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International Journal of Molecular... Jan 2022According to several animal and human studies, vitamin D appears to play a significant role in the development of diabetic nephropathy. However, the possible... (Review)
Review
According to several animal and human studies, vitamin D appears to play a significant role in the development of diabetic nephropathy. However, the possible renoprotective effect of vitamin D and its influence on the reversal of already existing renal damage remains doubtful. At this moment, there are a few hypotheses concerning the underlying molecular and genetic mechanisms including the link between vitamin D and inflammation, oxidative stress, and extracellular matrix accumulation. The present review aims to investigate the potential role of vitamin D in the development of diabetic kidney disease from a translational approach.
Topics: Animals; Biomarkers; Clinical Studies as Topic; Diabetic Nephropathies; Disease Management; Disease Models, Animal; Disease Susceptibility; Gene Expression Regulation; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Humans; Receptors, Calcitriol; Translational Research, Biomedical; Vitamin D; Vitamin D Deficiency
PubMed: 35054991
DOI: 10.3390/ijms23020807 -
Journal of Cellular and Molecular... May 2020Mechanical stress plays a critical role in cartilage development and homoeostasis. Chondrocytes are surrounded by a narrow pericellular matrix (PCM), which absorbs... (Review)
Review
Mechanical stress plays a critical role in cartilage development and homoeostasis. Chondrocytes are surrounded by a narrow pericellular matrix (PCM), which absorbs dynamic and static forces and transmits them to the chondrocyte surface. Recent studies have demonstrated that molecular components, including perlecan, collagen and hyaluronan, provide distinct physical properties for the PCM and maintain the essential microenvironment of chondrocytes. These physical signals are sensed by receptors and molecules located in the cell membrane, such as Ca channels, the primary cilium and integrins, and a series of downstream molecular pathways are involved in mechanotransduction in cartilage. All mechanoreceptors convert outside signals into chemical and biological signals, which then regulate transcription in chondrocytes in response to mechanical stresses. This review highlights recent progress and focuses on the function of the PCM and cell surface molecules in chondrocyte mechanotransduction. Emerging understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate mechanotransduction will provide new insights into osteoarthritis pathogenesis and precision strategies that could be used in its treatment.
Topics: Animals; Biomarkers; Cartilage, Articular; Cell Membrane; Chondrocytes; Disease Management; Disease Susceptibility; Extracellular Matrix; Extracellular Matrix Proteins; Gene Expression Regulation; Homeostasis; Humans; Mechanotransduction, Cellular; Osteoarthritis; Stress, Mechanical
PubMed: 32237113
DOI: 10.1111/jcmm.15204 -
Experimental & Molecular Medicine Apr 2021Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been considered a noninvasive and cost-effective modality for tumor treatment. However, the complexity of tumor microenvironments poses... (Review)
Review
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been considered a noninvasive and cost-effective modality for tumor treatment. However, the complexity of tumor microenvironments poses challenges to the implementation of traditional PDT. Here, we review recent advances in PDT to resolve the current problems. Major breakthroughs in PDTs are enabling significant progress in molecular medicine and are interconnected with innovative strategies based on smart bio/nanomaterials or therapeutic insights. We focus on newly developed PDT strategies designed by tailoring photosensitive reactive oxygen species generation, which include the use of proteinaceous photosensitizers, self-illumination, or oxygen-independent approaches. While these updated PDT platforms are expected to enable major advances in cancer treatment, addressing future challenges related to biosafety and target specificity is discussed throughout as a necessary goal to expand the usefulness of PDT.
Topics: Animals; Biological Therapy; Biomarkers, Tumor; Cell Death; Disease Management; Humans; Luminescent Proteins; Neoplasms; Oxidation-Reduction; Oxidative Stress; Photochemotherapy; Photosensitizing Agents; Reactive Oxygen Species; Signal Transduction; Tumor Microenvironment
PubMed: 33833374
DOI: 10.1038/s12276-021-00599-7 -
International Journal of Molecular... Jan 2022The rapid growth of obesity worldwide has made it a major health problem, while the dramatic increase in the prevalence of obesity has had a significant impact on the... (Review)
Review
The rapid growth of obesity worldwide has made it a major health problem, while the dramatic increase in the prevalence of obesity has had a significant impact on the magnitude of chronic kidney disease (CKD), especially in developing countries. A vast amount of researchers have reported a strong relationship between obesity and chronic kidney disease, and obesity can serve as an independent risk factor for kidney disease. The histological changes of kidneys in obesity-induced renal injury include glomerular or tubular hypertrophy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis or bulbous sclerosis. Furthermore, inflammation, renal hemodynamic changes, insulin resistance and lipid metabolism disorders are all involved in the development and progression of obesity-induced nephropathy. However, there is no targeted treatment for obesity-related kidney disease. In this review, RAS inhibitors, SGLT2 inhibitors and melatonin would be presented to treat obesity-induced kidney injury. Furthermore, we concluded that melatonin can protect the kidney damage caused by obesity by inhibiting inflammation and oxidative stress, revealing its therapeutic potential.
Topics: Animals; Biomarkers; Cytokines; Disease Management; Disease Susceptibility; Drug Development; Humans; Inflammation Mediators; Insulin Resistance; Kidney Diseases; Kidney Glomerulus; Kidney Tubules; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Obesity; Oxidative Stress; Renin-Angiotensin System
PubMed: 35054932
DOI: 10.3390/ijms23020747 -
Future Cardiology Jan 2021
Topics: Acute Coronary Syndrome; COVID-19; Chest Pain; Comorbidity; Disease Management; Electrocardiography; Female; Heart Failure; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Myocarditis; Pandemics; SARS-CoV-2
PubMed: 32608242
DOI: 10.2217/fca-2020-0088 -
Journal of Experimental & Clinical... Sep 2019Iron, an indispensable element for life, is involved in all kinds of important physiological activities. Iron promotes cell growth and proliferation, but it also causes... (Review)
Review
Iron, an indispensable element for life, is involved in all kinds of important physiological activities. Iron promotes cell growth and proliferation, but it also causes oxidative stress damage. The body has a strict regulation mechanism of iron metabolism due to its potential toxicity. As a cancer of the bone marrow and blood cells, leukemia threatens human health seriously. Current studies suggest that dysregulation of iron metabolism and subsequent accumulation of excess iron are closely associated with the occurrence and progress of leukemia. Specifically, excess iron promotes the development of leukemia due to the pro-oxidative nature of iron and its damaging effects on DNA. On the other hand, leukemia cells acquire large amounts of iron to maintain rapid growth and proliferation. Therefore, targeting iron metabolism may provide new insights for approaches to the treatment of leukemia. This review summarizes physiologic iron metabolism, alternations of iron metabolism in leukemia and therapeutic opportunities of targeting the altered iron metabolism in leukemia, with a focus on acute leukemia.
Topics: Animals; Disease Management; Disease Susceptibility; Drug Carriers; Drug Delivery Systems; Humans; Iron; Leukemia; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Metal Nanoparticles; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Oxidation-Reduction; Oxidative Stress
PubMed: 31519186
DOI: 10.1186/s13046-019-1397-3 -
Journal of Primary Care & Community... 2021Clinicians treating COVID-19 patients face a major challenge in providing an effective relationship with patients who are discharged to return to home in order to...
INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVES
Clinicians treating COVID-19 patients face a major challenge in providing an effective relationship with patients who are discharged to return to home in order to optimize patient self-management after discharge. The purpose of these discharge instructions is to assist and provide guidance for physicians, nurses, and other health care personnel involved in discharging COVID-19 patients to home after encounters at hospitals, emergency departments, urgent care settings, and medical offices.
METHODS
A systematic literature-search of studies evaluating both symptoms and signs of COVID-19 was performed in order to establish specific optimal performance criteria in monitoring a patient's status with regard to disease safety. These optimal performance criteria parameters were considered with regard to the severity of morbidity and mortality. Strategies used to develop the discharge instructions included review of a broad spectrum of literature to develop the discharge criteria.
RESULTS
These guidelines are presented for patient education and should achieve the essential goals including: enabling patients to understand their medical situation, preventing complications, supporting patients by providing instructions, helping patients make more effective use of available health services, and managing patient stress by giving patients comfort through the knowledge of specific recommendations including how to respond to situations.
CONCLUSION
The COVID-19 pandemic requires clinicians to efficiently teach their patients self-management strategies and to provide a safe educated response to the patient and the surrounding community environment. The primary goal of the patient education discharge-instructions (PEDI) is to provide self-management strategies for preventing complications and disease transmission.
Topics: COVID-19; Emergency Service, Hospital; Humans; Pandemics; Patient Discharge; SARS-CoV-2
PubMed: 34142617
DOI: 10.1177/21501327211024400 -
Open Biology Sep 2020Aneuploidy, an irregular number of chromosomes in cells, is a hallmark feature of cancer. Aneuploidy results from chromosomal instability (CIN) and occurs in almost 90%... (Review)
Review
Aneuploidy, an irregular number of chromosomes in cells, is a hallmark feature of cancer. Aneuploidy results from chromosomal instability (CIN) and occurs in almost 90% of all tumours. While many cancers display an ongoing CIN phenotype, cells can also be aneuploid without displaying CIN. CIN drives tumour evolution as ongoing chromosomal missegregation will yield a progeny of cells with variable aneuploid karyotypes. The resulting aneuploidy is initially toxic to cells because it leads to proteotoxic and metabolic stress, cell cycle arrest, cell death, immune cell activation and further genomic instability. In order to overcome these aneuploidy-imposed stresses and adopt a malignant fate, aneuploid cancer cells must develop aneuploidy-tolerating mechanisms to cope with CIN. Aneuploidy-coping mechanisms can thus be considered as promising therapeutic targets. However, before such therapies can make it into the clinic, we first need to better understand the molecular mechanisms that are activated upon aneuploidization and the coping mechanisms that are selected for in aneuploid cancer cells. In this review, we discuss the key biological responses to aneuploidization, some of the recently uncovered aneuploidy-coping mechanisms and some strategies to exploit these in cancer therapy.
Topics: Adaptation, Physiological; Aneuploidy; Biomarkers; Cellular Senescence; Chromosomal Instability; Disease Management; Disease Susceptibility; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Humans; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Neoplasms; Signal Transduction; Stress, Physiological
PubMed: 32873156
DOI: 10.1098/rsob.200148 -
Journal of Medical Virology Nov 2020Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) represents a significant global medical issue, with a growing number of cumulative confirmed cases. However, a large number of... (Review)
Review
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) represents a significant global medical issue, with a growing number of cumulative confirmed cases. However, a large number of patients with COVID-19 have overcome the disease, meeting hospital discharge criteria, and are gradually returning to work and social life. Nonetheless, COVID-19 may cause further downstream issues in these patients, such as due to possible reactivation of the virus, long-term pulmonary defects, and posttraumatic stress disorder. In this study, we, therefore, queried relevant literature concerning severe acute respiratory syndrome, Middle East respiratory syndrome, and COVID-19 for reference to come to a consensus on follow-up strategies. We found that strategies, such as the implementation of polymerase chain reaction testing, imaging surveillance, and psychological assessments, starting at the time of discharge, were necessary for long-term follow-up. If close care is given to every aspect of coronavirus management, we expect that the pandemic outbreak will soon be overcome.
Topics: COVID-19; COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Testing; Communicable Disease Control; Disease Management; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Patient Discharge
PubMed: 32383776
DOI: 10.1002/jmv.25994 -
Journal of Medical Internet Research Apr 2023Work stress places a heavy economic and disease burden on society. Recent technological advances include digital health interventions for helping employees prevent and...
BACKGROUND
Work stress places a heavy economic and disease burden on society. Recent technological advances include digital health interventions for helping employees prevent and manage their stress at work effectively. Although such digital solutions come with an array of ethical risks, especially if they involve biomedical big data, the incorporation of employees' values in their design and deployment has been widely overlooked.
OBJECTIVE
To bridge this gap, we used the value sensitive design (VSD) framework to identify relevant values concerning a digital stress management intervention (dSMI) at the workplace, assess how users comprehend these values, and derive specific requirements for an ethics-informed design of dSMIs. VSD is a theoretically grounded framework that front-loads ethics by accounting for values throughout the design process of a technology.
METHODS
We conducted a literature search to identify relevant values of dSMIs at the workplace. To understand how potential users comprehend these values and derive design requirements, we conducted a web-based study that contained closed and open questions with employees of a Swiss company, allowing both quantitative and qualitative analyses.
RESULTS
The values health and well-being, privacy, autonomy, accountability, and identity were identified through our literature search. Statistical analysis of 170 responses from the web-based study revealed that the intention to use and perceived usefulness of a dSMI were moderate to high. Employees' moderate to high health and well-being concerns included worries that a dSMI would not be effective or would even amplify their stress levels. Privacy concerns were also rated on the higher end of the score range, whereas concerns regarding autonomy, accountability, and identity were rated lower. Moreover, a personalized dSMI with a monitoring system involving a machine learning-based analysis of data led to significantly higher privacy (P=.009) and accountability concerns (P=.04) than a dSMI without a monitoring system. In addition, integrability, user-friendliness, and digital independence emerged as novel values from the qualitative analysis of 85 text responses.
CONCLUSIONS
Although most surveyed employees were willing to use a dSMI at the workplace, there were considerable health and well-being concerns with regard to effectiveness and problem perpetuation. For a minority of employees who value digital independence, a nondigital offer might be more suitable. In terms of the type of dSMI, privacy and accountability concerns must be particularly well addressed if a machine learning-based monitoring component is included. To help mitigate these concerns, we propose specific requirements to support the VSD of a dSMI at the workplace. The results of this work and our research protocol will inform future research on VSD-based interventions and further advance the integration of ethics in digital health.
Topics: Humans; Occupational Stress; Workplace; Digital Technology; Machine Learning; Cell Phone
PubMed: 37052996
DOI: 10.2196/44131