Recent Publications
Mohammad M. Simri: Children with heart transplants: Lessons learned from 774 visits at a primary community clinic (Pediatr Transplant)
One of the important lessons we have learned through handling the PHTR at the PCC is that, during daily workflows and dealing with the occasional visits of a heart transplant child, related critical clinical information to allograft rejection or its dysfunction can easily evade from awareness of the attending physician.
Bodhisattwa Banerjee: Molecular characterization and ornithine-urea cycle genes expression in air-breathing magur catfish (Clarias magur) during exposure to high external ammonia (Genomics)
The air-breathing magur catfish (Clarias magur) is a potential ureogenic teleost because of its functional ornithine-urea cycle (OUC), unlike typical freshwater teleosts. The ability to convert ammonia waste to urea was a significant step towards land-based life forms from aquatic predecessors. Here we investigated the molecular characterization of some OUC genes and the molecular basis of stimulation of ureogenesis via the OUC in magur catfish.
Baruh Polis and Abraham O. Samson: A New Perspective on Alzheimer’s Disease as a Brain Expression of a Complex Metabolic Disorder (in “Alzheimer’s Disease," Thomas Wisniewski ed.)
Dean Karl Skorecki, on Chapter 1 of this important, recently-published book: "I have been reading the chapter for the past 20 minutes and am amazed at how elegantly you succeed in presenting a complex systemic metabolic state in the prism of neurodegenerative brain disease. I am learning metabolics, pharmacology, and neuroscience–wrapped into a chapter."
Yaakov Maman: Intra-Vκ Cluster Recombination Shapes the Ig Kappa Locus Repertoire (Cell Rep.)
During V(D)J recombination, RAG proteins introduce DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) at recombination signal sequences (RSSs) that contain either 12- or 23-nt spacer regions....We propose an improved model of Vκ-Jκ repertoire formation by incorporating these surprisingly frequent, evolutionarily conserved intra-Vκ cluster recombination events.
Nir Avital and Meir Shamay: Abortive herpes simplex virus infection of nonneuronal cells results in quiescent viral genomes that can reactivate (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A)
Abortive viral infections are defined as cells that have been infected with a virus but did not produce any progeny virus as a result of the infection. Recent single-cell studies have shown that abortive infection is observed frequently even during infection of susceptible and permissive cell types. Here, we recovered populations of susceptible and permissive cells that survived infection with herpes simplex virus at high multiplicity of infection.
Ibrahim Marai: The efficacy of the LinoxSmart DX ICD lead from a single center experience (Indian Pacing Electrophysiol J)
The Biotronik LinoxSmart DX implanted cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) lead is a novel VDD lead with the advantage of integrated atrial sensing dipole combined with a special augmentation and filtering mechanisms. We sought to determine the efficacy of the Biotronik LinoxSmart DX ICD lead
Baruh Polis and Abraham Samson: Reports of L-Norvaline Toxicity in Humans May Be Greatly Overstated (Brain Sci.)
Recently, a study published in "Toxicology In Vitro" (Kate Samardzic and Kenneth J. Rodgers) was entitled: "Cytotoxicity and Mitochondrial Dysfunction Caused by the Dietary Supplement L-Norvaline". The title may be greatly overstated, and here we provide several arguments showing that norvaline is not as toxic as reported.
Autoimmune diseases in first- and second-degree relatives of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases: a case-control survey in Israel (Minerva Med)
The present case-control study was designed to compare the rate of ADs in first- and second-degree relatives of IBD patients, stratified according to Jew or Arabic ethnicity. (Research with affiliate hospitals - The Nazareth Hospital, EMMS; Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya and others)
Schistosomal extracellular vesicle-enclosed miRNAs modulate host T helper cell differentiation (EMBO Rep)
Our results explain, at least partially, how schistosomes tune down the Th2 response, and provide further insight into the reciprocal geographic distribution between high prevalence of parasitic infections and immune disorders such as allergy. Furthermore, this worm-host crosstalk mechanism can be harnessed to develop diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for human schistosomiasis and Th2-associated diseases. (Yiftah Barsheshet, Boris Brant, Orly Avni)
David Azoulay: Flow cytometry aneuploidy and cell cycle indexing as a possible tool for differentiating between CD10+ diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma (Clinical Cytometry)
Differential diagnosis between diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and follicular lymphoma (FL) becomes a challenge when adequate biopsy is unavailable. The present study aimed to investigate the applicability of DNA cell cycle analysis by flow cytometry (FC) for differentiating between CD10+ DLBCL and FL.
Hagar Tadmor, Meir Shamay: Kaposi's Sarcoma Associated Herpesvirus LANA Modulates the Stability of the E3 Ubiquitin Ligase RLIM ((J Virol)
Adds another way a viral protein can regulate cellular protein stability, by enhancing the auto-ubiquitination and degradation of an E3 ubiquitin ligase.
Zaher Armaly: Impact of pretreatment with carnitine and tadalafil on contrast-induced nephropathy in CKD patients (Ren Fail.)
Research with affiliate hospitals (Nazareth Hospital EMMS, Ziv Medical Center).
Assisted Reproductive Technology as a Transcutaneous Route for Bacterial Contamination of Ovarian Endometrioma with Coagulase-Negative Staphylococcus: Case Report and Review of the Literature (Infect Dis Obstet Gynecol.)
Tubo-ovarian abscess may develop in women with endometrioma following assisted reproductive technology (ART). The infection, though rare, is typically late in onset and may present several months after the procedure, and in pregnancy—with the risks of abortion and premature labor.... We discuss the challenges in diagnosis and treatment of this rare condition and the implications of the discovery that an organism previously dismissed as a contaminant has emerged as a causative organism in severe, deep-seated infections of soft tissues in recent literature. (Shimon Edelstein, Inbar Ben Shachar, Hila Ben-Amram, Seema Biswas, and Naama Marcus)
Tumor Lysis Syndrome in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: A Rare Case Report from Nephrology (Am J Case Rep)
Research with affiliate hospitals (Nazareth Hospital EMMS, HaEmeq Hospital) - nephrology, internal medicine, lab, radiology.
Andrei Braester and Masad Barhoum: Triple Negative Mutations in Essential Thrombocythemia With bcr-abl Rearrangement: Is There a Such Distinct Disease? (Am J Med Sci)
We propose criteria that can retain ET/bcr-abl+ as a separate entity: clinical, laboratory and morphologic (morphology of bone marrow).