Volume 09 · Issue 03 · 2023

Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne illness in the United States and has been causing significant morbidity since its discovery in 1977. It is well-documented that about 10% of patients properly treated with antibiotics never fully recover, but instead go on to develop a chronic illness dubbed, posttreatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) characterized by severe fatigue, cognitive slowing, chronic pain, and sleep difficulties. This review includes 18 studies that detail the symptoms of patients with PTLDS and uses qualitative analysis to compare them to myalgic encephalitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), a strikingly similar syndrome. In the majority of the PTLDS studies, at least four of the six major symptoms of ME/CFS were also noted, including substantial impairment in activity level and fatigue for more than 6 months, post-exertional malaise, and unrefreshing sleep. In one of the included PTLDS articles, 26 of the 29 ME/CFS symptoms were noted. This study adds to the expanding literature on the post-active phase of infection syndromes, which suggests that chronic illnesses such as PTLDS and ME/CFS have similar pathogenesis despite different infectious origins.

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology is one of the de novo approaches in regeneration medicine and has led to new research applications for wound healing in recent years. Fibroblasts have attracted wide attention as the first cell line used for differentiation into iPSCs. Researchers have found that fibroblasts can be induced into different types of cells in variable mediums or microenvironments. This indicates the potential "stem" characteristics of fibroblasts in terms of direct cellular reprogramming compared with the iPSC detour. In this review, we described the morphology and biological function of fibroblasts. The stem cell characteristics and activities of fibroblasts, including transdifferentiation into myofibroblasts, osteogenic cells, chondrogenic cells, neurons, and vascular tissue, are discussed. The biological values of fibroblasts are then briefly reviewed. Finally, we discussed the potential applications of fibroblasts in clinical practice.

Environmental factors, including chemical/physical pollutants, as well as lifestyle and psychological factors, contribute greatly to the pathways leading to cardiometabolic diseases with a heavy disease burden and economic loss. The concept of exposomes provides a novel paradigm for combining all exposure characteristics to evaluate disease risk. A solution-like exposome requires technological support to provide continuous data to monitor vital signs and detect abnormal fluctuations. Wearable devices allow people to conveniently monitor signals during their daily routines. These new technologies empower users to more actively prevent and manage cardiometabolic disease by reviewing risk factors of the disease, especially lifestyle factors, such as sleeping time, screen time, and mental health condition. Devices with multiple sensors can monitor electrocardiography data, oxygen saturation, intraocular pressure, respiratory rate, and heart rate to enhance the exposome study and provide precise suggestions for disease prevention and management.

Afghanistan is suffering from 40-year chronic conflicts, displacement, and demolition of its infrastructure. Afghanistan mortality survey 2010 shows nearly 46% of all deaths in the country were attributed to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). In this study, we aimed to understand the differences in mortality and premature death due to NCDs by sex and the trend for the next 8 years.

We applied trend analysis using the secondary data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Global Burden of Diseases 2019. The information on NCD mortality, NCD deaths attributed to its risk factors, NCD percent of total years lived with disability (YLDs) attribution to each risk factor extracted from this database from 2008 to 2019. We investigated the trend from 2008 to 2019 for the mentioned factors and then forecast their trends until 2030.

Our study shows that Afghanistan has had an increasing death number due to NCDs from 2008 to 2019 (50% for both sexes) and this will reach nearly 54% by 2030. Currently, half of NCDs deaths are premature in Afghanistan. The mortality rate and prevalence of risk factors are higher among women. More than 70% of YLDs will be due to NCDs in Afghanistan till 2030. Five risk factors including high systolic blood pressure (28.3%), high body mass index (23.4%), high blood glucose (20.6%), high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (16.3%), and smoking (12.3%) will have the highest contribution to NCDs death in 2030, respectively.

In general, our study indicates that without any specific intervention to address NCDs in Afghanistan, not only the Sustainable Development Goal target for NCDs will not be met, but an increase in almost all risk factors prevalence, as well as NCD mortality, will be seen in Afghanistan.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of NCDs among the population of Cyprus and to identify the distribution of the socioeconomic and demographic determinants among individuals with the most frequent NCDs.

A cross-sectional study was conducted using stratified sampling. Socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and the presence of NCDs were collected through a standardized questionnaire. The diseases were classified using the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10).

In total, 1140 individuals participated in the study, among whom 590 (51.7%) had at least one chronic disease. The most prevalent NCDs were hyperlipidemia (17.4%), hypertension (12.9%), and thyroid diseases (8.4%). We identified more males than females with hyperlipidemia aged 25-44 years old and >65 years old (p = 0.024), more males compared to females with hypertension (p = 0.001) and more females compared to males with thyroid diseases (p < 0.001). Individuals with hypertension and hyperlipidemia were more likely to be married, to have completed a higher education, and to have a high annual income.

In Cyprus, the majority of the general population had at least one NCD. Hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and thyroid disease are relatively common, even at younger ages, highlighting the need for the development of public health programs aimed at addressing and preventing NCDs.

Liver ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is a complex and multifactorial pathophysiological process. It is well recognized that the membrane permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening of mitochondria plays a crucial role in cell death after I/R injury. Cyclophilin D (CypD) is a critical positive regulator of mPTP. However, the effect of CypD on the pathogenesis of liver I/R injury and whether CypD is a potential therapeutic target are still unclear.

We constructed liver-specific CypD knockout and AAV8-peptidyl prolyl isomerase F (PPIF) overexpression mice. Then, a 70% liver I/R injury model was established in mice, with 90 min of ischemia and 6 h of reperfusion. The liver function was detected by the level of serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (alanine transaminase) and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (aspartate aminotransferase), the liver damage score and degree of necrosis were measured by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining of liver tissues. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) staining, apoptosis, and autophagy-related molecules were used to detect apoptosis and autophagy during liver I/R.

The liver-specific knockout of CypD alleviated necrosis and dysfunction in liver I/R injury, by reducing the excessive production of ROS, and inhibiting cell apoptosis and autophagy. On the contrary, overexpression of CypD exacerbated I/R-induced liver damage.

We found that the downregulation of CypD expression alleviated liver I/R injury by reducing apoptosis and autophagy through caspase-3/Beclin1 crosstalk; in contrast, the upregulation of CypD expression aggravated liver I/R injury. Therefore, interfering with the expression of CypD seems to be a promising treatment for liver I/R injury.

It is of great clinical significance to further explore new strategies and potential combined therapeutic targets for gastric cancer. This study aimed to investigate the synthetic lethal effect of RBBP8 molecular intervention combined with a poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor in non-BRCA mutant gastric cancer and clarify the mechanism by which RBBP8 regulates homologous recombination repair.

The role of RBBP8 in DNA damage repair was observed using bioinformatic analysis, western blot analysis, and immunofluorescence. The synthetic lethal effect was verified using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium, inner salt (MTS)and flow cytometry apoptosis experiments.

Among the patients with gastric cancer treated with chemotherapy, the prognosis of patients with high RBBP8 expression levels was worse (homologous recombination [HR]= 1.54, p= 0.028). RBBP8 knockdown induced DNA damage and had a synergistic effect with PARP inhibitor treatment on cell viability inhibition and cell apoptosis in AGS (generic code for human gastric adenocarcinoma cells) (t= 11.154, p < 0.001) and N87 (t= 6.362, p < 0.001) cells. RBBP8 knockdown inhibited RAD51 activation and DNA terminal excision in homologous recombination repair.

RBBP8 is involved in homologous recombination repair, and molecular intervention into RBBP8 could achieve a synthetic lethal effect with PARP inhibitor treatment in gastric cancer cells.

卡培他滨是5-氟尿嘧啶（5-FU）的口服前药，广泛用于不同实体瘤，特别是乳腺癌和结直肠癌的辅助和新辅助化疗。¹卡培他滨的神经毒性一直被报道为卡培他滨诱导的中毒性白质脑病，包括表现为急性或迟发性中枢神经系统毒性的胼胝体和皮质脊髓束双侧病变。²这种副作用需要停止化疗³;然而，据报道，卡培他滨引起的神经系统症状在停药后通常是可逆的。¹

据世界卫生组织称，冠状病毒新型冠状病毒已经夺去了超过600万人的生命，实际死亡人数可能超过1800万人。由于疫苗、药物和对先前感染的免疫力，人们正在避免严重的新冠肺炎病例。然而，该病毒通过其蛋白质库阻断人体免疫反应的能力是其传播倾向的一个因素。¹

尊敬的编辑：

对小编来说，