Small devices letting patients collect diagnostics quality blood samples at home were getting lots of publicity in the past few months, as they are finding their way into clinical trials and are available as direct-to-consumer products. We asked Dr Erwin Berthier, CTO and Co-Founder of Tasso about the technology.
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face_with_colon_three circa 2008.
Opportunistic fungal pneumonias are associated with high morbidity and mortality rates [ 1–3]. Although invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is the most common type of fungal pneumonia, other angioinvasive molds, such as Fusarium and Zygomycetes species, are increasingly encountered in severely immunocompromised hosts. Because early institution of high-dose antifungal therapy is associated with improved outcomes [ 4, 5], early recognition of invasive fungal disease is important. However, cultures of respiratory secretions are neither sensitive nor specific, and lavage and invasive procedures often cannot be done for these patients because of coagulation abnormalities and thrombocytopenia [ 6, 7]. Thus, diagnosis of invasive pulmonary fungal disease relies heavily on imaging [ 8]. CT is often used in an attempt to identify fungal pneumonia in a timely fashion.
The reversed halo sign (RHS) is a CT finding, a focal round area of ground-glass attenuation surrounded by a ring of consolidation, which has been described in cryptogenic organizing pneumonia [ 9, 10].
The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether the RHS is evident on CT images of patients with invasive fungal pulmonary infections, the prevalence of RHS, and whether RHS can serve as an early sign of infection.
Just yesterday (2022−08−24) Prof. Smolin had a deep brain stimulator inserted into his left Globus Pallidus to help him better manage his symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. Here he talks about that day, his theory of PD and the journey he had been on to getting DBS.
Eavesdropping on the earliest conversations between tissues in an emerging life could tell us a lot about organ growth, fertility, and disease in general. It could help prevent early miscarriages, or even tell us how to grow whole replacement organs from scratch.
In a monumental leap in stem cell research, an experiment led by researchers from the University of Cambridge in the UK has developed a living model of a mouse embryo complete with fluttering heart tissues and the beginnings of a brain.
The research advances the recent success of a team comprised of some of the same scientists who pushed the limits on mimicking the embryonic development of mice using stem cells that had never seen the inside of a mouse womb.
During mammalian brain development, neural precursor cells first generate neurons and later astrocytes. This cell fate change is a key process generating proper numbers of neurons and astrocytes. Here we discovered that FGF regulates the cell fate switch from neurons to astrocytes in the developing cerebral cortex using mice. FGF is a critical extracellular regulator of the cell fate switch, necessary and sufficient, in the mammalian cerebral cortex.
Neurons and astrocytes are prominent cell types in the cerebral cortex. Neurons are the primary information processing cells in the brain, whereas astrocytes support and modulate their functions. For sound functioning of the brain, it is crucial that proper numbers of neurons and astrocytes are generated during fetal brain development. The brain could not function correctly if only neurons or astrocytes were generated.
During fetal brain development, both neurons and astrocytes are generated from neural stem cells, which give rise to almost all cells in the cerebral cortex (Figure 1). One of the characteristics of this developmental process is that neural stem cells first generate neurons and, after that, start generating astrocytes (Figure 1). The “switch” to change the cell differentiation fate of neural stem cells from neurons to astrocytes has attracted much attention, since the cell fate switch is key to the generation of proper numbers of neurons and astrocytes. However, it remained largely unknown.
Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in collaboration with research groups in Finland, Canada and Slovenia, have discovered a novel and unexpected function of nestin, the best-known marker of neural stem cells.
In the developing brain, the three main cell types, neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, are generated from neural stem cells. In some parts of the brain such as the hippocampus, the brain region involved in learning and memory, new neurons are being added to the existing neuronal circuitry even in adulthood, when severe restriction of neuronal differentiation occurs.
Using mice deficient in nestin, a protein that is a component of the part of the cytoskeleton known as intermediate filaments or nanofilaments, the research team led by Prof. Milos Pekny showed that nestin produced in astrocytes has an important role in inhibiting neuronal differentiation. They linked this regulatory function of nestin to the Notch signaling from astrocytes to neighboring neural stem cells. Thus, surprisingly, nestin does not control the generation of neurons by acting within neural stem cells, but indirectly by regulating the neurogenesis-inhibitory Notch signals that neural stem cells receive from astrocytes, important constituents of the neurogenic niche.
The brain consists of neurons and glial cells. The developmental abnormality of glial cells causes various diseases and aberrant cerebral cortex development. CD38 gene knockout is shown to cause aberrant development of glial cells, especially astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. The CD38 gene is known to be involved in cerebral cortex development. The present study suggests the importance of glial cells for cerebral cortex development.
It is essential for brain development that both neurons and glial cells develop in a normal manner not only during fetal but also postnatal stages. In the postnatal brain, neurons extend long protrusions (axons and dendrites) to form complex networks for information exchange. On the other hand, glial cells are thought to support network formation of neurons, to regulate transmission of information, and to help survival of neurons. It is known that more than 50 percent of total cells in the brain are glial cells, three times more than neurons in number. It is also known that in the human brain has far more glial cells than the brains of rodents or primates. This indicates that for the higher functions of the brain, glial cells are of particular importance.
In the past, research on developmental disorders of the brain focused on neurons. Recently, however, research has focused on the abnormality of glial cells. There remain a number of unsolved problems concerning the mechanism of glial cell development in the postnatal brain and the relationship of glial cell abnormalities and developmental disorders of the brain.