UW Neurological Surgery Recent PubMed Publications

In order to better understand the relationship between normal and neoplastic brain, we combined five publicly available large-scale datasets, correcting for batch effects and applying Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) to RNA-seq data. We assembled a reference Brain-UMAP including 702 adult gliomas, 802 pediatric tumors and 1409 healthy normal brain samples, which can be utilized to investigate the wealth of information obtained from combining several publicly available...

Breathing needs to be tightly coordinated with upper airway behaviors, such as swallowing. Discoordination leads to aspiration pneumonia, the leading cause of death in neurodegenerative diseases. Here we study the role of the postinspiratory complex, (PiCo) in coordinating breathing and swallowing. Using optogenetic approaches in freely breathing-anesthetized ChATcre, Vglut2cre and co-transmission of ChATcre/Vglut2FlpO mice reveals this small brainstem microcircuit acts as a central gating...

CONCLUSION: The GRP78 inhibitor YUM70 reduced HNSCC cell viability and re-sensitized cisplatin-resistant HNSCC cell line in both 2D and 3D spheroid models, suggesting the potential use of YUM70 in the treatment of HNSCC, including cisplatin-resistant HNSCC.

OBJECTIVE: For an antiseizure medication (ASM) to be effective in status epilepticus (SE), the drug should be administered intravenously (i.v.) to provide quick access to the brain. However, poor aqueous solubility is a major problem in the development of parenteral drug solutions. Given its multiple mechanisms of action, topiramate (TPM) is a promising candidate for the treatment of established or refractory SE, as supported by clinical studies using nasogastric tube TPM administration....

This is the first case report of sleep-disordered breathing in patients with Pontine Tegmental Cap Dysplasia (PTCD), a very rare neurological disorder characterized by an anatomic malformation in the pons. Patients present with hypotonia, cognitive dysfunction and cranial nerve palsies (e.g., hearing loss, trigeminal anesthesia, and swallow dysfunction). Extensive studies have demonstrated the relevance of different pontine neuronal nuclei in breathing regulation, which are structurally abnormal...

CONCLUSIONS: In UIA patients with hypertension, CCB use was associated with a lower incidence of aneurysm instability.

CONCLUSIONS: FESS compares favorably for risk reduction in SSI following spinal decompression surgeries with similar operative characteristics. As a consequence, FESS may be considered the optimal strategy for minimizing SSI morbidity.

CONCLUSION: Findings from this series of children with TBI indicate that: (1) Availability of clinical order set with protocol facilitated clinical cerebral autoregulation testing, (2) Clinicians ordered cerebral autoregulation tests in children with severe TBI receiving high therapeutic intensity and repeatedly with impaired status on the first test, (3) Clinical cerebral autoregulation testing is feasible and safe, and (4) Testing results led to change in hemodynamic targets in some patients.

CONCLUSION: This multicenter, randomized pilot study demonstrates the effectiveness, safety, and feasibility of a placebo-controlled trial in iNPH, and found a trend suggesting gait velocity improves more in the open shunt group than in the placebo group.

There is a lay assumption that women's sexual desire varies substantially over time, whereas men's is stable. This assumption is mirrored in prominent theories of desire, which posit that women are more variable than men in the extent to which they desire sex, and that women's sexual desire is more contextually sensitive than men's. We tested this assumption across three longitudinal studies. Study 1 assessed desire at 3 time points spanning 13 years (N(observations) = 5562), and Studies 2 and 3...

Many patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) are at risk for mental health problems such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The objective of this study was to determine whether the polygenic risk for PTSD (or for related mental health disorders or traits including major depressive disorder [MDD] and neuroticism [NEU]) was associated with an increased likelihood of PTSD in the aftermath of mTBI. We used data from individuals of European ancestry with mTBI enrolled in TRACK-TBI (n =...

CONCLUSIONS: The most critical factor that can affect total COVID-19 fatalities in China is the extent to which the elderly can be protected.

Severely-afflicted COVID-19 patients can exhibit disease manifestations representative of sepsis, including acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ failure. We hypothesized that diagnostic tools used in managing all-cause sepsis, such as clinical criteria, biomarkers, and gene expression signatures, should extend to COVID-19 patients. Here we analyzed the whole blood transcriptome of 124 early (1-5 days post-hospital admission) and late (6-20 days post-admission) sampled patients...

Mesothelioma is a rare and insidious neoplasm and is characterized by its highly malignant and aggressive nature. The most common etiology is asbestos exposure, but there are some reports without known asbestos exposure and other factors leading to malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Here, we present the case of a 58-year-old woman with pleuritic chest pain, dyspnea, and fever on presentation to the emergency department (ED), which caused several admissions to the ED in 20 days. The patient...

CONCLUSION: The pattern of PPA use has changed remarkably over the observation period. Furthermore, specific differences in PPA prescriptions were observed among patients with certain co-morbidities.

7DW8-5 is a potent glycolipid adjuvant that improves malaria vaccine efficacy in mice by inducing IFN-γ and increasing protective CD8^(+) T cell responses. The addition of 7DW8-5 was previously shown to improve the efficacy of a CD8^(+) T cell-mediated heterologous 'prime-and-trap' malaria vaccine against Plasmodium yoelii sporozoite challenge in inbred female mice. Here, we report significant differential sex-specific responses to 7DW8-5 in inbred and outbred mice. Male mice express...

Global enhanced human activities have deeply influenced grassland ecosystems. Quantifying the impact of human activities on grasslands is crucial to understanding the grassland dynamic change mechanism, such as grassland degradation, and to establishing ecosystem protection measures. In this study, potential net primary productivity (PNPP), actual NPP (ANPP), and the forage harvest NPP (HNPP) were employed to establish the human activities index (HAI) to reveal the spatiotemporal changes of the...

MK-801, also called dizocilpine, is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist widely used in animal research to model schizophrenia-like phenotypes. Although its effects in rodents are well characterised, little is known about the outcomes of this drug in other organisms. In this study, we characterise the effects of MK-801 on the locomotion, sleep, and negative geotaxis of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. We observed that acute (24 h) and chronic (7 days) administration of MK-801...

National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) spacecraft assembly facilities are monitored for the presence of any bacteria or fungi that might conceivably survive a transfer to an extraterrestrial environment. Fungi present a broad and diverse range of phenotypic and functional traits to adapt to extreme conditions, hence the detection of fungi and subsequent eradication of them are needed to prevent forward contamination for future NASA missions. During the construction and assembly...

Background and objective: There is no report of the rate of opioid prescription at the time of hospital discharge, which may be associated with various patient and procedure-related factors. This study examined the prevalence and factors associated with prescribing opioids for head/neck pain after elective craniotomy for tumor resection/vascular repair. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study on adults undergoing elective craniotomy for tumor resection/vascular repair at a large...