Southwestern Medical Center

Autonomic-Immune Crosstalk in Lupus: Impaired Cholinergic Signaling and Consequences for Cardiovascular-Renal Physiology

Over the years, our group has used complementary approaches to examine how autonomic-immune crosstalk influences the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We found that pharmacological enhancement of vagal activity and engagement of the parasympathetically-mediated...

Global Paid and Unpaid Productivity Losses Due to Gastrointestinal Cancer Mortality

OBJECTIVES: Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers contribute substantially to premature mortality, yet their full economic burden, including unpaid work, remains underquantified. We aimed to estimate global productivity losses attributable to GI cancer mortality, considering paid and unp...

Racial and ethnic survival disparities in primary liver cancer in the United States: a National Cancer Database propensity score-matched study

:Introduction Primary liver cancer is a leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. We evaluated whether racial and ethnic survival disparities among US patients with primary liver cancer persist after adjustment for clinical, treatment, socioeconomic, and access-related factors...

Electroclinical classification of idiopathic generalized epilepsy syndromes at initial evaluation: A prospective multicenter study

Abstract Objective To determine the extent to which electroclinical information available at initial evaluation allows classification of idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) syndromes, and to assess the contributions of seizure semiology and age at seizure onset to early syndrom...

Engineering microRNAs as multimodal cancer therapeutics

Resistance to systemic therapy remains a major challenge in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have improved outcomes for patients with EGFR-mutant tumors, but acquired resistance is common and can arise t...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa Impairs Mitochondrial Function During Infection of Corneal Epithelial Cells

Purpose: Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is a Gram-negative opportunistic bacterial pathogen that can infect the cornea as a result of trauma or contact lens wear. Mitochondria, originally derived from bacteria, play important roles in host defense. This study investigated the effect...

Autophagic degradation of RAB8A promotes ferroptosis through dysregulation of TFRC-mediated iron uptake

Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent form of regulated cell death driven by lipid peroxidation; however, how selective autophagy regulates ferroptotic sensitivity remains incompletely understood. Here, we identify RAB8A as a selective autophagic substrate and negative regulator of fe...

Aspartate-dependent polyamine biosynthesis in bacteria: chemical synthesis of carboxypolyamines and mechanism-based design of hydroxylamine-containing inhibitors of carboxyspermidine decarboxylase

Abstract Biogenic polyamines spermidine, spermine and some of their derivatives are small organic polycations vitally important in all domains of life. Recent studies have demonstrated that polyamine biosynthesis is subject to convergent evolution and that some bacteria employ bi...

Cuproptosis: an emerging member of the immunogenic cell death family

Cell death was long considered the terminal consequence of cellular stress or damage, and distinct cell death modalities were classified according to their molecular execution mechanisms rather than their immunological impact [ 1 , 2 ]. This reductionist view has progressively be...

Fatigue-induced decline and recovery of maximal motor unit firing rates did not differ between males and females in two muscles of the quadriceps femoris

Studies on sex-related differences in motor unit (MU) behaviour with muscle fatiguing tasks are limited, particularly during contractions of maximal intensity and usually to one muscle within a synergistic group. Therefore, the purpose was to investigate the influence of sex and...

The Influence of Religion, Country of Origin, and United States Acculturation on Stress Coping Techniques in a Spanish-Speaking Free Clinic Population

Introduction Many Spanish-speaking individuals in the United States experience high levels of stress but disproportionately underutilize mental health services due to cultural, socioeconomic, and religious barriers in accessing culturally relevant mental health care. Methods Cros...

Multimodal AI for automated assessment of surgical performance

Accurate and objective assessment of surgical skill is crucial for improving training outcomes, ensuring patient safety, and enabling scalable evaluation across clinical and simulation contexts. Current approaches often depend on subjective human ratings or unimodal analysis, lim...

Is Proton Therapy Superior to Gamma Knife Radiosurgery for Sporadic Vestibular Schwannoma?

With changing practice patterns, radiation therapy for vestibular schwannomas has become an increasingly utilized treatment modality with high tumor control rates. Gamma-Knife radiosurgery remains a well-established and readily accessible option with good rates for tumor control,...