) by using electroporation method, specifically optimized for CSCs yielding 45.77% of transfection efficiency and 89.75% of viability. HIF-1α overexpression significantly increased CSC survival in hypoxia, proangiogenic factors production and endothelial differentiation. In mouse hind limb ischemia model, local intramuscular delivery of CSC overexpressing HIF-1α (HIF-CSC) significantly improved the blood flow recovery. Histological analysis revealed that muscle degeneration and fibrosis in the ischemic limb were attenuated. Local delivery of HIF-CSC might be a promising option for ischemic tissue restoration.
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•Cardiac stem cells (CSC) show better proangiogenic potential than BMSCs.•HIF-1α gene is transfected into CSC by electroporation.•Overexpression of HIF-1α augments migration and endothelial differentiation of CSC.•The injection of HIF-CSC with fibrin gel improves blood perfusion in limb ischemia.
MeCC Kim, Heejung; Jung, Yungbum; Kim, Sunghun ...
2011 33rd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE),
05/2011
Conference Proceeding
In this paper, we propose a new semantic clone detection technique by comparing programs' abstract memory states, which are computed by a semantic-based static analyzer.
Our experimental study using ...three large-scale open source projects shows that our technique can detect semantic clones that existing syntactic- or semantic-based clone detectors miss. Our technique can help developers identify inconsistent clone changes, find refactoring candidates, and understand software evolution related to semantic clones.
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