The discovery and domestication of biomolecules that respond to light has taken a light of its own, providing new molecular tools with incredible spatio-temporal resolution to manipulate cellular behavior. Areas covered: The authors herein analyze the current optogenetic tools in light of their current, and potential, uses in cancer drug discovery, biosafety and cancer biology. Expert opinion: The pipeline from drug discovery to the clinic is plagued with drawbacks, where most drugs fail in either efficacy or safety. These issues require the redesign of the pipeline and the development of more controllable/personalized therapies. Light is, aside from inexpensive, almost harmless if used appropriately, can be directed to single cells or organs with controllable penetration, and comes in a variety of wavelengths. Light-responsive systems can activate, inhibit or compensate cell signaling pathways or specific cellular events, allowing the specific control of the genome and epigenome, and modulate cell fate and transformation. These synthetic molecular tools have the potential to revolutionize drug discovery and cancer research.
In biological systems, the formation of molecular complexes is the currency for all cellular processes. Traditionally, functional experimentation was targeted to single molecular players in order to understand its effects in a cell or animal phenotype. In the last few years, we have been experiencing rapid progress in the development of ground-breaking molecular biology tools that affect the metabolic, structural, morphological, and (epi)genetic instructions of cells by chemical, optical (optogenetic) and mechanical inputs. Such precise dissection of cellular processes is not only essential for a better understanding of biological systems, but will also allow us to better diagnose and fix common dysfunctions. Here, we present several of these emerging and innovative techniques by providing the reader with elegant examples on how these tools have been implemented in cells, and, in some cases, organisms, to unravel molecular processes in minute detail. We also discuss their advantages and disadvantages with particular focus on their translation to multicellular organisms for in vivo spatiotemporal regulation. We envision that further developments of these tools will not only help solve the processes of life, but will give rise to novel clinical and industrial applications.
Introduction. The aim of the surveillance over infections is to define the critical points, lacks in knowledge of staff skills, as well as lack of equipment. It is aimed at preventing the same mistakes from being conducted all over again, instead of making those guilty suffer from consequences of their mistakes. Aim. The authors aimed at assessing the quality of nursing care procedures in terms of preventing post-operative wound infections. Materials and methods. The research was conducted in medical treatment, surgical and intensive care ward. A self-constructed questionnaire “Nursing care quality and prophylaxis of hospital-acquired infections” was used for the study. It was validated using the peer judges method. Results and conclusions. The highest nursing care coefficient was noted in county hospitals ( x̅ = 94.5%), while the lowest was noted in clinical hospitals ( x̅ = 91.3%). It was concluded that there is a deficit in adherence to procedures related to post-operative wound treatment.
Aim of study. To examine whether baseline characteristics, potential risk factors, clinical symptoms, radiological presentation, and long-term outcomes differ between internal carotid artery dissection (ICAD) and vertebral artery dissection (VAD).Clinical rationale for study. Cervical artery dissection (CeAD) is a major cause of cerebral ischaemia in young adults. Its clinical course is highly variable, resulting in challenges in making a proper diagnosis.Methods. We performed a retrospective analysis of 31 patients (mean age 42.2 years) with CeAD (18 with ICAD, 13 with VAD) treated in our neurology department from 2008 to 2018. Appropriate imaging confirmed the diagnosis of CeAD.Results. Patients with ICAD presented Horner syndrome significantly more often (44.4% vs 7.6%; p = 0.04). Patients with VAD more often had ischaemic events (ischaemic stroke, TIA or transient blindness) (84.6% vs 44.6%; p = 0.0032). Ischaemic stroke was more severe in patients with ICAD [(median NIHSS 6, interquartile range 4-12) vs VAD (median NIHSS 4, interquartile range 1.5-5.5), p = 0,03]. Occlusion occurred more often in patients with VAD (69.2% vs 22.2%; p = 0.013). Most patients had a favourable outcome (mRS 0-2). Conclusions and clinical implications:In a series of patients with CeAD, we observed significant differences between VAD and ICAD in terms of clinical symptoms and radiological features.
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