- The purpose of the study was to assess the level of serum malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration and its association with the stage and histopathologic sizes of colorectal cancer (CRC). One hundred and two patients having undergone surgical treatment of CRC between January 2014 and December 2015 were included in this cross-sectional study. The patients were divided into four groups (stage I-IV) according to the TNM classification. Control group included 30 subjects with no signs of malignancy and inflammatory diseases. In each patient, preoperative blood samples were obtained for determination of MDA concentration by ELISA immunoassay. Serum levels of MDA were progressively increased in patients with CRC, reaching the highest value in the fourth stage of CRC. Serum concentrations of MDA were significantly higher in pT4 group as compared with pT3 and pT2 groups of CRC patients (p<0.01). Significantly higher levels of MDA were found in the N1 and N2 groups of CRC patients as compared with N0 group, as well as in patients with metastatic disease as compared with those without metastasis (p<0.001). In conclusion, the progression of CRC is associated with a significant increase in serum MDA levels.

- According to present findings, the impact of particular arterial pressure components on the occurrence of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) differs. We sought to determine which individual component of arterial pressure has the greatest impact on the LVH geometric pattern/degree. The study included 192 patients (87 men), aged 43-80 (median 68) years with hypertension and LVH. Patients were classified into three groups according to type of hypertrophy (concentric, eccentric and asymmetric) and into three subgroups according to the degree of hypertrophy (mild, moderate and severe). All patients had their blood pressure measured, and they underwent electrocardiography and echocardiography. Antihypertensive drugs and the duration of previous treatments were taken into consideration. Pulse pressure was significantly higher in patients with concentric LVH than in those with eccentric and asymmetric LVH (p=0.029), the values of which did not differ statistically. It rose with LVH degree (not significantly, p=0.217). There were no significant differences in systolic pressure among study groups (p=0.177). We concluded that pulse pressure had the greatest impact on the left ventricular geometry, particularly of the concentric type.

- Paralumbar muscle performance and fatigue were evaluated by measuring electromagnetic activity during entire body vibration (EBV) in 44 healthy subjects. Physical fitness of subjects was estimated on a 5-degree scale. Electric activity was recorded in 200 seconds with 1 kHz sampling on the Biopac Student Lab during EBV. Data were used to produce time series for two vectors of the phase space and spatial axis: X (left-right), Y (up-down) and Z (ventral-dorsal). Time series were evaluated by calculating fractal dimension by the R/S algorithm. Movement of the electric field along the Y-axis showed changes (up-down) extracted in the first and second quarter of the measurement (p=0.02 and p=0.03, respectively). These changes were not specific for gender but showed dependence on subject age and fitness. The fractal dimension values by the R/S algorithm were larger in female subjects. Results suggested the electric field changes during EBV in the up-down direction to contain information on muscular performance and fatigue, not dependent on gender, but on the age and degree of overall physical fitness.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent malignancy occurring in women worldwide. Emerging evidence indicates that small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) play a role in tumor development. In the current study, we evaluated expression profiles and functions of snoRNAs associated with BC.

The rumen microbiota is one of the most complex consortia of anaerobes, involving archaea, bacteria, protozoa, fungi and phages. They are very effective at utilizing plant polysaccharides, especially cellulose and hemicelluloses. The most important hemicellulose decomposers are clustered with the genus Butyrivibrio. As the related species differ in their range of hydrolytic activities and substrate preferences, Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens was selected as one of the most effective isolates and thus suitable for proteomic studies on substrate comparisons in the extracellular fraction. The B. fibrisolvens genome is the biggest in the butyrivibria cluster and is focused on "environmental information processing" and "carbohydrate metabolism".

Accumulating evidence has shown that altered microRNA (miR) modulation is implicated in the pathologies of ischemic stroke. However, it is unclear whether and how hsa-miR-19a-3p mediates cerebral ischemic injury. Herein, we investigated the functional role of miR-19a-3p in cerebral ischemic injury and explored its underlying regulatory mechanism.

Prolonged over-consumption of a high-fat diet (HFD) commonly leads to obesity and insulin resistance. However, even 3 days of HFD consumption has been linked to inflammation within the key homeostatic brain region, the hypothalamus.

Brucellosis is a common infectious disease among animals and humans. While subunit vaccines could be used as an efficient strategy against pathogens, they usually seem to be less immunogenic than live or killed vaccines. However, the use of a suitable adjuvant accompanied by subunit vaccines can be a good alternative to enhance the immune response.

Various microRNAs (miRNAs) are expressed during development of mammalian cells, when they aid in modulating gene expression by mediating mRNA transcript cleavage and/or regulation of translation rate. miR-191 and miR-451 have been shown to be critical regulators of hematopoiesis and have important roles in the induction of erythroid fate decision. So, the aim of this study is investigation of the miR-191 and miR-451 roles in the controlling mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) differentiation toward the erythroid lineage.

The prevention of cardiovascular diseases is a matter of great concern, of which acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains one of the leading causes of death resulting in high morbidity worldwide. Emerging evidence highlights the importance of microRNAs (miRNAs) as functional regulators in cardiovascular disease. In this study, an AMI rat model was established in order to investigate the effect of miR-18a on cardiomyocyte autophagy and senescence in AMI and the underlying mechanism.

We aimed to assess for sex differences in invasive parameters of acute microvascular reperfusion injury and infarct characteristics on cardiac MRI after ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

The European Society of Cardiology has suggested an accelerated algorithm for ruling-in and ruling-out myocardial infarction (MI) with high-sensitive cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) measured at admission (0 hour) and after 1 hour (1 hour) as an alternative to standard measurements at 0 hour and 3 hours. However, the 0 hour/1 hour algorithm has only been tested in a limited amount of patient cohorts and not for all hs-cTn assays. Moreover, it is unknown if MI can be ruled-out faster than 1 hour. In this single-centre, clinical trial, we will investigate whether MI safely can be ruled-in or ruled-out after 30 min and 1 hour.

We analyze Illinois families facing multiple barriers and their interactions with public-sector services. Using administrative data from five state agencies to identify families' receipt of child welfare, mental health, and substance abuse services as well as adult and juvenile incarcerations, we identify individuals across systems using probabilistic record-linkage techniques, defining family clusters based on networks of individuals who share child welfare and food stamp cases. We show that 23 percent receive services in two or more of these areas. This concentration accounts for 86 percent of the funding for these services used by the entire sample. They experience more and more severe problems. This population is otherwise heterogeneous, engaging with different types of services and clustered in certain parts of the state.

Electrical source imaging (ESI) is used increasingly to estimate the epileptogenic zone (EZ) in patients with epilepsy. Directed functional connectivity (DFC) coupled to ESI helps to better characterize epileptic networks, but studies on interictal activity have relied on high-density recordings. We investigated the accuracy of ESI and DFC for localizing the EZ, based on low-density clinical electroencephalography (EEG).

The majority of the screening questionnaires for epilepsy have been validated in hospital settings. We previously developed and used for field validation a screening tool to detect generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) in the rural communities of the Chaco region of Bolivia. The objective of the present study was to perform a hospital-based validation of the same questionnaire and to compare the levels of accuracy obtained when validated in the field or in a hospital-based context. We carried out a hospital-based validation in the Hospital Hernandez Vera of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where we enrolled patients affected by epilepsy with GTCS and controls. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) were calculated. One hundred twenty questionnaires were administered to 59 patients (27 men [45.8%]; mean age ± SD = 32.4 ± 14.2 years) and 61 controls (27 men [44.3%]; mean age ± SD = 32.6 ± 14.3 years). We obtained levels of accuracy of 100%. Sensitivity and PPV were significantly higher than the estimates obtained in the field-validation study (sensitivity 100% vs 76.3%; PPV 100% vs 69.0%). Our screening questionnaire showed a significantly lower level of sensitivity when validated in the field, confirming that hospital-based validation can lead to an overestimation of sensitivity.

Global implementation of a birth-dose hepatitis B (HB) vaccine has significantly reduced the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers. Durable and sufficient titers of antibodies to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) are desirable for vaccinees to gain resistance to HBV exposure. However, the existence of primary nonresponders and vaccinees who lost anti-HBs over time remains a challenge for the strategy of HBV elimination. We thus aim to clarify the mechanisms of acquisition and maintenance of vaccine-induced anti-HBs in healthy adults. We retrospectively analyzed the vaccination records of 3,755 first-time HB-vaccinated students and also traced the acquired antibody transition of 392 first-time vaccinees for 10 consecutive years. To understand the cellular and humoral immune response, we prospectively examined peripheral blood from 47 healthy first-time HB-vaccinated students, 62 booster-vaccinated health care workers, and 20 individuals who maintained their anti-HBs. In responders, a significant increase of follicular helper T (Tfh) cells, activated plasmablasts, and plasma cells was observed in first-time-vaccinated but not booster-vaccinated persons. We also discovered memory B cells and antibody-secreting cells were more abundant in individuals who maintained anti-HBs. According to vaccination records, higher anti-HBs antibody titer acquisition was related to the longer term maintenance of anti-HBs, the level of which was positively correlated with prevaccination levels of serum interferon-γ and related chemokines. The second series of vaccination as a booster provided significantly higher anti-HBs antibody titers compared to the initial series. Conclusion: Coordinated activation of Tfh and B-cell lineages after HB vaccination is involved in the acquisition and maintenance of anti-HBs. Our findings support the rationale of preconditioning the immune status of recipients to ensure durable vaccine responses.

Liver-type fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP) is a key regulator of fatty acid metabolism, but serum L-FABP levels are not well investigated in chronic liver diseases. We aimed to elucidate the prognostic ability of serum L-FABP in human chronic liver diseases and compare it with the albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) score. In 242 chronic liver disease patients, including chronic hepatitis (CH, n = 100), liver cirrhosis (LC, n = 142), and presence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, n = 144), serum L-FABP levels were correlated with liver function (P < 0.0001), increased in LC compared with CH (P < 0.01), and correlated to ALBI score (P < 0.0001). Serum L-FABP levels were increased in the presence of HCC (P < 0.0001), correlating to des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (P < 0.0001), alpha-fetoprotein (P = 0.009), and Barcelona-Clinic Liver Cancer stage. In the average follow-up period of 1,054 days, serum L-FABP levels were elevated (P < 0.0001) in patients who eventually died. The area under the curve (AUC) of serum L-FABP (0.764) was higher than that of ALB (0.709), and the patients with serum L-FABP ≤ 6.8 ng/mL had significantly longer rates of survival (P < 0.0001). Serum L-FABP (hazard ratio [HR] 4.0; P < 0.001), HCC (HR 3.7; P = 0.001), ALBI score (HR 2.7; P < 0.001), and age (HR 1.0; P = 0.049) were independent predictors of survival. In the subgroup who maintained liver function, the AUC of serum L-FABP (0.751) was higher than that of ALB (0.643). In this subgroup, serum L-FABP (HR 4.4; P = 0.002) and HCC (HR 13.9; P < 0.001) were independent predictors of survival. Conclusion: Serum L-FABP is a possible predictor of survival in chronic liver diseases from CH to LC and HCC, including any subgroup that maintains liver function.

Ethanol exerts a strong positive effect on the cellulose yields from the widely exploited microbial producers of the Komagataeibacter genus. Ethanol is postulated to provide an alternative energy source, enabling effective use of glucose for cellulose biosynthesis rather than for energy acquisition. In this paper, we investigate the effect of ethanol supplementation on the global gene expression profile of Komagataeibacter xylinus E25 using RNA sequencing technology (RNA-seq). We demonstrate that when ethanol is present in the culture medium, glucose metabolism is directed towards cellulose production due to the induction of genes related to UDP-glucose formation and the repression of genes involved in glycolysis and acetan biosynthesis. Transcriptional changes in the pathways of cellulose biosynthesis and c-di-GMP metabolism are also described. The transcript level profiles suggest that Schramm-Hestrin medium supplemented with ethanol promotes bacterial growth by inducing protein biosynthesis and iron uptake. We observed downregulation of genes encoding transposases of the IS110 family which may provide one line of evidence explaining the positive effect of ethanol supplementation on the genotypic stability of K. xylinus E25. The results of this study increase knowledge and understanding of the regulatory effects imposed by ethanol on cellulose biosynthesis, providing new opportunities for directed strain improvement, scaled-up bionanocellulose production, and wider industrial exploitation of the Komagataeibacter species as bacterial cellulose producers.

Novel protoparvoviruses genetically related to human and non-human primate bufaviruses (BuVs) have been detected recently in respiratory and enteric specimens collected from dogs and cats. In this study, by molecular screening of archival collections of faecal samples from wolves and foxes, we detected BuVs with a rate of 17.1% (7/41) and 10.5% (9/86), respectively. Sequence analysis of a portion of the ORF2 gene region of nine positive samples showed that the viruses in these samples were closely related to BuVs (97.5-99.0% nucleotide sequence identity) found in domestic carnivores.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost effectiveness of mirabegron relative to two antimuscarinics, oxybutynin extended release (ER) and tolterodine ER, in patients with overactive bladder (OAB) from the perspective of a third-party payer in Colombia.