Dry eye syndrome (DES) is a multifactorial, frequent, pathology characterized by deficient tear production or increased evaporation of tears and associated with ocular surface alteration and inflammation. It mostly affects, but not exclusively, older individuals and leads to varying degrees of discomfort and decreased quality of life. Although the typical treatments of DES rely on using artificial tears, polyunsaturated fatty acids, integrin antagonists, anti-inflammatory agents, or on performing punctal occlusion, recently, standardized blood-derived serum eye drops (SED) are generating much interest as a new physiological treatment option. The scientific rationale in using SED for treating or releasing the symptoms of DES is thought to lie in its composition in multiple factors that resembles that of tears and contributes to the healing and protection of the ocular surface. This manuscript seeks to provide relevant background information on the management of DES, and on the increasing role that various types of SED or platelet lysates, from autologous or allogeneic origins, are playing in the improved therapeutic management of this pathology. The increasing role played by blood establishments in producing better-standardized SED is also addressed.

Blood transfusion in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is at a crossroad. Significant recent developments may help meet local needs in safe blood products and fulfil a global health target, as highlighted by the World Health Organization (WHO) Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals, in improving supply and safety, and ensuring the gradual implementation of selective haemotherapy. When WHO recommended the evaluation of convalescent blood or plasma to treat Ebola-infected patients during the recent epidemics, substantial gaps in local blood collection, testing and technology infrastructure and safety, as compared to best accepted quality standards, became evident. This evidence should now serve as an 'electro-shock'/awakening call used to highlight the needs for local governments to support National Blood Transfusion Services and establish robust national regulatory authorities that are mandated to bear regulatory responsibilities of blood establishments. A nationally co-ordinated blood programme is the best tool to gather reliable epidemiological data, address local needs in blood and blood products and serve public health. A literature review using WHO website and PubMed was conducted in this article to outline the current clinical use of blood products and plasma derivatives in SSA. This text also intends to highlight the gaps to be filled in the coming years with respect to quality, safety, supply and efficacy of blood and plasma products, in line with WHO guidelines for transfusion.

Dry eye syndrome (DES) is one of the most common types of ocular diseases. There is a major need to treat DES in a simple yet efficient way. Artificial tears (AT) are the most commonly used agents for treating DES, but are not very effective. Herbal extractions of ferulic acid (FA), an anti-oxidant agent, and kaempferol (KM), an anti-inflammatory reagent, were added to buffer solution (BS) to replace ATs for DES treatment. The cytotoxicity and anti-inflammatory effects were examined in vitro by co-culture with human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) to obtain the optimal concentration of KM and FA for treating HCECs. Physical properties of BS, such as pH value, osmolality, and refractive index were also examined. Then, rabbits with DES were used for therapeutic evaluation. Tear production, corneal damage, and ocular irritation in rabbits’ eyes were examined. The non-toxic concentrations of KM and FA for HCEC cultivation over 3 days were 1 µM and 100 µM, respectively. Live/dead stain results also show non-toxicity of KM and FA for treating HCECs. Lipopolysaccharide-stimulated HCECs in inflammatory conditions treated with 100 µM FA and 1 µM KM (FA100/KM1) showed lower IL-1B, IL-6, IL-8, and TNFα expression when examined by real-time PCR. The BS with FA100/KM1 had neutral pH, and a similar osmolality and refractive index to human tears. Topical delivery of BS + FA100/KM1 showed no irritation to rabbit eyes. The corneal thickness in the BS + FA100/KM1 treated group was comparable to normal eyes. Results of DES rabbits treated with BS + FA100/KM1 showed less corneal epithelial damage and higher tear volume than the normal group. In conclusion, we showed that the combination of FA (100 µM) and KM (1 µM) towards treating inflamed HCECs had an anti-inflammatory effect, and it is effective in treating DES rabbits when BS is added in combination with these two herbal supplements and used as a topical eye drop.

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Purpose: To determine the role of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I receptor (IGF-IR) in alpha 9 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α9-nAChR)-induced stemness-related properties and to assess the therapeutic potential for preventing early tumor relapse and metastasis of TNBCs. Experimental Design: Expression levels of stemness-related genes, α9-nAChR and IGF-IR in tissues (n = 67) were analyzed by real-time Q-PCR and the correlation of different gene levels were calculated by the Pearson correlation analysis. The effects of either α9-nAChR activation or IGF-1R transactivation on stemness expression in TNBC were examined using ALDEFLUOR assay with flow cytometry, RNA interference, wound closure/migration/invasion assay, and animal models. The α9-nAChR, OCT4 and IGF-1R protein, p-IGF-1R in tissues were detected by immunohistochemical staining. Results: A high positive correlation between the gene expression levels of OCT4/NANOG/CD24/CD44 and α9-nAChR/IGF-IR in human breast cancer tissues was observed. Nicotine induced α9-nAChR activation trans-activates an IGF-IR expression and a phosphorylation of STAT3, which stimulated stemness-related properties in both the cell lines and the xenografted mouse tumors. The inhibition of either α9-nAChR or IGF-IR activation by RNA interference significantly suppressed the nicotine-induced stemness-related properties and cell metastasis both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions: IGF-1R signal regulates the nicotine/α9-nAChR-induced stemness properties and cell metastasis therefore convene poor prognosis in TNBCs. Citation Format: Yung-Che Kuo, Jan-Show Chu, Kha-Liang Lee, Victor James Drew, Wei-Zhan Zhuang, Chi-Long Chen, Yuan-Soon Ho, Yen-Hua Huang. Nicotine promotes stemness-related properties and cell migration/metastasis through IGF-1R regulation in triple negative breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5739. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-5739

Sleep is a crucial and evolutionarily conserved phenomenon, but the mechanisms that control sleepwake behavior and underlie sleep disorders are not yet fully understood. One major challenge for sleep research was the lack of technology that allows for cell-type-and circuit-specific investigation of neurons and neural circuitry. A decade ago, a novel methodology known as optogenetics was developed, which uses light to control specific cell types of neurons, either to activate or inhibit neuronal firings. The strength of optogenetics in neuroscience is the precise control of neuronal activities in millisecond scale and the ability to dissect the neural circuits and cell types to understand their functions. There have been substantial advancements made in the field of sleep research through the implementation of optogenetics. This review provides a brief introduction on the optogenetics and a consolidated summary of recent findings published in sleep research using optogenetics.

Background: Sleep disturbance is common in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but the characteristics of sleep disturbance remain unclear. Multitaper spectral analysis (MSA) is a novel method for investigating sleep. However, MSA-based sleep research in AD is lacking; hence we applied MSA to examine the sleep of AD.Methods: Electroencephalograms were recorded on 3-, 6-, and 10-month-old 5XFAD mice, and the time-frequency (TF) peaks were detected using MSA. We comparatively analyzed the TF peaks between genotypes and age groups.Results: The sigma TF peaks (~80%) were sleep spindles. MSA-based TF plot showed distinct patterns, agreeing with manual scoring. With AD progression, the characteristics of TF peaks coherently changed; shorter sigma TF peaks outnumbered longer ones; dark-period fast spindle TF peak density decreased significantly at both 6 and 10 months.Conclusions: Multitaper TF peaks might provide biomarkers for the progression of AD. Further investigations are warranted.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia. The relationship between AD and sleep dysfunction has received increased attention over the past decade. The use of genetically engineered mouse models with enhanced production of amyloid beta (Aβ) or hyperphosphorylated tau has played a critical role in the understanding of the pathophysiology of AD. However, their revelations regarding the progression of sleep impairment in AD have been highly dependent on the mouse model used and the specific techniques employed to examine sleep. Here, we discuss the sleep disturbances and general pathology of 15 mouse models of AD. Sleep disturbances covered in this review include changes to NREM and REM sleep duration, bout lengths, bout counts and power spectra. Our aim is to describe in detail the severity and chronology of sleep disturbances within individual mouse models of AD, as well as reveal broader trends of sleep deterioration that are shared among most models. This review also explores a variety of potential mechanisms relating Aβ accumulation and tau neurofibrillary tangles to the progressive deterioration of sleep observed in AD. Lastly, this review offers perspective on how study design might impact our current understanding of sleep disturbances in AD and provides strategies for future research.