Review
Engineering, Biomedical
Adam Frtus, Barbora Smolkova, Mariia Uzhytchak, Mariia Lunova, Milan Jirsa, Skylar J. W. Henry, Alexandr Dejneka, Nicholas Stephanopoulos, Oleg Lunov
Summary: DNA nanotechnology has great potential in biomedicine, but understanding the interactions between DNA nanostructures and living cells is crucial for their successful clinical translation. This review summarizes the current knowledge on these interactions and identifies key challenges from a cell biology perspective. Future research should address these challenges to accelerate the clinical translation of DNA nanostructures.
ACTA BIOMATERIALIA
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Eileen Edgworth, Lisa Ernst, Zoltan Czigany, Turgay Saritas, Laura Sophie Zarnitz, Marc Wiartalla, Peter Boor, Eva Miriam Buhl, Rolf Rossaint, Rene H. Tolba, Benedict Doorschodt, Gregor Fabry, Christian Bleilevens
Summary: Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) combined with optimized perfusate composition can improve the quality of kidney preservation, but the optimization of perfusates is still under research. Hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs), such as HBOC-301, can be an alternative to packed red blood cells (pRBC), but they can cause methemoglobin formation and induce hypoxia. The addition of ascorbic acid (VitC) as an antioxidant may have a beneficial effect. This study showed that HBOC-301 is inferior to pRBCs in a porcine kidney NMP model, regardless of the addition of VitC. Oxidative stress and fragmentation of hemoglobin polymers may contribute to these results, indicating the need for further research on cell-free oxygen carriers without these issues.
Article
Pathology
Nassim Bouteldja, David Laurin Hoelscher, Barbara Mara Klinkhammer, Roman David Buelow, Johannes Lotz, Nick Weiss, Christoph Daniel, Kerstin Amann, Peter Boor
Summary: This research proposes a novel concept of stain augmentation to develop stain-independent CNNs for digital pathology. It outperforms state-of-the-art techniques and enables segmentation on immunohistochemical stainings without additional annotations, achieving performance comparable to the annotated stain. Examples of application in inflammation and fibrosis quantification are presented, indicating the effectiveness of stain augmentation in deep-learning segmentation algorithms.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PATHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Narmin Ghaffari Laleh, Daniel Truhn, Gregory Patrick Veldhuizen, Tianyu Han, Marko van Treeck, Roman D. Buelow, Rupert Langer, Bastian Dislich, Peter Boor, Volkmar Schulz, Jakob Nikolas Kather
Summary: This study demonstrates that convolutional neural networks are highly susceptible to white- and black-box adversarial attacks in clinically relevant classification tasks. In contrast, vision transformers (ViTs) exhibit stronger protection against such attacks and are more robust in computational pathology.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Pathology
Katja Ermert, Eva M. Buhl, Barbara M. Klinkhammer, Juergen Floege, Peter Boor
Summary: In chronic kidney disease (CKD), the endothelial glycocalyx (EG) experiences structural and functional changes. The study investigated the ultrastructural alterations of the EG in different CKD models and found reduced binding and significant pathologic alterations in peritubular capillaries.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PATHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Urology & Nephrology
Ting Jia, Tong Xu, Bart Smeets, Eva Miriam Buhl, Marcus Johannes Moeller, Juergen Floege, Barbara Mara Klinkhammer, Peter Boor
Summary: The study suggests that PDGF-B and its receptor PDGFR-beta play a crucial role in the development and progression of FSGS by affecting the activation, proliferation, and fibrotic characteristics of PECs. The molecular crosstalk between podocytes and PECs mediated by PDGF-B and PDGFR-beta drives glomerulosclerosis and the progression of FSGS. Treatment with PDGF-B neutralizing antibody can improve kidney function and reduce the occurrence of FSGS.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEPHROLOGY
(2023)
Letter
Critical Care Medicine
Daniel Gagiannis, Carsten Hackenbroch, Wilhelm Bloch, Fabian Zech, Frank Kirchhoff, Sonja Djudjaj, Saskia von Stillfried, Roman Buelow, Peter Boor, Konrad Steinestel
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Han Wang, Antonia Margarethe Stehr, Jeeshan Singh, Leticija Zlatar, Arndt Hartmann, Katja Evert, Elisabeth Naschberger, Saskia von Stillfried, Peter Boor, Luis E. E. Munoz, Jasmin Knopf, Michael Stuerzl, Martin Herrmann
Summary: During inflammatory responses, neutrophils utilize various defense mechanisms, such as phagocytosis, degranulation, recruitment of immune cells, secretion of anti-microbials, and release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Detection of NETs in tissue sections can be challenging due to the high fluorescence signals emitted from condensed nuclear DNA. However, using anti-DNA-IgM antibodies can effectively detect the extended DNA patches of NETs, providing a new perspective for studying neutrophil-associated immune reactions in diseases.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Marcelo A. S. de Toledo, Xuhuang Fu, Tiago Maie, Eva M. Buhl, Katrin Goetz, Susanne Schmitz, Anne Kaiser, Peter Boor, Till Braunschweig, Nicolas Chatain, Ivan G. Costa, Tim H. Bruemmendorf, Steffen Koschmieder, Martin Zenke
Summary: In this study, human induced pluripotent stem cells were differentiated into mast cells, which exhibited characteristics of systemic mastocytosis disease. These cells can be used for disease modeling and drug screening.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Laura Zarnitz, Benedict M. Doorschodt, Lisa Ernst, Aisa Hosseinnejad, Eileen Edgworth, Tamara Fechter, Alexander Theissen, Sonja Djudjaj, Peter Boor, Rolf Rossaint, Rene H. Tolba, Christian Bleilevens
Summary: Donor organ shortage has led to the use of marginal grafts, but normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) can assess and restore the viability of these grafts before transplantation. An alternative to autologous packed red blood cell (pRBC)-based perfusates is the cell- and oxygen carrier-free solution Ecosol, supplemented with taurine, which may prevent adverse effects. This study compared the effects of 6 h NMP using pRBC and Ecosol on porcine kidneys, and found that despite some tissue damage in the Ecosol group, functional parameters and oxygenation were similar to the pRBC group, and taurine improved antioxidant capacity in the Ecosol group.
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Isaac Shiri, Behrooz Razeghi, Alireza Vafaei Sadr, Mehdi Amini, Yazdan Salimi, Sohrab Ferdowsi, Peter Boor, Deniz Guenduez, Slava Voloshynovskiy, Habib Zaidi
Summary: A federated learning (FL) framework was developed for multi-institutional PET/CT image segmentation. The FL algorithms showed comparable performance to centralized learning methods and outperformed the single center-based baseline. The results have promising implications for HN tumor segmentation from PET/CT images.
COMPUTER METHODS AND PROGRAMS IN BIOMEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Mathematical & Computational Biology
Roman D. Buelow, David L. Hoelscher, Ivan G. Costa, Peter Boor
NPJ SYSTEMS BIOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Mohamed Ramadan Mohamed, Johannes Haybaeck, Hanghang Wu, Huan Su, Matthias Bartneck, Cheng Lin, Mark V. Boekschoten, Peter Boor, Benjamin Goeppert, Christian Rupp, Pavel Strnad, Roger J. Davis, Francisco Javier, Christian Trautwein
Summary: This study investigated the role of JNK1/2 during cholestasis and its hepatocyte-specific function. The results showed that Jnk1 and Jnk2 work together to protect hepatocytes from cholestatic liver disease by controlling Apelin signalling. Blocking Apelin signalling attenuated liver injury and fibrosis induced by cholestasis. Targeting Jnk1/2 in hepatocytes may be a new molecular strategy for treating cholestatic liver disease.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Lisa Ernst, Zoltan Czigany, Pascal Paschenda, Mareike Schulz, Lukas Breuer, Janosch Kunczik, Michael Czaplik, Wenjia Liu, Decan Jiang, Uwe Klinge, Sonja Djudjaj, Peter Boor, Georg Lurje, Eiji Kobayashi, Rene H. Tolba
Summary: Ischemia-reperfusion injury is a significant problem in organ transplantation, and in this pilot study, a new thermal insulation bag was used to protect the transplanted organ. The bag showed good insulation capacity and usability, and the clinical outcomes suggested that its use could reduce kidney damage, although its impact on mildly damaged kidneys is still unclear.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Saskia von Stillfried, Roman David Buelow, Rainer Roehrig, Peter Boor
Summary: The German COVID-19 Autopsy Registry (DeRegCOVID) serves as a central hub for multicenter autopsy-based studies and provides support for researchers and data analysis. The registry shows that COVID-19 is the underlying cause of death in most autopsy cases, with diffuse alveolar damage and multi-organ failure being the most common immediate causes of death. The registry is of great importance for medical research, policy-making, and public discussion.
LANCET REGIONAL HEALTH-EUROPE
(2022)