Eye and Periocular Skin Involvement in Herpes Zoster Infection

Herpes zoster ophthalmicus (HZO) is a clinical manifestation of the reactivation of latent varicella zoster virus (VZV) infection and is more common in people with diminished cell-mediated immunity. Lesions and pain correspond to the affected dermatomes, mostly in first or second trigeminal branch and progress from maculae, papules to vesicles and form pustules, and crusts. Complications are cutaneous, visceral, neurological, ocular, but the most debilitating is post-herpetic neuralgia. Herpes zoster ophthalmicus may affect all the ophthalmic structures, but most severe eye-threatening complications are panuveitis, acute retinal necrosis (ARN) and progressive outer retinal necrosis (PORN) as well. Antiviral medications remain the primary therapy, mainly useful in preventing ocular involvement when begun within 72 hours after the onset of the rash. Timely diagnosis and management of HZO are critical in limiting visual morbidity. Vaccine in adults over 60 was found to be highly effective to boost waning immunity what reduces both the burden of herpes zoster (HZ) disease and the incidence of post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN)

Simulations of the Penetration of 6061-T6511 Aluminum Targets by Spherical-Nosed VAR 4340 Steel Projectiles

In certain penetration events it is proposed that the primary mode of deformation of the target can be approximated by known analytical expressions. In the context of an analysis code, this approximation eliminates the need for discretizing the target as well as the need for a contact algorithm. Thus, this method substantially reduces the computer time and memory requirements. In this paper a forcing function which is derived from a spherical-cavity expansion (SCE) analysis has been implemented in a transient dynamic finite element code. This irnplementation is capable of computing the structural and component responses of a projectile due to a three dimensional penetration event. Simulations are presented for 7.1 l-mm-diameter, 74.7-mm-long, spherical-nose, vacuum- arc-remelted (VAR) 4340 steel projectiles that penetrate 6061-T6511 aluminum targets. Final projectile configurations obtained from the simulations are compared with post-test radiographs obtained from the corresponding experiments. It is shown that the simulations accurately predict the permanent projectile deformation for three dimensional loadings due to incident pitch and yaw over a wide range of striking velocities

Spherical cavity-expansion forcing function in PRONTO 3D for application to penetration problems

In certain penetration events the primary mode of deformation of the target can be approximated by known analytical expressions. In the context of an analysis code, this approximation eliminates the need for modeling the target as well as the need for a contact algorithm. This technique substantially reduces execution time. In this spirit, a forcing function which is derived from a spherical-cavity expansion analysis has been implemented in PRONTO 3D. This implementation is capable of computing the structural and component responses of a projectile due to three dimensional penetration events. Sample problems demonstrate good agreement with experimental and analytical results

Eye and Periocular Skin Involvement in Herpes Zoster Infection

Herpes zoster ophthalmicus (HZO) is a clinical manifestation of the reactivation of latent varicella zoster virus (VZV) infection and is more common in people with diminished cell-mediated immunity. Lesions and pain correspond to the affected dermatomes, mostly in first or second trigeminal branch and progress from maculae, papules to vesicles and form pustules, and crusts. Complications are cutaneous, visceral, neurological, ocular, but the most debilitating is post-herpetic neuralgia. Herpes zoster ophthalmicus may affect all the ophthalmic structures, but most severe eye-threatening complications are panuveitis, acute retinal necrosis (ARN) and progressive outer retinal necrosis (PORN) as well. Antiviral medications remain the primary therapy, mainly useful in preventing ocular involvement when begun within 72 hours after the onset of the rash. Timely diagnosis and management of HZO are critical in limiting visual morbidity. Vaccine in adults over 60 was found to be highly effective to boost waning immunity what reduces both the burden of herpes zoster (HZ) disease and the incidence of post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN)

miR-638 mediated regulation of BRCA1 affects DNA repair and sensitivity to UV and cisplatin in triple negative breast cancer

Introduction Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents 15 to 20% of all types of breast cancer; however, it accounts for a large number of metastatic cases and deaths, and there is still no effective treatment. The deregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) in breast cancer has been widely reported. We previously identified that miR-638 was one of the most deregulated miRNAs in breast cancer progression. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that miR-638 directly targets BRCA1. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of miR-638 in breast cancer prognosis and treatment. Methods Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) breast cancer samples were microdissected into normal epithelial and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) cells, and total RNA was isolated. Several breast cancer cell lines were used for the functional analysis. miR-638 target genes were identified by TARGETSCAN-VERT 6.2 and miRanda. The expression of miR-638 and its target genes was analyzed by real-time qRT-PCR and Western blotting. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was employed to confirm the specificity of miR-638 target genes. The biological function of miR-638 was analyzed by MTT chemosensitivity, matrigel invasion and host cell reactivation assays. Results The expression of miR-638 was decreased in IDC tissue samples compared to their adjacent normal controls. The decreased miR-638 expression was more prevalent in non-TNBC compared with TNBC cases. miR-638 expression was significantly downregulated in breast cancer cell lines compared to the immortalized MCF-10A epithelial cells. BRCA1 was predicted as one of the direct targets of miR-638, which was subsequently confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Forced expression of miR-638 resulted in a significantly reduced proliferation rate as well as decreased invasive ability in TNBC cells. Furthermore, miR-638 overexpression increased sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents, ultraviolet (UV) and cisplatin, but not to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and epirubicin exposure in TNBC cells. Host cell reactivation assays showed that miR-638 reduced DNA repair capability in post UV/cisplatin-exposed TNBC cells. The reduced proliferation, invasive ability, and DNA repair capabilities are associated with downregulated BRCA1 expression. Conclusions Our findings suggest that miR-638 plays an important role in TNBC progression via BRCA1deregulation. Therefore, miR-638 might serve as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for breast cancer

NIR induced modulation of the red emission from erbium ions for selective lanthanide imaging

Upon direct excitation with green light (522 nm), Er3+ ion doped nanoparticles feature a number of radiative and non-radiative decay pathways, leading to distinct and sharp emission lines in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) range. Here we apply, in addition to continuous 522 nm irradiation, a modulated NIR irradiation (1143 nm) to actively control and modulate the red emission intensity (around 650 nm). The modulation of red Er3+ ion emission at a chosen frequency allows us to reconstruct fluorescence images from the Fourier transform amplitude at this particular frequency. Since only the emission from the Er3+ ion is modulated, it allows to selectively recover the lanthanide specific signal, removing any non-modulated auto-fluorescence or background emission resulting from the continuous 522 nm excitation. The modulated emission of specific lanthanides can open up new detection opportunities for selective signal recovery

miR-671-5p inhibits epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition by downregulating FOXM1 expression in breast cancer.

MicroRNA (miRNA) dysfunction is associated with a variety of human diseases, including cancer. Our previous study showed that miR-671-5p was deregulated throughout breast cancer progression. Here, we report for the first time that miR-671-5p is a tumor-suppressor miRNA in breast tumorigenesis. We found that expression of miR-671-5p was decreased significantly in invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) compared to normal in microdissected formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues. Forkhead Box M1 (FOXM1), an oncogenic transcription factor, was predicted as one of the direct targets of miR-671-5p, which was subsequently confirmed by luciferase assays. Forced expression of miR-671-5p in breast cancer cell lines downregulated FOXM1 expression, and attenuated the proliferation and invasion in breast cancer cell lines. Notably, overexpression of miR-671-5p resulted in a shift from epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) phenotypes in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells and induced S-phase arrest. Moreover, miR-671-5p sensitized breast cancer cells to cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and epirubicin exposure. Host cell reactivation (HCR) assays showed that miR-671-5p reduces DNA repair capability in post-drug exposed breast cancer cells. cDNA microarray data revealed that differentially expressed genes when miR-671-5p was transfected are associated with cell proliferation, invasion, cell cycle, and EMT. These data indicate that miR-671-5p functions as a tumor suppressor miRNA in breast cancer by directly targeting FOXM1. Hence, miR-671-5p may serve as a novel therapeutic target for breast cancer management

Salvage of Hemodialysis Catheter in Staphylococcal Bacteremia: Case Series, Revisiting the Literature, and the Role of the Pharmacist

Catheter-related blood stream infections comprise a major concern in hemodialysis patients, leading to increased mortality, morbidity, and cost of treatment. Prompt appropriate systemic antibiotics treatment, which includes administration of appropriate systemic antibiotics and, frequently, catheter removal and replacement, is warranted. However, in hemodialysis patients, repeated catheter insertions may cause central vein stenosis and thrombosis which limits the future availability of hemodialysis access. Lock solutions containing antibiotics and anticoagulants, instilled directly into the catheter lumen after each dialysis, have been successfully utilized for catheter salvage but higher rates of recurrence and complications were observed in infections resulting from staphylococcal species. We report several cases of catheter salvage using antibiotic lock solution in staphylococcal bacteremia with the purpose of stimulating the interest in randomized clinical trials. Evaluating the risk and benefits of catheter salvage in this patient subset in light of optimized systemic antibiotic dosing, improved lock solution use, and multidisciplinary involvement, balanced with the critical need to prevent unnecessary vascular trauma, is of great importance

Pediatric kidney transplants with multiple renal arteries show no increased risk of complications compared to single renal artery grafts

BackgroundKidney allografts with multiple renal arteries (MRA) are not infrequent and have been historically associated with a higher risk of developing vascular and urologic complications. Reports of kidney transplantation using MRA allografts in the pediatric population remain scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate if transplantation of allografts with MRA with a surgical intent of creating a single arterial inflow using vascular reconstruction techniques when required, and without the routine use of surgical drains or ureteral stents, is associated with an increased risk of complications when compared to single renal artery (SRA) grafts.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed all pediatric renal transplant recipients performed by a single surgeon at our center between January 2015 and June 2022. Donor and recipient demographics, intraoperative data, and recipient outcomes were included. Recipients were divided into two groups based on SRA vs. MRA. Baseline variables were described using frequency distributions for categorical variables and means and standard errors for continuous variables. Comparisons of those distributions between the two groups were performed using standard chi-squared and t-tests. Time-to-event distributions were compared using the log-rank test.ResultsForty-nine pediatric transplant recipients were analyzed. Of these, 9 had donors with MRA (Group 1) and 40 had donors with SRA (Group 2). Native kidney and liver mobilization was performed in 44.4% (4/9) of Group 1 vs. 60.0% (24/40) of Group 2 cases (p = 0.39). There were no cases of delayed graft function or graft primary nonfunction. No surgical drainage or ureteral stents were used in any of the cases. One patient in Group 2 developed a distal ureter stricture. The geometric mean serum creatinine at 6- and 12-months posttransplant was 0.7 */ 1.2 and 0.9 */ 1.2 mg/dl in Group 1 and 0.7 */ 1.1 and 0.7 */ 1.1 mg/dl in Group 2. Two death-censored graft failures were observed in Group 2, with no significant difference observed between the two groups (p = 0.48).ConclusionsOur study demonstrates that pediatric renal transplantation with MRA grafts, using a surgical approach to achieve a single renal artery ostium, can be safely performed while achieving similar outcomes as SRA grafts and with a low complication rate