Search Results (27)

This narrative review aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the biomechanical consequences of medial meniscus posterior root tears (MMPRTs), with a particular focus on the role of hoop tension in meniscal function. By revisiting fundamental principles such as load transmission, contact mechanics, and structural stabilization, this review elucidates how MMPRTs compromise both the integrity and function of the knee joint. The disruption of hoop tension is analyzed across various tear patterns, and through a synthesis of biomechanical experiments, the superiority and necessity of anatomical structural restoration over conservative management or meniscectomy are emphasized. A comprehensive grasp of these biomechanical foundations offers a critical perspective on the pathomechanics of MMPRTs and serves as a basis for more rational, evidence-based surgical decision-making in clinical practice. Full article

Background/Objectives: Infant FreeSurfer was introduced to address robust quantification and segmentation in the infant brain. The purpose of this study is to develop a new model for predicting the long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes of very low birth weight preterm infants using automated volumetry extracted from term-equivalent age (TEA) brain MRIs, diffusion tensor imaging, and clinical information. Methods: Preterm infants hospitalized at Severance Children’s Hospital, born between January 2012 and December 2019, were consecutively enrolled. Inclusion criteria included infants with birth weights under 1500 g who underwent both TEA MRI and Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Second Edition (BSID-II), assessments at 18–24 months of corrected age (CA). Brain volumetric information was derived from Infant FreeSurfer using 3D T1WI of TEA MRI. Mean and standard deviation of fractional anisotropy of posterior limb of internal capsules were measured. Demographic information and comorbidities were used as clinical information. Study cohorts were split into training and test sets with a 7:3 ratio. Random forest and logistic regression models were developed to predict low Psychomotor Development Index (PDI < 85) and low Mental Development Index (MDI < 85), respectively. Performance metrics, including the area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC), accuracy, sensitivity, precision, and F1 score, were evaluated in the test set. Results: A total of 150 patient data were analyzed. For predicting low PDI, the random forest classifier was employed. The AUROC values for models using clinical variables, MR volumetry, and both clinical variables and MR volumetry were 0.8435, 0.7281, and 0.9297, respectively. To predict low MDI, a logistic regression model was chosen. The AUROC values for models using clinical variables, MR volumetry, and both clinical variables and MR volumetry were 0.7483, 0.7052, and 0.7755, respectively. The model incorporating both clinical variables and MR volumetry exhibited the highest AUROC values for both PDI and MDI prediction. Conclusions: This study presents a promising new prediction model utilizing an automated volumetry algorithm to distinguish long-term psychomotor developmental outcomes in preterm infants. Further research and validation are required for its clinical application. Full article

Background/Objectives: Chronic neuropathic pain (CNP) stands as one of the most debilitating complications in patients with myelitis owing to its challenging management. Bright spotty lesions (BSLs) are frequently observed in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), but few reports have discussed CNP in myelitis. We aim to demonstrate that BSLs could be one of the potential prognostic factors for CNP development in myelitis. Methods: We examined 63 patients diagnosed with myelitis. Patients were categorized into CNP and non-CNP groups. We assessed the severity of clinical symptoms and the oral steroid dose administered after pulse therapy. Spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of each patient was reviewed to analyze the characteristics of myelitis. Serological and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) findings were also examined to confirm the etiology. Results: CNP was observed in 27 patients (42.9%). The mean onset age of patients with CNP was 45.26 ± 14.16 years. The MRI lesions exhibited more enhanced features and bright spotty lesions (BSLs) in the CNP group (χ² test, p < 0.05). Patients with CNP received a lower oral steroid dose during the first month after symptom onset (χ² test, p < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that patients with CNP exhibited significant BSLs in their myelitis lesions on spine MRI (OR 4.965; 95% CI, 1.282 to 19.235, p = 0.02). Conclusions: Although the exact mechanism remains unknown, the presence of BSLs on spine MRI could serve as an independent prognostic factor for CNP development. Additionally, our study suggests that lower oral steroid doses administered immediately after symptom onset are associated with CNP development. Further investigation with a larger cohort is warranted to validate our findings. Full article

Interspecific hybridization between two different Brassicaceae species, namely Brassica rapa ssp. pekinensis (♀) (AA, 2n = 2x = 20) and genetically modified Brassica napus (♂) (AACC, 2n = 4x = 38), was performed to study the transmission of a herbicide resistance gene from a tetraploid to a diploid Brassica species. Initially, four different GM B. napus lines were used for hybridization with B. rapa via hand pollination. Among the F1 hybrids, the cross involving the B. rapa (♀) × GM B. napus (♂) TG#39 line exhibited the highest recorded crossability index of 14.7 ± 5.7. However, subsequent backcross progenies (BC1, BC2, and BC3) displayed notably lower crossability indices. The F1 plants displayed morphological characteristics more aligned with the male parent B. napus, with significant segregation observed in the BC1 generation upon backcrossing with the recurrent parent B. rapa. By the BC2 and BC3 generations, the progeny stabilized, manifesting traits from both parents to varying degrees. Cytogenetic analysis revealed a substantial reduction in chromosome numbers, particularly in backcrossing progenies. BC1 plants typically exhibited 21–25 chromosomes, while BC2 progenies showed 21–22 chromosomes, and by the BC3 generation, stability was achieved with an average of 20 chromosomes. SSR marker analysis confirmed the progressive reduction of C-genome regions, retaining minimal C-genome-specific bands throughout successive backcrossing. Despite the extensive elimination of C-genome-specific genomic regions, the glyphosate resistance gene from the male parent B. napus was introgressed into BC3 progenies, suggesting that the glyphosate resistance gene located and introgressed in A-chromosome/genome regions of the Brassica plants. Full article

Objectives: The aim of this nationwide longitudinal cohort study is to determine the risk of congestive heart failure (CHF) associated with a seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) population in Korea. Methods: In this study, National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort (NHIS-HEALS) data from 2002 to 2003 were used. The cohort was followed up with for 12 years until December of 2015. Seropositive RA was defined as a patient prescribed with a disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) among patients with the International Classification of Diseases code M05 (seropositive RA). Patients who were diagnosed before 2004 were excluded. The seropositive RA group consisted of 2765 patients, and a total of 13,825 patients were in the control group. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to calculate the 12-year CHF incidence rate for each group. A Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to estimate the hazard ratio of CHF. Results: The hazard ratio of CHF in the seropositive RA group was 2.41 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.40–4.14) after adjusting for age and sex. The adjusted hazard ratio of CHF in the seropositive RA group was 2.50 (95% CI: 1.45–4.30) after adjusting for age, sex, income, and comorbidities. In females aged ≥65 and aged <65, the incidence rates in the non-hypertension, non-diabetes mellitus, and non-dyslipidemia subgroups were significantly higher in the seropositive RA group than in the control group. Conclusions: This nationwide longitudinal cohort study shows an increased risk of CHF in patients with seropositive RA. Full article

Microbial pathogens cause a quarter of all deaths worldwide annually due to deadly infectious diseases. Nevertheless, the fast and precise identification of pathogens remains one of the most challenging tasks in the medical sector. Early identification and characterization of microbes through medical diagnosis could pave the way for specific treatment strategies that could dramatically improve infection management, reduce healthcare costs, mitigate increasing antimicrobial resistance, and save numerous lives. To date, numerous traditional and molecular methods have been employed to diagnose illnesses with proven accuracy, reliability, and efficiency. Here, we have reviewed the most reliable tools that are prerequisites for the rapid detection of microbes. In particular, the remarkable roles of surface-enhanced Raman scattering, Fourier-transform infrared, electrochemical impedance, near-infrared, and MALDI-TOF/TOF in the identification and characterization of pathogenic microbes are discussed in detail. The approaches described herein cover broad ranges of biomedical applications, including the diagnosis of clinical infectious diseases, epidemiology, detection of vector-borne diseases, food security, phytosanitary monitoring, biosensing, and food- and waterborne pathogen detection. Considering the current pandemic outbreak, this review briefly emphasizes the importance of rapid detection and upgraded tools for early diagnosis to prevent the loss of lives. Full article

Cereals have evolved various tolerance mechanisms to cope with abiotic stress. Understanding the abiotic stress response mechanism of cereal crops at the molecular level offers a path to high-yielding and stress-tolerant cultivars to sustain food and nutritional security. In this regard, enormous progress has been made in the omics field in the areas of genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics. Omics approaches generate a massive amount of data, and adequate advancements in computational tools have been achieved for effective analysis. The combination of integrated omics and bioinformatics approaches has been recognized as vital to generating insights into genome-wide stress-regulation mechanisms. In this review, we have described the self-driven drought, heat, and salt stress-responsive mechanisms that are highlighted by the integration of stress-manipulating components, including transcription factors, co-expressed genes, proteins, etc. This review also provides a comprehensive catalog of available online omics resources for cereal crops and their effective utilization. Thus, the details provided in the review will enable us to choose the appropriate tools and techniques to reduce the negative impacts and limit the failures in the intensive crop improvement study. Full article

Brown mustard (Brassica juncea (L.) is an important oilseed crop that is mostly used to produce edible oils, industrial oils, modified lipids and biofuels in subtropical nations. Due to its higher level of commercial use, the species has a huge array of varieties/cultivars. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of visible near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy in combination with multiple chemometric approaches for distinguishing four B. juncea varieties in Korea. The spectra from the leaves of four different growth stages of four B. juncea varieties were measured in the Vis-NIR range of 325–1075 nm with a stepping of 1.5 nm in reflectance mode. For effective discrimination, the spectral data were preprocessed using three distinct approaches, and eight different chemometric analyses were utilized. After the detection of outliers, the samples were split into two groups, one serving as a calibration set and the other as a validation set. When numerous preprocessing and chemometric approaches were applied for discriminating, the combination of standard normal variate and deep learning had the highest classification accuracy in all the growth stages achieved up to 100%. Similarly, few other chemometrics also yielded 100% classification accuracy, namely, support vector machine, generalized linear model, and the random forest. Of all the chemometric preprocessing methods, Savitzky–Golay filter smoothing provided the best and most convincing discrimination. The findings imply that chemometric methods combined with handheld Vis-NIR spectroscopy can be utilized as an efficient tool for differentiating B. juncea varieties in the field in all the growth stages. Full article

Interspecific hybridization between transgenic crops and their wild relatives is a major concern for transgene dispersal in the environment. Under controlled conditions, artificial hand pollination experiments were performed in order to assess the hybridization potential and the fitness of interspecific hybrids between Brassica rapa and genetically modified (GM) Brassica napus. Initially, six subspecies of B. rapa were hybridized with GM B. napus through hand pollination. In the resulting F₁ hybrids, the combination of B. rapa ssp. narinosa (♀) × GM B. napus (♂) had the highest crossability index (16.9 ± 2.6). However, the F₁ selfing progenies of B. rapa ssp. rapa (♀) × GM B. napus were found to be more effective in producing viable future generations with the highest crossability index (1.6 ± 0.69) compared to other subspecies. Consequently, they were used for the generation of F₂ and F₃ progenies. The 18 different morphological characteristics among the parental cross-combinations and F₁ hybrid progenies were measured and visualized through hierarchical clustering. Different generations were found to be grouped based on their different morphological characteristics. The chromosome numbers among the interspecific hybrids ranged from 2n = 29 to 2n = 40. Furthermore, the SSR markers revealed the presence of genomic portions in the hybrids in comparison with their parental lines. There is a high possibility of transgene flow between GM B. napus and B. rapa. The study concluded that the interspecific hybrids between B. napus and B. rapa can be viable and can actively hybridize up to F₃ generations and more. This suggests that the GM B. napus can disperse the transgene into B. rapa, and that it can pass through for several generations by hand pollination in a greenhouse environment. Full article

In nature, interspecific hybridization occurs frequently and can contribute to the production of new species or the introgression of beneficial adaptive features between species. It has great potential in agricultural systems to boost the process of targeted crop improvement. In the advent of genetically modified (GM) crops, it has a disadvantage that it involves the transgene escaping to unintended plants, which could result in non-specific weedy crops. Several crop species in the Brassica genus have close kinship: canola (Brassica napus) is an ancestral hybrid of B. rapa and B. oleracea and mustard species such as B. juncea, B. carinata, and B. nigra share common genomes. Hence, intraspecific hybridization among the Brassica species is most common, especially between B. napus and B. rapa. In general, interspecific hybrids cause numerous genetic and phenotypic changes in the parental lines. Consequently, their fitness and reproductive ability are also highly varied. In this review, we discuss the interspecific hybridization and reciprocal hybridization studies of B. napus and B. rapa and their potential in the controlled environment. Further, we address the fate of transgenes (herbicide resistance) and their ability to transfer to their progenies or generations. This could help us to understand the environmental influence of interspecific hybrids and how to effectively manage their transgene escape in the future. Full article

The rapid advancement of genetically modified (GM) technology over the years has raised concerns about the safety of GM crops and foods for human health and the environment. Gene flow from GM crops may be a threat to the environment. Therefore, it is critical to develop reliable, rapid, and low-cost technologies for detecting and monitoring the presence of GM crops and crop products. Here, we used visible near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy to distinguish between GM and non-GM Brassica napus, B. juncea, and F₁ hybrids (B. juncea X GM B. napus). The Vis-NIR spectra were preprocessed with different preprocessing methods, namely normalization, standard normal variate, and Savitzky–Golay. Both raw and preprocessed spectra were used in combination with eight different chemometric methods for the effective discrimination of GM and non-GM plants. The standard normal variate and support vector machine combination was determined to be the most accurate model in the discrimination of GM, non-GM, and hybrid plants among the many combinations (99.4%). The use of deep learning in combination with Savitzky–Golay resulted in 99.1% classification accuracy. According to the findings, it is concluded that handheld Vis-NIR spectroscopy combined with chemometric analyses could be used to distinguish between GM and non-GM B. napus, B. juncea, and F₁ hybrids. Full article

In recent years, the rapid development of genetically modified (GM) technology has raised concerns about the safety of GM crops and foods for human health and the ecological environment. Gene flow from GM crops to other crops, especially in the Brassicaceae family, might pose a threat to the environment due to their weediness. Hence, finding reliable, quick, and low-cost methods to detect and monitor the presence of GM crops and crop products is important. In this study, we used visible near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy for the effective discrimination of GM and non-GM Brassica napus, B. rapa, and F1 hybrids (B. rapa X GM B. napus). Initially, Vis-NIR spectra were collected from the plants, and the spectra were preprocessed. A combination of different preprocessing methods (four methods) and various modeling approaches (eight methods) was used for effective discrimination. Among the different combinations, the Savitzky-Golay and Support Vector Machine combination was found to be an optimal model in the discrimination of GM, non-GM, and hybrid plants with the highest accuracy rate (100%). The use of a Convolutional Neural Network with Normalization resulted in 98.9%. The same higher accuracy was found in the use of Gradient Boosted Trees and Fast Large Margin approaches. Later, phenolic acid concentration among the different plants was assessed using GC-MS analysis. Partial least squares regression analysis of Vis-NIR spectra and biochemical characteristics showed significant correlations in their respective changes. The results showed that handheld Vis-NIR spectroscopy combined with chemometric analyses could be used for the effective discrimination of GM and non-GM B. napus, B. rapa, and F1 hybrids. Biochemical composition analysis can also be combined with the Vis-NIR spectra for efficient discrimination. Full article

Curcumin, a yellow-colored molecule derived from the rhizome of Curcuma longa, has been identified as the bioactive compound responsible for numerous pharmacological activities of turmeric, including anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antidiabetic, etc. Nevertheless, the clinical application of curcumin is inadequate due to its low solubility, poor absorption, rapid metabolism and elimination. Advancements in recent research have shown several components and techniques to increase the bioavailability of curcumin. Combining with adjuvants, encapsulating in carriers and formulating in nanoforms, in combination with other bioactive agents, synthetic derivatives and structural analogs of curcumin, have shown increased efficiency and bioavailability, thereby augmenting the range of applications of curcumin. The scope for incorporating biotechnology and nanotechnology in amending the current drawbacks would help in expanding the biomedical applications and clinical efficacy of curcumin. Therefore, in this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the plethora of therapeutic potentials of curcumin, their drawbacks in efficient clinical applications and the recent advancements in improving curcumin’s bioavailability for effective use in various biomedical applications. Full article

Globally, the cultivation area of genetically modified (GM) crops is increasing dramatically. Despite their well-known benefits, they may also pose many risks to agriculture and the environment. Among the various GM crops, GM rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is widely cultivated, mainly for oil production. At the same time, B. napus possesses a number of characteristics, including the ability to form feral populations and act as small-seeded weeds, and has a high potential for hybridization with other species. In this review, we provide an overview of the commercialization, approval status, and cultivation of GM rapeseed, as well as the status of the feral rapeseed populations. In addition, we highlight the case studies on the unintentional environmental release of GM rapeseed during transportation in several countries. Previous studies suggest that the main reason for the unintentional release is seed spillage during transport/importing of rapeseed in both GM rapeseed-cultivating and -non-cultivating countries. Despite the fact that incidents of unintentional release have been recorded often, there have been no reports of serious detrimental consequences. However, since rapeseed has a high potential for hybridization, the possibilities of gene flow within the genus, especially with B. rapa, are relatively significant, and considering their weedy properties, effective management methods are needed. Hence, we recommend that specific programs be used for the effective monitoring of environmental releases of GM rapeseed as well as management to avoid environmental and agricultural perturbations. Full article

Seaweed extracts are considered effective therapeutic alternatives to synthetic anticancer, antioxidant, and antimicrobial agents, owing to their availability, low cost, greater efficacy, eco-friendliness, and non-toxic nature. Since the bioactive constituents of seaweed, in particular, phytosterols, possess plenty of medicinal benefits over other conventional pharmaceutical agents, they have been extensively evaluated for many years. Fortunately, recent advances in phytosterol-based research have begun to unravel the evidence concerning these important processes and to endow the field with the understanding and identification of the potential contributions of seaweed-steroidal molecules that can be used as chemotherapeutic drugs. Despite the myriad of research interests in phytosterols, there is an immense need to fill the void with an up-to-date literature survey elucidating their biosynthesis, pharmacological effects, and other biomedical applications. Hence, in the present review, we summarize studies dealing with several types of seaweed to provide a comprehensive overview of the structural determination of several phytosterol molecules, their properties, biosynthetic pathways, and mechanisms of action, along with their health benefits, which could significantly contribute to the development of novel drugs and functional foods. Full article