21:T4d9,Cerebral malaria (CM) affects children and adults, but brain swelling is more severe in children. To investigate features associated with brain swelling in malaria, we performed blood profiling and brain MRI in a cohort of pediatric and adult patients with CM in Rourkela, India, and compared them with an African pediatric CM cohort in Malawi. We determined that higher plasma Plasmodium falciparum histidine rich protein 2 (PfHRP2) levels and elevated var transcripts that encode for binding to endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) were linked to CM at both sites. Machine learning models trained on the African pediatric cohort could classify brain swelling in Indian children CM cases but had weaker performance for adult classification, due to overall lower parasite var transcript levels in this age group and more severe thrombocytopenia in Rourkela adults. Subgrouping of patients with CM revealed higher parasite biomass linked to severe thrombocytopenia and higher Group A-EPCR var transcripts in mild thrombocytopenia. Overall, these findings provide evidence that higher parasite biomass and a subset of Group A-EPCR binding variants are common features in children and adult CM cases, despite age differences in brain swelling.22:T51f,Construction of a theranostic agent which integrates multiple modalities with different functions into one entity is challenging from a molecular design and synthesis perspective. In this context, the present paper reports the fabrication of a novel type of multifunctional hybrid nanoparticle composed of magnetic gadolinium oxide-iron oxide core, mesoporous silica shell gated with boronic acid functionalized highly luminescent carbon quantum dot (BNSCQD). The porous silica shell acts as an excellent reservoir for anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil, whereas the BNSCQD cap impressively controls the drug transport under simulated intracellular environment. Furthermore, recognition and fluorescence turn on response of BNSCQD toward cell surface glycan sialyl Lewis^a (SL^a) enables targeted drug release and excellent fluorescence imaging of SL^a overexpressed HePG2 cancer cells. The r₁ and r₂ relaxivities of the material are found to be 10 and 165 mM^-1 s^-1 which is comparable to commercially available magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents. Benefiting from the combined advantages of dual stimuli-responsive drug release, excellent optical imaging, and MR imaging, this novel construct can be a promising theranostic material.

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