Correlative clinical biochemistry and hematological profiles of laboratory-bred Bolivian squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus)

Twenty-five clinical and biochemical parameters were determined on 17 normal, male, laboratory-bred Bolivian squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus). Parallel hematologic parameters were conducted. The correlation of biochemical and hematological observations and the distribution characteristics, range, and standard error of the mean were determined. The purpose of the present communication is to establish baseline biochemical values for laboratory-bred squirrel monkeys and to present a correlative comparison between selected cellular elements and major blood electrolytes.     

Efficacy of Trematophoma lignicola Petrak as a Biological Control Agent for Amaranthus retroflexus L.

The pathogenicity of Trematophoma lignicola on Amaranthus retroflexus was increased when its conidia were formulated in oilseed rape emulsion. However, this formulation did not reduce the dew period required to allow conidial germination and infection of the host, nor did it protect the conidia from desiccation before the onset of dew. The fungus gave effective control of A. retroflexus plants up to the 4-true-leaf stage. Plants with 5 to 6-true-leaves were infected and their dry weight reduced, but plants with more than 6-true-leaves were unaffected. Plants grown in warm conditions (18-21°C/12-15°C, day/night) were more likely to be successfully controlled than those grown in the cold (10-12°C/7-8°C; day/night). Significant dry weight loss of A. retroflexus plants were achieved at application volumes down to 100 l ha -1 at 5 ×10 6 conidia ml -1 . More effective control was achieved by application of conidia of T. lignicola than mycelial or pycnidial applications.     

The potential clinical impact of the release of two drafts of the human proteome

The authors have carried out an investigation of the two “draft maps of the human proteome” published in 2014 in Nature. The findings include an abundance of poor spectra, low-scoring peptide-spectrum matches and incorrectly identified proteins in both these studies, highlighting clear issues with the application of false discovery rates. This noise means that the claims made by the two papers – the identification of high numbers of protein coding genes, the detection of novel coding regions and the draft tissue maps themselves – should be treated with considerable caution. The authors recommend that clinicians and researchers do not use the unfiltered data from these studies. Despite this these studies will inspire further investigation into tissue-based proteomics. As long as this future work has proper quality controls, it could help produce a consensus map of the human proteome and improve our understanding of the processes that underlie health and disease.     

Method for Obtaining Primary Ovarian Cancer Cells From Solid Specimens

Reliable tools for investigating ovarian cancer initiation and progression are urgently needed. While the use of ovarian cancer cell lines remains a valuable tool for understanding ovarian cancer, their use has many limitations. These include the lack of heterogeneity and the plethora of genetic alterations associated with extended in vitro passaging. Here we describe a method that allows for rapid establishment of primary ovarian cancer cells form solid clinical specimens collected at the time of surgery. The method consists of subjecting clinical specimens to enzymatic digestion for 30 min. The isolated cell suspension is allowed to grow and can be used for downstream application including drug screening. The advantage of primary ovarian cancer cell lines over established ovarian cancer cell lines is that they are representative of the original specific clinical specimens they are derived from and can be derived from different sites whether primary or metastatic ovarian cancer.     

Identification of proton-pump inhibitor drugs that inhibit Trichomonas vaginalis uridine nucleoside ribohydrolase

Trichomonas vaginalis continues to be a major health problem with drug-resistant strains increasing in prevalence. Novel antitrichomonal agents that are mechanistically distinct from current therapies are needed. The NIH Clinical Compound Collection was screened to find inhibitors of the uridine ribohydrolase enzyme required by the parasite to scavenge uracil for its growth. The proton-pump inhibitors omeprazole, pantoprazole, and rabeprazole were identified as inhibitors of this enzyme, with IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.3 to 14.5 μM. This suggests a molecular mechanism for the in vitro antitrichomonal activity of these proton-pump inhibitors, and may provide important insights toward structure-based drug design.     

A quantitative method for evaluation of 6 degree of freedom virtual reality systems

Modern virtual reality systems such as the HTC Vive enable users to be immersed in a virtual world. Validation of the HTC Vive and other contemporaneous systems for use in clinic, research, and industry applications will assure users and developers that games and applications made for these systems are accurate representations of the real world. The purpose of this study was to develop a standardized method for testing the translational and rotational capabilities of VR systems such as the HTC Vive. The translational and rotational capabilities of the HTC Vive were investigated using an industry grade robot arm and a gold standard motion capture system. It was found that the average difference between reported translational distances traveled was 0.74 ± 0.42 mm for all room-scale calibration trials and 0.63 ± 0.27 mm for all standing calibration trials. The mean difference in angle rotated was 0.46 ± 0.46° for all room-scale calibration trials and 0.66 ± 0.40° for all standing calibration trials. When tested using human movement, the average difference in distance traveled was 3.97 ± 3.37 mm. Overall, the HTC Vive shows promise as a tool for clinic, research, and industry and its controllers can be accurately tracked in a variety of situations. The methodology used for this study can easily be replicated for other VR systems so that direct comparisons can be made as new systems become available.     

An economic perspective on personalized medicine

The concept of personalized medicine not only promises to enhance the life of patients and increase the quality of clinical practice and targeted care pathways, but also to lower overall healthcare costs through early-detection, prevention, accurate risk assessments and efficiencies in care delivery. Current inefficiencies are widely regarded as substantial enough to have a significant impact on the economies of major nations like the US and China, and, therefore the world economy. A recent OECD report estimates healthcare expenditure for some of the developed western and eastern nations to be anywhere from 10% to 18%, and growing (with the US at the highest). Personalized medicine aims to use state-of-the-art genomic technologies, rich medical record data, tissue and blood banks and clinical knowledge that will allow clinicians and payors to tailor treatments to individuals, thereby greatly reducing the costs of ineffective therapies incurred through the current trial and error clinical paradigm. Pivotal to the field are drugs that have been designed to target a specific molecular pathway that has gone wrong and results in a diseased condition and the diagnostic tests that allow clinicians to separate responders from non-responders. However, the truly personalized approach in medicine faces two major problems: complex biology and complex economics; the pathways involved in diseases are quite often not well understood, and most targeted drugs are very expensive. As a result of all current efforts to translate the concepts of personalized healthcare into the clinic, personalized medicine becomes participatory and this implies patient decisions about their own health. Such a new paradigm requires powerful tools to handle significant amounts of personal information with the approach to be known as “P4 medicine”, that is predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory. P4 medicine promises to increase the quality of clinical care and treatments and will ultimately save costs. The greatest challenges are economic, not scientific.     

流式细胞术在细菌快速检测中的应用

流式细胞仪(Flow cytometer)是集应用流体学、光学、电子学、生物学、免疫学等多门学科和技术于一体的新型高科技仪器。它的核心技术是流式细胞术(Flow cytometry,FCM),该技术是利用流式细胞仪,使单个细胞或其他微小生物粒子处于快速直线流动状态,且逐个通过光束,从而对单个细胞或微粒进行多参数(数量、大小、核酸含量、细胞活性、特定菌群或物种等)定量分析和分选的检测技术,具有快速、灵敏、精确以及便于操作等突出优点。本文简要介绍流式细胞仪的原理,并论述流式细胞技术在实验室研究、工业生产、临床诊断、环境评估等领域的细菌快速检测应用。     

Curcumin,a component of golden spice: From bedside to bench and back

Although the history of the golden spice turmeric (Curcuma longa) goes back thousands of years, it is only within the past century that we learned about the chemistry of its active component, curcumin. More than 6000 articles published within the past two decades have discussed the molecular basis for the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and anticancer activities assigned to this nutraceutical. Over sixty five clinical trials conducted on this molecules, have shed light on the role of curcumin in various chronic conditions, including autoimmune, cardiovascular, neurological, and psychological diseases, as well as diabetes and cancer. The current review provides an overview of the history, chemistry, analogs, and mechanism of action of curcumin.