Osteoarthritis of the Temporomandibular Joint can be diagnosed earlier using biomarkers and machine learning

After chronic low back pain, Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) disorders are the second most common musculoskeletal condition affecting 5 to 12% of the population, with an annual health cost estimated at $4 billion. Chronic disability in TMJ osteoarthritis (OA) increases with aging, and the main goal is to diagnosis before morphological degeneration occurs. Here, we address this challenge using advanced data science to capture, process and analyze 52 clinical, biological and high-resolution CBCT (radiomics) markers from TMJ OA patients and controls. We tested the diagnostic performance of four machine learning models: Logistic Regression, Random Forest, LightGBM, XGBoost. Headaches, Range of mouth opening without pain, Energy, Haralick Correlation, Entropy and interactions of TGF-β1 in Saliva and Headaches, VE-cadherin in Serum and Angiogenin in Saliva, VE-cadherin in Saliva and Headaches, PA1 in Saliva and Headaches, PA1 in Saliva and Range of mouth opening without pain; Gender and Muscle Soreness; Short Run Low Grey Level Emphasis and Headaches, Inverse Difference Moment and Trabecular Separation accurately diagnose early stages of this clinical condition. Our results show the XGBoost + LightGBM model with these features and interactions achieves the accuracy of 0.823, AUC 0.870, and F1-score 0.823 to diagnose the TMJ OA status. Thus, we expect to boost future studies into osteoarthritis patient-specific therapeutic interventions, and thereby improve the health of articular joints

Superhydrophobic Surface Based on a Coral-Like Hierarchical Structure of ZnO

Background: Fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces has attracted much interest in the past decade. The fabrication methods that have been studied are chemical vapour deposition, the sol-gel method, etching technique, electrochemical deposition, the layer-by-layer deposition, and so on. Simple and inexpensive methods for manufacturing environmentally stable superhydrophobic surfaces have also been proposed lately. However, work referring to the influence of special structures on the wettability, such as hierarchical ZnO nanostructures, is rare. Methodology: This study presents a simple and reproducible method to fabricate a superhydrophobic surface with microscale roughness based on zinc oxide (ZnO) hierarchical structure, which is grown by the hydrothermal method with an alkaline aqueous solution. Coral-like structures of ZnO were fabricated on a glass substrate with a micro-scale roughness, while the antennas of the coral formed the nano-scale roughness. The fresh ZnO films exhibited excellent superhydrophilicity (the apparent contact angle for water droplet was about 0u), while the ability to be wet could be changed to superhydrophobicity after spin-coating Teflon (the apparent contact angle greater than 168u). The procedure reported here can be applied to substrates consisting of other materials and having various shapes. Results: The new process is convenient and environmentally friendly compared to conventional methods. Furthermore, the hierarchical structure generates the extraordinary solid/gas/liquid three-phase contact interface, which is the essentia

Polarization of Prostate Cancer-associated Macrophages Is Induced by Milk Fat Globule-EGF Factor 8 (MFG-E8)-mediated Efferocytosis*

Tumor cells secrete factors that modulate macrophage activation and polarization into M2 type tumor-associated macrophages, which promote tumor growth, progression, and metastasis. The mechanisms that mediate this polarization are not clear. Macrophages are phagocytic cells that participate in the clearance of apoptotic cells, a process known as efferocytosis. Milk fat globule- EGF factor 8 (MFG-E8) is a bridge protein that facilitates efferocytosis and is associated with suppression of proinflammatory responses. This study investigated the hypothesis that MFG-E8-mediated efferocytosis promotes M2 polarization. Tissue and serum exosomes from prostate cancer patients presented higher levels of MFG-E8 compared with controls, a novel finding in human prostate cancer. Coculture of macrophages with apoptotic cancer cells increased efferocytosis, elevated MFG-E8 protein expression levels, and induced macrophage polarization into an alternatively activated M2 phenotype. Administration of antibody against MFG-E8 significantly attenuated the increase in M2 polarization. Inhibition of STAT3 phosphorylation using the inhibitor Stattic decreased efferocytosis and M2 macrophage polarization in vitro, with a correlating increase in SOCS3 protein expression. Moreover, MFG-E8 knockdown tumor cells cultured with wild-type or MFG-E8-deficient macrophages resulted in increased SOCS3 expression with decreased STAT3 activation. This suggests that SOCS3 and phospho-STAT3 act in an inversely dependent manner when stimulated by MFG-E8 and efferocytosis. These results uncover a unique role of efferocytosis via MFG-E8 as a mechanism for macrophage polarization into tumor-promoting M2 cells

Interim analysis of the COSA (COVID-19 patients treated with the Seraph® 100 Microbind® Affinity filter) registry

BACKGROUND: The Seraph(®)100 Microbind Affinity Blood Filter(®) is a hemoperfusion device that is licensed for the reduction of pathogens, including several viruses, in the blood. It received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the treatment of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by the FDA. Several studies have shown that the blood viral load of SARS-CoV-2 correlates with adverse outcomes and removal of the nucleocapsid of the SARS-CoV-2 virus by the Seraph(®)100 has been recently demonstrated. The aim of this registry was to evaluate safety and efficacy of Seraph(®)100 treatment for COVID-19 patients. METHODS: Twelve hospitals from six countries representing two continents documented patient and treatment characteristics as well as outcome parameters without reimbursement. Additionally, mortality and safety results of the device were reported. One hundred-and-two treatment sessions in 82 patients were documented in the registry. Four patients were excluded from mortality analysis due to incomplete outcome data, which were available in the other 78 patients. RESULTS: Overall, a 30-day mortality rate of 46.2% in the 78 patients with complete follow up was reported. Median treatment time was 5.00 [4.00–13.42] h. and 43.1% of the treatments were performed as hemoperfusion only. Adverse events of the Seraph(®)100 treatment were reported in 8.8% of the 102 treatments and represented premature end of treatment due to circuit failure. Patients that died were treated later in their ICU stay and onset of COVID symptoms. They also had higher ferritin levels. Multivariate Cox regression revealed that delayed Seraph(®)100 treatment after ICU admission (>60 hours) as well as bacterial superinfection were associated with mortality. While average predicted mortality rate according to SOFA score in ICU patients was 56.7% the observed mortality was 50.7%. In non-ICU patients 4C-Score average predicted a mortality rate of 38.0% while the observed mortality rate was 11.1% CONCLUSIONS: The treatment of COVID-19 patients with Seraph(®)100 is well tolerated and the circuit failure rate was lower than previously reported for KRT in COVID-19 patients. Mortality corelated with late initiation of Seraph treatment after ICU admission and bacterial superinfection infection. Compared to predicted mortality according to 4C-Score and SOFA Score, mortality of Seraph(®)100 treated patients reported in the registry was lower

Child toy safety: An interdisciplinary approach to unravel the microbiological hazard posed by soap bubbles

In 2012 some children developed sepsis after playing together with a soap bubble toy. Microbiological testing revealed heavy contamination of the soap solution, which reasonably represented the vehicle of infection. We investigated the issue with a multidisciplinary approach: review of toy safety legislation; microbiological testing of additional samples; query of the RAPEX database for noncompliant soap bubbles; identification of major manufacturing districts. Microbiological contamination of industrial soap bubbles was widespread. Sixty-three notifications of batches contaminated by environmental microorganisms and opportunistic pathogens had been reported. The Chinese had a virtual monopoly of the soap bubble market. We identified two main manufacturing districts in Guangdong Province, both notable for degradation of their water resources. The use of untreated water for the industrial production of soap bubbles may explain the bacterial contamination. Existing legislation provides an unsatisfactory approach for managing microbiological hazards in sensitive toy categories and for identifying responsible parties in import and export of the products