Southwestern Medical Center

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...

Self-organization of vascularized muscle from bovine embryonic stem cells

Abstract Cultured beef offers a promising alternative to traditional meat. While adult stem cells are commonly used as the cell source for cultured beef, their proliferation and differentiation capacities are limited. Current manufacturing processes for cultured beef steaks often...

Care Models for the Genetic Evaluation of Dilated Cardiomyopathy at Sites of the DCM Consortium

Abstract Background Clinical genetic evaluation for patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is minimally implemented and models of care are not defined. To understand current genetics care for DCM, a systematic needs assessment was conducted. Methods Principal Investigators (P...

Sleep disturbances in children with cystic fibrosis on highly effective modulator therapy referred for polysomnography

Sleep disturbances are increasingly recognized in children with cystic fibrosis (CF), including those on highly effective modulator therapy (HEMT), but polysomnographic data remain limited and the factors associated with these disturbances are poorly understood. Single-center ret...

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...

Impact of prompt engineering and workflow modifications on the performance of a Delphi-based automated abstract screening system in a psychiatric systematic review

Large language models (LLMs) can facilitate the labor-intensive screening of literature for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Ensembling multiple LLMs to reach consensus on screening may allow locally deployed LLMs to achieve acceptable performance while reducing hallucinatio...

Impact of Response to Hypomethylating Agent‐Based Therapy on Survival Outcomes in the Context of Baseline Clinical‐Molecular Risk and Transplant Status in Patients With Higher‐Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes/Neoplasms: An analysis From the International Consortium for MDS (icMDS)

Baseline IPSS-M risk, response to hypomethylating agent (HMA) therapy, and receipt of allogeneic stem cell transplant (allo-HCT) have all been individually shown to impact overall survival (OS) in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). However, the prognostic impact of re...

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...

A community-validated tool for clinical outcome calculation in multiple sclerosis: Consensus development and scenario-specific recommendations

Background: Reproducibility and comparability of disability outcomes remain major challenges in multiple sclerosis (MS) research. Definitions of disability progression vary widely across studies, and calculation criteria are often insufficiently documented to enable replication....

Combined Post- and Precapillary Pulmonary Hypertension in Patients With Advanced Heart Failure

Pulmonary hypertension associated with left heart disease, or group 2 pulmonary hypertension, is common in patients with advanced heart failure. In at least a third of these patients, the pulmonary pressures are disproportionately elevated relative to left heart filling pressures...

Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy for Brain Tumors: A Prospective Multicenter Analysis of Patients From the LAANTERN Study

Background: Laser interstitial thermal therapy is a surgical tool used to ablate brain tumors, radiation necrosis, and epileptic foci. Data from the completed LAANTERN prospective multicenter registry (NCT02392078), containing tumor patients enrolled in the study across 25 US cen...

Effects of Dapagliflozin on the Bone of Patients with CKD on Dialysis

The effects of gliflozins on bones of CKD patients on dialysis are unknown. Recently, SGLT2 expression in bone tissue of patients with CKD has been reported. We hypothesized that dapagliflozin may act in bone cells and modulate the Klotho-FGF23 axis. This study analyzed the effec...

A generalized supervised contrastive learning framework for integrative multi-omics prediction models

Abstract Recent technological advances have highlighted the significant impact of the human microbiome and metabolites on physiological conditions. Integrating microbiome and metabolite data has shown promise in predictive capabilities. We developed a new supervised contrastive l...

Urinary Biomarkers for the Risk Assessment and Management of Heart Failure: Pearls and Pitfalls

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: We review potential applications and pitfalls of urinary biomarkers in people with heart failure (HF). RECENT FINDINGS: Albuminuria may indicate kidney damage and guide prioritization of medications in HF. Urine sodium is useful in guiding diuretic management....

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...

Disparities in Hospital Length of Stay and Morbidity in Acute Care Pediatric Cardiology Patients

BACKGROUND Multicenter collaborative studies examining disparities in in-hospital outcomes are lacking in pediatric cardiology. We hypothesized that Black and Hispanic patients in pediatric acute care cardiology units (ACCUs) have increased length of stay (LOS) and complications...

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,...

High-Throughput Proteomicand Glycoproteomic Analysesin Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

Abstract Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a disease affecting the majority of aging men; 90% of men develop histological BPH by the time they reach their eighties. BPH can lead to bothersome lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), which may reduce quality of life. Many patients...

Icotrokinra (ICO), a Novel Targeted Oral Peptide, in Patients (Pts) with Psoriatic Disease: Exploratory Assessments from a Phase 2 Psoriasis (PsO) Study Informing a Phase 3 Clinical Program in Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA)

Objectives PsA affects ~20-30% of patients with PsO, causing articular inflammation and impaired quality of life. ICO, a novel targeted oral peptide that binds IL-23 receptor, showed greater clinical response rates vs placebo and a favorable safety profile in moderate-to-severe p...