One-pot synthesis of g-C3N4/N-doped CeO2 nanocomposites and their potential visible light-driven photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye.

In the pursuit of efficient photocatalytic materials for environmental applications, a new series of g-C3N4/N-doped CeO2 nanocomposites (g-C3N4/N-CeO2 NCs) was synthesized using a straightforward dispersion method. These nanocomposites were systematically characterized to understand their structural, optical, and chemical properties. The photocatalytic performance of g-C3N4/N-CeO2 NCs was evaluated by investigating their ability to degrade methylene blue (MB) dye, a model organic pollutant. The results demonstrate that the integration of g-C3N4 with N-doped CeO2 NCs reduces the optical energy gap compared to pristine N-doped CeO2, leading to enhanced photocatalytic efficiency. It is benefited from the existence of g-C3N4/N-CeO2 NCs not only in promoting the charge separation and inhibits the fast charge recombination but also in improving photocatalytic oxidation performance. Hence, this study highlights the potential of g-C3N4/N-CeO2 NCs as promising candidates for various photocatalytic applications, contributing to the advancement of sustainable environmental remediation technologies.

Multimodality Imaging in Aortic Stenosis: Beyond the Valve - Focusing on the Myocardium.

Current guidelines of aortic stenosis (AS) management focus on valve parameters, LV systolic dysfunction, and symptoms; however, emerging data suggest that there may be benefit of aortic valve replacement before it becomes severe by present criteria. Myocardial assessment using novel multimodality imaging techniques exhibits subclinical myocardial injury and remodeling at various stages before guideline-directed interventions, which predicts adverse outcomes. This raises the question of whether implementing serial myocardial assessment should become part of the standard appraisal, thereby identifying high-risk patients aiming to minimize adverse outcomes.

Effect of neuronavigated repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on pain, cognition and cortical excitability in fibromyalgia syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Fibromyalgia syndrome is a widespread chronic pain condition identified by body-wide pain, fatigue, cognitive fogginess, and sleep issues. In the past decade, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation has emerged as a potential management tool.. In the present study, we enquired whether repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation could modify pain, corticomotor excitability, cognition, and sleep. METHODS: Study is a randomized, sham-controlled, double-blind, clinical trial; wherein after randomizing thirty-four fibromyalgia patients into active or sham therapy (n = 17 each), each participant received repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy. In active therapy was given at 1 Hz for 20 sessions were delivered on dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (1200 pulses, 150 pulses per train for 8 trains); while in sham therapy coil was placed at right angle to the scalp with same frequency. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to identify the therapeutic site. Pain intensity, corticomotor excitability, cognition, and sleep were examined before and after therapy. RESULTS: Baseline demographic and clinical parameters for both active and sham groups were comparable. In comparison to sham, active repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation showed significant difference in pain intensity (P < 0.001, effect size = 0.29, large effect) after intervention. Other parameters of pain perception, cognition, and sleep quality also showed a significant improvement after the therapy in active therapy group only, as compared to sham. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation intervention is effective in managing pain alongside cognition and sleep disturbances in patients of fibromyalgia. It may prove to be an important tool in relieving fibromyalgia-associated morbidity.

Multimodality Imaging in Aortic Stenosis: Beyond the Valve - Focusing on the Myocardium.

Current guidelines of aortic stenosis (AS) management focus on valve parameters, LV systolic dysfunction, and symptoms; however, emerging data suggest that there may be benefit of aortic valve replacement before it becomes severe by present criteria. Myocardial assessment using novel multimodality imaging techniques exhibits subclinical myocardial injury and remodeling at various stages before guideline-directed interventions, which predicts adverse outcomes. This raises the question of whether implementing serial myocardial assessment should become part of the standard appraisal, thereby identifying high-risk patients aiming to minimize adverse outcomes.

fMRI Analysis of Dissociative Convulsions: A Case-Controlled Study.

Background and Objectives: Dissociative convulsions represent complex biopsychosocial etiopathogenesis and have semiological similarities with epilepsy, which leads to delays in definitive diagnosis as well as treatment. We explored the neurobiological underpinnings of dissociative convulsions using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design targeting cognitive, affective, and resting state characteristics in our subjects. Materials and Methods: Seventeen female patients with dissociative convulsions without any co-morbid psychiatric or neurological illness and 17 matched healthy controls underwent standardized task-based (affective and cognitive) and resting state fMRI. Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) activation results were compared across the groups, and correlation with the severity of dissociation was measured. Results: Patients with dissociative convulsions had lower activation in the left cingulate gyrus, left paracentral lobule, right middle and inferior frontal gyrus, right caudate nucleus, and right thalamus. There was increased resting state functional connectivity (FC) between the left posterior superior temporal gyrus and left superior parietal lobule; left amygdala and Default Mode Network (DMN) of right lateral parietal cortex; right supramarginal gyrus and left cuneus in the patient group. Patients also had decreased FC between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and left thalamus; ACC and right central opercular cortex; DMN of PCC, posterior cingulate gyrus, and right middle temporal lobe. Conclusions: Patients with dissociative convulsions have significant deficits in the areas associated with the processing of emotional, cognitive, memory, and sensory-motor functions. There is a significant correlation between dissociative severity and the functioning of areas involving the processing of emotions, cognition, and memory.

Smart Contract Authentication assisted GraphMap-Based HL7 FHIR architecture for interoperable e-healthcare system.

The exponential growth in the global population and significant advancements in healthcare broadened the scope of intervention for e-Healthcare through decentralized data access and information exchange, making complex clinical decisions. e-Healthcare can perform several functionalities, including EHR communication, telemedicine, and complex clinical decision systems (CCDS), but large-scale users still find it challenging to maintain interoperability, stability, and scalability. Accommodating an extensive array of stakeholders, which includes patients, doctors, hospitals, and laboratories, demands interoperability to serve scalable services. FHIR frameworks have played a vital role in e-Healthcare designs. Most of the existing HL7-FHIR frameworks have used REST-API using HTTP-query for CRUD tasks that impose numerous rules and constraints, making the process more complex and time-consuming, violating the quality-of-service (QoS) standards on different levels. This paper develops a novel, robust Smart-Contract Authentication Assisted HL7-FHIR framework toward an interoperable e-Healthcare solution. Unlike classical REST API-based FHIR, our proposed method applies a Graph-mapping concept that transforms each resource variable into an equivalent Graph-Mapped Data Structure (GMS), which is subsequently stored in the NoSQL MongoDB database, reducing computational costs and time to meet QoS demands. The proposed model employs three key components, GMS-driven HL7 FHIR Gateway Model, Smart Contract Authentication and Client Model. The Smart Contract function helped verify and authenticate users to ensure privacy and secure EHR exchange. The assessment of the performance of the proposed model reveals a significant reduction in computational time with optimal resource utilization making it a significant and viable option to better the real-world e-Healthcare mechanisms.

Impact of Tafamidis on Survival in a Real-World Community-Based Cohort.

Tafamidis is the only therapy shown to improve survival in transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (ATTR) based on randomized controlled trial data. We sought to evaluate the impact of tafamidis on survival in a real-world community-based cohort. This was a prospective observational cohort study that included consecutive patients with confirmed ATTR based on biopsy or TcPYP imaging. Baseline characteristics were compared between patients taking tafamidis vs not, and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to compare survival between these groups. We examined the reasons that ATTR patients were not on tafamidis. Of 107 ATTR patients, median age was 83.9 years, 79% were men, and 63 (59%) of them were on tafamidis. Demographics and baseline cardiovascular risk factors did not differ significantly between those on vs off tafamidis, although there was a higher proportion of NYHA Class III or IV heart failure in those off tafamidis (76% vs 57%, P < 0.01). The most common reasons patients were not on tafamidis included delays in obtaining the drug or financial barriers (59%) and NYHA Class IV heart failure (19.5%). Patients taking tafamidis had a significantly higher median survival compared to those not on tafamidis (median survival 6.70 vs 1.43 years, P < 0.0001). Our study demonstrates significantly improved survival in ATTR patients taking tafamidis. Barriers exist to tafamidis initiation including delayed access and affordability, and efforts should be made to improve patient access.

Study of 2D Feature Extraction Techniques for Classification of Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 12 (SCA12).

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 12 (SCA12) is a neurodegenerative genetic disorder triggered by abnormal CAG repeat expansion at locus 5q32. MRI recognises dissimilarities in affected areas of SCA12 patients and healthy subjects. But manual diagnosis is time-consuming and prone to subjective errors. This has motivated us in developing a systematic and authentic decision model for computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) of SCA12. Four different feature extraction techniques are examined in this research work, such as First Order Statistics, GLRLM, GLCM, and GLGCM, to obtain distinguishable characteristics for differentiating SCA12 patients from healthy subjects. The model's performance is measured using sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and F1-score with leave-one-out cross-validation scheme. Our experimental results show that features based on the GLRLM can distinguish SCA12 from healthy subjects with a maximum classification accuracy of 85% among all the different function extraction techniques used.

Dynamic Data Infrastructure Security for Interoperable e-Healthcare Systems: A Semantic Feature-Driven NoSQL Intrusion Attack Detection Model.

The exponential rise in advanced software computing and low-cost hardware has broadened the horizon for the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), interoperable e-Healthcare systems serving varied purposes including electronic healthcare records (EHRs) and telemedicine. However, being heterogeneous and dynamic in nature, their database security remains a challenge forever. Numerous intrusion attacks including bot-attack and malware have confined major classical databases towards e-Healthcare. Despite the robustness of NoSQL over the structured query language databases, the dynamic data nature over a heterogeneous environment makes it vulnerable to intrusion attacks, especially over interoperable e-Healthcare systems. Considering these challenges, this work proposed a first of its kind semantic feature-driven NoSQL intrusion attack (NoSQL-IA) detection model for interoperable e-Healthcare systems. This work assessed the efficacy of the different semantic feature-extraction methods like Word2Vec, Continuous Bag of Words, N-Skip Gram (SKG), Count Vectorizer, TF-IDF, and GLOVE towards NoSQL-IA prediction. Subsequently, to minimize computational exhaustion, different feature selection methods including Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test (WRST), significant predictor test, principal component analysis, Select K-Best, and variance threshold feature selection algorithms were employed. To alleviate the data imbalance problem, it applied different resampling methods including upsampling, downsampling, and synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE) over the selected features. Later, Min-Max normalization was performed over the input feature vectors to alleviate any possibility of overfitting. Towards NoSQL-IA prediction, different machine learning methods like Multinomial Naïve Bayes, decision tree, logistic regression, support vector machine, k-NN, AdaBoost, Extra Tree Classifier, random forest ensemble, and XG-Boost were applied, which classified each input query as the regular query or the NoSQL-IA attack query. The depth performance assessment revealed that the use of Word2Vec features SKG in sync with VTFS feature selection and SMOTE resampling processed with the bootstrapped random forest classifier can provide the best performance in terms of high accuracy (98.86%), F-Measure (0.974), and area under the curve (AUC) (0.981), thus enabling it suitable for interoperable e-Healthcare database security.

Correlation of DTI-Derived Measures to Therapy-Mediated Recovery after Stroke: Preliminary Findings.

INTRODUCTION: Corticospinal tracts (CST) forms the basis of motor neurophysiology after stroke. Motor skill recovery has been correlated well to the microstructural properties of CST in both hemispheres. Functional imaging has opened up new possibilities of imaging functionality of cortex and fiber tracts in the brain. We studied therapy-induced changes in blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) and DTI imaging on 20 chronic stroke patients at baseline, 8, and 24 weeks. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: All the patients were subjected to MR imaging on a 1.5 T MR scanner. We used block design for BOLD with alternate baseline and activation cycles (repetition time (TR) =4520 ms, echo time (TE) = 44 ms, slices = 31, slice thickness = 4 mm). DTI parameters were as follows: TE = 76 ms, TR = 10,726 ms, EPI factor = 127, resolution = 128 × 128 matrix, field of view = 230 mm and a slice thickness of 4.0 mm. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The data was analyzed on SPSS software and tractography/DTI processing software (M/s. Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen Germany. RESULTS: The mean axial diffusivity (λ[INSIDE:1]) and radial diffusivity (λ[INSIDE:2]) in the affected hemisphere were 0. 30 and 0.18, respectively. The mean number (FN) ratio (± SD) was 0.27 ± 0.14 at baseline, 0.33 ± 0.19 at 8 weeks, and 0.41 ± 0.23 at 24 weeks. Multivariate regression analysis at baseline showed that rFA was well-correlated to the Fugl-Meyer score (regression coefficient: 0.198, F = 10.382, P = 0.001), MI followed by signal intensity. DISCUSSION: All patients had high % signal intensity after 8 weeks of physiotherapy regime with a greater percentage change in rFA as compared at follow-up suggesting that a focused exercise regime in stroke patients helps in the reconnection of neural and myelin networks. CONCLUSION: Clinical and functional recovery after stroke is well-correlated with the DTI and BOLD parameters i.e., rFA ratios, CST involvement fiber numbers, and % signal intensity of the ipsilesional cortex.

Cortical and Subcortical Brain Area Atrophy in SCA1 and SCA2 Patients in India: The Structural MRI Underpinnings and Correlative Insight Among the Atrophy and Disease Attributes.

INTRODUCTION: Genetically defined spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) type 1 and 2 patients have differential clinical profile along with probable distinctive cortical and subcortical neurodegeneration. We compared the degree of brain atrophy in the two subtypes with their phenotypic and genotypic parameters. METHODS: MRI was performed using a 3T scanner (Philips, Achieva) to obtain 3D T1-weighted scans of the whole brain and analyzed by FreeSurfer (version 5.3 and 6 dev.) software. Genetically proven SCA1 (n = 18) and SCA2 (n = 25) patients with age-matched healthy controls (n = 8) were recruited. Clinical severity was assessed by the International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale (ICARS). To know the differential pattern of atrophy, the groups were compared using ANOVA/Kruskal-Wallis test and followed by correlation analysis with multiple corrections. Further, machine learning-based classification of SCA subtypes was carried out. RESULT: We found (i) bilateral frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital atrophy in SCA1 and SCA2 patients; (ii) reduced volume of cerebellum, regions of brain stem, basal ganglia along with the certain subcortical areas such as hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, diencephalon, and corpus callosum in SCA1 and SCA2 subtypes; (iii) higher subcortical atrophy SCA2 than SCA1 (iv) correlation between brain atrophy and disease attributes; (v) differential predictive pattern of two SCA subtypes using machine learning approach. CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that SCA1 and SCA2 do not differ in cortical thinning while a characteristic pattern of subcortical atrophy SCA2 > SCA1 is observed along with correlation of brain atrophy and disease attributes. This may provide the diagnostic guidance of MRI to SCA subtypes and differential therapies.

Correlating cognition and cortical excitability with pain in fibromyalgia: a case control study.

BACKGROUND: Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal symptoms, primarily attributed to sensitization of somatosensory system carrying pain. Few reports have investigated the impact of fibromyalgia symptoms on cognition, corticomotor excitability, sleepiness, and the sleep quality - all of which can deteriorate the quality of life in fibromyalgia. However, the existing reports are underpowered and have conflicting directions of findings, limiting their generalizability. Therefore, the present study was designed to compare measures of cognition, corticomotor excitability, sleepiness, and sleep quality using standardized instruments in the recruited patients of fibromyalgia with pain-free controls. METHODS: Diagnosed cases of fibromyalgia were recruited from the Rheumatology department for the cross-sectional, case-control study. Cognition (Mini-Mental State Examination, Stroop color-word task), corticomotor excitability (Resting motor threshold, Motor evoked potential amplitude), daytime sleepiness (Epworth sleepiness scale), and sleep quality (Pittsburgh sleep quality index) were studied according to the standard procedure. RESULTS: Thirty-four patients of fibromyalgia and 30 pain-free controls were recruited for the study. Patients of fibromyalgia showed decreased cognitive scores (p = 0.05), lowered accuracy in Stroop color-word task (for color: 0.02, for word: 0.01), and prolonged reaction time (< 0.01, < 0.01). Excessive daytime sleepiness in patients were found (< 0.01) and worsened sleep quality (< 0.01) were found. Parameters of corticomotor excitability were comparable between patients of fibromyalgia and pain-free controls. CONCLUSIONS: Patients of fibromyalgia made more errors, had significantly increased reaction time for cognitive tasks, marked daytime sleepiness, and impaired quality of sleep. Future treatment strategies may include cognitive deficits and sleep disturbances as an integral part of fibromyalgia management.

5-HT1A targeting PARCEST agent DO3AM-MPP with potential for receptor imaging: Synthesis, physico-chemical and MR studies.

Contrast enhancement in MRI using magnetization or saturation transfer techniques promises better sensitivity, and faster acquisition compared to T1 or T2 contrast. This work reports the synthesis and evaluation of 5-HT1A targeted PARACEST MRI contrast agent using 1,4,7,10-tetraazacycloDOdecane-4,7,10-triacetAMide (DO3AM) as the bifunctional chelator, and 5-HT1A-antagonist methoxyphenyl piperazine (MPP) as a targeting unit. The multi-step synthesis led to the MPP conjugated DO3AM with 60% yield. CEST-related physicochemical parameters were evaluated after loading DO3AM-MPP with paramagnetic MRI active lanthanides: Gadolinium (Gd-DO3AM-MPP) and Europium (Eu-DO3AM-MPP). Luminescence lifetime measurements with Eu-DO3AM-MPP and computational DFT studies using Gd-DO3AM-MPP revealed the coordination of one water molecule (q = 1.43) with metal-water distance (rM-H2O) of 2.7 Å and water residence time (τm) of 0.23 ms. The dissociation constant of Kd 62 ± 0.02 pM as evaluated from fluorescence quenching of 5-HT1A (protein) and docking score of -4.81 in theoretical evaluation reflect the binding potential of the complex Gd-DO3AM-MPP with the receptor 5-HT1A. Insights of the docked pose reflect the importance of NH2 (amide) and aromatic ring in Gd-DO3AM-MPP while interacting with Ser 374 and Phe 370 in the antagonist binding pocket of 5-HT1A. Gd-DO3AM-MPP shows longitudinal relaxivity 5.85 mM-1s-1 with a water residence lifetime of 0.93 ms in hippocampal homogenate containing 5-HT1A. The potentiometric titration of DO3AM-MPP showed strong selectivity for Gd3+ over physiological metal ions such as Zn2+ and Cu2+. The in vitro and in vivo studies confirmed the minimal cytotoxicity and presential binding of Gd-DO3AM-MPP with 5-HT1A receptor in the hippocampus region of the mice. Summarizing, the complex Gd-DO3AM-MPP can have a potential for CEST imaging of 5-HT1A receptors.

Correlating cognition and cortical excitability with pain in fibromyalgia: a case control study

Abstract Background: Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal symptoms, primarily attributed to sensitization of somatosensory system carrying pain. Few reports have investigated the impact of fibromyalgia symptoms on cognition, corticomotor excitability, sleepiness, and the sleep quality — all of which can deteriorate the quality of life in fibromyalgia. However, the existing reports are underpowered and have conflicting directions of findings, limiting their generalizability. Therefore, the present study was designed to compare measures of cognition, corticomotor excitability, sleepiness, and sleep quality using standardized instruments in the recruited patients of fibromyalgia with pain-free controls. Methods: Diagnosed cases of fibromyalgia were recruited from the Rheumatology department for the cross-sectional, case-control study. Cognition (Mini-Mental State Examination, Stroop color-word task), corticomotor excitability (Resting motor threshold, Motor evoked potential amplitude), daytime sleepiness (Epworth sleepiness scale), and sleep quality (Pittsburgh sleep quality index) were studied according to the standard procedure. Results: Thirty-four patients of fibromyalgia and 30 pain-free controls were recruited for the study. Patients of fibromyalgia showed decreased cognitive scores (p = 0.05), lowered accuracy in Stroop color-word task (for color: 0.02, for word: 0.01), and prolonged reaction time (< 0.01, < 0.01). Excessive daytime sleepiness in patients were found (< 0.01) and worsened sleep quality (< 0.01) were found. Parameters of corticomotor excitability were comparable between patients of fibromyalgia and pain-free controls. Conclusions: Patients of fibromyalgia made more errors, had significantly increased reaction time for cognitive tasks, marked daytime sleepiness, and impaired quality of sleep. Future treatment strategies may include cognitive deficits and sleep disturbances as an integral part of fibromyalgia management.(AU)

Development and Validation of a Comprehensive Neuropsychological and Language Rehabilitation for Stroke Survivors: A Home-Based Caregiver-Delivered Intervention Program.

CONTEXT: Aphasia is a major disabling condition after a stroke that profoundly affects the quality of life of stroke survivors (SS) and their caregivers. Comprehensive neuropsychological rehabilitation has emerged as a complementary intervention that helps in improving the associated cognitive and psychological deficits and quality of life following a brain injury. A standardized, simple, and easy to administer intervention that can be delivered as a home-based intervention can assist in faster recovery. AIMS: To describe the development, validation, and feasibility of a home-based, caregiver-delivered comprehensive neuropsychological and language rehabilitation for SS. METHODS AND MATERIAL: A culture-specific picture and task-based 8-week training workbook and manual were developed based on extensive review and focused group discussions. This intervention targeted areas of language (comprehension, fluency, and naming) and cognition (working memory, attention and concentration, executive functioning, and response inhibition). It was standardized on 40 healthy controls (HC) and 15 SS. Before recruitment, written informed consent was obtained from each patient, their primary caregiver, and the HCs. RESULTS: All tasks were found to be effective in discriminating the performance of SS from the HC. The performance of the HC with respect to the errors and the time taken for each task was used for the hierarchical arrangement of the tasks. The developed intervention was later validated on 15 SS where they significantly improved in the pre-post assessment of language functioning (P < 0.001), quality of life (P < 0.001), and depression (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This intervention can be feasible to administer as a home-based intervention and may help to alleviate language and neuropsychological complaints after stroke in low-literate or mixed-cultural populations. Further, large sample size studies are recommended.

Evaluation of memory in persons with mesial temporal lobe sclerosis: A combined fMRI and VBM study.

Persons with drug refractory TLE have the option of being managed by surgery. They may develop memory impairment with specific etiology of mesial temporal sclerosis and anterior temporal lobe resection (ATLR). The study evaluated the semantic verbal memory outcomes in pre- and post-surgery temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients using functional MRI and voxel morphometric methods. Twenty consecutive persons with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) and 20 healthy controls were recruited after obtaining the institute ethics approval. The fMRI scans were performed on a 1.5 T MR Scanner using standardized semantic verbal memory tasks using a native Hindi paradigm, before and after an anterior temporal lobectomy (in cases). A task-based functional connectivity (FC) was estimated using a conn toolbox. Data analysis was carried out using the statistical parametric imaging (SPM12) and CAT12 toolbox. Post-surgery TLE group showed increased robust FC in the right middle and posterior temporal regions as compared to pre-surgery session. A significant reduction in grey matter volume was observed in the left temporal lobe post-operatively as compared to presurgery and healthy control groups. In the post-surgery TLE group, neuropsychological scores were reduced in specific PGI domains such as visuospatial, working memory, and executive functioning. Our results may help in understanding of memory reorganization in TLE post-operatively.

Characterization of a novel natural cellulosic fiber from Calotropis gigantea fruit bunch for ecofriendly polymer composites.

In this current research, the change in properties of alkali treatment on the physicochemical, structural, thermal and surface morphological properties of Calotropis gigantea fruit bunch (CGFB) fibers are investigated. The alkali-treatment was discovered to reduce the amorphous contents and removed the non-cellulosic components which were inveterate by the FTIR analysis. The X-ray diffraction pattern showed that the crystallinity index of the alkali-treated CGFB fibers was fairly higher than raw fibers. Thermal degradability and stability of alkali-treated Calotropis gigantea fruit bunch fibers were more than that of the untreated fiber. Scanning electron microscopy and Atomic force microscopy images showed the partially roughened surface of the fiber due to the removal of non-cellulosic elements and surface impurities during alkali treatment.

Ursolic acid modulates MMPs, collagen-I, α-SMA, and TGF-ß expression in isoproterenol-induced myocardial infarction in rats.

In the present study, the modulatory effect of ursolic acid (UA) on cardiac fibrosis and mitochondrial and lysosomal enzymes activity in isoproterenol-induced myocardial infarction (MI) in rats were examined. Isoproterenol hydrochloride (ISO; 85 mg/kg body weight) was administered subcutaneously for first two consecutive days. ISO-induced MI in rats significantly decreased the activities of mitochondrial tricarboxylic acid cycle enzymes and respiratory chain enzymes while increased the activities of lysosomal glycohydrolases and cathepsins. The expression of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2), MMP-9, collagen type I, α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), and transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) were upregulated in ISO-induced MI in rats. UA administration to rats showed increased activities of mitochondrial tricarboxylic acid cycle enzymes and respiratory chain enzymes and decreased activities of lysosomal glycohydrolases and cathepsins in ISO-induced rats. Furthermore, expression of MMP-2, MMP-9, collagen type I, α-SMA, and TGF-ß downregulated in UA-administered rats. Thus, our results demonstrate that UA has an anti-fibrotic effect and attenuates the mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction in ISO-induced MI in rats.

FDG PET-CT findings of extra-thoracic sarcoid are associated with cardiac sarcoid: A rationale for using FGD PET-CT for cardiac sarcoid evaluation.

PURPOSE: This retrospective study investigates the relationship between cardiac and extra-thoracic sarcoid findings on FDG PET-CT using a 72-hour pretest high-fat, high-protein, and very low-carbohydrate (HFHPVLC) diet. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 196 consecutive FDG PET-CT scans with 72-hour HFHPVLC diet preparation were performed between December 2014 and December 2015 in known sarcoid patients. Of these scans, 5 were excluded for non-adherence to diet preparation or underlying cancer. Cardiac and extra-thoracic sarcoid lesions were categorized and measured for radiotracer uptake. RESULTS: A total of 188 patients had 191 eligible FDG PET/CT scans (3 follow-up scans), of which there were 20 (10%) positive, 6 indeterminate (3%), and 165 (86%) negative for CS. Among the 20 scans positive for CS, 8 (40%) had findings of both cardiac and extra-thoracic sarcoid. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that 40% of CS patients also have FDG PET-CT findings of extra-thoracic sarcoid. This makes an intriguing case for FDG PET-CT use with pretest diet prep over cardiac MRI (CMR) for cardiac sarcoid evaluation, given that CMR is likely to overlook these extra-thoracic sites of disease.

Identification of Casz1 as a Regulatory Protein Controlling T Helper Cell Differentiation, Inflammation, and Immunity.

While T helper (Th) cells play a crucial role in host defense, an imbalance in Th effector subsets due to dysregulation in their differentiation and expansion contribute to inflammatory disorders. Here, we show that Casz1, whose function is previously unknown in CD4+ T cells, coordinates Th differentiation in vitro and in vivo. Casz1 deficiency in CD4+ T cells lowers susceptibility to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, consistent with the reduced frequency of Th17 cells, despite an increase in Th1 cells in mice. Loss of Casz1 in the context of mucosal Candida infection severely impairs Th17 and Treg responses, and lowers the ability of the mice to clear the secondary infection. Importantly, in both the models, absence of Casz1 causes a significant diminution in IFN-γ+IL-17A+ double-positive inflammatory Th17 cells (Th1* cells) in tissues in vivo. Transcriptome analyses of CD4+ T cells lacking Casz1 show a signature consistent with defective Th17 differentiation. With regards to Th17 differentiation, Casz1 limits repressive histone marks and enables acquisition of permissive histone marks at Rorc, Il17a, Ahr, and Runx1 loci. Taken together, these data identify Casz1 as a new Th plasticity regulator having important clinical implications for autoimmune inflammation and mucosal immunity.