Nature communications
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Nature communications · Jan 2019
Inactivating hepatitis C virus in donor lungs using light therapies during normothermic ex vivo lung perfusion.
Availability of organs is a limiting factor for lung transplantation, leading to substantial mortality rates on the wait list. Use of organs from donors with transmissible viral infections, such as hepatitis C virus (HCV), would increase organ donation, but these organs are generally not offered for transplantation due to a high risk of transmission. ⋯ Such treatment is shown to be safe using a large animal EVLP-to-lung transplantation model. This strategy of treating viral infection in a donor organ during preservation could significantly increase the availability of organs for transplantation and encourages further clinical development.
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Nature communications · Jan 2019
Dissecting the circuit for blindsight to reveal the critical role of pulvinar and superior colliculus.
In patients with damage to the primary visual cortex (V1), residual vision can guide goal-directed movements to targets in the blind field without awareness. This phenomenon has been termed blindsight, and its neural mechanisms are controversial. There should be visual pathways to the higher visual cortices bypassing V1, however some literature propose that the signal is mediated by the superior colliculus (SC) and pulvinar, while others claim the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) transmits the signal. ⋯ Selective and reversible blockade of the SC-vlPul pathway by combining two viral vectors also impairs VGS. With these results we claim the SC-vlPul pathway contributes to blindsight. The discrepancy would be due to the extent of retrograde degeneration of dLGN and task used for assessment.