Overview of Pathologic Findings of Vaping in the Context of an Autopsy Patient With Chronic Injury.

CONTEXT.­: Electronic cigarettes are handheld devices that heat an inner liquid containing chemicals to be aerosolized and inhaled, and have become a popular alternative to conventional cigarettes. Their use, termed vaping, has been linked to severe injury, with 2711 cases of associated lung injury and 60 deaths reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the time of writing. Published case reports and series have emerged detailing clinical and imaging characteristics of vaping-induced lung injury. However, the pathologic characteristics of these induced injuries are still being established, particularly findings occurring over time. OBJECTIVE.­: To illustrate the autopsy findings of an older patient who died of vaping-induced injury after prolonged symptomology and to provide a review of the most recent literature regarding the basic science, epidemiology, clinical presentation, imaging characteristics, and pathology of vaping-induced lung injury. DATA SOURCES.­: Autopsy case and peer-reviewed literature. CONCLUSIONS.­: Vaping-induced lung injury has emerged as a public health issue, and this case represents a rare opportunity to evaluate this issue at autopsy. Most commonly, the injury has been attributed to tetrahydrocannabinol product use as opposed to nicotine. This case demonstrates that as today's young and relatively healthy "vapers" grow older and develop the comorbidities that come with advanced age, there is serious risk of chronic lung damage from vaping that could result in death. Further observations and studies, particularly autopsy evidence, are clearly important to understand the possible outcomes.

Adaptation to Stochastic Temporal Variations in Intratumoral Blood Flow: The Warburg Effect as a Bet Hedging Strategy.

While most cancers promote ingrowth of host blood vessels, the resulting vascular network usually fails to develop a mature organization, resulting in abnormal vascular dynamics with stochastic variations that include slowing, cessation, and even reversal of flow. Thus, substantial spatial and temporal variations in oxygen concentration are commonly observed in most cancers. Cancer cells, like all living systems, are subject to Darwinian dynamics such that their survival and proliferation are dependent on developing optimal phenotypic adaptations to local environmental conditions. Here, we consider the environmental stresses placed on tumors subject to profound, frequent, but stochastic variations in oxygen concentration as a result of temporal variations in blood flow. While vascular fluctuations will undoubtedly affect local concentrations of a wide range of molecules including growth factors (e.g., estrogen), substrate (oxygen, glucose, etc.), and metabolites ([Formula: see text], we focus on the selection forces that result solely from stochastic fluctuations in oxygen concentration. The glucose metabolism of cancer cells has been investigated for decades following observations that malignant cells ferment glucose regardless of oxygen concentration, a condition termed the Warburg effect. In contrast, normal cells cease fermentation under aerobic conditions and this physiological response is termed the Pasteur effect. Fermentation is markedly inefficient compared to cellular respiration in terms of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production, generating just 2 ATP/glucose, whereas respiration generates 38 ATP/glucose. This inefficiency requires cancer cells to increase glycolytic flux, which subsequently increases acid production and can significantly acidify local tissue. Hence, it initially appears that cancer cells adopt a disadvantageous metabolic phenotype. Indeed, this metabolic "hallmark" of cancer is termed "energy dysregulation." However, if cancers arise through an evolutionary optimization process, any common observed property must confer an adaptive advantage. In the present work, we investigate the hypothesis that aerobic glycolysis represents an adaptation to stochastic variations in oxygen concentration stemming from disordered intratumoral blood flow. Using mathematical models, we demonstrate that the Warburg effect evolves as a conservative metabolic bet hedging strategy in response to stochastic fluctuations of oxygen. Specifically, the Warburg effect sacrifices fitness in physoxia by diverting resources from the more efficient process of respiration, but preemptively adapts cells to hypoxia because fermentation produces ATP anaerobically. An environment with sufficiently stochastic fluctuations of oxygen will select for the bet hedging (Warburg) phenotype since it is modestly successful irrespective of oxygen concentration.

Fin1-PP1 Helps Clear Spindle Assembly Checkpoint Protein Bub1 from Kinetochores in Anaphase.

The spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) monitors chromosome attachment defects, and the assembly of SAC proteins at kinetochores is essential for its activation, but the SAC disassembly process remains unknown. We found that deletion of a 14-3-3 protein, Bmh1, or hyperactivation of Cdc14 early anaphase release (FEAR) allows premature SAC silencing in budding yeast, which depends on a kinetochore protein Fin1 that forms a complex with protein phosphatase PP1. Previous works suggest that FEAR-dependent Fin1 dephosphorylation promotes Bmh1-Fin1 dissociation, which enables kinetochore recruitment of Fin1-PP1. We found persistent kinetochore association of SAC protein Bub1 in fin1Δ mutants after anaphase entry. Therefore, we revealed a mechanism that clears SAC proteins from kinetochores. After anaphase entry, FEAR activation promotes kinetochore enrichment of Fin1-PP1, resulting in SAC disassembly at kinetochores. This mechanism is required for efficient SAC silencing after SAC is challenged, and untimely Fin1-kinetochore association causes premature SAC silencing and chromosome missegregation.

Electronically regulated thermally and light-gated electron transfer from anions to naphthalenediimides.

Anion-induced electron transfer (ET) to π-electron-deficient naphthalenediimides (NDIs) can be channeled through two distinct pathways by adjusting the Lewis basicity of the anion and the π-acidity of the NDI: (1) When the anion and NDI are a strong electron donor and acceptor, respectively, positioning the HOMO of the anion above the LUMO of the NDI, a thermal anion → NDI ET pathway is turned ON. (2) When the HOMO of a weakly Lewis basic anion falls below the LUMO of an NDI but still lies above its HOMO, the thermal ET is turned OFF, but light can activate an unprecedented anion → (1)*NDI photoinduced ET pathway from the anion's HOMO to the photogenerated (1)*NDI's SOMO-1. Both pathways generate NDI(•-) radical anions.