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Topic Review
Dysmetabolic Iron Overload Syndrome
Dysmetabolic iron overload syndrome (DIOS) corresponds to the increase in iron stores associated with components of metabolic syndrome (MtS) and in the absence of an identifiable cause of iron excess. DIOS is usually asymptomatic and can be diagnosed by investigating MtS and steatosis. About 50% of the patients present altered hepatic biochemical tests (increased levels of γ-glutamyl transpeptidase itself or associated with increased levels of alanine aminotransferase). The liver may present parenchymal and mesenchymal iron overload, but the excess of iron is commonly mild. Steatosis or steatohepatitis is observed in half of the patients. Fibrosis is observed in about 15% of patients. Hyperferritinemia may damage the myocardium, liver, and several other tissues, increasing morbidity and mortality.
  • 759
  • 31 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Thymus Gland
The thymus gland is the chief lymphoid organ that regulates the functions of the immune and endocrine systems by controlling the levels of hormones and cytokines. The thymus gland protects against various internal and external stresses through immunoregulatory properties, nerve systems, and endocrine pathways. The thymus gland controls cell proliferation, apoptosis, hormones, and neuropeptides, as well as regulating intrathymic T cell differentiation and production of a repertoire of the T cell.
  • 753
  • 26 Oct 2021
Topic Review
European Medicinal Leeches
Before the advent of modern medicine, natural resources were widely used by indigenous populations for the prevention and treatment of diseases. The associated knowledge, collectively described as folk medicine or traditional medicine, was largely based on trial-and-error testing of plant extracts (herbal remedies) and the use of invertebrates, particularly medicinal maggots of the blowfly Lucilia sericata and blood-sucking leeches. The widespread use of traditional medicine in the West declined as scientific advances allowed reproducible testing under controlled conditions and gave rise to the modern fields of biomedical research and pharmacology. 
  • 750
  • 02 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Unnatural Gallotannins
Nature has been a source of inspiration for the development of new pharmaceutically active agents. Polyphenols, including gallotannins, are widely studied as they protect cells against oxidative damage and pathogen attack. A series of new unnatural gallotannins (GTs), derived from D-lyxose, D-ribose, D-rhamnose, D-mannose, and D-fructose have been designed and synthesized i order to study the protective and antimicrobial effects of synthetic polyphenols that are structurally related to plant-derived products. Apart from spectral analysis, their antioxidant activity was evaluated. Structurally different GTs were screened in vitro for their antimicrobial properties against a spectrum of staphylococci, enterococci, and mycobacteria. Furthermore, the antibiofilm activity of GTs against S. aureus, and their ability to inhibit sortase A were inspected. Experimental data suggest that synthetic GTs could be considered as promising candidates for pharmacological, biomedical, and food industry applications.
  • 750
  • 14 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Rheumatoid Arthritis Gene Therapy
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic inflammatory joint disease affecting about 1% of the population worldwide. Current treatment approaches do not ensure a cure for every patient. Moreover, classical regimens are based on nontargeted systemic immune suppression and have significant side effects. Biological treatment has advanced considerably but efficacy and specificity issues remain. Gene therapy is one of the potential future directions for RA therapy, which is rapidly developing. Several gene therapy trials done so far have been of moderate success, but experimental and genetics studies have yielded novel targets. As a result, the arsenal of gene therapy tools keeps growing. Currently, both viral and nonviral delivery systems are used for RA therapy.
  • 749
  • 13 Jul 2021
Topic Review
TSPAN8
Tetraspanin 8 (TSPAN8) is a member of the tetraspanin superfamily that forms TSPAN8-mediated protein complexes by interacting with themselves and other various cellular signaling molecules. These protein complexes help build tetraspanin-enriched microdomains (TEMs) that efficiently mediate intracellular signal transduction. In physiological conditions, TSPAN8 plays a vital role in the regulation of biological functions, including leukocyte trafficking, angiogenesis and wound repair. Recently, reports have increasingly shown the functional role and clinical relevance of TSPAN8 overexpression in the progression and metastasis of several cancers.
  • 748
  • 15 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Focal Adhesion Kinase
Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) represents 15% of all lung cancers and it is clinically the most aggressive type, being characterized by a tendency for early metastasis, with two-thirds of the patients diagnosed with an extensive stage (ES) disease and a five-year overall survival (OS) as low as 5%. There are still no effective targeted therapies in SCLC despite improved understanding of the molecular steps leading to SCLC development and progression these last years.
  • 747
  • 19 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Microneedle Vaccine
Transdermal vaccination route using biodegradable microneedles is a rapidly progressing field of research and applications. The fear of painful needles is one of the primary reasons most people avoid getting vaccinated. Therefore, developing an alternative pain-free method of vaccination using microneedles has been a significant research area. Microneedles comprise arrays of micron-sized needles that offer a pain-free method of delivering actives across the skin. Apart from being pain-free, microneedles provide various advantages over conventional vaccination routes such as intramuscular and subcutaneous. Microneedle vaccines induce a robust immune response as the needles ranging from 50 to 900 μm in length can efficiently deliver the vaccine to the epidermis and the dermis region, which contains many Langerhans and dendritic cells. The microneedle array looks like band-aid patches and offers the advantages of avoiding cold-chain storage and self-administration flexibility. The slow release of vaccine antigens is an important advantage of using microneedles. The vaccine antigens in the microneedles can be in solution or suspension form, encapsulated in nano or microparticles, and nucleic acid-based. The use of microneedles to deliver particle-based vaccines is gaining importance because of the combined advantages of particulate vaccine and pain-free immunization. 
  • 745
  • 27 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Pathogenesis and Oxidative Stress
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a challenging disease caused by multiple factors, which may partly explain why it still remains an orphan of adequate therapies. It highlights the interaction between oxidative stress (OS) and disturbed lipid metabolism. Several reactive oxygen species generators, including those produced in the gastrointestinal tract, contribute to the lipotoxic hepatic (and extrahepatic) damage by fatty acids and a great variety of their biologically active metabolites in a “multiple parallel-hit model”. This leads to inflammation and fibrogenesis and contributes to NAFLD progression. The alterations of the oxidant/antioxidant balance affect also metabolism-related organelles, leading to lipid peroxidation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and endoplasmic reticulum stress. This OS-induced damage is at least partially counteracted by the physiological antioxidant response. Therefore, modulation of this defense system emerges as an interesting target to prevent NAFLD development and progression. For instance, probiotics, prebiotics, diet, and fecal microbiota transplantation represent new therapeutic approaches targeting the gut microbiota dysbiosis. The OS and its counter-regulation are under the influence of individual genetic and epigenetic factors as well.
  • 744
  • 14 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Antidiabetic Properties of Naringenin
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a metabolic disease characterized by insulin resistance and hyperglycemia and is associated with personal health and global economic burdens. Current strategies/approaches of insulin resistance and T2DM prevention and treatment are lacking in efficacy resulting in the need for new preventative and targeted therapies. In recent years, epidemiological studies have suggested that diets rich in vegetables and fruits are associated with health benefits including protection against insulin resistance and T2DM. Naringenin, a citrus flavanone, has been reported to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, nephroprotective, immunomodulatory and antidiabetic properties.
  • 743
  • 14 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Severe Cutaneous Adverse Drug Reactions
Adverse drug reaction (ADR) is a pressing health problem, and one of the main reasons for treatment failure with antiepileptic drugs. This has become apparent in the event of severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs), which can be life-threatening. Early diagnosis of SCARs that helps in the identification of the culprit drugs is important in the acute stages of the reaction. 
  • 742
  • 16 May 2021
Topic Review
Lysophosphatidic Acid in Cancer
Since the clear demonstration of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA)’s pathological roles in cancer in the mid-1990s, more than 1000 papers relating LPA to various types of cancer were published. Through these studies, LPA was established as a target for cancer. Although LPA-related inhibitors entered clinical trials for fibrosis, the concept of targeting LPA is yet to be moved to clinical cancer treatment. The major challenges that we are facing in moving LPA application from bench to bedside include the intrinsic and complicated metabolic, functional, and signaling properties of LPA, as well as technical issues, which are discussed in this entry. Potential strategies and perspectives to improve the translational progress are suggested. Despite these challenges, we are optimistic that LPA blockage, particularly in combination with other agents, is on the horizon to be incorporated into clinical applications.
  • 742
  • 18 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Saliva biomarkers for Heart Failure
Heart Failure (HF) is a clinical syndrome characterized by symptoms such as dyspnoea or fatigue on exertion or at rest, and clinical signs (i.e. lower extremity oedema, elevated jugular venous pressure, pulmonary crackles, etc.) caused by a structural and/or functional cardiac abnormality, ultimately leading to reduced cardiac output. Despite advances in the knowledge on HF, decisions on diagnosis and treatment of HF remain challenging. In everyday clinical practice, biomarkers such as plasma natriuretic peptides such as brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal fragment BNP (NT-proBNP), play an important role in HF diagnosis, therapy monitoring and risk stratification, while many other serum biomarkers have also been studied without definite evidence on how to use them in clinical practice. Biomarkers that could be measured in other biological fluids other than blood, easily and non-invasively, and outside the hospital setting, have attracted research interest. During the last years, saliva has emerged as a body fluid for this purpose.  This review assessed the potential role of salivary biomarkers in diagnosis and progression monitoring of patients with HF. 18 salivary biomarkers were analyzed and the levels of all biomarkers studied were found to be higher in HF patients compared to controls, except for amylase, sodium, and chloride that had smaller saliva concentrations in HF patients. Natriuretic peptides are the most commonly used plasma biomarkers in the management of HF. Their saliva levels show promising results, although the correlation of saliva to plasma values is weakened in higher plasma values. In most of the publications, differences in biomarker levels between HF patients and controls were found to be statistically significant. Due to small number of patients included, larger studies need to be conducted in order to facilitate the use of saliva biomarkers in clinical practice.
  • 738
  • 19 May 2021
Topic Review
Cyclotide Scaffold for Drug Development
Cyclotides are a novel class of micro-proteins (≈30–40 residues long) with a unique topology containing a head-to-tail cyclized backbone structure further stabilized by three disulfide bonds that form a cystine knot. This unique molecular framework makes them exceptionally stable to physical, chemical, and biological degradation compared to linear peptides of similar size. The cyclotides are also highly tolerant to sequence variability, aside from the conserved residues forming the cystine knot, and are orally bioavailable and able to cross cellular membranes to modulate intracellular protein–protein interactions (PPIs), both in vitro and in vivo. These unique properties make them ideal scaffolds for many biotechnological applications, including drug discovery. 
  • 738
  • 13 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Chronothyroidology and Chronobiology
Chronobiology is the scientific discipline which considers biological phenomena in relation to time, which assumes itself biological identity. Many physiological processes are cyclically regulated by intrinsic clocks and many pathological events show a circadian time-related occurrence. Even the pituitary–thyroid axis is under the control of a central clock, and the hormones of the pituitary–thyroid axis exhibit circadian, ultradian and circannual rhythmicity.
  • 736
  • 25 May 2021
Topic Review
Cold Medicine
Cold medicines are a group of medications taken individually or in combination as a treatment for the symptoms of the common cold and similar conditions of the upper respiratory tract. The term encompasses a broad array of drugs, including analgesics, antihistamines and decongestants, among many others. It also includes drugs which are marketed as cough suppressants or antitussives, but their effectiveness in reducing cough symptoms is unclear or minimal. While they have been used by 10% of American children in any given week, they are not recommended in Canada or the United States in children six years or younger because of lack of evidence showing effect and concerns of harm. One version with codeine, guaifenesin, and pseudoephedrine was the 213th most commonly prescribed medication in 2017, in the United States, with more than two million prescriptions.
  • 736
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease exhibiting a distinct pattern of neuropathological changes associated with repetitive head trauma leading to increased risk of long-term memory and cognition issues.
  • 735
  • 27 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Proteomics, Personalized Medicine and Cancer
Cancer, a major public health issue worldwide, is the second most common cause of death. Initiatives such as the Human Genome Project (HGP) and Human Proteome Project (HPP) have greatly advanced the understanding of human health and disease, including cancer, and are supporting the current trend towards personalized/precision medicine.
  • 735
  • 01 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Antidiabetic Potential of Medicinal Plants
Diabetes mellitus is one of the major health problems in the world, the incidence and associated mortality are increasing. Inadequate regulation of the blood sugar imposes serious consequences for health. Conventional antidiabetic drugs are effective, however, also with unavoidable side effects. On the other hand, medicinal plants may act as an alternative source of antidiabetic agents. 
  • 733
  • 04 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Gut Microbiome and T2DM
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a disease that affects over 9% of the United States population and is closely linked to obesity. While obesity was once thought to stem from a sedentary lifestyle and diets high in fat, recent evidence supports the idea that there is more complexity pertinent to the issue. The human gut microbiome has recently been the focus in terms of influencing disease onset. Evidence has shown that the microbiome may be more closely related to T2DM than what was originally thought. High fat diets typically result in poor microbiome heath, which then shifts the gut into a state of dysbiosis. Dysbiosis can then lead to metabolic deregulation, including increased insulin resistance and inflammation, two key factors in the development of T2DM.
  • 732
  • 23 Jun 2021
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