Synergistic and Additive Effects of Menadione in Combination with Antibiotics on Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Insights from Structure-Function Analysis of Naphthoquinones

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) interferes with the effective treatment of infections and increases the risk of microbial spread and infection-related illness and death. The synergistic activities of combinations of antimicrobial compounds offer satisfactory approaches to some extent. Structurally diverse naphthoquinones (NQs) including menadione (-CH3 group at C2) exhibit substantial antimicrobial activities against multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens. We explored the combinations of menadione with antibiotic ciprofloxacin or ampicillin against Staphylococcus aureus and its biofilms. We found an additive (0.590 %) were also observed. However, preformed biofilms were not affected. Dent formation was also evident in S. aureus treated with the test compounds. The structure-function relationship (SFR) of NQs was used to determine and predict their activity pattern against pathogens. Analysis of 10 structurally distinct NQs revealed that the compounds with -Cl, -Br, -CH3 , or -OH groups displayed the lowest MICs (32-256 μg/mL). Furthermore, 1,4-NQs possessing a halogen or -CH3 moiety showed elevated ROS activity, whereas molecules with an -OH group affected cell integrity. Improved activity of antimicrobial combinations and SFR approaches are significant in antimicrobial therapies.

Efficacy of fusion imaging for immediate post-ablation assessment of malignant liver neoplasms: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Percutaneous thermal ablation has become the preferred therapeutic treatment option for liver cancers that cannot be resected. Since ablative zone tissue changes over time, it becomes challenging to determine therapy effectiveness over an extended period. Thus, an immediate post-procedural evaluation of the ablation zone is crucial, as it could influence the need for a second-look treatment or follow-up plan. Assessing treatment response immediately after ablation is essential to attain favorable outcomes. This study examines the efficacy of image fusion strategies immediately post-ablation in liver neoplasms to determine therapeutic response.

METHODOLOGY

A comprehensive systematic search using PRISMA methodology was conducted using EMBASE, MEDLINE (via PUBMED), and Cochrane Library Central Registry electronic databases to identify articles that assessed the immediate post-ablation response in malignant hepatic tumors with fusion imaging (FI) systems. The data were retrieved on relevant clinical characteristics, including population demographics, pre-intervention clinical history, lesion characteristics, and intervention type. For the outcome metrics, variables such as average fusion time, intervention metrics, technical success rate, ablative safety margin, supplementary ablation rate, technical efficacy rate, LTP rates, and reported complications were extracted.

RESULTS

Twenty-two studies were included for review after fulfilling the study eligibility criteria. FI's immediate technical success rate ranged from 81.3% to 100% in 17/22 studies. In 16/22 studies, the ablative safety margin was assessed immediately after ablation. Supplementary ablation was performed in 9 studies following immediate evaluation by FI. In 15/22 studies, the technical effectiveness rates during the first follow-up varied from 89.3% to 100%.

CONCLUSION

Based on the studies included, we found that FI can accurately determine the immediate therapeutic response in liver cancer ablation image fusion and could be a feasible intraprocedural tool for determining short-term post-ablation outcomes in unresectable liver neoplasms. There are some technical challenges that limit the widespread adoption of FI techniques. Large-scale randomized trials are warranted to improve on existing protocols. Future research should emphasize improving FI's technological capabilities and clinical applicability to a broader range of tumor types and ablation procedures.

Integrative toxicogenomics: Advancing precision medicine and toxicology through artificial intelligence and OMICs technology

More information about a person's genetic makeup, drug response, multi-omics response, and genomic response is now available leading to a gradual shift towards personalized treatment. Additionally, the promotion of non-animal testing has fueled the computational toxicogenomics as a pivotal part of the next-gen risk assessment paradigm. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to provid new ways analyzing the patient data and making predictions about treatment outcomes or toxicity. As personalized medicine and toxicogenomics involve huge data processing, AI can expedite this process by providing powerful data processing, analysis, and interpretation algorithms. AI can process and integrate a multitude of data including genome data, patient records, clinical data and identify patterns to derive predictive models anticipating clinical outcomes and assessing the risk of any personalized medicine approaches. In this article, we have studied the current trends and future perspectives in personalized medicine & toxicology, the role of toxicogenomics in connecting the two fields, and the impact of AI on personalized medicine & toxicology. In this work, we also study the key challenges and limitations in personalized medicine, toxicogenomics, and AI in order to fully realize their potential.

Dense-PSP-UNet: A neural network for fast inference liver ultrasound segmentation

Liver Ultrasound (US) or sonography is popularly used because of its real-time output, low-cost, ease-of-use, portability, and non-invasive nature. Segmentation of real-time liver US is essential for diagnosing and analyzing liver conditions (e.g., hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)), assisting the surgeons/radiologists in therapeutic procedures. In this paper, we propose a method using a modified Pyramid Scene Parsing (PSP) module in tuned neural network backbones to achieve real-time segmentation without compromising the segmentation accuracy. Considering widespread noise in US data and its impact on outcomes, we study the impact of pre-processing and the influence of loss functions on segmentation performance. We have tested our method after annotating a publicly available US dataset containing 2400 images of 8 healthy volunteers (link to the annotated dataset is provided); the results show that the Dense-PSP-UNet model achieves a high Dice coefficient of 0.913±0.024 while delivering a real-time performance of 37 frames per second (FPS).

Micropatterned Neurovascular Interface to Mimic the Blood–Brain Barrier’s Neurophysiology and Micromechanical Function: A BBB-on-CHIP Model

A hybrid blood–brain barrier (BBB)-on-chip cell culture device is proposed in this study by integrating microcontact printing and perfusion co-culture to facilitate the study of BBB function under high biological fidelity. This is achieved by crosslinking brain extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins to the transwell membrane at the luminal surface and adapting inlet–outlet perfusion on the porous transwell wall. While investigating the anatomical hallmarks of the BBB, tight junction proteins revealed tortuous zonula occludens (ZO-1), and claudin expressions with increased interdigitation in the presence of astrocytes were recorded. Enhanced adherent junctions were also observed. This junctional phenotype reflects in-vivo-like features related to the jamming of cell borders to prevent paracellular transport. Biochemical regulation of BBB function by astrocytes was noted by the transient intracellular calcium effluxes induced into endothelial cells. Geometry-force control of astrocyte–endothelial cell interactions was studied utilizing traction force microscopy (TFM) with fluorescent beads incorporated into a micropatterned polyacrylamide gel (PAG). We observed the directionality and enhanced magnitude in the traction forces in the presence of astrocytes. In the future, we envisage studying transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER) and the effect of chemomechanical stimulations on drug/ligand permeability and transport. The BBB-on-chip model presented in this proposal should serve as an in vitro surrogate to recapitulate the complexities of the native BBB cellular milieus.

A lightweight neural network with multiscale feature enhancement for liver CT segmentation

Segmentation of abdominal Computed Tomography (CT) scan is essential for analyzing, diagnosing, and treating visceral organ diseases (e.g., hepatocellular carcinoma). This paper proposes a novel neural network (Res-PAC-UNet) that employs a fixed-width residual UNet backbone and Pyramid Atrous Convolutions, providing a low disk utilization method for precise liver CT segmentation. The proposed network is trained on medical segmentation decathlon dataset using a modified surface loss function. Additionally, we evaluate its quantitative and qualitative performance; the Res16-PAC-UNet achieves a Dice coefficient of 0.950 ± 0.019 with less than half a million parameters. Alternatively, the Res32-PAC-UNet obtains a Dice coefficient of 0.958 ± 0.015 with an acceptable parameter count of approximately 1.2 million.

Practical utility of liver segmentation methods in clinical surgeries and interventions

Clinical imaging (e.g., magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography) is a crucial adjunct for clinicians, aiding in the diagnosis of diseases and planning of appropriate interventions. This is especially true in malignant conditions such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), where image segmentation (such as accurate delineation of liver and tumor) is the preliminary step taken by the clinicians to optimize diagnosis, staging, and treatment planning and intervention (e.g., transplantation, surgical resection, radiotherapy, PVE, embolization, etc). Thus, segmentation methods could potentially impact the diagnosis and treatment outcomes. This paper comprehensively reviews the literature (during the year 2012–2021) for relevant segmentation methods and proposes a broad categorization based on their clinical utility (i.e., surgical and radiological interventions) in HCC. The categorization is based on the parameters such as precision, accuracy, and automation.

A review on treatments of hepatocellular carcinoma—role of radio wave ablation and possible improvements

Background

Currently, several treatment options are available for liver cancer depending on various factors such as location, size, shape, and liver function. Image fusion is required for the diagnosis, intervention, and follow-up of certain HCCs. Presently, mental fusion is the only way while diagnosing liver lesions by comparing the ultrasound (US) image with the computed tomography (CT) image. Nevertheless, mental fusion is bound to have errors. The objective of this paper is to study the present treatment options for hepatocellular carcinoma and review the present treatment options, list out their potential limitations, and present a possible alternative solution based on the findings to reduce errors and mistargeting.

Methods

This is a systematic review on the present treatment options for hepatocellular carcinoma, especially radio wave ablation.

Results

It is found that computer fusion is the possible alternative to the present mental registration.

Conclusions

Although computer fusion is the best alternative to use radio wave ablation, there have been a few open-ended questions to further explore.

Emerging Technologies for In Vitro Inhalation Toxicology

Respiratory toxicology remains a major research area in the 21st century since current scenario of airborne viral infection transmission and pollutant inhalation is expected to raise the annual morbidity beyond 2 million. Clinical and epidemiological research connecting human exposure to air contaminants to understand adverse pulmonary health outcomes is, therefore, an immediate subject of human health assessment. Important observations in defining systemic effects of environmental contaminants on inhalation metabolic dysfunction, liver health, and gastrointestinal tract have been well explored with in vivo models. In this review, a framework is provided, a paradigm is established about inhalation toxicity testing in vitro, and a brief overview of breathing Lungs-on-Chip (LoC) as design concepts is given. The optimized bioengineering approaches and microfluidics with their fundamental pros, and cons are presented. There are different strategies that researchers apply to inhalation toxicity studies to assess a variety of inhalable substances and relevant LoC approaches. A case study from published literature and frame arguments about reproducibility as well as in vitro/in vivo correlations are discussed. Finally, the opportunities and challenges in soft robotics, systems inhalation toxicology approach integrating bioengineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to address a multitude model for future toxicology are discussed.

Advances in Smoking Related In Vitro Inhalation Toxicology: A Perspective Case of Challenges and Opportunities from Progresses in Lung-on-Chip Technologies

The inhalation toxicology of multifaceted particulate matter from the environment, cigarette smoke, and e-cigarette liquid vapes is a major research topic concerning the adverse effect of these items on lung tissue. In vitro air-liquid interface (ALI) culture models hold more potential in an inhalation toxicity assessment. Apropos to e-cigarette toxicity, the multiflavor components of the vapes pose a complex experimental bottleneck. While an appropriate ALI setup has been one part of the focus to overcome this, parallel attention towards the development of an ideal exposure system has pushed the field forward. With the advent of microfluidic devices, lung-on-chip (LOC) technologies show enormous opportunities in in vitro smoke-related inhalation toxicity. In this review, we provide a framework, establish a paradigm about smoke-related inhalation toxicity testing in vitro, and give a brief overview of breathing LOC experimental design concepts. The capabilities with optimized bioengineering approaches and microfluidics and their fundamental pros and cons are presented with specific case studies. The LOC model can imitate the structural, functional, and mechanical properties of human alveolar-capillary interface and are more reliable than conventional in vitro models. Finally, we outline current perspective challenges as well as opportunities of future development to smoking lungs-on-chip technologies based on advances in soft robotics, machine learning, and bioengineering.

Emerging Application of Nanorobotics and Artificial Intelligence To Cross the BBB: Advances in Design, Controlled Maneuvering, and Targeting of the Barriers

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a prime focus for clinicians to maintain the homeostatic function in health and deliver the theranostics in brain cancer and number of neurological diseases. The structural hierarchy and in situ biochemical signaling of BBB neurovascular unit have been primary targets to recapitulate into the in vitro modules. The microengineered perfusion systems and development in 3D cellular and organoid culture have given a major thrust to BBB research for neuropharmacology. In this review, we focus on revisiting the nanoparticles based bimolecular engineering to enable them to maneuver, control, target, and deliver the theranostic payloads across cellular BBB as nanorobots or nanobots. Subsequently we provide a brief outline of specific case studies addressing the payload delivery in brain tumor and neurological disorders (e.g., Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, etc.). In addition, we also address the opportunities and challenges across the nanorobots' development and design. Finally, we address how computationally powered machine learning (ML) tools and artificial intelligence (AI) can be partnered with robotics to predict and design the next generation nanorobots to interact and deliver across the BBB without causing damage, toxicity, or malfunctions. The content of this review could be references to multidisciplinary science to clinicians, roboticists, chemists, and bioengineers involved in cutting-edge pharmaceutical design and BBB research.

LV Segmentation Using Stochastic Resonance and Evolutionary Cellular Automata

High-level noise and low contrast characteristics in medical images continue to present major bottlenecks in their segmentation despite increased imaging modalities. This paper presents a semi-automatic algorithm that utilizes the noise for enhancing the contrast of low contrast input magnetic resonance images followed by a new graph cut method to reconstruct the surface of left ventricle. The main contribution in this work is a new formulation for preventing the conventional cellular automata method to leak into surrounding regions of similar intensity. Instead of segmenting each slice of a subject sequence individually, we empirically select a few slices, segment them, and reconstruct the left ventricular surface. During the course of surface reconstruction, we use level sets to segment the rest of the slices automatically. We have throughly evaluated the method on both York and MICCAI Grand Challenge workshop databases. The average Dice coefficient (in %) is found to be 92.4 ± 1.3 (value indicates the mean and standard deviation) whereas false positive ratio, false negative ratio, and specificity are found to be 0.019, 7.62 × 10-3, and 0.75, respectively. Average Hausdorff distance between segmented contour and ground truth is determined to be 2.94 mm. The encouraging quantitative and qualitative results reflect the potential of the proposed method.

Semiautomated hybrid algorithm for estimation of three-dimensional liver surface in CT using dynamic cellular automata and level-sets

Liver segmentation continues to remain a major challenge, largely due to its intense complexity with surrounding anatomical structures (stomach, kidney, and heart), high noise level and lack of contrast in pathological computed tomography (CT) data. We present an approach to reconstructing the liver surface in low contrast CT. The main contributions are: (1) a stochastic resonance-based methodology in discrete cosine transform domain is developed to enhance the contrast of pathological liver images, (2) a new formulation is proposed to prevent the object boundary, resulting from the cellular automata method, from leaking into the surrounding areas of similar intensity, and (3) a level-set method is suggested to generate intermediate segmentation contours from two segmented slices distantly located in a subject sequence. We have tested the algorithm on real datasets obtained from two sources, Hamad General Hospital and medical image computing and computer-assisted interventions grand challenge workshop. Various parameters in the algorithm, such as [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text], play imperative roles, thus their values are precisely selected. Both qualitative and quantitative evaluation performed on liver data show promising segmentation accuracy when compared with ground truth data reflecting the potential of the proposed method.

A strategic approach for cardiac MR left ventricle segmentation

Quantitative evaluation of cardiac function from cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) images requires the identification of the myocardial walls. This generally requires the clinician to view the image and interactively trace the contours. Especially, detection of myocardial walls of left ventricle is a difficult task in CMR images that are obtained from subjects having serious diseases. An approach to automated outlining the left ventricular contour is proposed. In order to segment the left ventricle, in this paper, a combination of two approaches is suggested. Difference of Gaussian weighting function (DoG) is newly introduced in random walk approach for blood pool (inner contour) extraction. The myocardial wall (outer contour) is segmented out by a modified active contour method that takes blood pool boundary as the initial contour. Promising experimental results in CMR images demonstrate the potentials of our approach.

Automatic left ventricular contour extraction from cardiac magnetic resonance images using cantilever beam and random walk approach

Heart failure is a well-known debilitating disease. From clinical point of view, segmentation of left ventricle (LV) is important in a cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) image. Accurate parameters are desired for better diagnosis. Proper and fast image segmentation of LV is of paramount importance prior to estimation of these parameters. We prefer random walk approach over other existing techniques due to two of its advantages: (1) robustness to noise and, (2) it does not require any special condition to work. Performance of the method solely depends on the selection of initial seed and parameter β. Problems arise while applying this method to different kind of CMR images bearing different ischemia. It is due due to their implicit geometry definitions unlike general images, where the boundary of LV in the image is not available in an explicit form. This type of images bear multi-labeled LV and the manual seed selection in these images introduces variability in the results. In view of this, the paper presents two modifications in the algorithm: (1) automatic seed selection and, (2) automatic estimation of β from the image. The highlight of our method is its ability to succeed with minimum number of initial seeds.