Expanding use of pulsed electromagnetic field therapies

Various types of magnetic and electromagnetic fields are now in successful use in modern medicine. Electromagnetic therapy carries the promise to heal numerous health problems, even where conventional medicine has failed. Today, magnetotherapy provides a non invasive, safe, and easy method to directly treat the site of injury, the source of pain and inflammation, and a variety of diseases and pathologies. Millions of people worldwide have received help in treatment of the musculoskeletal system, as well as for pain relief. Pulsed electromagnetic fields are one important modality in magnetotherapy. Recent technological innovations, implementing advancements in computer technologies, offer excellent state-of-the-art therapy.     

Siglec and anti-Siglec therapies

Siglecs (sialic acid–binding immunoglobulin-like lectins) are a family of receptors that bind sialic acids in specific linkages on glycoproteins and glycolipids. Siglecs play roles in immune signalling and exhibit cell-type specific expression and endocytic properties. Recent studies suggest that Siglecs are likely to function as immune checkpoints that regulate responses in cancers and inflammatory diseases. In this review, we discuss strategies to target the Siglec–sialic acid axis in human diseases, particularly cancer, and the possibility of exploiting them for therapeutic intervention.     

Metastatic process and therapies

Tumor progression is now relatively well understood with changes at cellular and molecular levels. However mechanisms of the metastatic process are still not well elucidated. Several important questions remain unsolved to established new therapies. Moreover we need experimental animal models mimicking human metastatic disease to investigate and discover new targets for future therapies. These experimental approaches have to be coupled with pathological and clinical researches. Different experts will present the state of our knowledge in this domain.     

山水林田湖草沙一体化保护和修复工程与景观生态学

我国山水林田湖草沙生命共同体及其保护和修复工程的理论研究和实践正逐渐开展,需要系统的学科理论支撑,景观生态学作为地理学和生态学的交叉科学,能够以其宏观空间理论和技术体系满足这一需求。本文将景观生态学作为山水林田湖草沙一体化保护和修复工程的支撑学科,首先,明确了山水林田湖草沙生命共同体是镶嵌的异质景观、具有景观的所有特征并遵循景观生态学原理;其次,阐述了景观生态建设理论如何应用于山水林田湖草沙一体化保护和修复工程的规划和评价;最后,总结景观生态建设研究的新趋势,提出待解决的理论和实践问题,并论述山水林田湖草沙一体化保护和修复工程如何为解决这些问题提供广阔的研究空间。景观生态学和山水林田湖草沙一体化保护和修复工程实践相结合,将为实现我国乃至全球生态、经济、社会可持续发展提供极为有效的途径。     

Hormonal therapies and osteoporosis

Osteoporosis, now defined as a disease characterized by low bone mass and a microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue leading to enhanced bone fragility and fracture risk, is a major public health problem. Classic hormonal therapies to prevent and treat osteoporosis associated with menopause have recently been questioned due to the risk/benefit ratio of prolonged treatment. There is a critical need for safe and effective alternative therapeutics for this disease. Nonhuman primates have been used as models to assess bone changes associated with estrogen deficiency because their trabecular and cortical bone remodeling processes, monthly menstrual cycles, and reproductive-hormone patterns are similar to those of humans. The ovariectomized nonhuman primate has become the preferred model in which to study effects on bone remodeling, particularly with regard to bone mass, architecture, and strength, in fulfillment of studies required by international guidelines for the development of antiosteoporotic drugs. The nonhuman primate is amenable to several methodologies that assess bone quantity and quality, including dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), quantitative computed tomography (QCT), histology, static and dynamic histomorphometry, and biomechanical testing, as well as assays developed for clinical use, which serve as biomarkers of bone metabolic processes. The use of the nonhuman primate model in the assessment of osteoporosis therapeutics, both hormonal (sex steroids and their analogues, parathyroid hormone) and nonhormonal (bisphosphonates), has provided valuable information on the safety and efficacy as well as the mechanisms of bone loss associated with estrogen deficiency that is directly applicable to the human situation.     

上肢精准电磁功率计（臂力计）用于心肺代谢等整体功能评估的临床观察研究*

目的: 受试者分别用上肢（臂力计）和下肢精准电磁功率计（自行车）进行症状限制性极限心肺运动试验（CPET）,分析探讨上肢CPET的临床价值。方法: 15例受试者（正常人6例和慢病患者9例）签署知情同意书后在不同的2 d里分别完成上肢和下肢精准电磁功率计CPET,分析CPET数据、计算相关核心指标,探究上肢和下肢CPET的异同及其相关性。结果: ①全体15例受试者男8女7,其中6例正常人和9例慢病患者亚组相比仅年龄（（33.2±12.7）比（53.6±8.5）岁）和无诊断疾病有显著差异（P<0.05）。②全体受试者上肢CPET峰值心率（（131.0±19.0）比（153.0±22.0） bpm,P<0.05）和血压均低于下肢CPET,但血压差异无统计学意义（P>0.05）;上肢CPET的峰值潮气量（（1.3±0.4）比（1.8±0.4） L）和分钟通气量（（51.4±21.1）比（67.9±22.1） L/min）均显著低于下肢（P均<0.05）,而峰值呼吸频率无显著差异;采用上肢CPET时,运动时间（（6.4±0.6）比（8.5±1.2） min）要短于下肢CPET;峰值负荷功率（（73.2±19.6）比（158.5±40.3）W/min）、峰值摄氧量（（1.1±0.4）比（1.7±0.4）L/min）、无氧阈（（0.6±0.2）比（0.9±0.2） L/min）、峰值氧脉搏（（8.6±2.3）比（10.9±2.6） ml/beat）、摄氧通气效率峰值平台（34.7±4.3比39.8±5.3）均较低,而二氧化碳排出通气效率最小值（32.6±3.8比28.7±4.9）及斜率（33.9±4.3比28.3±6.2）高于下肢CPET（P均<0.05）。正常人和慢病两亚组各自的比较结果与整体比较结果无显著差异。③上肢CPET的运动时间,峰值心率,峰值呼吸频率、潮气量、分钟通气量,峰值负荷功率实测值及百分预计值,峰值摄氧量实测值、公斤体重值和百分预计值,无氧阈实测值、公斤体重值,峰值氧脉搏的实测值,摄氧通气效率峰值平台、二氧化碳排出通气效率最小值和斜率的实测值及百分预计值与下肢CPET的结果相关性较好,其余指标无显著相关性。结论: 作为下肢CPET的补充,上肢CPET用于整体功能状态评估具有极高的可行性和更高的安全性,对于指导安全有效个体化精准运动整体方案的实施提供了重要补充,值得进一步深入探究。     

A holistic approach to protein docking

Docking of unbound protein structures into a complex has gained significant progress in recent years, but nonetheless still poses a great challenge. We have pursued a holistic approach to docking which brings together effective methods at different stages. First, protein-protein interaction sites are predicted or obtained from experimental studies in the literature. Interface prediction/experimental data are then used to guide the generation of docked poses or to rank docked poses generated from an unbiased search. Finally, selected models are refined by lengthy molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in explicit water. For CAPRI target T27, we used information on interaction sites as input to drive docking and as a filter to rank docked poses. Lead candidates were then clustered according to RMSD among them. From the clustering, 10 models were selected and subject to refinement by MD simulations. Our Model 7 is rated number one among all submissions according to L_rmsd. Six of our other submissions are rated acceptable. As scorer, eight of our submissions are rated acceptable.     

Individuation and holistic processing of faces in rhesus monkeys

Despite considerable evidence that neural activity in monkeys reflects various aspects of face perception, relatively little is known about monkeys' face processing abilities. Two characteristics of face processing observed in humans are a subordinate-level entry point, here, the default recognition of faces at the subordinate, rather than basic, level of categorization, and holistic effects, i.e. perception of facial displays as an integrated whole. The present study used an adaptation paradigm to test whether untrained rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) display these hallmarks of face processing. In experiments 1 and 2, macaques showed greater rebound from adaptation to conspecific faces than to other animals at the individual or subordinate level. In experiment 3, exchanging only the bottom half of a monkey face produced greater rebound in aligned than in misaligned composites, indicating that for normal, aligned faces, the new bottom half may have influenced the perception of the whole face. Scan path analysis supported this assertion: during rebound, fixation to the unchanged eye region was renewed, but only for aligned stimuli. These experiments show that macaques naturally display the distinguishing characteristics of face processing seen in humans and provide the first clear demonstration that holistic information guides scan paths for conspecific faces.     

Apoptosis-based therapies and drug targets

The pathogenesis of many diseases is most closely connected with aberrantly regulated apoptotic cell death. The past 15 years have witnessed an explosion in the basic knowledge of mechanisms that regulate apoptosis and the mediators that either trigger or inhibit cell death. Consequently, great interest has emerged in devising therapeutic strategies for modulating the key molecules of life-and-death decisions. Numerous novel approaches are currently being followed employing gene therapy and antisense strategies, recombinant biologics or classical organic and combinatorial chemistry in order to target specific apoptotic regulators. Although drug development is still in its infancy, several therapeutics have progressed to clinical testing or have even been approved in record time. This review outlines the recent advances in the field of apoptosis-based therapies and explores some highlights of a very active field of drug development.     

A holistic approach to protein structure alignment

A method of protein structure comparison developed previously is extended to incorporate other aspects of protein structure in addition to the inter-atomic vectors on which it was originally based. Each additional aspect, which induced hydrogen bonding, solvent exposure, torsional angles and sequence, was introduced separately and evaluated for its ability to improve alignment quality. The components were then combined, suitably weighted, to produce a more holistic comparison method. The method was tested on a group of remotely related beta/alpha type proteins that share a common feature in their overall chain fold. The results indicated that while the original inter-atomic vector component was sufficient to give the correct alignment of most pairs of topologically equivalent proteins, the inclusion of hydrogen bonds, torsion angles and a measure of solvent exposure led to improvements in the more difficult comparisons. Consideration of amino acid properties, including hydrophobicity, had no beneficial effect. The failure of the latter component was not unexpected considering the almost total lack of sequence similarity among the proteins considered.