Biomedicine

The fundamental idea for this article is a review of the theoretical discussion among experts in biomedicine and the social sciences: Arthur Kleinman, Leon Eisenberg, Horacio Fabrega, Byron Good, and Andrew Twaddle, among others; on the concepts of disease, illness, and sickness. The main objective is to explore the conceptual distinction between the triad from the field of anthropology, particularly on how culturally defined concepts of ill health are created. It is generally argued that the complexity of different opinions on human ailment causes difficulty in providing a clear distinction between the triad for the use among medical practitioners, social scientists, and laymen community at large. In particular the analysis reveals that most signs or symptoms of distress are reflective of sufferers' personal and cultural experiences. They are the cultural processes of illness and sickness, rather than purely understood by medical profession as disease. Additionally, the article demonstrates that with the effort of the experts of biomedicine and social sciences, clear definitions of the different concepts of disease, illness, and sickness indicate different aspects of ill health. Finally, the author focuses the discussion on a proposal to explore how the full triad can be of use amongst laymen patients, particularly in times of physician-patient interactions over ailment diagnosis.

We monitor our streets to prevent assault and rodents to develop drugs, but not those for whom the drugs are intended. It took over half a century to begin to monitor blood sugar values in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes. Monitoring blood pressure is equally timely and technically feasible for individual home- and website-based personalised care. It also serves basic science and someday perhaps the management of societal illnesses.

Introduction: The coronavirus (COVID-19) is the pandemic believed to be currently not having cure. The preventative measures
used are the use of a facemask, social isolation and frequent handwashing. The individuals and nations tried various methods of treatment
to manage this pandemic. The communities used different herbs and various methods and modes in the treatment of ailments.
The purpose of this article was to explore the use of Mušukutšwane (Lippia javanica) together with Kwena (Mint plant) and Matlapaneng
(Myrothamnus flabellifolius) by the people infected with coronavirus.
Methods: The researcher used a qualitative interpretive approach to explore the people experiencing COVID-19-related signs
and symptoms. The participants selected Mušukutšwane (Lippia javanica) together with Kwena (Mint plant) and Matlapaneng (Myrothamnus
flabellifolius) based on their claims that they can treat coronavirus. The researcher selected fifteen participants from
Sekhukhune District in Limpopo, who were actively showing the signs and symptoms of coronavirus and treated with steam inhalation
using Mušukutšwane, Kwena and Matlapaneng in the morning and evening before bedtime.
Results: The findings suggest that steam inhalation using Mušukutšwane, Kwena and Matlapaneng leaves has reversed all the signs
and the symptoms the participants presented with before treatment.
The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019 in Wuhan, China, was a
shock to the world. The infection affected the respiratory system.
Science was not yet evident enough with the clear treatment of the
virus [1]. The elderly people and those with chronic conditions
were more affected than others. The African traditions are inclined
to treating respiratory conditions with various herbs. The
herbs can be used as individuals or as sophisticated mixtures depending
on the severity of the condition [2]. Different chronic and
nonchronic respiratory conditions are managed by various medicinal
plants’ roots, bulbs, bark, rhizomes, tubers, fruits and leaves.
Amongst others,

This paper extends our work to using qualitative probability to model the naturally-occurring motifs of gene regulatory networks. Having showed in that the qualitative relations defining QPN graphs exhibit a direct mapping to the naturally-occurring network motifs embedded in Gene Regulatory Networks, this work is concerned with generalizing QPN constructs to create a high-level framework from which any regulatory network motif can be derived. Experimental results using time-series data of the Saccharomyces Cerevisiae show the effectiveness of our approach in providing a more accurate description of the regulatory motifs in the Saccharomyces Cerevisiae gene regulatory network compared to our previous definitions.

Rezumat Perturbatorii endocrini sunt substane chimice de origine natural sau sintetic ce modific funciile endocrine determinând modificri metabolice grave, în special asupra nou-nscuilor. Acumularea i persistena pe perioade lungi de timp a fcut s devin o prioritate în ceea ce privete statea i mediul înconjurtor. Mecanismul de aciune se caracterizeaz prin blocarea, mimarea sau chiar modificarea efectelor specifice hormonilor tiroidieni. În acest review, scopul principal a fost de a determina ce efecte au perturbatorii endocrini asupra glandei tiroide, în special asupra biosintezei hormonilor tiroidieni i stabilirea etapei în care intervin. Au fost luai în considerare percloraii, ftalaii, DPBE, PCD, soia, izoflavonele, nitraii, tiocianaii, bisfenolii A i triclorsan. Intervenia acestora se poate solda fie cu apariia hipertiroidismului fie cu apariia hipotiroidismului. Abstract Endocrine disrupters are natural or synthetic chemical substances that have the possibility to alter the endoc...

Traditional medical systems have played important roles in the healthcare needs in all societies. In the recent past, due to a variety of reasons, there is an upsurge of interest in age-old medicines and therapeutic methods, especially in Ayurveda, and an important issue facing modern Ayurveda is integration with biomedicine. The present article summarizes our research on the history and culture of the few remaining classically trained Ashtavaidya Ayurveda scholar physicians of Kerala and their perspectives on the current status of Ayurveda education and practice. Based on the views expressed by these scholar physicians, with history of learning and practice of Ayurveda, and our own research into issues surrounding integration of traditional medical practices with biomedicine, this article explores steps towards modernization of traditional medical education and practice that could be important for rediscovering the full potential of therapies implied in classical Ayurveda.

Despite better therapeutic options and improved survival of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), 30-40% of the patients experience relapse or have primary refractory disease with a dismal prognosis. To identify biological correlates for treatment resistance, we profiled microRNAs (miRNAs) of matched primary and relapsed DLBCL by next-generation sequencing. Altogether 492 miRNAs were expressed in the DLBCL samples. Thirteen miRNAs showed significant differential expression between primary and relapse specimen pairs. Integration of the differentially expressed miRNAs with matched mRNA expression profiles identified highly anti-correlated, putative targets, which were significantly enriched in cancer-associated pathways, including phosphatidylinositol (PI)), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling. Expression data suggested activation of these pathways during disease progression, and functional analyses validated that miR-370-3p, miR-381-3p, and m...

Stiffness of the knee after trauma and/or surgery for femoral fractures is one of the most common complications and is difficult to treat. Stiffness in extension is more common and can be reduced by vigorous physiotherapy. If it does not improve by physiotherapy, then Quadricepsplasty is indicated. Quadricepsplasty is the surgical procedure required to release the quadriceps muscle in order to improve the range of knee flexion. This procedure is indicated mainly for stiffness of the knee in extension. Thompson and Judet type of Quadricepsplasty are the most common surgical procedures described to treat knee stiffness, the former being more popular. We evaluated our results after Thompson's Quadricepsplasty and physiotherapy. The patient regained satisfactory functional range of motion after Thompson's Quadricepsplasty.

Equine lysozyme (EL) is a calcium (Ca)-binding lysozyme and is an intermediary link between non-Ca-binding C-type lysozyme and a-lactalbumin. The feature of lysozymes to assemble into the fibrils has recently gained considerable attention for the investigation of the functional properties of these proteins. To study the structural and functional properties of EL, a synthetic gene was cloned and EL was overexpressed in Escherichia coli as a fused protein. The His-tagged recombinant EL was accumulated as inclusion bodies. Up to 50 mg/l of the recombinant EL could be achieved after purification by Ni 21 affinity chromatography, refolding in the presence of arginine, CM-Sepharose column purification following TEV protease cleavage. The purified protein was functionally active, as determined by the lysozyme activity, proving the proper folding of protein. The purified lysozyme was used for the oligomerisation studies. The protein formed amyloid fibrils during incubation in acidic pH and elevated temperature. The recombinant EL forms two types of fibrils: ring shaped and linear, similar to the native EL.

Methionine participates in a large variety of metabolic pathways in brain, and its transport may play an important regulatory role. The properties of methionine uptake were examined in a preparation of neonatal rat brain astrocytes. Uptake is linear for 15 minutes, up to 2.5 ~tM. At steady state conditions, methionine is concentrated 30-50-fold. Measured methionine homoexchange accounts for a significant fraction of uptake at concentrations greater than 10 txM. We recently reported that methionine uptake is decreased by elevations in extracellular K § . Potassium induced effiux cannot account for this apparent effect; and thus for concentrations less than 2.5 ~M, and for short times of incubation, measured rates of methionine uptake represent unidirectional flux. At extracellular concentrations of K-equal to 6.9 mM, the apparent Vmax of methionine transport is 182 pmol/min/mg protein, and the Km is 1.3 ~M. Where K + is shifted to 11.9 mM, the Km remains unchanged, and the Vmax is reduced by half.

The increasing incidence of a variety of cancers after the Second World War confronts scientists with the question of their origin. In Western countries, expansion and ageing of the population as well as progress in cancer detection using new diagnostic and screening tests cannot fully account for the observed growing incidence of cancer. Our hypothesis is that environmental factors play a more important role in cancer genesis than it is usually agreed. (1) Over the last 2e3 decades, alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking in men have significantly decreased in Western Europe and North America. (2) Obesity is increasing in many countries, but the growing incidence of cancer also concerns cancers not related to obesity nor to other known lifestyle-related factors. (3) There is evidence that the environment has changed over the time period preceding the recent rise in cancer incidence, and that this change, still continuing, included the accumulation of many new carcinogenic factors in the environment. (4) Genetic susceptibility to cancer due to genetic polymorphism cannot have changed over one generation and actually favours the role of exogenous factors through geneeenvironment interactions. (5) Age is not the unique factor to be considered since the rising incidence of cancers is seen across all age categories, including children, and adolescents. (6) The fetus is specifically vulnerable to exogenous factors. A fetal exposure during a critical time window may explain why current epidemiological studies may still be negative in adults. We therefore propose that the involuntary exposure to many carcinogens in the environment, including microorganisms (viruses, bacteria and parasites), radiations (radioactivity, UV and pulsed electromagnetic fields) and many xenochemicals, may account for the recent growing incidence of cancer and therefore that the risk attributable to environmental carcinogen may be far higher than it is usually agreed. Of major concern

The study of an organ – On – Chip (OC) is a multi channel 3-D micro-fluidic cell culture chip which stimulates the mechanism, and physiological response activities of entire organ system in a human body. The convergence and development of this matter in to an electronic device/ chip is a matter of significant biomedical engineering research. The convergence of lab – onchip ( LOCs) and cell biology has permitted to the study of human physiology and introducing a novel model study of in –vitro multi cellular human organism. The Organ – on – chip is small micro-fluidic devices with hollow channels lined by living human cells. They have several properties to make them more realistic models of human organ system of lab grown cells. In organ – on – chips, the human cells are cultured with hollow channels through nutrient liquid flows. This technology allows researchers to alter the mix of chemical compounds that the cells encounter, as well as fluid shear forces that can influence the cel...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming precision medicine, particularly in cardiovascular disease prevention and management. This bibliometric analysis examines the research landscape from 2020 to 2024, focusing on AI's role in improving diagnostics, personalizing treatment, and advancing predictive healthcare. Using the PRISMA framework, VOSviewer, Harzing's Publish or Perish, and Excel, 137 articles from Scopus were systematically analyzed. The study reveals a significant surge in research activity, with 2024 marking a peak. Machine learning and deep learning are central to key advancements, enabling early detection and risk prediction. Contributions from leading institutions highlight the global and interdisciplinary nature of this field, with studies demonstrating AI's potential to integrate complex datasets and deliver tailored therapies. While AI-driven innovations show promise, challenges such as ethical concerns and healthcare disparities remain. This analysis underscores AI's transformative potential in precision medicine and identifies opportunities for equitable, collaborative advancements.

In this paper, the author traces two parallel movements of
institutionalized Ayurvedic psychiatry, an emergent field of
specialization in Kerala, India: the ‘work of purification’ and the
‘work of translation’ that Latour has described as characteristic of
the ‘modern constitution.’ The author delineates these processes in
terms of the relationship of Ayurvedic psychiatry to (1) allopathic
psychiatry, (2) bhutavidya, a branch of textual Ayurveda dealing
with spirits, and (3) occult violence. The aim is to offer a model of
these open and hidden processes and of Ayurvedic psychiatry’s
positioning within a hierarchical mental health field characterized
simultaneously by biopsychiatric hegemony and a persistent
vernacular healing tradition. Through these processes, Ayurvedic
psychiatry emerges as a relevant actor. It demarcates itself from
both allopathic and vernacular epistemologies and ontologies while
simultaneously drawing upon aspects of each, and, in this way,
shows itself to be both deeply modern and highly pragmatic.

Este texto tiene dos objetivos: por un lado, caracterizar como un actor-red al virus SARS-CoV-2 y, por otro, documentar su ensamblado en el ambiente del ser humano en tanto mediador que «hace que otros mediadores hagan cosas». Ubicado en el campo de las «humanidades científicas» y utilizando la «sensibilidad» de la teoría del actor-red (TAR), este trabajo se ocupa de un curso de acción en el que dicho virus existe en la medida en que sus enlaces se incrementan y se involucra con tal cantidad de mediadores (como el saber y las prácticas biológicas, genéticas, epidemiológicas e informáticas) que anima un reensamblado, en el que una serie de acciones colectivas simultáneas trastocaron muchas entidades societales en gran parte del planeta. Se ofrece el esbozo de esa red extensa de mediadores que hacen actuar al virus, le dan existencia y se desplazan a través de él en calidad de agencias, de mediadores que se vinculan en términos colectivos, reales y discursivos. Lo que se busca hacer visible es el movimiento distribuidor de morfismos que da una figuración polimorfa al virus.

Background: Wsc1 is the best studied of the five mechanosensors of the cell wall integrity (CWI) signal transduction pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In genetic and biophysical studies, Wsc1 functions were assessed either in living yeast cells or in crude cell extracts. So far, no attempts to purify the sensor and determine its structure have been reported. Methods: The Wsc1-green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion was expressed in S. cerevisiae following standard protocols. For solubilization, a 5% (w/v) solution of styrene-maleic acid (SMA) copolymer was added dropwise to the membrane suspension to get a final cell-to-SMA weight ratio of 1:2.5. The suspension was incubated for 30 min at room temperature (RT) and then for 16 hours at 4 °C, followed by centrifugation for 20 min at 134000 g at 4 °C. The supernatant was subsequently purified on affinity resin. Protein samples (3 µL) were placed onto the glow-discharged grid, stained twice, using 1% aquatic uranyl acetate solution fo...

Venous and arterial thromboembolic diseases are still the most frequent causes of death and disability in high-income countries. Clinical anticoagulants are inhibitors of enzymes involved in the coagulation pathway, such as thrombin and factorXa. Thrombin is a key enzyme of blood coagulation system, activating the platelets, converting the fibrinogen to the fibrin net, and amplifying its self-generation by the activation of factors V, VIII, and XI. Thrombin has long been a target for the development of oral anticoagulants. Furthermore, selective inhibitors of thrombin represent a new class of antithrombotic agents. For these reasons, a number of specific thrombin inhibitors are under evaluation for possible use as antithrombotic drugs. This paper summarizes old and new interests of specific thrombin inhibitors described in different animals.

The medullar thyroid cancer (MDC) is a rare neuroendocrine tumour made up of 5% to 8% of thyroid neoplasms. It arises from the parafollicular, calcitonin-secreting C-cells. The malignantly transformed thyroid C-cells eminent on the surface somatostatin receptors SSTR, based on their neuroendocrine component. During the last decades, the somatostatin receptor scintigraphy with 99mTc-EDDA/HYNIC-TOC (99mTc-Tektrotyd, Polatom) has been introduced for imaging of neuroendocrine tumors. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of SPECT-CT with 99mTc-Tektrotyd in patients with MTC. Twenty one patients, (14 females/7males) with MTC underwent somatostatin-receptor scintigraphy. Three of them were studied for initial pre-operative N/M-staging whereas 18 out of 21 were follow-up after total thyroidectomy. Plasma calcitonin level was measured as a tumor marker. Twenty-nine examinations including SPECT-CT studies of the neck and chest and/or abdomen and pelvis were carried out 2-4 hrs....

In interior computed tomography (CT), the x-ray beam is collimated to a limited field-of-view (FOV) (e.g. the volume of the heart) to decrease exposure to adjacent organs, but the resulting image has a severe truncation artifact when reconstructed with traditional filtered back-projection (FBP) type algorithms. In some examinations, such as cardiac or dentomaxillofacial imaging, interior CT could be used to achieve further dose reductions. In this work, we describe a deep learning (DL) method to obtain artifact-free images from interior CT angiography. Our method employs the Pix2Pix generative adversarial network (GAN) in a two-stage process: (1) An extended sinogram is computed from a truncated sinogram with one GAN model, and (2) the FBP reconstruction obtained from that extended sinogram is used as an input to another GAN model that improves the quality of the interior reconstruction. Our double GAN (DGAN) model was trained with 10 000 truncated sinograms simulated from real computed tomography angiography slice images. Truncated sinograms (input) were used with original slice images (target) in training to yield an improved reconstruction (output). DGAN performance was compared with the adaptive de-truncation method, total variation regularization, and two reference DL methods: FBPConvNet, and U-Net-based sinogram extension (ES-UNet). Our DGAN method and ES-UNet yielded the best root-mean-squared error (RMSE) (0.03±0.01), and structural similarity index (SSIM) (0.92±0.02) values, and reference DL methods also yielded good results. Furthermore, we performed an extended FOV analysis by increasing the reconstruction area by 10% and 20%. In both cases, the DGAN approach yielded best results at RMSE (0.03±0.01 and 0.04±0.01 for the 10% and 20% cases, respectively), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) (30.5±2.6 dB and 28.6±2.6 dB), and SSIM (0.90±0.02 and 0.87±0.02). In conclusion, our method was able to not only reconstruct the interior region with improved image quality, but also extend the reconstructed FOV by 20%.

Active learning promotes the capacity of problem solving and decision making among learners. Teachers who apply instructional processes toward active participation of learners help their students develop higher order thinking skills. Due to the recent paradigm shift toward adopting competency-based curricula in the education of healthcare professionals in India, there is an emergent need for physiology instructors to be trained in active-learning methodologies and to acquire abilities to promote these curriculum changes. To address these issues, a series of International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) workshops on physiology education techniques in four apex centers in India was organized in November 2018 and November 2019. The “hands-on” workshops presented the methodologies of case-based learning, problem-based learning, and flipped classroom; the participants were teachers of basic sciences and human and veterinary medicine. The workshop series facilitated capacity buildi...

Even though radiation therapy has achieved great success, there is still an unsolved task of increasing radiation damage to tumor tissue and reducing side effects on healthy tissues. There is a wide variety of obstacles that reduce the efficiency of radiotherapy. Mechanisms of radioresistance involve tumor-specific oncogenic signalling pathways, tumor metabolism and proliferation, tumor microenvironment/hypoxia, and genomics. Radiosensitizers are promising agents that enhance injury to tumor tissue by accelerating DNA damage. Several strategies have been used recently to develop highly effective radiosensitizers with low toxicity. In this review, we considered the use of radiosensitizers, including small molecules and nanomaterials, in various malignant tumors and the problems and prospects for their clinical use in cancer therapy.

Currently, radiotherapy has been identified as the most common cancer treatment. However, the efficacy of this treatment modality is low in several malignancies due to the resistance of cancer to radiation. Multiple mechanisms, including cell-cycle checkpoint function, DNA repair, and cell death pathways, modulate the radio-responsiveness of cancer cells. This review considered the role of p53, cancer stem cells (CSCs), and cellular senescence in radiation response.(

Gold has been used in medicine for thousands of years. Nowadays, gold compounds contribute to the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis; gold alloys are used in implants in various fields of medicine; and colloid gold is used in immunogold electron microscopy. Advances in nanotechnology have resulted in novel gold nanoparticles, which possess distinct physical properties such as fluorescence. We have developed fluorescent gold nanoclusters (FANCs) that contain gold nanoparticles with a core dimension < 2 nm. Initial studies have shown that FANCs are a highly biocompatible marker with a fluorescence half-life of 9 days, and are suitable for in vitro and in vivo tracking of endothelial and endothelial progenitor cells. FANCs may also have novel chemical properties involved in regulation of endothelial cell function. This minireview discusses the future directions of biomedical research for FANCs.

The healthcare metaverse, leveraging VR and AR, revolutionizes medical services, education, and research by creating immersive, interactive environments. However, integrating spatial health data poses challenges in data accuracy, security, privacy, and ethical considerations, necessitating frameworks. The chapter proposes a framework for spatial data governance in the healthcare metaverse, focusing on patient control over health information. It includes rigorous data security and privacy protocols, ensures transparency and accountability, addresses ethical concerns, and encourages collaboration among stakeholders. This framework aims to uphold responsible data practices, protect patient privacy, and improve the effectiveness of healthcare services within the metaverse.

The healthcare metaverse, leveraging VR and AR, revolutionizes medical services, education, and research by creating immersive, interactive environments. However, integrating spatial health data poses challenges in data accuracy, security, privacy, and ethical considerations, necessitating frameworks. The chapter proposes a framework for spatial data governance in the healthcare metaverse, focusing on patient control over health information. It includes rigorous data security and privacy protocols, ensures transparency and accountability, addresses ethical concerns, and encourages collaboration among stakeholders. This framework aims to uphold responsible data practices, protect patient privacy, and improve the effectiveness of healthcare services within the metaverse.

Background: Although many pathological changes have been associated with ischemic heart disease (IHD), molecular-level alterations specific to the ischemic myocardium and their potential to reflect disease severity or therapeutic outcome remain unclear. Currently, diagnosis occurs relatively late and evaluating disease severity is largely based on clinical symptoms, various imaging modalities, or the determination of risk factors. This study aims to identify IHD-associated signature RNAs from the atrial myocardium and evaluate their ability to reflect disease severity or cardiac surgery outcomes. We collected right atrial appendage (RAA) biopsies from 40 patients with invasive coronary angiography (ICA)-positive IHD undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery and from 8 patients ICA-negative for IHD (non-IHD) undergoing valvular surgery. Following RNA sequencing, RAA transcriptomes were analyzed against 429 donors from the GTEx project without cardiac disease. The IHD transcriptome was characterized by repressed RNA expression in pathways for cell-cell contacts and mitochondrial dysfunction. Increased expressions of the CSRNP3, FUT10, SHD, NAV2-AS4, and hsa-mir-181 genes resulted in significance with the complexity of coronary artery obstructions or correlated with a functional cardiac benefit from bypass surgery. Conclusions: Our results provide an atrial myocardium-focused insight into IHD signature RNAs. The specific gene expression changes characterized here, pave the way for future disease mechanism-based identification of biomarkers for early detection and treatment of IHD.

Background: Although many pathological changes have been associated with ischemic heart disease (IHD), molecular-level alterations specific to the ischemic myocardium and their potential to reflect disease severity or therapeutic outcome remain unclear. Currently, diagnosis occurs relatively late and evaluating disease severity is largely based on clinical symptoms, various imaging modalities, or the determination of risk factors. This study aims to identify IHD-associated signature RNAs from the atrial myocardium and evaluate their ability to reflect disease severity or cardiac surgery outcomes.Methods and Results: We collected right atrial appendage (RAA) biopsies from 40 patients with invasive coronary angiography (ICA)-positive IHD undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery and from 8 patients ICA-negative for IHD (non-IHD) undergoing valvular surgery. Following RNA sequencing, RAA transcriptomes were analyzed against 429 donors from the GTEx project without cardiac disease. The ...

Unsupervised learning of disease subtypes from multi-omics data presents a significant opportunity for advancing personalized medicine. We introduce OmicsCL, a modular contrastive learning framework that jointly embeds heterogeneous omics modalities—such as gene expression, DNA methylation, and miRNA expression—into a unified latent space. Our method incorporates a survival-aware contrastive loss that encourages the model to learn representations aligned with survival-related patterns, without relying on labeled outcomes. Evaluated on the TCGA BRCA dataset, OmicsCL uncovers clinically meaningful clusters and achieves strong unsupervised concordance with patient survival. The framework demonstrates robustness across hyperparameter configurations and can be tuned to prioritize either subtype coherence or survival stratification. Ablation studies confirm that integrating survival-aware loss significantly enhances the predictive power of learned embeddings. These results highlight the promise of contrastive objectives for biological insight discovery in high-dimensional, heterogeneous omics data.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Although treatment methods in surgery, irradiation, and chemotherapy have improved, prognosis remains unsatisfactory and developing new therapeutic strategies is still an urgent demand. Immunotherapy is a novel therapeutic approach wherein activated immune cells can specifically kill tumor cells by recognition of tumor-associated antigens without damage to normal cells. Several lung cancer vaccines have demonstrated prolonged survival time in phase II and phase III trials, and several clinical trials are under investigation. However, many clinical trials involving cancer vaccination with defined tumor antigens work in only a small number of patients. Cancer immunotherapy is not completely effective in eradicating tumor cells because tumor cells escape from host immune scrutiny. Understanding of the mechanism of immune evasion regulated by tumor cells is required for the development of more effective immunotherapeut...

We conducted a retrospective collaborative study to cytogenetically characterize splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) and ascertain the prognostic value of chromosomal aberrations. Of 330 cases, 72% displayed an aberrant karyotype, 53% were complex, and 29% had a single aberration. The predominant aberrations were gains of 3/3q and 12q, deletions of 7q and 6q and translocations involving 8q/1q/14q. CD5 expression was detected in 39 of 158 cases (25%). The cytogenetic makeup of the CD5 ؉ group differed significantly from that of the CD5 ؊ group. Cases with unmutated IGHV were significantly associated with deletions of 7q and TP53. A strong association was noted between usage of the IGVH1-2 and deletion 7q, 14q alterations, and abnormal karyotype. On univariate analysis, patients with more than or equal to 2 aberrations, 14q alterations, and TP53 deletions had the shortest survival; 7q deletion did not affect survival. On multivariate analysis, cytoge-netic aberrations did not retain prognostic significance; the parameters negatively affecting survival were hemoglobin and age. In conclusion, the cytogenetic profile of SMZL is distinct from other B-cell lymphomas. Complexity of the karyotype, 14q aberrations, and TP53 deletions are poor prognostic indicators and may be considered together with other clinicobiologic parameters to ascertain the prognosis of SMZL. (Blood. 2010; 116(9):1479-1488)

Three-dimensional (3D) printing, a subset of additive manufacturing technologies, has attracted significant attention from researchers for both laboratory-based and on-site prototyping since its widespread adoption. Its adaptability and versatility have made it an essential tool across various disciplines, particularly in biotechnology and bioengineering. While conventional manufacturing methods can offer precise material control and compatibility with biological fluids, they often pose significant challenges, such as high costs and the requirement for large, complex setups. These constraints limit their accessibility for the experimental needs of biotechnology and bioengineering. However, 3D printers, with their high adaptability and ability to process a wide range of materials, have proven to be remarkably effective in resolving these challenges. Their capability to create custom parts and structures while maintaining compatibility with biomaterials and fluids has opened new possibilities not only in tissue engineering, drug development, and biomedical device fabrication, but also across the broader fields of biotechnology, biochemistry, and related sciences. When examining the basic concept and development timeline of 3D printers, it becomes clear that emerging trends in artificial intelligence, robotics, and digitalization are expected to further accelerate their integration into real-world applications. These ongoing advancements are likely to benefit laboratories and production centers involved in biotechnology by speeding up experiments, paving the way for rapid production and testing, and making complex biofabrication processes more accessible and automated, including in areas like tissue engineering and personalized medicine.

CHERI receives financial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation but the conclusions we express here are strictly our own. The use of NSF data does not imply NSF endorsement of the research, research methods, or conclusions contained in this paper. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

In modern societies the functional differentiation of medicine and religion is the predominant paradigm. Contemporary therapeutic practices and concepts in healing systems, such as Transpersonal Psychology, Ayurveda, as well as Buddhist and Anthroposophic medicine, however, are shaped by medical as well as religious or spiritual elements. This book investigates configurations of the entanglement between medicine, religion, and spirituality in Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa. How do political and legal conditions affect these healing systems? How do they relate to religious and scientific discourses? How do therapeutic practitioners position themselves between medicine and religion, and what is their appeal for patients?

Translating experimental findings into clinically effective therapies is one of the major bottlenecks of modern medicine. As this has been particularly true for cerebrovascular research, attention has turned to the quality and validity of experimental cerebrovascular studies. We set out to assess the study design, statistical analyses, and reporting of cerebrovascular research. We assessed all original articles published in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism during the year 2008 against a checklist designed to capture the key attributes relating to study design, statistical analyses, and reporting. A total of 156 original publications were included (animal, in vitro, human). Few studies reported a primary research hypothesis, statement of purpose, or measures to safeguard internal validity (such as randomization, blinding, exclusion or inclusion criteria). Many studies lacked sufficient information regarding methods and results to form a reasonable judgment about their validity. In nearly 20% of studies, statistical tests were either not appropriate or information to allow assessment of appropriateness was lacking. This study identifies a number of factors that should be addressed if the quality of research in basic and translational biomedicine is to be improved. We support the widespread implementation of the ARRIVE (Animal Research Reporting In Vivo Experiments) statement for the reporting of experimental studies in biomedicine, for improving training in proper study design and analysis, and that reviewers and editors adopt a more constructively critical approach in the assessment of manuscripts for publication.

Academic medicine integrates three of the most honorable human activities: treating the ill, teaching, and research. The quality that all three share is persistent quest for truth. However, there is reluctance of academic medicine today to openly defend scientific truth by challenging the arguments and the very existence of &quot;complementary and alternative medicine&quot; (CAM). There is no sound proof of CAM effectiveness, no hypotheses on the mechanisms of their action, nor scientific reports testing them. The fact that patients are charged for these &quot;healing&quot; activities makes CAM a plain fraud. With these facts in mind, the name &quot;complementary and alternative medicine&quot; is undeserved and misleading. CAM advocates maintain that CAM should be recognized precisely because it is widely practiced and very promising, that it has a special holistic/human approach, and works at least as a placebo in situations where medicine can do nothing more. As it seems that the ...

Biological tissues contain various metals and metalloids ions with central role in the regulation of several pathophysiological functions. In parallel, the development and the evaluation of novel nanocompounds for biomedicine require the monitoring of their biodistribution in tissues of interest. Therefore, researchers need to use reliable and accessible techniques to detect and quantify major and trace elements in space-resolved manner. In this communication, we report how Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) can be used to image the distribution of chemical elements in brain tissues.

Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria is common during pregnancy due to the apparent reduction in immunity of pregnant women, which appears to encourage the growth of both commensal and non-commensal microorganisms. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of asymptomatic bacteriuria and identify the causative organisms among pregnant women. Methods and Results: This cross-sectional study was carried out at Ibrahim Malik Teaching Hospital and Bashaier University Hospital from April to July 2019 to assess the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among pregnant women. Fifty urine specimens were collected from pregnant women who didn’t show any signs or symptoms of UTI. Clean-catch mid-stream urine was collected into a sterile, universal container. Bacteriological culture and bacterial identification were carried out. The prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant women in this study was 12%. Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were the most frequently...

Many recent studies have focused on the manipulation of the epigenome to understand the mechanistic programming in health and some disease phenotypes. These studies are designed to provide suitable drug targets to cure and/or prevent the outcome of a disease condition. Autoimmune diseases (ADs), including obesity and diabetes, are of major health concern nowadays and are the root cause of several diseases of the heart, lungs, and liver. There are several epigenetic mechanisms underlying the manifestation of autoimmune disorders. The recent advances in today’s sequencing technology and genome editing have uncovered the role of epigenetic modifications in ADs. In this review, we will cover the recent discoveries and their possible application in the control of ADs by improving the long-term use of such technologies. The potential drawbacks will also be discussed so that future experiments may be designed to reduce or eliminate the risk factors associated with the use of recent discove...

Skin and soft tissue infections caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) are among the most common bacterial infections. Linezolid is a cortisone drug for the treatment of infections caused by MRSA. However, developing resistance to linezolid creates a hurdle in the treatment of these infections. The present study aimed to determine the activity of linezolid alone and in combination with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) for the purpose of reducing resistance and enhancing its efficacy. For this study, MRSA isolates were taken and confirmed by using the antibiotic susceptibility testing method. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of both antibiotics and nanoparticles against MRSA clinical isolates was done by using the broth microdilution method. A checkerboard assay has used the determination of the combined activity of linezolid and ZnO-NPs. ZnO-NPs displayed a spherical shape with smooth surface morphology and had a mean size of 10 nm to 20 nm, with a zeta potenti...

In this Fresh Focus, we reassess what the mental health treatment gap may mean if we consider the role of traditional healing. Based on systematic reviews, patients can use traditional healers and qualitatively report improvement from general psychological distress and symptom reduction for common mental disorders. Given these clinical implications, some high-income countries have scaled up research into traditional healing practices, while at the same time in low-and middle-income countries, where the use of traditional healers is nearly ubiquitous, considerably less research funding has studied or capitalized on this phenomena. The World Health Organization 2003-2020 Mental Health Action Plan called for government health programs to include traditional and faith healers as treatment resources to combat the low-and middle-income country treatment gap. Reflection on the work which emerged during the course of this Mental Health Action Plan revealed areas for improvement. As we embark on the next Mental Health Action Plan, we offer lessons-learned for exploring potential relationships and collaborations between traditional healing and biomedicine.

Ayurveda translates as 'life science'. Its knowledge is not limited to medicine, cure or therapy and is for laypersons, households, communities, as well as for physicians. Throughout its evolutionary history, Ayurveda and Local Health Traditions have reciprocally influenced each other. In modern times, the influence of biomedicine on Ayurveda is leading to its medicalisation. Over the past century, the introduction and perspective of biomedicine into India has made the human being an object for positive knowledge, a being who can be understood with scientific reason and can be governed and controlled through medical knowledge. This paper explores how this shift towards medicalisation is affecting the knowledge, teaching, and practice of Ayurveda. It examines the impact and contribution of processes like standardisation, professionalisation, bio-medicalisation and pharmaceuticalisation on Ayurveda education, knowledge, practice and policies. To maintain health and wellbeing Ayurveda's ancient knowledge and practice needs to be applied at individual, community and health care provider levels and not be limited to the medical system. The current over medicalisation of society is a potential threat to human health and well-being. Ayurveda and LHT knowledge can provide essential teachings and practices to counter-balance this current trend through encouraging a population's self-reliance in its health.