Advances in experimental medicine and biology最新文献

This research examines the effectiveness of combining psychometric tests with computational models for diagnosing neurodegenerative and vascular forms of dementia. The goal is to enhance diagnostic accuracy using tools such as the Hachinski Ischemic Score (HIS), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), in conjunction with machine learning technologies. The research framework integrates computational models to better analyze psychometric test data, aiming for early disease detection and more accurate differential diagnosis. The results suggest that this combined approach can reduce misdiagnosis rates and contribute to personalized patient treatment by creating an innovative diagnostic framework based on each patient's unique profile.

Introduction: Pediatric Palliative Care is a field that demands specific knowledge and skills.

Aim: The purpose of the study was to explore the knowledge of pediatric nursing staff concerning palliative care.

Methodology: In this multicenter, cross-sectional descriptive study, we used convenience sampling, consisting of 115 nursing staff who worked in general pediatric, pediatric oncology, pediatric surgery units, and Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Units of the three biggest hospitals of Thessaloniki (Greece's second-largest city). The research tools included the demographic and working data of the participants and the Palliative Care Quiz for Nursing. The statistical package SPSS 26.0 was used, and the significance level was set at 0.05.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 43.1 ± 10.0 years, the majority (96.5%) were women and 82.6% of them were registered nurses. The total score mean value of correct answers was 7.4 ± 2,6. It was found that the total score of correct answers was associated with the participants' previous training on palliative care (p = 0,033) and the consideration that they applied palliative care in their clinical practice (p = 0.005). On the contrary, no relationship was found between the total score of knowledge and the demographic characteristics of the participants.

Conclusions: The knowledge of the pediatric nursing staff concerning palliative care is inadequate. Training programs concerning palliative care could improve health professional's level of knowledge as well as the quality of the provided care.

There is widespread consensus that hypoxia limits the effectiveness of cancer therapy. This has led to interventions to increase oxygen (O₂) levels in tumors in patients, but success in clinical trials has been very limited and therefore clinical practice has not incorporated such interventions. The limiting step for successful intervention is the need to identify which tumors are hypoxic, whether they respond to interventions to increase O₂, and the timing of the response. Consequently, many techniques have been advanced to measure O₂ in tumors, but to date, none has been able to measure O₂ directly in the tumor repeatedly under clinically applicable conditions (i.e., without perturbing clinical flow). Initial efforts at Dartmouth demonstrated that in vivo electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, using three types of injected or implanted O₂ sensors, could provide the desired data under the desired conditions. Two types, injected paramagnetic India ink and an implanted coated derivative of lithium phthalocyanine, were successfully tested in clinical studies. However, their use is limited to tumors <1 cm of the surface. Consequently, Dartmouth developed a third O₂ sensor, an "implantable resonator" (IR), to allow measuring in tumors at any depth; the IR has been successfully tested in preclinical studies. However, because the IR requires implanting at greater depth than the other types, its invasiveness was considered to be a drawback for clinical studies. Therefore, Clin-EPR and colleagues at the University of Chicago made additional technical improvements to the IR and proposed a new approach, called the multisite oxygen sensor (MOS), that allows its use in clinical studies without adding any invasiveness to therapy the patient is already undergoing. Specifically, the MOS is being designed to use in conjunction with a frequently used therapeutic approach (HDR brachytherapy delivered with an afterloader), applied initially to cervical cancer. HDR brachytherapy requires the invasive placement of multiple needles into the tumor and leaves them in situ for days during the course of treatment. Using these same needles, modified to be permeable to O₂, would allow the MOS, inserted inside each needle, to simultaneously measure O₂ at multiple locations throughout the tumor. This O₂ measurement session could be repeated periodically during the course of therapy. We report preliminary technical studies of the modified MOS and the proposed modified brachytherapy needles, demonstrating in vitro the feasibility of our new approach to provide important information about tumor hypoxia during the course of radiation therapy without needing any additional invasiveness beyond standard of care therapy.

Background: Interpersonal neural synchrony (i.e., brain-to-brain synchronization, BBS) during collaborative tasks is an emerging area of research.The aim was to investigate whether sharing positive emotions through storytelling among colleagues enhances neural synchrony levels measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Subjects and methods: Fifteen pairs of co-workers (age: 39.5 ± 12.2 years, range: 21-60 years) from different professional backgrounds participated in the study. Each pair participated in three measurement sessions, with simultaneous fNIRS recording (left/right temporal-parietal and prefrontal cortex) during three different tasks: puzzle completion, sharing positive memories, and a verbal reasoning task. Participants were divided into three groups based on the frequency of practicing positive memory sharing between sessions. BBS was assessed using wavelet transform coherence (frequency range: 0.015-0.15 Hz). Linear mixed model analysis with bootstrapping was employed to examine the effects of "session" and "group" on BBS, with "pair ID" treated as a random effect.

Results: Significant increases in [O₂Hb] BBS in the left temporal-parietal region were observed between session 1 and session 3 (0.004-0.02) and between session 1 and session 2 (0.01-0.06). Groups practicing more frequently showed higher BBS levels (0.005-0.6 in [O₂Hb]; 0.009-0.06 in [tHb]).

Discussion: In our fNIRS hyperscanning study, we found that continuous sharing of personal experiences with positive emotions significantly enhances neural synchrony among co-workers, particularly in the left temporal-parietal region. More frequent practice led to higher BBS levels, suggesting the importance of regular collaborative activities, such as team-building exercises, in workplace settings. While bootstrapping was applied to improve statistical robustness, the small sample size remains a limitation, and further studies with larger sample size are needed to validate these findings.

Repeated concussion traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in long-term brain damage and cognitive dysfunctions, leading to neurodegenerative diseases. The brain clearance system plays a crucial role in TBI recovery and neurodegenerative disease amelioration by draining waste macromolecules from the brain. Pharmacological therapeutics have failed to demonstrate benefits in human TBI. Photobiomodulation (PBM) has gained interest in neuroscience and has been shown to improve brain drainage. Here, we evaluated the efficiency of PBM in the treatment of multiple concussions in mice and the augmentation of the brain clearance system. Three consecutive closed-head concussive TBIs were induced with a 1-h interval to the left hemisphere in C57BL/6 male mice. A near-infrared irradiation (1270 nm, 10 mW/cm²) was used for PBM 4 h after the last TBI and the following 3 days twice a day. Laser speckle contrast imaging was used to assess cerebral blood flow (rCBF). In vivo 2-photon laser scanning microscopy assessed PBM effects on cerebral microcirculation, tissue oxygen supply (NADH), and meningeal lymphatics clearance. Brain compliance was evaluated by intracranial pressure waveform analysis. Neurological severity scores were obtained at 0-3 days after TBI. Two-way ANOVA for multiple comparisons was used to test intergroup differences, with the statistical significance set at p < 0.05. Multiple concussions progressively impaired rCBF, cortical microcirculation, tissue oxygen supply, and brain drainage function (p < 0.05). Compared to the sham-treated group, PBM improved rCBF, microcirculation, tissue oxygenation, and the brain drainage system (p < 0.05). Neurological function was more preserved in the PBMT group than in sham-treated mice (p < 0.05). Our study demonstrated that PBMT can be used as an adjunct therapy even in the acute period of TBI.

The mitochondrial optical redox imaging (ORI), pioneered by the late Britton Chance and his coworkers starting from the 1950s, is mainly based on the intrinsic fluorescence of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and oxidized flavoproteins (Fp) containing flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD). These two important metabolic coenzymes regulate many intracellular biochemical reactions including glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation, and participate in the intricate interplay between metabolism and signaling. The optical redox ratio (ORR) of these two fluorescence signals is an indicator of mitochondrial metabolic and redox status. Chance and his coworkers not only studied redox status in cells and tissues based on the intrinsic fluorescence but also developed the Chance redox scanner in the 1970s-80s, which images the 3D distribution of NADH, Fp, and ORR ex vivo in snap-frozen tissues. The repertoire of ORI has been further strengthened and enriched with the modern technical advancements including state-of-the-art fluorescence, confocal, two-photon, and lifetime imaging microscopy. ORI has been extensively applied to (pre)cancer cells and tissues including clinical biopsies and patient tumor-derived organoids, to develop metabolic biomarkers for (pre)cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment response. In this chapter, I illustrate the basic principles, main concepts and progresses, and future directions of ORI in cancer research.

Coarse-grained (CG) modeling has emerged as an essential tool in computational biology, offering a simplified yet effective representation of proteins and their interactions. By reducing atomic detail, CG models enhance computational efficiency while preserving critical physical and chemical properties, enabling the study of large-scale biological phenomena. These models facilitate the exploration of complex processes-such as protein folding, conformational dynamics, molecular interactions, and supramolecular assemblies-that are often inaccessible to all-atom simulations. This chapter provides an overview of CG protein modeling, tracing its historical development from early simplified representations to advanced coarse-graining techniques. We discuss fundamental principles, including bottom-up and top-down parameterization strategies, statistical potentials, and structure-based approaches like elastic network models and Gō-like models. Key applications are explored, including insights into protein folding mechanisms, protein-protein interactions, phase separation, and protein-lipid interactions in complex cellular environments. Recent advances in CG-based drug discovery are also highlighted. The chapter concludes with a discussion on future directions for CG modeling, emphasizing hybrid approaches, artificial intelligence-driven parameterization, and enhanced force fields to improve accuracy and broaden applicability in computational biology.

Structural biology has played a key role in revealing the molecular basis of life in the past 50 years. Thanks to several landmark technical advances, the field has made significant strides from determining static macromolecular structures at atomic resolution to observing functional dynamics of protein structures spanning a vast conformational space and beyond the crystal lattice. As innovations in structural biology continue to transform modern biology and medicine, this chapter presents a perspective on past triumphs, current challenges, and future directions with a focus on how to capture protein structure dynamics using experimental and analytical methods.

This systematic review examines the burgeoning field of investigating mathematical efficiency through electroencephalography (EEG), aiming to elucidate the neural substrates and temporal dynamics underlying efficient mathematical processing. Through comprehensive database searches and rigorous inclusion criteria, a total of 15 EEG studies were identified and synthesized. Findings reveal distinct neural oscillations and event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with various facets of mathematical cognition, including numerical magnitude processing, arithmetic operations, working memory engagement, and problem-solving strategies. Furthermore, the review highlights the impact of individual differences, developmental trajectories, and mathematical expertise on EEG-derived measures of mathematical efficiency. Methodological considerations, encompassing experimental design, data preprocessing, and analytical techniques, are critically evaluated to enhance methodological rigor and reproducibility within the field. By consolidating evidence from diverse studies, this systematic review advances our understanding of the neural mechanisms underpinning mathematical cognition and delineates avenues for future research aimed at optimizing mathematical learning and performance through EEG-based approaches.

Introduction: COVID-19 infection is one of the most important current challenges globally. Data show that COVID-19 infections among health workers are higher than those of the general population. The aim of this study was the translation and the adaption of the questionnaire that was piloted to evaluate the level of health and safety of health professionals in Greece after the outbreak of the pandemic.

Methods: A structured forward-backward translation process was performed. The authors cooperated with a strategic sample of experts. The pilot study was conducted in three public hospitals of Attica, during the period September to December 2021. The selection of the participants was based on random sampling. The research tool that was used was the questionnaire on "Health and safety of health workers in COVID-19". Data were evaluated using Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient, intraclass correlation coefficient, t-test, and ANOVA test.

Results: Cronbach's α was 0.846, showing high internal consistency. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.969, indicating high test-retest reliability. There was a statistically significant gender difference in the scale relevant to health and safety risks and gender. Also, a statistically significant difference was found between the prevention measures and between the hospitals as well.

Conclusions: Comprehension of the Greek version of the original questionnaire was achieved. It seems to be a promising tool with acceptable internal consistency. Further study on a larger sample is required to generalize the results.