浅谈转化医学

正1992年Science杂志首次提出bench to bedside (从实验台到病床旁)的概念,1994年开始出现转化型研究(translational research),1996年The Lancet杂志上的一篇文章"Adenomatous polyposis coli and translational medicine"首次出现转化医学这一新名词。转化医学(translational medicine)是医学研究的一个分支,试图在基础研究与临床医疗之间建立更直接的联系,倡导实     

电脑美术在高职医学教学中的应用

医学美术是医学与美术相结合而产生的一门新的学科,简单来说,在医学中应用美术语言形象表达医学科学知识的概念、原理、规律等就是医学美术。医学美术能够在枯燥、抽象的医学理论教学中,通过图形、图像、艺术形象等把理论知识变的直观、易懂、生动活泼有艺术魅力,在医学教育、医学论著、医疗实践中都是不可或缺的。医学电脑美术以医学科学为创作源泉,以美术技巧为手段,以电脑软件为辅助工具,能为医学教学提供更科学的服务。     

转化医学信息

转化医学作为医学研究的一个分支,从其概念的提出到现在十多年间发展迅速,引起了世界各国学者的广泛关注和重视。转化医学的核心是将医学生物学基础研究成果迅速有效地转化为可在临床实践中应用的理论、技术、方法和药物,并在实验室与病房之间架起一条快速通道,实现基础研究与临床研究的双向转化,是沟通基础医学与临床医学的桥梁,也是当前医学研究的热门话题。鉴于此,本刊推出"转化医学信息"栏目,对该领域相关报道内容进行介绍,希望对相关科研和医疗工作者有所启发。     

转化医学信息

转化医学作为医学研究的一个分支,从其概念的提出到现在十多年间发展迅速,广泛引起了世界各国学者的关注和重视。转化医学的核心是将医学生物学基础研究成果迅速有效地转化为可在临床实践中应用的理论、技术、方法和药物,并在实验室与病房之间架起一条快速通道,实现基础研究与临床研究的双向转化,是沟通基础医学与临床医学的桥梁,也是当前医学研究的热门话题。鉴于此,《中国细胞生物学学报》推出"转化医学信息"栏目,对该领域相关报道内容进行介绍,希望对相关科研和医疗工作者有所启发。     

注重前概念调查提高初中生物学概念教学的实效性——以“植物的呼吸”为例

依据概念转变理论,以"绿色植物的呼吸"为例,编制调查问卷了解学生头脑中的前概念,提高概念教学的针对性,基于对前概念调查结果的分析,应用实验研究的方法,分析不同教学策略对学生转变错误概念、建立科学概念的影响。     

转化医学研究与循证决策

<正>20世纪90年代,国际上开始注重转化医学的理念,其典型含义是将基础研究的成果转化为有效的临床治疗手段,强调从实验室到病床旁的连接,通常称之为"从实验台到病床旁".随着转化医学在医学研究中的重要性不断提升,其定义和内涵也在不断变化和丰富.有学者指出,转化医学的概念还有新的内涵,即"将研究结果、结论应用到日常健康保健工     

论植物医学的学科与专业

我国大多数农林高校都开设了植物保护专业,但长期以来,“植物保护”和“植物医学”2个概念模糊不清、混为一谈.本文试图从植物保护学科及其专业招生与人才培养存在的问题着手,讨论植物医学与植物保护学科与专业的内涵与外延,深入分析植物保护与植物医学的不同特点及联系,意在强调在我国农林高校设置植物医学专业、建立植物医学学科、最终构建现代化植物医学教育体系的重要性和必要性.     

应用中感悟知识的价值——以“关于流感那些事”初三复习课教学设计为例

以社会热点文章《流感下的北京中年》中的医学案例为载体,创设复习课的问题情境。引导学生利用所学知识参与疾病诊疗,在分析数据、解释现象、进行决策的过程中完成"生物圈中的人""健康地生活""生物与环境"等一级主题下相关概念的复习,促进学生建立概念间的内在联系,初步形成知识网络。学生在疾病的预防及治疗过程中切身体会学习生物学的重要价值,理解珍爱生命、健康生活的意义,关注相关社会问题,从而突出生物学科的育人价值。     

科技名词：精准医疗

<正>精准医疗(Precision Medicine)是一种将个人基因、环境与生活习惯差异考虑在内的疾病预防与处置的新兴方法。2015年1月20日,美国总统奥巴马在国情咨文中提出"精准医学计划",希望精准医学可以引领一个医学新时代。精准医学可以使医疗健康的概念发生本质变化,从医疗健康体系以诊断治疗为主,     

构建融合医学人文教育的新型医学遗传学教学模式

医学遗传学是广泛涉及基础与临床学科的综合性课程,对于医学生是至关重要的必修课程。现代医学已由传统的生物-医学模式向生物-心理-社会医学模式转化,医学诊疗模式从最初的以"疾病为中心"到"以病人为中心"的方式转变,医生不仅精通医术,更要理解患者的心理,与其进行良好的沟通,因此现代医学成为了一门具有自然科学、人文社会科学双重属性的综合性科学体系。长期以来,我国医学院校的教学仍然是生物医学知识和技能占据主导地位,人文课程不受重视。因此,必须加强医学人文知识的学习和技能培训,只有这样才能在未来的医疗工作中掌握良好的医患沟通技巧,建立和谐的医患关系,对处理好日渐增多的医疗纠纷、维护医患双方的共同利益具有重要意义。     

The intracellular pathogen concept

The intracellular pathogen concept classifies pathogenic microbes on the basis of their site of replication and dependence on host cells. This concept played a fundamental role in establishing the field of cellular microbiology, founded in part by Dr. Pascale Cossart, whose seminal contributions are honored in this issue of Molecular Microbiology. The recognition that microbes can access and replicate in privileged compartments within host cells has led to many new and fruitful lines of investigation into the biology of the cell and mechanisms of cell-mediated immunity. However, like any scientific concept, the intracellular pathogen concept can become a dogma that constrains thinking and oversimplifies complex and dynamic host–pathogen interactions. Growing evidence has blurred the distinction between “intracellular” and “extracellular” pathogens and demonstrated that many pathogens can exist both within and outside of cells. Although the intracellular pathogen concept remains useful, it should not be viewed as a rigid classification of pathogenic microbes, which exhibit remarkable variation and complexity in their behavior in the host.     

Antibiotic exposure as a risk factor for emergence of resistance: the influence of concentration

Evolution of antibiotic resistance (AR) is increasingly perceived as a major clinical problem. The use of bactericidal antibiotics may protect against this, to some extent, by eradication of the pathogen, but the borders between cidal and inhibitory activity in the patient are often blurred. In addition, there are clinical reasons why eradication of the pathogen may not always be desirable. Antibiotic dosing schedules are currently driven by the perception that T > MIC and AUIC are the main predictors of outcome for time-dependent and concentration-dependent antibiotics, respectively. In the context of protecting against development of resistance in the pathogen however, peak antibiotic concentration and the concept of mutant prevention concentrations may be more important. The role of post-antibiotic and sub-MIC effects is more conjectural. Considerations of mechanisms of resistance and their relationship to antibiotic dosing schedules will also be highlighted. Lastly, the relevance of all this to the development of resistance in the normal bacterial flora will be discussed.     

MultiPSQ: A Software Solution for the Analysis of Diagnostic n-Plexed Pyrosequencing Reactions

Background

Pyrosequencing can be applied for Single-Nucleotide-Polymorphism (SNP)-based pathogen typing or for providing sequence information of short DNA stretches. However, for some pathogens molecular typing cannot be performed relying on a single SNP or short sequence stretch, necessitating the consideration of several genomic regions. A promising rapid approach is the simultaneous application of multiple sequencing primers, called multiplex pyrosequencing. These primers generate a fingerprint-pyrogram which is constituted by the sum of all individual pyrograms originating from each primer used.

Methods

To improve pyrosequencing-based pathogen typing, we have developed the software tool MultiPSQ that expedites the analysis and evaluation of multiplex-pyrograms. As a proof of concept, a multiplex pyrosequencing assay for the typing of orthopoxviruses was developed to analyse clinical samples diagnosed in the German Consultant Laboratory for Poxviruses.

Results

The software tool MultiPSQ enabled the analysis of multiplex-pyrograms originating from various pyrosequencing primers. Thus several target regions can be used for pathogen typing based on pyrosequencing. As shown with a proof of concept assay, SNPs present in different orthopoxvirus strains could be identified correctly with two primers by MultiPSQ.

Conclusions

Software currently available is restricted to a fixed number of SNPs and sequencing primers, severely limiting the usefulness of this technique. In contrast, our novel software MultiPSQ allows analysis of data from multiplex pyrosequencing assays that contain any number of sequencing primers covering any number of polymorphisms.     

Schistosoma transmission: scaling-up competence from hosts to ecosystems

In a One-Health context, it is urgent to establish the links between environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and the circulation of pathogens. Here we review and literally draw a general vision of aquatic environmental factors that interface with Schistosoma species, agents of schistosomiasis, and ultimately modulate their transmission at the ecosystem scale. From this synthesis, we introduce the concept of ecosystem competence defined as ‘the propensity of an ecosystem to amplify or mitigate an incoming quantity of a given pathogen that can be ultimately transmitted to their definitive hosts’. Ecosystem competence integrates all mechanisms at the ecosystem scale underlying the transmission risk of a given pathogen and offers a promising measure for operationalizing the One-Health concept.     

Activation of quiescent infections by postharvest pathogens during transition from the biotrophic to the necrotrophic stage

The evolution of bacterial pathogens from nonpathogenic ancestors is marked principally by the acquisition of virulence gene clusters on plasmids and pathogenicity islands via horizontal gene transfer. The flip side of this evolutionary force is the equally important adaptation of the newly minted pathogen to its new host niche. Pathoadaptive mutations take the form of modification of gene expression such that the pathogen is better fit to survive within the new niche. This mini-review describes the concept of pathoadaptation by loss of gene function. In this process, genes that are no longer compatible with the novel lifestyle of the pathogen are selectively inactivated either by point mutation, insertion, or deletion. These genes are called 'antivirulence genes'. Selective pressure sometimes leads to the deletion of large regions of the genome that contain antivirulence genes generating 'black holes' in the pathogen genome. Inactivation of antivirulence genes leads to a pathogen that is highly adapted to its host niche. Identification of antivirulence genes for a particular pathogen can lead to a better understanding of how it became a pathogen and the types of genetic traits that need to be silenced in order for the pathogen to colonize its new host niche successfully.     

Natural foci of diseases: the development of the concept at the close of the century

E. N. Pavlovski?'s concept of natural focality of diseases and the development of general knowledge about natural foci and their structural (components), functional (mechanisms of pathogen maintenance), and ecosystem-related organization (assortment and interrelations of ecosystems) are reviewed from principal (in authors' opinion) aspects. The 60-year history of this theory includes three stages at which its scope and contents differed. At the first stage, it concerned transmissible zoonoses. It had been assumed that structurally, natural foci necessarily include the pathogen-vector-host triad, and the functioning of the focus is provided for by only pathogen circulation in terrestrial ecosystems. At the second stage, it became clear that vector is not a necessary structural component of any focus (an example of nontransmissible diseases), although the functioning of foci remained to be unequivocally attributed to the continuous pathogen circulation among animals of terrestrial ecosystems. The third stage is characterized by an understanding that, in general, the presence of a warm-blooded host in the focus is also unnecessary for pathogen survival, and natural foci can be represented by soil and aquatic ecosystems. The only necessary and specific component of any natural focus is the pathogen population. In this context, modern views on natural focality of diseases are reviewed, and the essence of the terms "natural focus" and "epizootic process" is defined. It is proposed to distinguish the phases of pathogen reservation and epizootic spread (circulation) in ecosystems of any type. The current state of this concept provides evidence that, in general biological terms, studies on natural focality of diseases belong to one of the fields of symbiotology.     

Plants and pathogenic agents, a refined and dangerous relationship: the example of fungi

Plant-fungus interactions are highly diverse, either being beneficial to the host plant such as those leading to mycorhizal symbiosis, or very detrimental when leading to severe diseases. Since the beginning of agriculture, improvement of plant resistance to pathogens has remained a major challenge. Breeding for resistance, first conducted empirically in the past centuries, was then performed on a more theoretical basis after the statement of heredity laws by Mendel at the end of the XIXth century. As a result, most cultivated species contain various cultivars whose resistance or susceptibility to a given pathogen species depend on their interaction with various races of that pathogen. Such highly specific race-cultivar systems are particularly suited for understanding the molecular dialogue which underlies compatible (host susceptible/pathogen virulent) or incompatible (host resistant/pathogen avirulent) interactions. During the twentieth century, one of the major events that paved the way for future research was the statement by Flor [1946, 1947] of the gene-for-gene concept. Studying inheritance of the disease phenotype in the interaction between flax and Melampsora lini he showed that resistance in the host and avirulence in the pathogen are dictated by single dominant genes which correspond one to one, i.e. one resistance gene for one avirulence gene. The fact that incompatibility may depend on the presence of only one resistance (R) gene in the host and one avirulence (Avr) gene in the pathogen was fully confirmed about 40 years later. Molecular genetics and complementation experiments have allowed to isolate numerous R and Avr genes from various plant-pathogen systems, and to verify the gene-for-gene concept. These studies have enlightened the elicitor/receptor concept, formerly introduced to account for the specificity of the compatible and incompatible interactions. The present knowledge of R and Avr genes also allows to predict how such genes have evolved and how they could be used to improve disease resistance. At the beginning of the twenty first century, this remains a major challenge in view of the severe losses caused by pests and pathogens to most crops on the earth.     

Optimizing vaccine development

Optimizing the development of modern molecular vaccines requires a complex series of interdisciplinary efforts involving basic scientists, immunologists, molecular biologists, clinical vaccinologists, bioinformaticians and epidemiologists. This review summarizes some of the major issues that must be carefully considered. The intent of the authors is to briefly describe key components of the development process to give the reader an overview of the challenges faced from vaccine concept to vaccine delivery. Every vaccine requires unique features based on the biology of the pathogen, the nature of the disease and the target population for vaccination. This review presents general concepts relevant for the design and development of ideal vaccines protective against diverse pathogens.     

A Basidiobolus sp. and its association with reptiles and amphibians in southern Florida

To provide information about the distribution of a Basidiobolus sp., an occasional pathogen in the subtropics and tropics, 95 reptiles and amphibians, comprising eight different species, were trapped from the beaches and inland habitats of Tampa and Miami, Florida. Five of the eight animal species were infested with Basidiobolus sp. Approximately 50% of the animals collected carried this zygomycete. Under laboratory conditions, it remained in the digestive tracts of some starved anoles for up to 3 weeks. Some animals, whose digestive tract was fungus-free, could be colonized with the Basidiobolus sp. by feeding them mealworms contaminated with propagules of this fungus. This finding alters, in a minor way, the present concept of the life history of the fungus.     

Physiology of innate immunity

The mechanisms of innate immunity functioning--the first row of counteraction (resistance) to infectious agents are reviewed. A concept of pathogen associated molecular patterns--the unique prokaryotic conservative structures--as well as a concept of pattern-recognizing receptors of innate immunity cell recognizing the given bacterial patterns, are discussed. The data on molecular and genetic structures of both Toll-like- and NOD-receptors: the important compounds of pattern-recognizing receptors, the main signaling pathways from receptor to cell genome activation as well as the principles of immune cell activation by pathogen associated molecular patterns are submitted.