Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Engineering and characterization of a novel hydrogel-based cancer spheroid system to recapitulate clinical wIRA -hyperthermia treatments

Background Water-filtered infrared-A (wIRA) mild hyperthermia (mHT) combined with radiotherapy can effectively treat superficial tumors. While in vitro models are essential for mechanistic studies, existing approaches mostly rely on monolayer cultures and non-clinical heating. We...

An ever healthier Union? Increasing regional health resilience through Cohesion Policy

The paper investigates the relationship between European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) and regional health resilience, asking two questions: What are the determinants of excess mortality during health emergencies in the EU? How can ESIF bolster regional health resilience...

Safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of an NMDA receptor subunit 2B-selective negative allosteric modulator, BI 1569912: Results of three partially randomised, placebo-controlled phase I trials

Background: BI 1569912 is an orally administered, GluN2B-selective negative allosteric modulator at the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor. Aims: To investigate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics (PK) of BI 1569912 in healthy males across three partially randomised, placebo...

Classification of Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis Patients by Prospective Patient‐Recorded Symptoms: The @ IT .2020 Project

BACKGROUND: Seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR) has been so far classified according to frequency and severity by retrospective information based on the ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma) classification. Electronic symptom diaries (e-Diaries) are feasible tools to col...

Multiscale characterization of cortical signatures in positive and negative schizotypy:a worldwide ENIGMA study

Positive and negative schizotypy reflect distinct patterns of subclinical traits in the general population associated with neurodevelopmental and schizophrenia-spectrum pathologies. Yet, a comprehensive characterization of the unique and shared neuroanatomical signatures of these...

Frameworks to identify research gaps, frame research needs, and derive research priorities from evidence syntheses:a scoping review

Objectives To identify and describe frameworks for systematically identifying research gaps from evidence syntheses, framing research needs, and establishing priorities, with emphasis on their use of GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) certai...

Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping‐Based Characterization of Lesion Heterogeneity in Multiple Sclerosis

ABSTRACT Background Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) characterizes multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions through susceptibility changes related to iron and myelin. However, the prevalence, regional distribution, and relationship of QSM‐defined lesion subtypes with choroid plex...

Machine learning provides individualized prediction of outcomes after first complete remission without allo‐HSCT consolidation in adult acute myeloid leukemia—A HARMONY study

Abstract Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo‐HSCT) is a curative treatment option for a significant proportion of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and it is generally recommended when the relapse risk without allo‐HSCT outweighs the estimated non‐r...

Evaluation of a community-based education program on maternal and child health needs in a semi-urban locality: a university-community partnership pilot project in Lahore, Pakistan

Pakistan faces high maternal and child mortality rates, with semi-urban and rural areas particularly affected. Community-based initiatives that emphasize local participation can address these challenges by fostering community ownership and sustainability. This study evaluated a c...

Volumetric reference data of the orbit: a deep learning MRI analysis in the German national cohort

Abstract Manual segmentation of orbital magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is labor-intensive, hindering large-scale morphometric studies. To overcome this, we developed a fully automated deep learning pipeline to segment orbital MRIs and establish age- and sex-stratified normative...

Nanobodies specific for Vβ11 enable detection and noninvasive imaging of antigen-specific T cells in vivo

Through screening of a VHH phage display library constructed from an alpaca immunized with the recombinantly expressed murine myelin oligodendrocyte (MOG)-specific 2D2 T cell receptor (TCR), we identified nanobodies that reduced antigen-driven 2D2 T cell activation in vitro. Immu...

Disentangling the drivers of heterogeneity in SARS-CoV-2 transmission from data on viral load and daily contact rates

Abstract SARS-CoV-2 transmission is highly overdispersed, with a minority of individuals responsible for the majority of transmission, though the drivers of this heterogeneity are unclear. Here, we assess the contribution of variation in viral load and daily contact rates to this...

Pediatric intensive care follow-up in Germany is rarely established and highly heterogeneous: a nationwide survey of 20 PICUs

BACKGROUND: Survival after pediatric critical illness has improved substantially, but many survivors and their families experience long-term physical, neurocognitive, psychological and social sequelae, summarized as post-intensive care syndrome in pediatrics and in families. Stru...

Cloning and characterization of intermediate Homer1E of human skeletal muscle

Abstract HOMER proteins are scaffolding proteins critically involved in intracellular signaling, calcium homeostasis, receptor trafficking and synaptic plasticity. Three human HOMER genes ( HOMER1 , HOMER2 , HOMER3 ) are expressed in both neurons and skeletal muscle fibers. HOMER...

Association of self-reported hearing loss and tinnitus with brain structure and cognitive function: a population-based cross-sectional analysis from the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP)

Abstract Background Hearing loss has been reported as a major, potentially modifiable risk factor for dementia and often co-occurs with tinnitus. Both conditions are prevalent and have been linked to brain health and cognitive decline. However, evidence from studies containing th...

Tissue and Cerebral Biofluid Remodelling of tRNA-Derived Small RNA Signatures in Experimental and Human Epilepsy

Small noncoding RNAs are increasingly recognized as important regulators of gene expression in brain diseases including epilepsy. tRNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) including tRNA fragments (tRFs) and tRNA halves (tiRNAs) are emerging as stable and regulated RNA species which respo...

Mucosal IgA to pre-fusion F protein predicts protection from RSV infection in a high burden setting

ABSTRACT Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes over 100,000 annual deaths, predominantly in low-and middle-income countries, yet immunological correlates of protection remain poorly defined in high-burden settings. We conducted an intensively sampled prospective household coho...

Beyond exact and asymptotic: optimization-based tuning of confidence intervals for proportions

Abstract Confidence interval estimation for binomial proportions remains challenging in finite samples due to the discreteness of the data, which induces oscillatory coverage behavior. Classical intervals are often conservative (e.g., Clopper–Pearson) or may exhibit undercoverage...

Microvascular remodeling and endothelial dysfunction across the post-COVID-19 spectrum: a prospective observational case-control study

<title>Abstract</title> Background Post-viral diseases, including post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), cause substantial long-term morbidity. Persistent cardiovascular risk after acute infection highlights the need for acce...

Ketamine’s impact on rumination-related brain dynamics: insights from a randomized controlled fMRI trial

Abstract Rumination has been associated with aberrant dynamics of a coactivation pattern (CAP) comprising the default mode (DMN) and frontoparietal (FPN) networks. Ketamine exerts rapid antidepressant effects and may influence these dynamics via glutamatergic mechanisms. In a ran...