An Anthropomorphic Soft Exosuit for Hand Rehabilitation.

Functional impairment of the hand, for example after a stroke, can be partially improved by intensive training. This is currently done by physiotherapy and the optimal intensity of hand rehabilitation programs is usually not reached due to a lack in human resources (high costs) and patients fatigue. In this work a cost-effective soft exosuit to support the hand's grasping function is presented. The system is based on tendon-like wires and all fingers except the little finger are actuated. Each of the remaining four fingers is bidirectionally controlled by an electrical motor. This allows a variety of gripping situations, e.g. a power or precision grip. Our prototype weighs 435g, including the battery and can be worn on the upper arm. The force applicable for a power grip exceeds 20N with a maximum gripping frequency of 4Hz. Furthermore, a force control is implemented, giving the wearer the opportunity to grab sensitive objects. All components used are available in different sizes, allowing a quick and individual preparation per patient. Therefore, our prototype can be used for rehabilitation while doing activities of daily living (ADL) starting on the day of the injury.

Correction: mRNA-Mediated Gene Supplementation of Toll-Like Receptors as Treatment Strategy for Asthma In Vivo.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0154001.].

mRNA-Mediated Gene Supplementation of Toll-Like Receptors as Treatment Strategy for Asthma In Vivo.

Asthma is the most common chronic disease in childhood. Although several therapeutic options are currently available to control the symptoms, many drugs have significant side effects and asthma remains an incurable disease. Microbial exposure in early life reduces the risk of asthma and several studies have suggested protective effects of Toll-like receptor (TLR) activation. We showed previously that modified mRNA provides a safe and efficient therapeutic tool for in vivo gene supplementation. Since current asthma drugs do not take patient specific immune and TLR backgrounds into consideration, treatment with tailored mRNA could be an attractive approach to account for the patient's individual asthma phenotype. Therefore, we investigated the effect of a preventative treatment with combinations of Tlr1, Tlr2 and Tlr6 mRNA in a House Dust Mite-induced mouse model of asthma. We used chemically modified mRNA which is-in contrast to conventional viral vectors-non-integrating and highly efficient in gene transfer. In our study, we found that treatment with either Tlr1/2 mRNA or Tlr2/6 mRNA, but not Tlr2 mRNA alone, resulted in better lung function as well as reduced airway inflammation in vivo. The present results point to a potentially protective effect of TLR heterodimers in asthma pathogenesis.