Health & Medicine

CRISPR gene editing: Can we make cancer cells easier to kill?

Lung cancer accounts for approximately one in five cancer deaths globally. The high death toll makes the development of new treatments and improvement of old ones a top priority. One of the challenges with traditional chemotherapy is that tumours can develop resistance to treatment. For several years, Eric B Kmiec, PhD, at the Gene Editing Institute of ChristianaCare, USA and […]

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Health & Medicine

A matter of choice: Free to choose medicine in the 21st century

The US Food and Drug Administration’s system for medicine approval is lengthy and expensive, and only 1 in 12 drugs in human clinical trials obtain approval. Bartley J Madden of the Madden Center for Value Creation at Florida Atlantic University proposes an alternative free to choose medicine (FTCM) pathway. He suggests that with the advice of their doctors, patients should […]

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Health & Medicine

A role for ultraviolet radiation in multiple sclerosis

There are more cases of multiple sclerosis (MS), a condition caused by impaired immune responses, in northern countries compared to southern countries. Dr George E Davis, who is affiliated with the Riverview Psychiatric Centre, Maine, USA, has explored the links between latitude, MS, and UV radiation. He puts forward the idea that UV radiation levels during month of conception offer […]

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Health & Medicine

The cataract epidemic

Cataracts are caused by lifetime exposure to solar radiation affecting the eye lens and compromising visual ability and everyday activities. It can be treated with surgery; however, due to the increasing number of cataract cases, it is becoming a serious burden in healthcare systems worldwide. Dr Konstantin Galichanin at Uppsala University, Sweden has been studying how ultraviolet radiation leads to […]

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Health & Medicine

Who will care for the mental healthcare professionals? A wake-up call from the Netherlands

The COVID-19 pandemic taught us many lessons; one is that mental healthcare workers are not immune to the ravages of mental health problems. The pandemic put them under considerable stress in ways unimaginable before; many are still feeling it. Dr Anneloes van den Broek and Dr Lars de Vroege, senior researchers and clinical psychologists in mental healthcare in the Netherlands, […]

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Health & Medicine

Antimicrobial stewardship programmes: Remote consultations can help reduce antibiotic resistance

The increased use of antibiotic therapy to treat infectious diseases is driving up antimicrobial resistance as well as economic and healthcare costs. Antimicrobial stewardship programmes are crucial to monitor and evaluate medication use. Valéria Cassettari, Newton Novato, and Maria Helena Flesch Onuchic at NotreDame Intermédica Advanced Outpatient Clinic in São Paulo, Brazil, explored the impact of remote consultations with an […]

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Health & Medicine

The BEST lines for skin surgery: A new paradigm

To minimise scarring, skin surgeons are guided by Langer lines and wrinkle lines, first identified over a century ago. Although based on limited data from cadavers, these historical studies have steered skin surgery for both incisions and excisions until recently. In a groundbreaking, first-of-its-kind study, Dr Sharad Paul at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand uses real-time skin […]

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Health & Medicine

Nanoparticles as Trojan horses: A safe and effective way to deliver oncolytic viruses to treat all cancers

Advanced cancer often comes with a lack of treatment options. Immunotherapies like cancer-killing viruses – oncolytic viruses (OVs) – are becoming increasingly popular but are currently limited by their inability to be administered into the blood. However, Dr Faith Howard and Dr Munitta Muthana, researchers at the University of Sheffield in the UK, demonstrate that OVs can be injected into […]

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Health & Medicine

Melanin – a protector from skin cancer

Skin cancer is a worldwide problem and is more common in people with lighter skin than people with darker skin colour. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the primary contributor to skin cancer development by causing DNA damage in skin cells called keratinocytes. Melanin, the pigment responsible for skin colour, also plays a role in generating so-called melanin caps – umbrella-like structures […]

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Health & Medicine

Calcium ions and healthy skin: Key process gives insight for future skin therapies

Our skin is the first line of defence from external harm and a central part of the thermoregulatory system. Dr Richard Evans and Dr Andrew Mayes of Unilever Research & Development in the UK, alongside a team of collaborators from the University of Liverpool, UK, present mounting evidence regarding the essential role of store-operated calcium entry (SOCE) for normal skin function. […]

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