This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Osteoarthritis is the most common form of joint disease, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. One promising therapeutic target is TGF-β signaling. Studies have shown that blocking this signaling pathway can slow the progression of osteoarthritis. The problem is that TGF-β signaling is also critical for repairing the cartilage cells that are degraded in osteoarthritis. To help separate the bad from the good, researchers recently examined the genetic blueprints that control TGF-β signaling. They discovered a key player in circPhf21a, a type of rare genetic material known as circular RNA. Initially believed to be misshapen RNA, circular RNA is being revealed as an important mediator of disease. In the current study, the team found that overexpression of circPhf21a led to the growth of fewer-than-normal cartilage cells in mice. And in mice with osteoarthritis, levels of circPhf21a were found to be significantly increased..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Penile circumcision dramatically reduces the risk of contracting HIV-1. This protection likely has multiple physical and biological mechanisms, and understanding these mechanisms could lead to non-surgical interventions to reduce HIV-1 transmission. Thus, researchers examined the microbiota and immune milieu before and after elective circumcision in two key areas. The coronal sulcus (CS), which is exposed to the air by foreskin removal and the urethra, which is thought to be the primary site of penile HIV-1 infection in circumcised men. The CS showed a dramatic decrease in pro-inflammatory anaerobic bacteria after circumcision, as well as significantly reduced inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Circumcision also altered the urethral microbiota. However — in contrast to the CS — there were few changes to the urethral immune profile..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Overexpression of the protein EGFR is associated with various cancers. That’s made EGFR inhibitors a promising class of anti-cancer drugs. Although EGFR targeting of colorectal cancer is well understood, some patients respond unexpectedly well. A pair of studies have studied why cancers with the KRAS G13D mutation respond well to EGFR inhibition. They propose different mechanisms to explain the beneficial response. One study suggests that a tumor-suppressing protein known as NF1 decreases the KRAS activity that drives cancer growth. The other suggests that NF1 actually decreases NRAS and HRAS but not KRAS. Now, a new study appears to provide some clarity in the matter. Using antibodies specific to each RAS protein, researchers showed that an abundance of NF1 downregulates the proteins NRAS and HRAS in colorectal cancer cells, with no effect on KRAS..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Cardiac fibrosis, or scarring of heart tissue, is a common finding in many disorders of the heart, including myocardial infarction, hypertension, and cardiac hypertrophy. A key step in this form of scarring is the transformation of fibroblasts, cells that provide structural, electrical, and chemical support into myofibroblasts, more muscle-like cells expressed only in stressed or failing hearts. A new review explores the important role played by noncoding RNAs in this transformation. Noncoding RNAs, studies are showing, regulate fibrotic scarring through the TGF-β and WNT signaling pathways. TGF-β signaling participates in a variety of heart-related processes, including cardiac repair, hypertrophy, fibrotic remodeling, and fibroblast activation. WNT signaling, meanwhile, is implicated in the pathogenesis of many diseases. Crosstalk between the TGF-β and WNT pathways could be responsible for the transcription of genes that promote fibrosis..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Short implants are an increasingly popular treatment option for single tooth loss, especially in the posterior upper jaw Compared with standard implants, short implants could also offer high survival rates and fewer intraoperative complications. Nowadays, immediate functional loading has become a well-accepted treatment modality in the daily dental practice. Immediate loading following a procedure can reduce overall duration treatment and the number of surgical interventions required. However, few studies have examined the treatment outcomes of immediately functionally loaded short implants. To explore these outcomes, researchers - compared the effects of immediate versus delayed functional loading of short implants for single-tooth replacement in the posterior maxilla. Their findings could offer valuable guidance to dentists weighing different implantation options for patients..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Gut microbe-mediated breakdown of intestinal contents is important for host nutrition and immunity, but the specific nutrients consumed by common gut microbes are unclear. To learn more, a recent study combined microbiota profiling and untargeted metabolomics to examine gut metabolites and microbes in mice. Microbiome disruption with an antibiotic (streptomycin) increased the levels of carbohydrates, particularly sugar acids and sugar alcohols, in the cecum and these increases were associated with depletion of Clostridia and Erysipelotrichia. Conversely, inoculation of microbe-free mice with a Clostridia/Erysipelotrichia mixture (CE17) reduced sugar acid and sugar alcohol levels. Transplantation of microbe-free mice with a complex normal-mouse microbiome (C57FMT) produced similar results, supporting the importance of Clostridia and Erysipelotrichia for digestion of these substances..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The drug colistin is considered the “last resort” treatment for infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. However, bacterial resistance to colistin is becoming increasingly prevalent, posing a public health threat. To help determine how to address this problem, researchers recently examined a highly colistin- resistant strain of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen. The researchers identified a colistin-degrading protease (Cdp) in the strain and confirmed its role in resistance. In coculture experiments with the colistin-susceptible bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, S. maltophilia inactivated colistin via Cdp and thereby protected P. aeruginosa from the antibiotic. This suggests that Cdp-mediated resistance might substantially limit colistin’s efficacy against polymicrobial infections, such as cystic fibrosis, even if some of the microbes present are sensitive to colistin..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Uncontrolled hypertension is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Despite available treatments, less than half of those with hypertension have optimal blood pressure control, with that percentage continuing to go down. Self-measured blood pressure monitoring (or SMBP) with clinical supports is one effective way of controlling blood pressure. Unfortunately, in the US, as few as 25% of adults with hypertension measure their blood pressure at home, and even fewer follow an [evidence-based protocol] to take regular home measurements and share them with their care team. Limited use of SMBP is due to a variety of barriers that both patients and their health care provider teams encounter. In search of ways to improve these poor statistics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Association of Community Health Centers, the YMCA of the USA, and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials conducted a pilot project in nine community health centers across three states..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) regulate cell-fate decisions during embryonic development. But after birth, dysfunctional BMP expression is linked to some human diseases, like carcinomas. In lung cancer, BMPs are reactivated and suppress AMPK signaling. Mitochondrial stress activates AMPK to a ‘normal’ level, where it promotes cancer cell survival, but AMPK can induce cell death if ‘hyperactivated.' BMPs inhibit LKB1, a kinase that can hyperactivate AMPK, making BMPs a potential therapeutic target. So, researchers tested two BMP inhibitors as a combination treatment with mitochondrial targeting agents. In lung cancer cell lines that express LKB1, the combination treatment activated AMPK and suppressed cell growth. The combination treatment was increasing nuclear localization of the aptly named apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) in these cells, an effect that depended on LKB1 expression..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"High-quality reference genomes are needed to understand the physiology and function of uncultured microbes in complex ecosystems. Metagenomics has been an incredibly useful tool for studying microbial communities, but assigning sequence assemblies accurately to genomes is difficult in microbial species or strains that lack a reference genome. These 'consensus genomes' have lower resolution than those generated from cultured isolates. Combining single-cell genomics with metagenomics may allow us to overcome these methodological weaknesses. Thus, researchers recently developed a framework called SMAGLinker, which integrates single-cell genomes from microfluidic droplets and uses them as guides for metagenome assembly. Compared to metagenomics alone, SMAGLinker showed more precise contig binning and higher recovery rates of rRNA and plasmids in a mock microbial community. In human gut and skin microbiota samples, SMAGLinker returned more genomes than the conventional metagenomics frameworks..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"A recent study shows that common pesticides could seriously harm and disorient a songbird native to North America. Migratory bird populations across the world are declining. While that trend has been linked to a litany of complex factors, one of the most concerning is the widespread use of common pesticides, namely, organophosphates and neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids, the more modern of the pair, were originally thought to be less harmful to the human and wildlife nervous system. But mounting evidence suggests that may notbe the case. One group of animals susceptible to the brain-altering effects of the pesticides are migratory songbirds. In a recent study, researchers looked at the white-crowned sparrow in particular. The white-crowned sparrow migrates as far as northern Canada during breeding season and as far south as Central Mexico in the winter. Like many other migratory birds, the sparrow relies on the rich farmland in between to rest and refuel. And that’s where danger may lie..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"For researchers, identifying sources of environmental contamination can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. And that’s if they’re lucky. Because in some cases, they may not even know what to look for. In this line of work, known as non-targeted analysis, high-powered detection technology is critical to generating chemical fingerprints for unknown compounds. Just as important, however, is an expansive database that matches those fingerprints to the correct compounds. But bigger isn’t necessarily better. Researchers from the United States Environmental Protection Agency have shown that a promising new resource called the CompTox Chemistry Dashboard can actually outperform larger, well-established chemical databases, pointing to streamlined approaches to ID-ing potentially harmful contaminants. The CompTox dashboard uses a ranking approach similar to that of the popular database ChemSpider..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"One of the biggest challenges in orthopedic surgery are deep osteochondral defects in the knee arising from adolescent osteochondritis dissecans or spontaneous osteonecrosis. Many surgical techniques can help manage these conditions, but those yielding the best results aren’t clear. One promising option is transplantation of a patient’s own bone tissue or cartilage cells to a site of injury. Researchers have now compared two such transplantation techniques – autologous bone grafting and the autologous chondrocyte implantation “sandwich” technique – to understand how to best help knee tissue heal. Both methods start much like how a dental cavity is treated. First, a high-speed bur is used to remove injured bone until healthy bone is reached. In autologous bone grafting, the defect is then packed with a patients’ own bone chips, and the graft surface is secured with sutures if needed. These steps are performed while a tourniquet is applied to the leg..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Tracheal intubation can be life-saving, but the procedure’s outcome largely depends on where it’s performed. Intubations carried out under elective conditions in the operating room tend to produce better results than those executed under emergency conditions in the intensive care unit. But it’s not clear what factors lead to these differences. To shed light on the issue, researchers from the Clinical University Hospital of Santiago, Spain, conducted a prospective, observational study comparing intubation conditions between the OR and ICU. The results help uncover the circumstances important to success. The study, which took place over 33 months, evaluated 208 patients who underwent two separate instances of tracheal intubation using direct laryngoscopy. The first procedure occurred in the OR and the second in the ICU. For inclusion, both intubations had to be performed within a 1-month period..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Whether surgical or nonsurgical treatment is better for individuals with completely displaced midshaft clavicle fractures is controversial. There is particularly little evidence for adolescents, despite the fact that they’re the most commonly affected population. According to a new study, surgery is not superior to nonoperative treatment for restoring function and preventing complications in this patient group and may instead pose greater risks for this young population. The findings are published in _The American Journal of Sports Medicine_. In completely displaced midshaft clavicle fractures, also called displaced diaphyseal fractures, the clavicle breaks near the midpoint, and the broken ends shift out of alignment. While immobilization with a simple shoulder sling is the traditional mode of treatment, surgical treatment has become more common..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Cooling towers are home to unique ecosystems of microorganisms. While many are harmless, some are pathogenic. Cooling towers have been linked to many outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease, a severe pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria. A new study sought to identify microorganisms associated with cooling tower colonization by Legionella. Researchers identified complex ecological networks highlighting the importance of other bacteria and primary producers. For example, the presence of Brevundimonas bacteria was associated with higher levels of Legionella. Brevundimonas is prey for a Legionella host species, Tetrahymena. But Brevundimonas also directly stimulated the growth of Legionella in laboratory experiments. This study suggests that the Legionella host community is not the only factor that leads to Legionella outbreaks. Entire groups of microorganisms and their interactions play complex roles. Future work is needed to better understand these networks and how they vary over time..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, is a popular target of various therapies. Some therapies, like those used in tissue engineering, are designed to promote angiogenesis and new tissue growth, while other therapies, such as those designed to fight cancer, aim to suppress angiogenesis— a lifeline for tumor cells. Unfortunately, these therapies aren’t always effective. Now, a new mathematical model could help researchers understand what molecular levers to pull to effectively modulate angiogenesis. Trained on published experimental data, the model predicted the effects of activating two common targets of angiogenesis-based therapies: vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, and fibroblast growth factor, or FGF. Computational experiments showed that the two factors modify both the ERK signaling pathway, which is linked to cell proliferation, and the Akt signaling pathway, which is associated with cell survival and migration..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Cytotoxic T lymphocytes such as T and NK cells are critically involved in the immune response to cancer development. Their cell-surface receptors coordinate to precisely regulate their function, and dysregulation of these molecules has been linked to immune escape. A recent study identified molecules targeting one of these receptors: T cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT). TIGIT is a novel immune checkpoint molecule involved in T and NK cell anergy. Binding with its ligand, PVR, can induce immune tolerance, allowing cancer cells to escape immune surveillance. To facilitate the design of inhibitors targeting TIGIT/PVR binding, researchers examined the binding interaction in silico. Their results suggested that the loops of PVR undergo a major rearrangement upon binding to TIGIT. The potential residues critical for the TIGIT/PVR interaction were discovered, and simulation analysis identified four PVR mutants with enhanced affinity to TIGIT..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"A new study published in the journal Anesthesiology suggests that computer-assisted individualized hemodynamic management is a promising strategy to minimize hypotension during certain surgeries. Intraoperative hypotension is common but can increase the risk of postoperative complications. During surgery, individualized hemodynamic management can help mitigate hypotension and decrease such complications. In this strategy, clinicians use both intravenous fluids and vasopressors to maintain mean arterial pressure and blood volume near a patient’s personalized baseline. Despite its reported success, this approach requires constant monitoring and adjustment, which can be particularly challenging during complex and prolonged surgeries. Automated systems that can deliver either vasopressors or fluids have recently been developed, but a single closed-loop system that can deliver both with minimal clinician intervention isn’t yet available..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"For the first time, scientists have figured out how to grow and extend the life of primary airway epithelial cells from newborns and young children. These cells line our nasal passages and lungs, protecting us from pathogens, and controlling our immune responses to allergens. Differences in these cells may help explain why certain infants develop wheezing and asthma later in life, but studying them has been challenging because they are difficult to obtain in babies and usually die in culture after dividing a few times. Now, researchers at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and George Washington University have devised a way to reprogram pediatric airway epithelial cells so that they survive, creating a new model to study respiratory disorders that take hold early in life. The team collected airway epithelial cells from 23 donors, including newborns, infants and young children..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.