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Application and use of autophagy in cancer treatment; Does the application of autophagy in patients undergoing chemotherapy/radiation enhance treatment and recovery?
No full textCancer is the 2nd leading cause of death globally, with the most common fatalities arising from lung, breast, and colorectal cancers. Patients will face a multitude of challenges not only from the cancer itself but from the anti-cancer therapies used during treatment. Current anti-cancer therapies include options such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted drug therapy, and immunotherapy. Treatment type is based on the staging, type of cancer, and if there are metastasis present. The side effects of anti-cancer therapies are vast; patients can experience drug resistances, chemotherapy side effects such as hair loss, nausea, and infection, as well as personal and financial burdens. Both cancer and its treatment options can cause emotional and physical taxation on not only the patient, but immediate and extended family members. Simply put, far-reaching and profound illnesses such as cancer affect all aspects of a patient\u27s life. To both enhance and alleviate side effects of current anti-cancer therapies, research has turned its eyes to autophagy manipulation. Data shows that autophagy has a circumstantial relationship within cancer prevention and tumor cell survivability. Autophagy can act both as a tumor suppressor and as a source of cell death via apoptosis. With the use of autophagy inducing or inhibiting medications and short or long term lifestyle habits, providers can strive to alleviate some of the anti-cancer therapeutic side effects, reverse drug and chemotherapy resistances, and enhance treatment and recovery of patients who have been diagnosed with cancer
The Presence and Prognosis of Acute Kidney Injury and Renal Abnormalities in Hospitalized SARS-CoV-2 Patients
Get PDFSARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus reached pandemic status by the World Health Organization in the spring of 2020. As a novel virus, analysis of the early literature on the clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 is imperative to help guide clinical practice and inform future research. Early studies about the clinical manifestation of the virus showed a proportion of hospitalized patients developing renal abnormalities and AKI. This paper analyzed literature through searching the PubMed database to assess whether renal abnormalities and AKI were present in hospitalized SARS-CoV-2 patients, how the renal abnormalities manifested themselves in patients, and the associated treatment and prognosis of those patient who developed renal abnormalities.
It was found that presence of comorbidities, advancing age, and severity of illness all correlated with development of AKI. The literature showed the pooled incidence of AKI in hospitalized patients to be from 0-36.6% and the presence of hematuria, proteinuria, elevated BUN, and elevated serum creatinine was frequently reported. Continuous renal replacement therapy is the mainstay of treatment for AKI and there is no research published on treatments for AKI specific to SARS-CoV-2. Renal abnormalities and AKI were shown to be linked with a higher mortality rate and increased the risk of in-hospital death by 3.07 to 5.3-fold. These findings indicate the need for more research on how to monitor for early renal dysfunction and what the best timing and treatment interventions are to try to help mitigate the high risk of mortality associated with hospitalized SARS-CoV-2 patients with renal complications
Colloids Compared to Crystalloids in Emergent Stabilization of Critically Ill Adults
Get PDFBackground: With the advent of newer and safer fluids there have been numerous trials and studies conducted to test the safety and validity of colloids. Are colloids more effective then crystalloid for emergent resuscitation? The purpose of this systematic literature review is to assess the claims on treatment success and explore safety to gain clarity on which fluid is the best treatment for the patient.
Methods: A systematic database search was conducted from 2006 to the present. The search utilized such sources as PubMed, UpToDate and ScienceDirect. This search included more than 70 journal articles, where 24 articles were selected for review for their credibility and usage within the medical community.
Results: Considering the reviewed articles, it seems that the benefits may not outweigh the risks inherent with colloids. In summary, using colloids as an alternative to crystalloids made little to no difference in the cause of mortality. However, there was evidence that colloids can increase the need for renal therapies overall.
Conclusion: Colloids were merely marginal, if at all, more effective than crystalloids in reducing the mortality rates, but with the added risk of renal dysfunction. There are instances where colloids might be selected, but those occurrences should be critically challenged. In the end, it appears to be left up to clinical judgement, provider experience, and accessibility on which fluid selection is optimal
Wall Teichoic Acids Govern Cationic Gold Nanoparticle Interaction With Gram-positive Bacterial Cell Walls
No full textMolecular-level understanding of nanomaterial interactions with bacterial cell surfaces can facilitate design of antimicrobial and antifouling surfaces and inform assessment of potential consequences of nanomaterial release into the environment. Here, we investigate the interaction of cationic nanoparticles with the main surface components of Gram-positive bacteria: peptidoglycan and teichoic acids. We employed intact cells and isolated cell walls from wild type Bacillus subtilis and two mutant strains differing in wall teichoic acid composition to investigate interaction with gold nanoparticles functionalized with cationic, branched polyethylenimine. We quantified nanoparticle association with intact cells by flow cytometry and determined sites of interaction by solid-state 31P- and 13C-NMR spectroscopy. We find that wall teichoic acid structure and composition were important determinants for the extent of interaction with cationic gold nanoparticles. The nanoparticles interacted more with wall teichoic acids from the wild type and mutant lacking glucose in its wall teichoic acids than those from the mutant having wall teichoic acids lacking alanine and exhibiting more restricted molecular motion. Our experimental evidence supports the interpretation that electrostatic forces contributed to nanoparticle–cell interactions and that the accessibility of negatively charged moieties in teichoic acid chains influences the degree of interaction. The approaches employed in this study can be applied to engineered nanomaterials differing in core composition, shape, or surface functional groups as well as to other types of bacteria to elucidate the influence of nanoparticle and cell surface properties on interactions with Gram-positive bacteria
Graffiti as art: Shedding Light on the Artistic Value of Graffiti in Minneapolis
Get PDFThroughout the paper the author finds it incredibly important to set the stage for the audience and provide them with proper graffiti culture terminology, explanations of the styles and common motivations of graffiti, along with how the public and government typically respond to graffiti. The author seeks to share further understanding with the audience through sharing the trends of location of graffiti, the hiddert art aspect of graffiti creation, the impact of legal walls and spaces in graffiti culture, how social media impacts graffiti, and ultimately how citizens can begin to recognize graffiti writers as artists. This submission challenges the audience to explore the places that they live and begin to ask questions about how the community views its local graffiti writers. After reading through this work, the audience should gain perspective of graffiti writers and have an increased appreciation for the work that they create and display for the community
Better Healthcare Achievable by Collaboration Between Two Medical Schools of Thought
Get PDFThere are two different medical schools of thought recognized by the United States: 1) the main-stream, allopathic (M.D.) school of thought, and 2) the osteopathic (D.O.) school of thought. A bias, unfortunately, exists between the two medical philosophies. Many in the medical community, and the general public, perceive individuals with an M.D. degree to be higher in prestige than those with D.O. degrees. In order to combat this preconceived notion between M.D.s and D.O.s, both medical communities have recently announced their transition to a unified graduate medical education (GME) accreditation system, in order to ensure that all medical students, regardless of what medical school background, will be responsible and held to the same standards across the board. While this change is beneficial, I contend that more can be done to eliminate the prejudice between both medical schools of thought while improving healthcare services. I propose in this paper the potential benefit of combining the services of both a M.D. and D.O. professional in the same medical setting. This partnership could possibly assist the involvement of empathy in medical settings. A recent implosion of research has emerged in the past couple years about this concept that medicine combined with empathy and compassionate interactions can be beneficial to patient diagnosis and treatment. The public stigma, currently, is that doctors are neutral and passive toward their patients rather than empathetic and active in their approach and interactions. However, while medical students are taught to be empathetic, research has shown that some individuals are more empathy-inclined than others after medical school training. This perhaps can be caused by the fact that both philosophies educate about empathy differently and that both philosophies attract two different types of student personalities. Therefore, this paper will address three key ideas using current research and statistics: 1) a background on the two philosophies of medical education, 2) the definition and benefits of empathy in the medical field, and 3) the possibility of having both mainstream and osteopathic perspectives of medicine integrated in all sub-specialties of healthcare to improve practitioner-patient relations and improve physician mental and physical health
NET ZERO: The True Outcome of Zero Tolerance Policies in Schools
Get PDFSince the Columbine massacre in the wake of the unsafe schools environmental plague, congress and school administrators have searched for a solution. As a result of this search, zero tolerance policies have become a societal nonn in the American education system. Although the intentions of these policies seem clear and unarguable, the negative effects of these policies have been overlooked. Zero tolerance policies have created an environment of hasty decisions and dramatic punishments which have unfairly and disproportionately attacked students with learning disabilities and students of color. The result of large numbers of students of color being pushed out of schools has directly influenced the school to prison pipeline, which is largely uncontrollable once a student has been suspended, or worse, expelled. As a response to the severely negative effects of zero tolerance policies, I propose that we replace this outdated practice with a new concept, restorative justice, which I explain in this essay
The Heterogeneity and Wide Range of Autism Spectrum Disorders
Get PDFAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the most prevalent childhood neurological disorders in the US (Pinel et a1.,2011). Individuals with this disorder experience a varying degree of lower capacity for social interaction and communication. There are two important characteristics of ASD, its heterogeneity and its range of disorders on a wide spectrum, which must be kept in mind as research is performed on this topic. This complexity of ASD and its large amount of individual variation, based on the intensity, behaviors, and types of disorders a person has, makes it difficult to uncover the pathophysiology of these neurological disorders. In an effort to gain more knowledge about ASD, scientists are studying the behaviors and also the brain activity of individuals with ASD and are comparing this activity with those of neurotypical development. One area of interesting research for ASD has focused on mirror neurons. These neurons are thought to help individuals with social interaction by interpreting things like the facial expressions of others. Interestingly, a number of scientists have found that they function differently, and often improperly, in individuals with autism. The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected review of research on mirror neurons and their possible influence on ASD symptoms as well as to offer a guide for future direction to prospective research on mirror neurons and autism