Blood within the bone: orbital intraosseous venous malformation.

PURPOSE: Description of clinical features, radiological characteristics, and management strategies in primary orbital intraosseous venous malformation (OIVM) with pertinent literature review. METHODS: A retrospective analysis including clinical, radiologic, operative, and histopathological data of six cases of histopathologically proven OIVM was done. A comprehensive literature review was conducted using online databases and augmented with manual search to identify reported cases of OIVM. RESULTS: Study data showed five females and one male in young to middle-age group, with an average age of 30 years (range: 20-48 years). Proptosis was noted in five cases (83.33%), and the duration of symptoms ranged from 6 months to 10 years. Frontal and zygomatic bones were most frequently affected and expansile bony lesion was the most common CT scan finding. Three patients underwent pre-operative embolization of feeders followed by en bloc excision of mass and surgical reconstruction (50%); one patient was managed with partial excision (16.66%) while two were regularly followed-up after incision biopsy (33.33%). Histopathology revealed vascular spaces with endothelial lining, separated by bony trabeculae in all patients. Follow-up periods ranged from 6 to 48 months and no recurrence or progression were noted. CONCLUSIONS: OIVM is an exceptionally rare disorder with a gradually progressive benign course. Ophthalmologists need to be mindful of this entity during patient evaluation as it has propensity for large volume blood loss intra-operatively, owing to its vascular nature. Complete excision with reconstruction of resultant defect is the preferred treatment strategy and without known recurrence.

Modulation of Paracellular Permeability in SARS-CoV-2 Blood-to-Brain Transcytosis.

SARS-CoV-2 primarily infects the lungs via the ACE2 receptor but also other organs including the kidneys, the gastrointestinal tract, the heart, and the skin. SARS-CoV-2 also infects the brain, but the hematogenous route of viral entry to the brain is still not fully characterized. Understanding how SARS-CoV-2 traverses the blood-brain barrier (BBB) as well as how it affects the molecular functions of the BBB are unclear. In this study, we investigated the roles of the receptors ACE2 and DPP4 in the SARS-CoV-2 infection of the discrete cellular components of a transwell BBB model comprising HUVECs, astrocytes, and pericytes. Our results demonstrate that direct infection on the BBB model does not modulate paracellular permeability. Also, our results show that SARS-CoV-2 utilizes clathrin and caveolin-mediated endocytosis to traverse the BBB, resulting in the direct infection of the brain side of the BBB model with a minimal endothelial infection. In conclusion, the BBB is susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection in multiple ways, including the direct infection of endothelium, astrocytes, and pericytes involving ACE2 and/or DPP4 and the blood-to-brain transcytosis, which is an event that does not require the presence of host receptors.

Advances in Translational Nanotechnology: Challenges and Opportunities.

The burgeoning field of nanotechnology aims to create and deploy nanoscale structures, devices, and systems with novel, size-dependent properties and functions. The nanotechnology revolution has sparked radically new technologies and strategies across all scientific disciplines, with nanotechnology now applied to virtually every area of research and development in the US and globally. NanoFlorida was founded to create a forum for scientific exchange, promote networking among nanoscientists, encourage collaborative research efforts across institutions, forge strong industry-academia partnerships in nanoscience, and showcase the contributions of students and trainees in nanotechnology fields. The 2019 NanoFlorida International Conference expanded this vision to emphasize national and international participation, with a focus on advances made in translating nanotechnology. This review highlights notable research in the areas of engineering especially in optics, photonics and plasmonics and electronics; biomedical devices, nano-biotechnology, nanotherapeutics including both experimental nanotherapies and nanovaccines; nano-diagnostics and -theranostics; nano-enabled drug discovery platforms; tissue engineering, bioprinting, and environmental nanotechnology, as well as challenges and directions for future research.

Biología molecular del virus sincitial respiratorio y desarrollo de estrategias profilácticas / Molecular biology of syncytial respiratory virus and development of phrophylactic strategies

El virus sincitial respiratorio es uno de los patógenos con la más alta prevalencia en infecciones deltracto respiratorio superior e inferior. Este virus desencadena cuadros tan severos como bronquiolitisen los lactantes y neumonías en los ancianos. El desarrollo de vacunas se ha visto afectado por lafalta de conocimiento respecto a cuál es el mecanismo inmunitario adecuado para prevenir la infección,además de la capacidad del virus para interferir con el desarrollo de la respuesta inmunitaria.El objetivo es revisar la biología molecular del virus, cómo éste puede interferir con la respuestainmunitaria y cómo este conocimiento previo ha servido para desarrollar estrategias profilácticastipo vacunas que aunque todavía están en escala del laboratorio lucen prometedoras. La fuente deinformación para esta revisión fueron los artículos publicados desde 1990 hasta la fecha en las revistasindexadas en ISI y PUBMED.

Respiratory syncytial virus is one of the pathogens with the highest prevalence in infections of upperand lower respiratory tracts. This virus triggers clinical phenotypes as severe as bronchiolytis ininfants and pneumonia in the elderly. The development of vaccines has been hampered by the lackof knowledge regarding the adequate immune mechanism able to address the infection as well as theability of the virus to interfere with the development of a complete immune response. The aim ofthis paper is to review the molecular biology aspects of the virus; how the virus is able to interferewith the immune response; and how this previous knowledge has helped us to develop prophylacticstrategies as vaccines, which they look promising even though they are still at bench scale. Thesource for this review came from articles published from 1990 until today in journal indexed in ISIand PUBMED.