MSTPublications – July 2025
Computational strategic recruitment for representation and coverage studied in the All of Us Research Program.
Borza VA, Chen Q, Clayton EW, Kantarcioglu M, Sulieman L, Vorobeychik Y, Malin BA.
NPJ Digit Med. 2025 Jul 3;8(1):402. doi: 10.1038/s41746-025-01804-x.
PMID: 40610586 Free PMC article.
Large scale data repositories like the All of Us Research Program are spurring new understanding of health and disease. All of Us aims to create a database of all Americans, addressing patterns of understudy of some groups in biomedical research. We study the representativeness (similarity to the U.S. population) and coverage (equality of proportion across U.S. Census demographic categories) of All of Us from 2017 to 2022, finding that All of Us recruited almost every understudied group at or above the group’s Census proportion. Building on the program’s successes, we propose a computational strategic recruitment method that optimizes multiple recruitment goals by allocating recruitment resources to sites and evaluate this method in recruitment simulation. We find that our methodology is indeed able to improve both cohort representativeness and coverage. Moreover, improvements in representativeness and coverage hold across numerous simulation conditions, supporting the promise of our recruitment techniques in real-world application.
Leveling Up: Along-Level Diffusion Tensor Imaging in the Spinal Cord of Multiple Sclerosis Patients
Witt AA, Combes AJE, Sweeney G, Prock L, Houston D, Stubblefield S, McKnight C, O’Grady K, Smith SA, Schilling KG
Frontiers in Neuroimaging. 2025 Jul 21; 4. doi: 10.3389/fnimg.2025.1599966
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neuroinflammatory disease marked by demyelination and axonal degeneration, processes that can be probed using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). In the brain, white matter (WM) tractography enables anatomically specific analysis of microstructural changes. However, in the spinal cord (SC), anatomical localization is inherently defined by cervical levels, offering an alternative framework for regional analysis. This study employed an along-level approach to assess both microstructural (e.g., fractional anisotropy) and macrostructural (e.g., cross-sectional area) features of the SC in persons with relapsing-remitting MS (pwRRMS) relative to healthy controls (HCs). Compared to conventional whole-cord averaging, along-level analyses provided enhanced sensitivity to group differences. Detailed segmentation of WM tracts and gray matter (GM) subregions revealed spatially discrete alterations along the cord and within axial cross-sections. Notably, while GM atrophy was associated with clinical disability, microstructural changes did not exhibit significant correlations with disability measures. These findings underscore the utility of level-specific analysis in detecting localized pathology and suggest a refined framework for characterizing SC alterations in MS.
Keywords: Spinal Cord, Brain, Diffusion, MRI, Vertebral level, Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing remitting MS
Tract-specific analysis of diffusion MRI at 3T detects cervical spinal cord aberrations in multiple sclerosis.
Witt AA, Fleishman S, Houston D, Prock LE, Sweeney G, McGonigle T, Vandekar S, Chamberland M, Stubblefield S, McKnight CD, O’Grady KP, Schilling K, Smith SA.
Imaging Neuroscience. 2025 Jul 7; 3:IMAG.a.72. doi: 10.1162/IMAG.a.72
In people with multiple sclerosis (MS), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) applied in the spinal cord (SC) can reveal microstructural damage prior to significant symptom burden, yet lacks specificity. Diffusion tensor tractography goes beyond conventional DTI-derived microstructural indices and, though widely applied in the brain, has yet to be fully exploited in the SC of people with relapsing-remitting MS (pwRRMS). We sought to determine the course of streamlines within cervical SC white matter (WM) fiber tracts in 46 healthy controls (HCs) and 56 pwRRMS scanned at 3T and investigate whether tractography provides added value beyond conventional analyses. We extended conventional lesion load analysis by investigating lesion load specific to white matter columns and streamlines within white matter columns, and quantified diffusion features along streamlines within a column. We identified reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) within WM columns for females and older participants, though these findings were more limited in WM streamlines. We also determined no significant associations between clinical variables and either lesion load or microstructural indices as derived from streamlines. While tractography in the MS SC may have value for visualization purposes, we did not determine added benefit to applying tractography compared to conventional volume or voxel-based analyses.
Keywords: spinal cord, magnetic resonance imaging, multiple sclerosis, diffusion tensor imaging, tractography
Elucidating brain transport pathways and cell type-dependent gene silencing of a durable lipid-siRNA conjugate administered into cerebrospinal fluid.
Sorets AG, Schwensen KR, Francini N, Kjar A, Abdulrahman AM, Shostak A, Katdare KA, Schoch KM, Cowell RP, Park JC, Ligocki AP, Ford WT, Ventura-Antunes L, Hoogenboezem EN, Prusky A, Castleberry M, Michell DL, Fritsch E, Lyons SM, Miller TM, Vickers KC, Schrag MS, Duvall CL, Lippmann ES.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2025 Jun 20;53(12):gkaf600. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaf600.
PMID: 40598893 Free PMC article.
Mixed Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia: A Systematic Review of Epidemiology, Clinical Characteristics, Therapies, and Outcomes.
Jacobs JW, Raza S, Clark LM, Stephens LD, Allen ES, Woo JS, Walden RL, Figueroa Villalba CA, Tormey CA, Stanek CG, Adkins BD, Bloch EM, Booth GS.
Am J Hematol. 2025 Aug;100(8):1397-1407. doi: 10.1002/ajh.27721. Epub 2025 May 20.
PMID: 40392014 Free PMC article. Review.
Does alignment alone predict mechanical complications after adult spinal deformity surgery? A machine learning comparison of alignment, bone quality, and soft tissue.
Sundrani S, Doss DJ, Johnson GW, Jain H, Zakieh O, Wegner AM, Lugo-Pico JG, Abtahi AM, Stephens BF, Zuckerman SL.
Neurosurg Focus. 2025 Jul 1;59(1):E15. doi: 10.3171/2025.4.FOCUS25245.
PMID: 40591962
Evolution of clonal hematopoiesis on and off lenalidomide maintenance for multiple myeloma.
Cooperrider JH, Karaoglu DA, Kubicki T, Jiang CR, Postich E, Shimamoto K, Arnold O, Macaraeg J, Ramsland A, Pula A, Kishtagari A, Pershad Y, Mack TM, Jones A, Bick AG, Savona M, Drazer MW, Dytfeld D, Jakubowiak A, Derman BA, Saygin C.
Leukemia. 2025 Jul 16. doi: 10.1038/s41375-025-02707-2. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 40670674 No abstract available.
Germline genetic variation impacts clonal hematopoiesis landscape and progression to malignancy.
Liu J, Tran D, Xue L, Wiley BJ, Vlasschaert C, Watson CJ, MacGregor HAJ, Zong X, Chan ICC, Das I, Uddin MM, Niroula A, Griffin G, Ebert BL, Mack T, Pershad Y, Sharber B, Berger M, Zehir A, Ptashkin R, Levine RL, Papaemmanuil E, Joseph V, Gao T, Kemel Y, Mandelker D, Stopsack KH, Pharoah PDP, Mukherjee S, Ding L, Cao Y, Walter MJ, Blundell JR, Chatterjee N, Offit K, Godley LA, Link DC, Stadler ZK, Bick AG, Natarajan P, Bolton KL.
Nat Genet. 2025 Jul 15. doi: 10.1038/s41588-025-02250-x. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 40664769
Incident cytopenia and risk of subsequent myeloid neoplasm in age-related clonal hematopoiesis: a multi-biobank case-control study.
Brogan J, Kishtagari A, Corty RW, Pershad Y, Vlasschaert C, Sharber B, Heimlich JB, Luo L, Ferrell PB, Savona MR, Xu Y, Bick AG.
EClinicalMedicine. 2025 Jun 4;84:103283. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2025.103283. eCollection 2025 Jun.
PMID: 40524801 Free PMC article.
A foregone conclusion? The association between early hospital course and late outcomes in modern era heart transplant.
Wang CC, Petrovic M, Ahmad A, Lima B, Tipograf Y, Trahanas J, Bommareddi S, Nguyen D, Siddiqi H, Jelly C, Balakrishna A, Schlendorf KH, Shah AS.
JTCVS Open. 2025 Mar 20;25:227-240. doi: 10.1016/j.xjon.2025.03.009. eCollection 2025 Jun.
PMID: 40631002 Free PMC article.
PGI2 signaling metabolically reprograms CD4 Th2 cells and represses allergic airway inflammation.
Zhou W, Zhang J, Chowdhury NU, Norlander AE, Toki S, Abney M, Rusznak M, Gibson-Corley KN, Cook DP, Newcomb DC, Peebles RS Jr.
J Immunol. 2025 Jun 30:vkaf130. doi: 10.1093/jimmun/vkaf130. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 40587812
Early Division of the Paramedian Forehead Flap: A Systematic Review and Retrospective Analysis.
Ma CC, Si C, Adegboye F, Lee J, Lee I, Stephan SJ, Patel PN, Yang SF.
Laryngoscope. 2025 Jul;135(7):2233-2240. doi: 10.1002/lary.32009. Epub 2025 Jan 27.
PMID: 39871421 Free PMC article. Review.