Bonded Cumomer Analysis of Human Melanoma Metabolism Monitored by 13C NMR Spectroscopy of Perfused Tumor Cells.

A network model for the determination of tumor metabolic fluxes from (13)C NMR kinetic isotopomer data has been developed and validated with perfused human DB-1 melanoma cells carrying the BRAF V600E mutation, which promotes oxidative metabolism. The model generated in the bonded cumomer formalism describes key pathways of tumor intermediary metabolism and yields dynamic curves for positional isotopic enrichment and spin-spin multiplets. Cells attached to microcarrier beads were perfused with 26 mm [1,6-(13)C2]glucose under normoxic conditions at 37 °C and monitored by (13)C NMR spectroscopy. Excellent agreement between model-predicted and experimentally measured values of the rates of oxygen and glucose consumption, lactate production, and glutamate pool size validated the model. ATP production by glycolytic and oxidative metabolism were compared under hyperglycemic normoxic conditions; 51% of the energy came from oxidative phosphorylation and 49% came from glycolysis. Even though the rate of glutamine uptake was ∼50% of the tricarboxylic acid cycle flux, the rate of ATP production from glutamine was essentially zero (no glutaminolysis). De novo fatty acid production was ∼6% of the tricarboxylic acid cycle flux. The oxidative pentose phosphate pathway flux was 3.6% of glycolysis, and three non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway exchange fluxes were calculated. Mass spectrometry was then used to compare fluxes through various pathways under hyperglycemic (26 mm) and euglycemic (5 mm) conditions. Under euglycemic conditions glutamine uptake doubled, but ATP production from glutamine did not significantly change. A new parameter measuring the Warburg effect (the ratio of lactate production flux to pyruvate influx through the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier) was calculated to be 21, close to upper limit of oxidative metabolism

Interpreting outcome following foot surgery in people with rheumatoid arthritis

BACKGROUND: Foot surgery is common in RA but the current lack of understanding of how patients interpret outcomes inhibits evaluation of procedures in clinical and research settings. This study aimed to explore which factors are important to people with RA when they evaluate the outcome of foot and ankle surgery. METHODS AND RESULTS: Semi structured interviews with 11 RA participants who had mixed experiences of foot surgery were conducted and analysed using thematic analysis. Responses showed that while participants interpreted surgical outcome in respect to a multitude of factors, five major themes emerged: functional ability, participation, appearance of feet and footwear, surgeons' opinion, and pain. Participants interpreted levels of physical function in light of other aspects of their disease, reflecting on relative change from their preoperative state more than absolute levels of ability. Appearance was important to almost all participants: physical appearance, foot shape, and footwear were closely interlinked, yet participants saw these as distinct concepts and frequently entered into a defensive repertoire, feeling the need to justify that their perception of outcome was not about cosmesis. Surgeons' post-operative evaluation of the procedure was highly influential and made a lasting impression, irrespective of how the outcome compared to the participants' initial goals. Whilst pain was important to almost all participants, it had the greatest impact upon them when it interfered with their ability to undertake valued activities. CONCLUSIONS: People with RA interpret the outcome of foot surgery using multiple interrelated factors, particularly functional ability, appearance and surgeons' appraisal of the procedure. While pain was often noted, this appeared less important than anticipated. These factors can help clinicians in discussing surgical options in patients

Convergent genetic and expression data implicate immunity in Alzheimer's disease

Background Late–onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) is heritable with 20 genes showing genome wide association in the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project (IGAP). To identify the biology underlying the disease we extended these genetic data in a pathway analysis. Methods The ALIGATOR and GSEA algorithms were used in the IGAP data to identify associated functional pathways and correlated gene expression networks in human brain. Results ALIGATOR identified an excess of curated biological pathways showing enrichment of association. Enriched areas of biology included the immune response (p = 3.27×10-12 after multiple testing correction for pathways), regulation of endocytosis (p = 1.31×10-11), cholesterol transport (p = 2.96 × 10-9) and proteasome-ubiquitin activity (p = 1.34×10-6). Correlated gene expression analysis identified four significant network modules, all related to the immune response (corrected p 0.002 – 0.05). Conclusions The immune response, regulation of endocytosis, cholesterol transport and protein ubiquitination represent prime targets for AD therapeutics

Study of the B−→Λc+Λˉc−K−B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-} decay

The decay $B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-}$ is studied in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment. In the $\Lambda_{c}^+ K^{-}$ system, the $\Xi_{c}(2930)^{0}$ state observed at the BaBar and Belle experiments is resolved into two narrower states, $\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}$ and $\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}$, whose masses and widths are measured to be $$m(\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}) = 2924.5 \pm 0.4 \pm 1.1 \,\mathrm{MeV}, \\ m(\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}) = 2938.5 \pm 0.9 \pm 2.3 \,\mathrm{MeV}, \\ \Gamma(\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}) = \phantom{000}4.8 \pm 0.9 \pm 1.5 \,\mathrm{MeV},\\ \Gamma(\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}) = \phantom{00}11.0 \pm 1.9 \pm 7.5 \,\mathrm{MeV},$$ where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The results are consistent with a previous LHCb measurement using a prompt $\Lambda_{c}^{+} K^{-}$ sample. Evidence of a new $\Xi_{c}(2880)^{0}$ state is found with a local significance of $3.8\,\sigma$, whose mass and width are measured to be $2881.8 \pm 3.1 \pm 8.5\,\mathrm{MeV}$ and $12.4 \pm 5.3 \pm 5.8 \,\mathrm{MeV}$, respectively. In addition, evidence of a new decay mode $\Xi_{c}(2790)^{0} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} K^{-}$ is found with a significance of $3.7\,\sigma$. The relative branching fraction of $B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-}$ with respect to the $B^{-} \to D^{+} D^{-} K^{-}$ decay is measured to be $2.36 \pm 0.11 \pm 0.22 \pm 0.25$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third originates from the branching fractions of charm hadron decays.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-028.html (LHCb public pages

Measurement of the ratios of branching fractions R(D∗)\mathcal{R}(D^{*}) and R(D0)\mathcal{R}(D^{0})

The ratios of branching fractions $\mathcal{R}(D^{*})\equiv\mathcal{B}(\bar{B}\to D^{*}\tau^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\tau})/\mathcal{B}(\bar{B}\to D^{*}\mu^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\mu})$ and $\mathcal{R}(D^{0})\equiv\mathcal{B}(B^{-}\to D^{0}\tau^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\tau})/\mathcal{B}(B^{-}\to D^{0}\mu^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\mu})$ are measured, assuming isospin symmetry, using a sample of proton-proton collision data corresponding to 3.0 fb${ }^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity recorded by the LHCb experiment during 2011 and 2012. The tau lepton is identified in the decay mode $\tau^{-}\to\mu^{-}\nu_{\tau}\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$. The measured values are $\mathcal{R}(D^{*})=0.281\pm0.018\pm0.024$ and $\mathcal{R}(D^{0})=0.441\pm0.060\pm0.066$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The correlation between these measurements is $\rho=-0.43$. Results are consistent with the current average of these quantities and are at a combined 1.9 standard deviations from the predictions based on lepton flavor universality in the Standard Model.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-039.html (LHCb public pages

A novel Alzheimer disease locus located near the gene encoding tau protein

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this recordAPOE ε4, the most significant genetic risk factor for Alzheimer disease (AD), may mask effects of other loci. We re-analyzed genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project (IGAP) Consortium in APOE ε4+ (10 352 cases and 9207 controls) and APOE ε4- (7184 cases and 26 968 controls) subgroups as well as in the total sample testing for interaction between a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and APOE ε4 status. Suggestive associations (P<1 × 10-4) in stage 1 were evaluated in an independent sample (stage 2) containing 4203 subjects (APOE ε4+: 1250 cases and 536 controls; APOE ε4-: 718 cases and 1699 controls). Among APOE ε4- subjects, novel genome-wide significant (GWS) association was observed with 17 SNPs (all between KANSL1 and LRRC37A on chromosome 17 near MAPT) in a meta-analysis of the stage 1 and stage 2 data sets (best SNP, rs2732703, P=5·8 × 10-9). Conditional analysis revealed that rs2732703 accounted for association signals in the entire 100-kilobase region that includes MAPT. Except for previously identified AD loci showing stronger association in APOE ε4+ subjects (CR1 and CLU) or APOE ε4- subjects (MS4A6A/MS4A4A/MS4A6E), no other SNPs were significantly associated with AD in a specific APOE genotype subgroup. In addition, the finding in the stage 1 sample that AD risk is significantly influenced by the interaction of APOE with rs1595014 in TMEM106B (P=1·6 × 10-7) is noteworthy, because TMEM106B variants have previously been associated with risk of frontotemporal dementia. Expression quantitative trait locus analysis revealed that rs113986870, one of the GWS SNPs near rs2732703, is significantly associated with four KANSL1 probes that target transcription of the first translated exon and an untranslated exon in hippocampus (P≤1.3 × 10-8), frontal cortex (P≤1.3 × 10-9) and temporal cortex (P≤1.2 × 10-11). Rs113986870 is also strongly associated with a MAPT probe that targets transcription of alternatively spliced exon 3 in frontal cortex (P=9.2 × 10-6) and temporal cortex (P=2.6 × 10-6). Our APOE-stratified GWAS is the first to show GWS association for AD with SNPs in the chromosome 17q21.31 region. Replication of this finding in independent samples is needed to verify that SNPs in this region have significantly stronger effects on AD risk in persons lacking APOE ε4 compared with persons carrying this allele, and if this is found to hold, further examination of this region and studies aimed at deciphering the mechanism(s) are warranted

Family Portrait: The Experience of Space and Place Through Painting

My body of work includes five series of paintings: Family Portrait, Unpacked, Corners, Fractured Spaces, and Day to Day. Throughout the creation of this body of work, I have explored and implemented various techniques to create paintings that suggest an intuitive sense of time and place. These paintings aim to convey the experience of domestic space from multiple points of view, depicting imagery that reflects the dependability of the mundane and the daily experiences of cohabitation. My thinking and methods are informed by the writings of Sam Harris, J. Macgregor Wise, Rosalind Krauss, and Jordan Wolfson, as well as the paintings of Richard Diebenkorn, Henri Matisse, Paul Cezanne, and David Hockney. My work is a meditation on how small moments in our lives reveal that which is essential and meaningful

A 'DIFFERENTIAL' DIFFERENTIAL DEMAND SYSTEM

Traditionally, estimation of demand systems is predicated on the validity of several axioms of consumer behavior. While such abstractions make empirical work easier, they can also overlook important economic behavior. Because the price of a good does not reflect the total cost of purchase, there is reason to believe that consumer responses to changes in price are not continuous. Utilizing a regime switching model, we show that there are indeed important threshold effects, and that these effects bias elasticity estimates toward zero