706 research outputs found
Arterialisation of the Portal Vein With an Aortoportal Jump Graft for Portal Vein Thrombosis Following Liver Resection for Malignancy
Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FHCC) is a
variant of hepatocellular carcinoma, which mainly affects
a young age group and carries a relatively good
prognosis. It is widely accepted that aggressive curative
resection is still the best option for FHCC. We
report here a case of successful arterialisation of the
portal vein with an aortoportal jump graft for portal
vein thrombosis, which developed postoperatively in
an already comprised portal vein with tumour invasion
following an extensive liver resection for FHCC
Pancreatic Mass with an Unusual Pathology: A Case Report
Intra-abdominal abscesses formation in patients
with no preceding symptoms is rare. Infection of the pancreas
occurs in 5ā9% of patients with acute pancreatitis, more commonly
as a complication of necrotising or severe pancreatitis. We have
reported a case of a 64-year-old almost entirely asymptomatic man
who underwent a Whipple's procedure following extensive
investigation of a pancreatic mass. The pathology and histology
showed no evidence of malignancy, and instead a true pancreatic
abscess, centred around an impacted cholesterol calculus in the
distal CBD. Of suspicious pancreatic masses that are resected,
chronic choledocholithiasis is the aetiology in less than 5% of nonmalignant or āfalse positives.ā This report describes such a
case
Delayed Presentation of Isolated Complete Pancreatic Transection as a Result of Sport-Related Blunt Trauma to the Abdomen
Introduction: Blunt abdominal trauma is a rare but well-recognized cause of pancreatic transection. A delayed presentation of pancreatic fracture following sport-related blunt trauma with the coexisting diagnostic pitfalls is presented. Case Report: A 17-year-old rugby player was referred to our specialist unit after having been diagnosed with traumatic pancreatic transection, having presented 24 h after a sporting injury. Despite haemodynamic stability, at laparotomy he was found to have a diffuse mesenteric hematoma involving the large and small bowel mesentery, extending down to the sigmoid colon from the splenic flexure, and a large retroperitoneal hematoma arising from the pancreas. The pancreas was completely severed with the superior border of the distal segment remaining attached to the splenic vein that was intact. A distal pancreatectomy with spleen preservation and evacuation of the retroperitoneal hematoma was performed. Discussion/Conclusion: Blunt pancreatic trauma is a serious condition. Diagnosis and treatment may often be delayed, which in turn may drastically increase morbidity and mortality. Diagnostic difficulties apply to both paraclinical and radiological diagnostic methods. A high index of suspicion should be maintained in such cases, with a multi-modality diagnostic approach and prompt surgical intervention as required
CK1Ī“ modulates the transcriptional activity of ERĪ± via AIB1 in an estrogen-dependent manner and regulates ERĪ±āAIB1 interactions
Oncogenesis in breast cancer often requires the overexpression of the nuclear receptor coactivator AIB1/SRC-3 acting in conjunction with estrogen receptor-Ī± (ERĪ±). Phosphorylation of both ERĪ± and AIB1 has been shown to have profound effects on their functions. In addition, proteasome-mediated degradation plays a major role by regulating their stability and activity. CK1Ī“, a member of the ubiquitous casein kinase-1 family, is implicated in the progression of breast cancer. In this study, we show that both ERĪ± and AIB1 are substrates for CK1Ī“ in vitro, and identify a novel AIB1 phosphorylation site (S601) targeted by CK1Ī“, significant for the co-activator function of AIB1. CK1Ī“ is able to interact with ERĪ± and AIB1 in vivo, while overexpression of CK1Ī“ in breast cancer cells results in an increased association of ERĪ± with AIB1 as confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation assays from cell lysates. Using an siRNA-based approach, luciferase reporter assays and qRT-PCR, we observe that silencing of CK1Ī“ leads to reduced ERĪ± transcriptional activity, despite increased ERĪ± levels, similarly to proteasome inhibition. We provide evidence that AIB1 protein levels are reduced by CK1Ī“ silencing, in an estradiol-dependent manner; such destabilization can be inhibited by pre-treatment with the proteasome inhibitor MG132. We propose that differing activities adopted by ERĪ± and AIB1 as a consequence of their interactions with and phosphorylation by CK1Ī“, particularly AIB1 stabilization, influence the transcriptional activity of ERĪ±, and therefore have a role in breast cancer development
Glypican-1 is enriched in circulating-exosomes in pancreatic cancer and correlates with tumor burden
Background
Glypican-1 (GPC1) is expressed in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells and adjacent stromal fibroblasts. Recently, GPC1 circulating exosomes (crExos) have been shown to be able to detect early stages of PDAC. In this study, we investigated the usefulness of crExos GPC1 as a biomarker for PDAC.
Methods
Plasma was obtained from patients with benign pancreatic disease ( = 16) and PDAC ( = 27) prior to pancreatectomy, and crExos were isolated by ultra-centrifugation. Protein was extracted from surgical specimens (adjacent normal pancreas, = 13; and PDAC, = 17). GPC1 levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
Results
There was no significant difference in GPC1 levels between normal pancreas and PDAC tissues. This was also true when comparing matched pairs. However, GPC1 levels were enriched in PDAC crExos ( = 11), compared to the source tumors ( = 11; 97 Ā± 54 vs. 20.9 Ā± 12.3 pg/mL; 4 cm; = 0.012).
Conclusions
High GPC1 crExos may be able to determine PDAC tumor size and disease burden. However, further efforts are needed to elucidate its role as a diagnostic and/or prognostic biomarker using larger cohorts of PDAC patients
On-chip integrated graphene aptasensor with portable readout for fast and label-free COVID-19 detection in virus transport medium
Graphene field-effect transistor (GFET) biosensors exhibit high sensitivity due to a large surface-to-volume ratio and the high sensitivity of the Fermi level to the presence of charged biomolecules near the surface. For most reported GFET biosensors, bulky external reference electrodes are used which prevent their full-scale chip integration and contribute to higher costs per test. In this study, GFET arrays with on-chip integrated liquid electrodes were employed for COVID-19 detection and functionalized with either antibody or aptamer to selectively bind the spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2. In the case of the aptamer-functionalized GFET (aptasensor, Apt-GFET), the limit-of-detection (LOD) achieved was about 103 particles per mL for virus-like particles (VLPs) in clinical transport medium, outperforming the Ab-GFET biosensor counterpart. In addition, the aptasensor achieved a LOD of 160 aM for COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies in serum. The sensors were found to be highly selective, fast (sample-to-result within minutes), and stable (low device-to-device signal variation; relative standard deviations below 0.5%). A home-built portable readout electronic unit was employed for simultaneous real-time measurements of 12 GFETs per chip. Our successful demonstration of a portable GFET biosensing platform has high potential for infectious disease detection and other health-care applications
An electric molecular motor
The computational investigations at California Institute of Technology were supported by National Science Foundation grant no. CBET-2005250 (W.-G.L. and W.A.G.).Macroscopic electric motors continue to have a large impact on almost every aspect of modern society. Consequently, the effort towards developing molecular motors that can be driven by electricity could not be more timely. Here we describe an electric molecular motor based on a [3]catenane , in which two cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene) (CBPQT4+) rings are powered by electricity in solution to circumrotate unidirectionally around a 50-membered loop. The constitution of the loop ensures that both rings undergo highly (85%) unidirectional movement under the guidance of a flashing energy ratchet , whereas the interactions between the two rings give rise to a two-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) similar to that shown by F0F1ATP synthase . The unidirectionality is powered by an oscillating voltage or external modulation of the redox potential . Initially, we focused our attention on the homologous [2]catenane, only to find that the kinetic asymmetry was insufficient to support unidirectional movement of the sole ring. Accordingly, we incorporated a second CBPQT4+ ring to provide further symmetry breaking by interactions between the two mobile rings. This demonstration of electrically driven continual circumrotatory motion of two rings around a loop in a [3]catenane is free from the production of waste products and represents an important step towards surface-bound electric molecular motors.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Search for the decay
We search for radiative decays into a weakly interacting neutral
particle, namely an invisible particle, using the produced through the
process in a data sample of
decays collected by the BESIII detector
at BEPCII. No significant signal is observed. Using a modified frequentist
method, upper limits on the branching fractions are set under different
assumptions of invisible particle masses up to 1.2 . The upper limit corresponding to an invisible particle with zero mass
is 7.0 at the 90\% confidence level
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