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BACKGROUND: Treatment failures in cancers, including multiple myeloma (MM), are most likely due to the persistence of a minor population of tumor-initiating cells (TICs), which are noncycling or slowly cycling and very drug resistant. METHODS: Gene expression profiling and real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction were employed to define genes differentially expressed between the side-population cells, which contain the TICs, and the main population of MM cells derived from 11 MM patient samples...

Acute coronary syndrome rarely occurs in young individuals and is seldomly associated with antiphospholipid syndrome. We report the case of a 26-year-old Hispanic man who presented with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction and was treated with urgent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. He experienced stent thrombosis within 48 h of intervention and subsequently developed a left apical thrombus. Hypercoagulable state studies were obtained at admission and 12 weeks after the event establishing the diagnosis of antiphospholipid syndrome...

The interaction of single-layer graphene oxide (SLGO) and multi-layered graphene oxide (MLGO) with a cell culture medium (i.e. DMEM) was studied by evaluating fetal bovine serum (FBS) protein corona formation towards in vitro nanotoxicity assessment and nanobiointeractions. SLGO and MLGO exhibited different colloidal behavior in the culture medium, which was visualized by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy in situ analysis. Exploring proteomics and bioinformatics tools, 394 and 290 proteins were identified on the SLGO and MLGO hard corona compositions, respectively...

BACKGROUND: Finding early specific indicators of failure in the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 and Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) could be used to develop early interventions that could solve deficiencies and help at-risk students to ultimately attain a passing score. This study was aimed at determining if the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Comprehensive Basic Science Examination (CBSE) could predict a passing score during the USMLE Step 1. We also assessed if the NBME Medicine Clinical Science Subject Examination (CSSE) or the USMLE Step 1 could predict passing scores during the USMLE Step 2 CK...

Dextrocardia is a congenital anomaly where the heart is abnormally located in the right hemithorax. In these patients, the implementation of transvenous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (TV-ICD) can be technically challenging and pose a higher risk of complications than the general population. We present the case of a male patient that was successfully submitted to right-sided implantation of subcutaneous ICD (S-ICD) as an alternative to transvenous ICD (TV-ICD) for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death...

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether environmental rearrangements of the long-term care nursing home can affect disruptive behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) in residents with dementia. DESIGN: Prospective 6-month study. SETTING: The study was conducted before (phase 1) and after (phase 2) environmental rearrangements [skylike ceiling tiles in part of the shared premises, progressive decrease of the illuminance at night together with soothing streaming music, reinforcement of the illuminance during the day, walls painted in light beige, oversized clocks in corridors, and night team clothes color (dark blue) different from that of the day team (sky blue)]...

Drug resistance remains the key problem in cancer treatment. It is now accepted that each myeloma patient harbors multiple subclones and subclone dominance may change over time. The coexistence of multiple subclones with high or low chromosomal instability (CIN) signature causes heterogeneity and drug resistance with consequent disease relapse. In this study, using a tandem affinity purification-mass spectrometry (TAP-MS) technique, we found that NEK2, a CIN gene, was bound to the deubiquitinase USP7. Binding to USP7 prevented NEK2 ubiquitination resulting in NEK2 stabilization...

The widespread production and application of carbon nanotubes (CNT) have raising concerns about their release into the environment and, the joint toxicity of CNT with pre-existing contaminants needs to be assessed. This is the first study that investigated the co-exposure of oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (ox-MWCNT) and cadmium (Cd) using a zebrafish liver cell line (ZFL). Two in vitro co-exposure protocols differing by the order of ox-MWCNT interaction with Cd and fetal bovine serum (FBS) proteins were evaluated...

Many cancers, including multiple myeloma (MM), retain more cytosolic iron to promote tumor cell growth and drug resistance. Higher cytosolic iron promotes oxidative damage due to its interaction with reactive oxygen species generated by mitochondria. The variation of mitochondrial biogenesis in different stages of MM disease was evaluated using gene expression profiles in a large clinical dataset. Sixteen of 18mitochondrial biogenesis related gene sets, including mitochondrial biogenesis signature and oxidative phosphorylation, were increased in myeloma cells compared with normal plasma cells and high expression was associated with an inferior patient outcome...

Functional mesoporous materials have been worldwide studied for different applications. Mesoporous silicas are highlighted due to the synthetic possibilities for the preparation of such materials with different particle sizes and morphologies, and controlled pores sizes and structures. Moreover, the silica superficial silanol groups are explored in several chemical modifications, leading to functional materials with tuned functionalities and properties. In this work, an organo-functionalization and pyrolysis synthetic procedure is used to obtain graphitic carbon modified mesoporous SBA-15 silica...

This study sought to evaluate the toxicological effects of graphene oxide (GO) through tests with Danio rerio (zebrafish) embryos, considering the influence of the base washing treatment and the interaction with natural organic matter (i.e., humic acid, HA). A commercial sample of GO was refluxed with NaOH to remove oxidation debris (OD) byproducts, which resulted in a base washed GO sample (bw-GO). This process decreased the total oxygenated groups in bw-GO and its stability in water compared to GO. When tested in the presence of HA, both GO and bw-GO stabilities were enhanced in water...

Alzheimer disease<strike>s</strike> and related disorders (ADRD) remain a major public health issue. The progression of the disease is dominated by behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) which are frequent and burdensome for caregivers. The aim of our survey was to study how the general practionner managed these behavioral disturbances (particularly agitation and aggressiveness) in community living patients with ADRD and support of their main caregivers. We based our study on a medical survey sent to all general practitioners (GP) practicing in four districts in Marseille near from a secure unit...

A pilot-scale (1800 kg per batch capacity) autoclave used in this study reduces municipal solid waste to a debris contaminated pulp product that is efficiently separated into its renewable organic content and non-renewable organic content fractions using a rotary trommel screen. The renewable organic content can be recovered at nearly 90% efficiency and the trommel rejects are also much easier to sort for recovery. This study provides the evaluation of autoclave operation, including mass and energy balances for the purpose of integration into organic diversion systems...

Type II methanotrophic bacteria are a promising production platform for PHA biopolymers. These bacteria are known to produce pure poly-3-hydroxybutyrate homopolymer (PHB). We isolated a strain, Methylocystis sp. WRRC1, that was capable of producing a wide range of polyhydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate copolymers (PHB-co-HV) when co-fed methane and valerate or n-pentanol. The ratio of HB to HV monomer was directly related to the concentration of valeric acid in the PHA accumulation media. We observed increased incorporation of HV and total polymer under copper-free growth conditions...

Ultrafast ultrasonic imaging is a rapidly developing field based on the unfocused transmission of plane or diverging ultrasound waves. This recent approach to ultrasound imaging leads to a large increase in raw ultrasound data available per acquisition. Bigger synchronous ultrasound imaging datasets can be exploited in order to strongly improve the discrimination between tissue and blood motion in the field of Doppler imaging. Here we propose a spatiotemporal singular value decomposition clutter rejection of ultrasonic data acquired at ultrafast frame rate...

Chromosome instability (CIN) has been identified as a common feature of most human cancers. A number of centrosomal kinases are thought to cause CIN in cancer cells. Part of those centrosomal kinases exhibit elevated expression in a wide variety of tumours and cancer cell lines. Additionally, critical roles in many aspects of cancer cell growth, proliferation, metastasis, and drug resistance have been assigned to some of these centrosomal kinases, such as polo-like kinase 1 (PLk1) and Aurora-A kinase. Recent studies from our group and others revealed that a centrosomal kinase, Never in Mitosis (NIMA) Related Kinase 2A (NEK2A), is frequently upregulated in multiple types of human cancers...

Almond hulls contain considerable proportions (37% by dry weight) of water-soluble, fermentable sugars (sucrose, glucose, and fructose), which can be extracted for industrial purposes. The maximum optimal solids loading was determined to be 20% for sugar extraction, and the addition of 0.5% (w/v) pectinase aided in maintaining a sufficient free water volume for sugar recovery. A laboratory countercurrent extraction experiment utilizing a 1 h steep followed by three extraction (wash) stages produced a high-concentration (131 g/L fermentable sugar) syrup...

Ibrutinib (Imbruvica), a small-drug inhibitor of Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK), is currently undergoing clinical testing in patients with multiple myeloma, yet important questions on the role of BTK in myeloma biology and treatment are outstanding. Using flow-sorted side population cells from human myeloma cell lines and multiple myeloma primary samples as surrogate for the elusive multiple myeloma stem cell, we found that elevated expression of BTK in myeloma cells leads to AKT/WNT/β-catenin-dependent upregulation of key stemness genes (OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, and MYC) and enhanced self-renewal...

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Dietary soy is thought to be cancer-preventive; however, the beneficial effects of soy on established breast cancer is controversial. We recently demonstrated that dietary daidzein or combined soy isoflavones (genistein, daidzein, and glycitein) increased primary mammary tumor growth and metastasis. Cancer-promoting molecules, including eukaryotic protein synthesis initiation factors (eIF) eIF4G and eIF4E, were up-regulated in mammary tumors from mice that received dietary daidzein. Herein, we show that increased eIF expression in tumor extracts of mice after daidzein diets is associated with protein expression of mRNAs with internal ribosome entry sites (IRES) that are sensitive to eIF4E and eIF4G levels...