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Topic Review
Biomedical Application of AMPs
In a report by WHO (2014), it was stated that antimicrobial resistance is an arising challenge that needs to be resolved. This resistance is a critical issue in terms of disease or infection treatment and is usually caused due to mutation, gene transfer, long-term usage or inadequate use of antimicrobials, survival of microbes after consumption of antimicrobials, and the presence of antimicrobials in agricultural feeds. One of the solutions to this problem is antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which are ubiquitously present in the environment. These peptides are of concern due to their special mode of action against a wide spectrum of infections and health-related problems. The biomedical field has the highest need of AMPs as it possesses prominent desirable activity against HIV-1, skin cancer, breast cancer, in Behcet’s disease treatment, as well as in reducing the release of inflammatory cells such as TNFα, IL-8, and IL-1β, enhancing the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-10 and GM-CSF, and in wound healing properties. This review has highlighted all the major functions and applications of AMPs in the biomedical field and concludes the future potential of AMPs. 
  • 922
  • 24 Sep 2021
Topic Review
COVID-19-Induced Diabetes
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a significant association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and diabetes, whereby individuals with diabetes are more susceptible to severe disease and higher mortality rates. The association between diabetes and COVID-19 is probably bidirectional, recent findings suggest a reciprocal relationship between COVID-19 and diabetes, wherein COVID-19 may contribute to developing new-onset diabetes and worsen existing metabolic abnormalities.
  • 920
  • 08 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Baricitinib in COVID-19 Therapy
During the current pandemic, the vast majority of COVID-19 patients experienced mild symptoms, but some had a potentially fatal aberrant hyperinflammatory immune reaction characterized by high levels of IL-6 and other cytokines. Modulation of this immune reaction has proven to be the only method of reducing mortality in severe and critical COVID-19. The anti-inflammatory drug baricitinib (Olumiant) has recently been strongly recommended by the WHO for use in COVID-19 patients because it reduces the risk of progressive disease and death. It is a Janus Kinase (JAK) 1/2 inhibitor approved for rheumatoid arthritis which was suggested in early 2020 as a treatment for COVID-19.
  • 916
  • 01 Jul 2022
Topic Review
SARS-CoV-2 and Cancer Cross-Talk
Since the pandemic’s onset, a growing population of individuals has recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection and its long-term effects in some of the convalescents are gradually being reported. Although the precise etiopathogenesis of post-acute COVID-19 sequelae (PACS) remains elusive, the mainly accepted rationale is that SARS-CoV-2 exerts long-lasting immunomodulatory effects, promotes chronic low-grade inflammation, and causes irreversible tissue damage. Several viruses have been causally linked to human oncogenesis, whereas chronic inflammation and immune escape are thought to be the leading oncogenic mechanisms. Excessive cytokine release, impaired T-cell responses, aberrant activation of regulatory signaling pathways (e.g., JAK-STAT, MAPK, NF-kB), and tissue damage, hallmarks of COVID-19 disease course, are also present in the tumor microenvironment. Therefore, the intersection of COVID-19 and cancer is partially recognized and the long-term effects of the virus on oncogenesis and cancer progression have not been explored yet.
  • 916
  • 03 Nov 2022
Topic Review
SARS-CoV-2 and its New Variants
Since the beginning of 2020, the new pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 and named coronavirus disease 19 (COVID 19) has changed our socio-economic life. In just a few months, SARS-CoV-2 was able to spread worldwide at an unprecedented speed, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, especially among the weakest part of the population. Indeed, especially at the beginning of this pandemic, many reports highlighted how people, suffering from other pathologies, such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes, are more at risk of severe outcomes if infected. Although this pandemic has put the entire academic world to the test, it has also been a year of intense research and many important contributions have advanced our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 origin, its molecular structure and its mechanism of infection. Unfortunately, despite this great effort, we are still a long way from fully understanding how SARS-CoV-2 dysregulates organismal physiology and whether the current vaccines will be able to protect us from possible future pandemics.
  • 915
  • 04 Aug 2021
Topic Review
FimH and Anti-Adhesive Therapeutics
Chaperone-usher fimbrial adhesins are powerful weapons against the uropathogens that allow the establishment of urinary tract infections (UTIs). As the antibiotic therapeutic strategy has become less effective in the treatment of uropathogen-related UTIs, the anti-adhesive molecules active against fimbrial adhesins, key determinants of urovirulence, are attractive alternatives. The best-characterized bacterial adhesin is FimH, produced by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). Hence, a number of high-affinity mono- and polyvalent mannose-based FimH antagonists, characterized by different bioavailabilities, have been reported. Given that antagonist affinities are firmly associated with the functional heterogeneities of different FimH variants, several FimH inhibitors have been developed using ligand-drug discovery strategies to generate high-affinity molecules for successful anti-adhesion therapy. As clinical trials have shown d-mannose’s efficacy in UTIs prevention, it is supposed that mannosides could be a first-in-class strategy not only for UTIs, but also to combat other Gram-negative bacterial infections. 
  • 914
  • 29 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Nutritional Therapy
With the growing spread of COVID-19 worldwide, the appeal to nutritional therapies in conjunction with medical therapies has been heightened. Promising findings have been reported when medical treatments were complemented with nutritional interventions.
  • 913
  • 30 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Monkeypox Infection 2022 in Adults and Children
Contributors : Francesca Gaeta  Francesco De Caro  Gianluigi Franci  Pasquale Pagliano  Pietro Vajro  Claudia Mandato Monkeypox disease has been endemic in sub-Saharan Africa for a long time, attracting remarkable attention only in 2022 through the occurrence of a multi-country outbreak. The latter has raised serious public health concerns and is considered a public health emergency by the World Health Organization. Although the disease is usually self-limiting, it can cause severe illness in individuals with compromised immune systems, in children, and/or the pregnant woman–fetus dyad. Patients generally present with fever, lymphadenopathy, and a vesicular rash suggestive of mild smallpox. Serious eye, lung and brain complications, and sepsis can occur. https://doi.org/10.3390/children9121832
  • 912
  • 13 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Technologies for Plasmon-Based Fluorescence Enhancement
Fluorescence is a widely used phenomenon in various scientific and technological fields, including biology, chemistry, medicine, and materials science. The fluorescence signal provides valuable information about molecular interactions, concentrations, and structural changes. Fluorescence exhibits numerous valuable applications, encompassing the detection of single molecules, fluorescence nanoscopy, biological labeling, and optoelectronic device functionality, among many others. Fluorescence enhancement is imperative for enhancing the sensitivity and precision of a wide range of scientific and technological applications that heavily rely on fluorescence detection. It is a crucial requirement to elevate the performance and reliability of these applications.
  • 911
  • 11 Mar 2024
Topic Review
SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Valproic Acid
The histone deacetylase inhibitor valproic acid (VPA) is a potential drug that could be adapted to prevent the progression and complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection. VPA has a history of research in the treatment of various viral infections. VPA inhibits SARS-CoV-2 virus entry, suppresses the pro-inflammatory immune cell and cytokine response to infection, and reduces inflammatory tissue and organ damage by mechanisms that may appear to be sex-related. The antithrombotic, antiplatelet, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, glucose- and testosterone-lowering in blood serum effects of VPA suggest that the drug could be promising for therapy of COVID-19. Sex-related differences in the efficacy of VPA treatment may be significant in developing a personalised treatment strategy for COVID-19.
  • 910
  • 18 May 2022
Topic Review
Antiretroviral Therapy in HTLV-1 Infection
The human T cell leukemic/lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), discovered several years ago, is the causative agent for a rapid progressive haematological malignancy, adult T cell leukemia (ATL), for debilitating neurological diseases and for a number of inflammatory based diseases. Although the heterogeneous features of the diseases caused by HTLV-1, a common topic concerning related therapeutic treatments relies on the use of antiretrovirals.
  • 909
  • 07 May 2022
Topic Review
Microbial Natural Products with Anti-Hepatitis Virus
The hepatitis virus is one of the major burdens on the global health system. There are numerous types of hepatitis virus, with both known and unknown etiologies. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) are the most prevalent infectious agents linked to chronic liver disease, including hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis. In healthcare facilities, the use of contaminated blood poses a risk; the infection can be transmitted through unsafe injection practices, the injection of drugs, the transfusion of unscreened blood, and sexual practices involving blood inflammation.
  • 908
  • 14 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Hematologic Malignancies in COVID-19 Pandemic
Obesity is epidemiologically and likely, causally related to various hematological cancers, while both conditions may predispose to severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a variety of obstacles with respect to numerous aspects in the management of hematological malignancies. Patients with hematologic malignancies faced a variety of challenges, pertinent to the nature of an underlying hematologic disorder itself as well as its therapy as a risk factor for severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, suboptimal vaccine efficacy and the need for uninterrupted medical observation and continued therapy. Obesity constitutes another factor which was acknowledged since the early days of the pandemic that predisposed people to severe COVID-19, and shares a likely causal link with the pathogenesis of a broad spectrum of hematologic cancers.
  • 906
  • 25 May 2022
Topic Review
SARS-CoV-2 Variant-Specific Gastrointestinal Symptoms of COVID-19
The gastrointestinal (GI) tract may be a significant entrance or interaction site for SARS-CoV-2; therefore, the gut mucosal immune system participates in virus interaction as a first-line physical and immunological defense, leading to GI involvement and symptoms. The pattern of symptoms changed during the virus evolution, since the data provided a current and thorough picture of the symptoms experienced by SARS-CoV-2 infected people, and variations in symptom patterns occurred as the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants have spread. Since the beginning of the pandemic, GI symptoms have been linked to SARS-CoV-2 infections, even though most infected people do not report them. 
  • 906
  • 06 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Immune Escape Variants from Antibody-Based Therapeutics against COVID-19
The accelerated SARS-CoV-2 evolution under selective pressure by massive deployment of neutralizing antibody-based therapeutics is a concern with potentially severe implications for public health. Escape variants associated with mAb and COVID-19-convalescent plasma (CCP) therapy manifest different type of mutations. For monoclonal antibodies (mAb), most mutations are single amino acid replacements in the receptor binding domain (RBD) domain, while most variants eliciited in patients treated with CCP exhibited amino acid deletions. In fact, it is noteworthy that RBD mutations were relatively rare in CCP escape variants. 
  • 905
  • 29 Dec 2021
Topic Review
COVID-19 and Seasonal Influenza Vaccination
SARS-CoV-2 and influenza are the main respiratory viruses for which effective vaccines are currently available. Strategies in which COVID-19 and influenza vaccines are administered simultaneously or combined into a single preparation are advantageous and may increase vaccination uptake.
  • 904
  • 23 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Zika Virus Epidemiology
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a Flavivirus and was first isolated in a sentinel monkey kept for studying mosquito-borne diseases, and was also later isolated from Aedes africanus mosquitoes, confirming its vector-borne transmission, in the Ziika forest of Uganda.
  • 904
  • 09 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Lassa Fever Symptoms and Pathogenesis
Lassa virus (LASV) is the causative agent of Lassa fever (LF). LF symptoms typically appear 1–3 weeks post-infection. Eighty percent of cases are asymptomatic or present with mild, non-specific febrile symptoms such as fever, sore throat, headache, and general malaise, that may be misdiagnosed as typhoid, malaria, or appendicitis.
  • 903
  • 15 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Dexamethasone in Treatment of COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has rapidly spread globally, becoming a huge public health challenge. Even though the vast majority of patients are asymptomatic, some patients present with pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), septic shock, and death. It has been shown in several studies that the severity and clinical outcomes are related to dysregulated antiviral immunity and enhanced and persistent systemic inflammation. Corticosteroids have been used for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, as they are reported to elicit benefits by reducing lung inflammation and inflammation-induced lung injury. Dexamethasone has gained a major role in the therapeutic algorithm of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia requiring supplemental oxygen or on mechanical ventilation. Its wide anti-inflammatory action seems to form the basis for its beneficial action, taming the overwhelming “cytokine storm”. Amid a plethora of scientific research on therapeutic options for COVID-19, there are still unanswered questions about the right timing, right dosing, and right duration of the corticosteroid treatment.
  • 902
  • 04 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Biomolecules and Skin Infectious Diseases
Skin infections are amongst the most common infectious diseases, ranked as the fourth leading cause of human illnesses. Both bacteria and viruses are responsible for many serious, difficult to treat skin conditions. Fungi are also highly prevalent in skin diseases. Skin infections present considerable threats to a person’s health, psychological wellbeing, capacity to operate, and social involvement.
  • 901
  • 04 Aug 2021
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