Wednesday, 21 June 2017

Regulatory Mechanisms of Hsp90

The ability of Hsp90 to activate a disparate clientele implicates this chaperone in diverse biological processes. To accommodate such varied roles, Hsp90 requiresa variety of regulatory mechanisms that are coordinated in order to modulate its activity appropriately.


Hsp90
Amongst these, the master-regulator heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) is critically important in upregulating Hsp90 during stress, but is also responsible, through interaction with specific transcription factors (such as STAT1 and Strap/p300) for the integration of a variety of biological signals that ultimately modulate Hsp90 expression. Additionally, transcription factors, such as STAT1, STAT3 (including STAT1-STAT3 oligomers), NF-IL6, and NF-kB, are known to influence Hsp90 expression directly.



Tuesday, 20 June 2017

The Importance of Screening for Mild Depression in Adults with Diabetes

Depression is common and burdensome in patients with diabetes. Compared to people without diabetes, depression prevalence rates are over three times higher in people with Type 1diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and twice as high in patients with Type 2 diabetesmellitus (T2DM).

Mild Depression
Depression is associated with poor diabetes self-management and poorer prognosis in terms of disease severity, complications, and mortality. Psychological and pharmacological interventions are effective in reducing depression in people with diabetes and lifestyle factors and some pharmacological treatments also improve glycaemic control. Therefore, the importance of screening for and addressing depression in people with diabetes is recognized in the guidelines of several countries and by the International Diabetes Federation. 

Monday, 19 June 2017

Efficacy of a Novel Epicardium Drug Delivery System for Bone Marrow Stem Cells Treating Heart Failure After Myocardial Infarction

Heart failure (HF) is a complex clinical syndrome that can result from any functional or structural cardiac disorder that impairs the ventricle’s ability to fill with or eject blood. Heart failure not only reduces thepatient's life expectancy, but also causes the patient to breathe difficult, fluid retention and fatigue, which significantly reduce the quality of life of patients.

Almost all of the cardiovascular disease will eventually lead to heart failure, and myocardial infarction is the main cause of heart failure. Heart failure after myocardial infarction can lead to left ventricular systolic and diastolic dysfunction. In the end stage of heart failure, the effect of drugs treatment is very low. Therefore, many studies have turned to use devices to therapy heart failure. 

Friday, 16 June 2017

Cell-Based Therapy of Ischemic Heart Failure

Heart failure is the number one killer of men and women in the United States. Despite spending more than $35 billion annually on the treatment of heart disease in the US, the number of patients progressingto heart failure is increasing. Currently, there is no strategy to reverse or halt the progression of heart failure.

Ischemic Heart Failure
Over the past few years, stem cell transplantation has risen as a new therapeutic strategy for treating IHF. A large number of preclinical as well as clinical studies were performed using adult bone marrow-derived cells with mixed results. The majority of the studies showed modest improvement in cardiac function in IHF. Among the studies tested adult cell types, cardiac c-Kit+ progenitor cells proved to be potential candidates as therapeutic agents; however, the low cardiogenic potential of transplanted adult cells and c-Kit+ cells may present a major obstacle. 

Thursday, 15 June 2017

ROR1 is an Intriguing Target for Cancer Therapy

Receptor Tyrosine Kinase-Like Orphan Receptor 1 (ROR1) is an oncofetal protein and has gained attention in cancer therapy since its initial discovery as a relatively specific surface antigen on B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in 2008. The list of cancer types with ROR1 expression keeps growing, comprising, amongothers, malignant melanoma, breast cancer, and prostate cancer. It has been shown that ROR1 mediates several oncogenic pathways in a cancer type- and context-dependent manner.

Receptor Tyrosine Kinase-Like Orphan Receptor 1
Receptor Tyrosine Kinase-Like Orphan Receptor 1 
There are several ways to target ROR1 molecule, some of which have been in preclinical and clinical trials. We briefly summarize the oncogenic signaling pathways related to ROR1, as well as the update on ROR1-targeted therapies. ROR1 is transmembrane receptor tyrosine kinase-like protein that is mainly expressed in cells during embryogenesis; however, ROR1 has been shown to re-express in several cancer types . At the amino terminus of ROR1 is an extracellular immunoglobulin-like domain, a cysteine-rich domain, also named the Frizzled domain, and a highly folded, cysteine-rich Kringle transmembrane domain. 


Wednesday, 14 June 2017

Trastuzumab Combined Oxaliplatin and S-1 Therapy Demonstrated Pathological Complete Response of Synchronous Liver Metastasis of Gastric Cancer

Liver Metastasis of Gastric Cancer
The HER2 positive advanced or metastatic gastric cancer (GC) is recommended with Trastuzumab (Tmab) combined cisplatin (CDDP) and capecitabine (Cap).

Otherwise, oxaliplatin (L-OHP) has been replaced in place of CDDP for GC. Furthermore, S-1 is a key oral anticancer drug used in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer in Asia.

A 59- year-old man who received Tmab-SOX therapy for solitary synchronous liver metastasis of GC, because the operated intestinal type GC revealed HER2 score 3+ immunohistochemically.

Tuesday, 6 June 2017

Advances in Stem Cell Research over a Period of Time with Therapeutic Applications: Special Emphasis on Parthenogenesis Embryonic Stem Cells and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Pluripotent Stem Cells
Despite the Embryonic stem cells (ESC's) having the potential to provide unlimited cells and tissues for regenerative medicine, their use is difficult because most of them will be rejected by the patient’s immune system unless officially immunomastched.

Although pluripotent stem cells are genetically identical to a patient, they can be established by reprogramming of somatic cells. Limitations remain high cost and they are required to produce clinical grade cells for each kind of patient.

The ESC's derived from parthenogenetic embryos (pESC) which are homozygous for HLA 'S may serve as an alternative for immunomatched therapies for a large number of patients.