Abstract: A transapical removal device that can be deployed in a catheter procedure to capture for removal or alteration a mitral valve clip or heart tissue, such as the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve, and methods of use are disclosed. The removal device includes a delivery catheter configured to be deployed near a mitral valve using a guide catheter. The delivery catheter has a snare head at the distal end, which assumes a collapsed state during movement of the delivery catheter through the guide catheter and deployed state for capturing a mitral valve clip or anterior leaflet. The snare head has one or more ablation delivery catheters configured to ablate tissue surrounding the pre-positioned mitral valve clip or anterior leaflet. In some arrangements within the scope of the present disclosure, the removal device includes a deployment mechanism for deploying a new transcatheter valve into the mitral valve.

Abstract: The invention relates to the fields of medicine, immunology, and oncology. More specifically, the invention relates to methods and compositions for inducing an immune response against a tumor in an animal subject. The invention provides that a lung cancer cell or other tumor cells, genetically modified to express a nucleic acid encoding CD80 (B7.1) and a nucleic acid encoding an HLA antigen, and method for stimulating an immune response to a tumor with the tumor cell so genetically modified. The invention additionally provides a method of inhibiting a tumor, including a cancer such as lung cancer, by administering an allogeneic tumor cell, for example a cancer tumor cell such as a lung cancer tumor cell, genetically modified to express a nucleic acid encoding CD80 (B7.1) and a nucleic acid encoding an HLA antigen.

Abstract: Therapeutic application of mild to moderate hypothermia in a medical procedure has been found to provide benefits to patients. For example, application of mild hypothermia in the auditory pathway can prevent functional hearing loss post cochlear implant surgery. Devices have been conceived and reduced to practice that apply localized cooling to a small area such as the basal or middle turn of the cochlea. The devices include a cooling tip with at least one thermo-conductive surface. A heat-transporting fluid is circulated through the cooling tip. After absorbing heat, the heat-transporting fluid may be controllably cooled with a thermoelectric cooling device.

Abstract: Described herein are methods of decreasing the proliferation of prostate cancer cells in a mammalian subject by administering to a subject in need thereof a composition comprising an AVPR antagonist in amount effective to decrease proliferation of the cancer cells. Also provided are methods of inducing prostate cancer cell death (or decreasing invasion migration of the prostate cancer cells) in a mammalian subject by administering to a subject in need thereof a composition comprising an AVPR antagonist.

Abstract: Compositions, kits, cells and methods for treating cardiovascular (e.g., myocardial ischemia and heart failure), immunological, and inflammatory diseases or disorders involve the use of the mature and precursor sequences of microRNAs 142-5p, 142-3p, 17-5p, 17-3p, 374, and 20a, and of antisense molecules complementary to these sequences, to manipulate processes relevant to, for example, the cardiac response to stress, including survival signaling, angiogenesis, stem cell differentiation along muscle or vascular lineages, and repression or promotion of cardiac myocyte growth. Also described are methods to treat cardiovascular, immunological and inflammatory diseases by engineering cells containing specific micro-RNAs or antagomirs against specific mRNAs. The engineered cells can then be used to treat patients with such diseases by autologous stem cell therapy.

Abstract: Described herein are materials and methods for treating dyslipidemia in a mammalian subject in need thereof comprising administering a growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) antagonist or variant thereof to the subject.

Abstract: The present invention provides methods of treating a retinal disorder comprising administering an effective amount of a neurotrophic factor to a subject having the retinal disorder. The neurotrophic factors useful in the invention include mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) and conserved dopamine neurotrophic factor (CDNF). The present invention further comprises pharmaceutical compositions and kits containing MANF and CDNF.

Abstract: Methods and kits for diagnosing and determining prognosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma are described.

Abstract: Methods and kits for diagnosing and determining prognosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma are described.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are inhibitors of TNF superfamily costimulatory interactions, and methods for their use in modulating TNF superfamily costimulatory interactions and treating immune system related disorders. In particular, disclosed herein are compounds of Formula (I), and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof: wherein the substituents are described herein.

Abstract: Methods for treating and diagnosing psychiatric affective disorders, e.g., an affective disorder associated with aberrant Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signaling, by administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of an antagonist to Smoothened (Smo), an antagonist to Patched-1 (Ptch-1) and/or an antagonist to Shh.

Abstract: A novel transcriptomic biomarker for prognosis in heart failure has a direct clinical application in prediction of prognosis in new onset heart failure, heart disease, heart disorders and associated heart conditions. This approach should improve individualization of cardiac care and help identify patients at highest risk for circulatory collapse within the first years of presentation with heart failure.

Abstract: Compositions and methods of activating dendritic cells with LMP1 and LMP1-activated dendritic cell based compositions and methods are effective for dendritic cell therapy and provide an adjuvant function for vaccine administration. LMP1 or LMP1-CD40 chimeric protein may be used to activate and mature dendritic cells. LMP1 and LMP1-activated dendritic cells act as an adjuvant to enhance the cellular immune response. Also disclosed herein are kits for activating dendritic cells and for preparing a vaccine formulation. Administration of the dendritic cells transfected with LMP1 can induce an immune response against cancer or infection. The mature dendritic cells may comprise an antigen and at least one cytokine in addition to LMP1. Use of LMP1 or LMP1-CD40 provides a way to activate and mature dendritic cells that retain functional and migratory abilities without the side effects that result from maturing the dendritic cells using PGE2.

Abstract: The present invention relates to methods of isolating a substantially homogeneous population of pluripotent stem cells from adult neural crest tissue (e.g., periodontal ligament) as well as pharmaceutical compositions comprising such isolated pluripotent stem cells. Methods of inducing the isolated pluripotent stem cells into specific cell lineages, such as neurogenic and retinogenic lineages, are also described. The isolated pluripotent stem cells find use in various regenerative medicine applications and the treatment of degenerative diseases.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are compositions, cells, kits, and methods for inducing an immune response in a subject. The compositions can be used as vaccines or vaccine adjuvants against cancer (e.g., melanoma, glioma, prostate, breast) and infectious diseases (e.g., therapeutic and preventative vaccination for viruses), and can be used in cell-based therapies for preventing and treating disorders such as cancer and infection. The compositions, cells, kits and methods involve one or more nucleic acids that encode one or more LMP1 fusion proteins (chimeric proteins), and in a typical embodiment, synergistic activation of immune responses by a combination of two or more LMP1 fusion proteins.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods for treating/and or preventing diabetes using a specific inhibitor of SMAD7 expression or function. Also disclosed are methods of promoting organ and/or cell, e.g., pancreatic islet cell, survival after transplantation using a specific inhibitor of SMAD7 expression or function.

Abstract: Imaging systems and methods of using the same are provided for monitoring the quantity of fluorescent pigment, for example lipofuscin, in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) layer of a retina in vivo. Various imaging modalities can be integrated into a single system and excited by a single broadband light source for the monitoring of the fluorescent pigment. The influence of varying optical properties found in the optical path of the pigment's auto-fluorescence between the RPE and an image receiver can be corrected.

Abstract: Assays, methods and kits for predicting a subject's (e.g., human) risk of primary glomerulopathy, secondary glomerulopathy or recurrence (e.g., post-transplant recurrence) of any glomerular disease include examining cells for the presence or absence of cytoskeletal disruptions or rearrangements and examining cells for modulation of expression and/or activity of markers such as SMPDL-3b. Assays for predicting if a diabetic subject will develop kidney disease or a patient with FSGS will develop recurrent disease after transplant also include examining cells for the presence or absence of cytoskeletal disruptions or rearrangements and examining cells for modulation of expression and/or activity of markers such as SMPDL-3b. Also described herein are compositions and methods for treating and preventing the afore-mentioned disorders.

Abstract: Compositions, kits, and methods for reducing intraocular pressure (IOP) in a subject (e.g., human) include at least one naturally occurring or synthesized version or analog thereof of a lipid (e.g., a phosphoserine, a phosphocholine, a psychosine or other glycolipid) that is endogenous to non-glaucomatous aqueous humor in a subject and that lowers IOP in the subject, in a therapeutically effective amount for promoting aqueous outflow through TM in at least one eye of the subject and reducing IOP in the subject. The compositions can be used for, e.g., treating glaucomas, including, for example, primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and normal tension glaucoma (NTG).

Abstract: Compositions are provided comprising a replication-competent herpesvirus vector system and/or a herpesvirus vector particle comprising a heterologous recombinant transgene of interest encoding an antigen of interest (e.g., a tumor-associated antigen, a microbial antigen, etc.), wherein the recombinant transgene has been modified to comprise a codon usage signature of a herpesvirus late gene operably linked to an active promoter. Such compositions find use in a variety of methods including, for example, methods of generating an immune response against an antigen of interest in a subject in need thereof, as well as methods for treating or preventing cancer or a microbial infection.