Johns Hopkins Medicine

Rhinosinusitis in Adults Receiving Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Inhibitors and Anti‐CD20 Therapy: A Scoping Review

ABSTRACT Introduction Immunomodulatory therapies, including tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α) inhibitors and anti‐CD20 agents, are often used for autoimmune, inflammatory, and neoplastic disorders. While infection risk is well recognized, their association with rhinosinusitis r...

Modernizing the Institutional Review Board Process for Implementation Science – A Narrative Review of Barriers and Ethical Considerations

Abstract Purpose of Review This review highlights the barriers and facilitators that implementation science studies face in the institutional review board (IRB) approval pathway and provides recommendations on how to potentially streamline this process. Recent findings Significan...

Schizophrenia: advances in pathophysiology, management, and precision medicine

Abstract Schizophrenia is a common and severe mental condition with onset usually in late adolescence and young adulthood. Schizophrenia is caused by a combination of multiple genetic and environmental factors with significant neurodevelopmental implications. Advances in the clin...

Rebalancing mitochondrial dynamics restores succinate dehydrogenase activity and reduces succinate release in hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Dysregulated mitochondrial dynamics in cancer cells perturbs mitochondrial function and metabolism and promotes cancer progression. Its impacts on the electron transport chain, oxidative phosphorylation, redox balance, and glycolysis are well recognized. However, its...

Intracranial delivery of neuron-preferential lipid nanoparticles for gene-editing activity in mouse brain

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are promising non-viral vectors for central nervous system (CNS) gene therapy, but effective delivery is limited by the blood-brain barrier and cell-type specificity. Here, we combined intracranial delivery with high-throughput, cluster-based screening...

Pilot study comparing the effects of high dose THC to high dose psilocybin and placebo in the set and setting of a classic psychedelic therapy session

RATIONALE: Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) has been reported to evoke psychedelic-like experiences at high doses in some individuals. However, the doses of Δ9-THC that occasion such effects and the phenomenology of these experiences are poorly understood. OBJECTIVES: This b...

Gaps in Breast Reconstruction Patient Educational Resources: Comparing Patient and Surgeon Perspectives

Abstract Breast reconstruction is an important component of cancer care following mastectomy, improving psychosocial well-being and quality of life. However, not all patients are satisfied with their outcomes. Patient satisfaction with preoperative information is a strong predict...

STcompare: comparative spatial transcriptomics data analysis of structurally matched tissues to characterize differentially spatially patterned genes

Abstract Motivation Comparative analysis of spatial transcriptomics (ST) data is needed to identify genes that spatially change in their expression patterns between conditions, such as in diseased versus healthy tissues. Existing methods generally fail to distinguish changes in s...

Triptolide sensitizes cancer cells to nucleoside DNA methyltransferase inhibitors through inhibition of DCTPP1-mediated cell-intrinsic resistance

SUMMARY While nucleoside DNA methyltransferase inhibitors (DNMTi) such as decitabine and azacitidine are effective in treating myelodysplatic syndrome (MDS)/leukemia, they have had limited utility for the majority of other cancers. Through a chemical library screen, we identified...

Proteomic Immune Signatures of Severe HIV-Associated Tuberculosis in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Prospective, Multicenter Analysis From Uganda

Abstract Objective Severe tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of critical illness and death in people living with HIV (PLWH) worldwide. Despite this, the immunopathology of severe HIV-associated TB (HIV/TB) is poorly understood. We aimed to identify an immunopathologic signature o...

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)

Importance Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a chronic autonomic disorder characterized by excessive orthostatic tachycardia and multisystem symptoms that affects an estimated 0.1% to 1% of the US population. POTS can substantially impair daily functioning and q...

Repositioning of Vertical Implantable Phakic Contact Lens

ABSTRACT Implantable phakic contact lens (IPCL) V2.0 has a special patterned hole on the leading left corner to ensure correct orientation and positioning. Incorrect orientation is an absolute indication for repositioning. We emphasize that incorrect orientation of a toric IPCL c...

Divergent complication patterns of type 2 diabetes in African individuals who are lean versus overweight or obese: a multi-cohort analysis

Abstract Aims/hypothesis Nearly 40% of African adults with type 2 diabetes are lean (BMI <25 kg/m 2 ). Emerging evidence suggests that type 2 diabetes in African individuals who are lean may represent a distinct phenotype driven by impaired insulin secretion rather than insulin r...

Platelet-derived S100A9 contributes to endotheliopathy in alcohol-associated hepatitis

Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) is a growing global health concern, with alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) leading to the highest morbidity and mortality. Available therapies are limited and often inadequate. Platelets contribute in a variety of ways to liver disease patho...

Metabolomic profiling reveals distinct and shared biology in COPD and IPF

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD) and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) are chronic pulmonary disorders with distinct pathologies but shared risk factors. Metabolomics may provide insights into mechanisms. To identify metabolites associated with COPD and IPF, and to...

Examining Practice and Payment Gaps in Otolaryngology: Evidence from US Medicare Data

Abstract Objective To assess longitudinal differences in Medicare reimbursement, billing patterns, and service composition among US otolaryngologists. Study Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare fee‐for‐service database...

Sulforaphane Decreases the Burden of AKT1-Expressing Pre-Neoplastic Cells in a Zebrafish Model of Glioblastoma Initiation

Background: Glioblastoma is a primary aggressive brain tumor, with an average survival rate of ~14.6 months. The low therapeutic benefit of current treatments is in part due to glioblastoma-initiating cells hijacking microglia/macrophages to support tumor growth, prompting the de...

2-arm-PEG-OligocationsTransiently Shield theLiver Sinusoids to Mitigate Off-Target Hepatic Expression of mRNALipid Nanoparticles

ABSTRACT Ionizable lipid nanoparticles (iLNPs) are powerful platforms for mRNA-based vaccines and immunotherapies; however, their intrinsic liver tropism compromises both safety and efficacy. Off-target hepatic protein expression from delivered mRNA raises safety concerns, and he...

SPINK1-COL18A1 crosstalk shapes epigenome and drives cancer stemness in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastating cancer with an increasing incidence and extremely dismal prognosis. Discovery and mechanistic understanding of the genetic and epigenetic drivers of PDAC is therefore of critical importance. Here, we uncover serine protease...

Characterizing the impact of incorporating spatially aggregated human mobility data into infectious disease models

Abstract Models of infectious disease dynamics should align the spatial scale of mobility data to the scale of travel relevant to infer disease introduction events and subsequent local transmission. Despite this, the biases of spatially aggregating mobility data, which are more c...