Biomedical Laboratory Science

Monday, April 18, 2016

The 2016 NHRC Summit !!!

Nepal Health Research Council celebrated 25 glorious years of its establishment on 11th April, 2016. The Second National Summit of the Health and Population Scientists in Nepal was held on 11th-12th April, 2016 as a continuum and part of Silver Jubilee celebration with the theme of “Health and Population Research for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in Nepal”. Health and Population Scientists as a group contributed immensely to promote evidence informed decision making process and it has been instrumental to achieve many of the goals of MDGs. Annual gathering and provision of platform for the scientists were phenomenal in sustaining the MDG achievements and to encourage achieving SDGs as unfinished agendas of the MDGs in the health sector.

Objectives of the Summit were:

To bring health and population scientists together to promote evidence informed decision-making process for optimal health and wellbeing of Nepalese people
To encourage health and population scientists and practitioners for responsible conduct of research on health and development
To discourse and find out the way forward on emerging health and population issues for strengthening national health system of Nepal for achieving SDGs

What’s new this year?

This year there were 27 thematic areas for oral and poster presentation in the Summit in order to have diversity in the scientific sessions and cater a wide group of audience.

Increase Vitamin Diet to Boost Your Immune System

Get more important vitamins on your plate

Want to fight off that illness that’s spreading around the office or your child’s school? Aside from practicing good hygiene, boosting your immune system is a great way to start.

Your diet plays a part in strengthening your immune system. Sadly, too many of us don’t eat enough of the fresh fruits, vegetables and other foods we need to keep ourselves healthy year-round. You can’t just eat an orange or grapefruit and expect one quick burst of vitamin C to prevent a cold. A truly healthy immune system depends on a balanced mix of vitamins and minerals over time, plus normal sleep patterns and a hefty dose of exercise.

With some exceptions, it’s best to get your vitamins and minerals from your food rather than in pill form. Here are some tips for getting the top vitamins your immune system needs to perform.

1. Vitamin C

You probably know about vitamin C’s connection to the immune system, but did you know you can get it from much more than just citrus fruits? Leafy green vegetables such as spinach and kale, bell peppers, brussels sprouts, strawberries and papaya are also excellent sources. In fact, vitamin C is in so many foods that most people may not need to take supplements unless a doctor advises it.

Source: health.clevelandclinic

Boosting Immunity With Fresh Vegetables

Change your lifestyle by adding immuneboosting vegetables into your diet. You all know the benefits of vegetables to your health. What’s more, they reduce your risk of diseases, like cancer and heart diseases.

So load your plate up with the following vegetables to help boost your immune system:

1. Mushrooms

Mushrooms has the ability to enhance the activity of natural killer T cells (NKT). NKTs remove and attack cells that are infected by viruses. They slow cancer or tumor growth, prevent DNA damage and tumors from acquiring a blood supply.

2. Asparagus

Asparagus has a natural diuretic ability that helps your body to flush out toxins. It contains glutathione, an antioxidant that can help lower your risk factor for cancer and heart diseases.

Asparagus is both anti-inflammatory and cleansing to the body. It’s useful for inflammatory conditions like irritable bowel syndrome and arthritis.

3. Carrots

Carrots are useful in preventing seasonal flu and colds. This is because they are rich in betacarotene that helps in boosting your immune system. It it best to eat raw carrots for the best immune system results. 4. Garlic Garlic has been used for years to fend off diseases. Studies have shown that people taking garlic supplements experienced few cold symptoms.

Source: exportersindia

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Roles for mesenchymal stem cells as medicinal signaling cells

Understanding the in vivo identity and function of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is vital to fully exploiting their therapeutic potential. New data are emerging that demonstrate previously undescribed roles of MSCs in vivo. Understanding the behavior of MSCs in vivo is crucial as recent results suggest these additional roles enable MSCs to function as medicinal signaling cells. This medicinal signaling activity is in addition to the contribution of MSCs to the maintenance of the stem cell niche and homeostasis.

There is increasing evidence that not all cells described as MSCs share the same properties. Most MSCs reside in a perivascular location and have some functionalities in common with those of the pericytes and adventitial cells located around the microvasculature and larger vessels, respectively.

Here we focus on the characteristics of MSCs that have been demonstrated to be similar to those of pericytes located around the microvasculature, defined as perivascular MSCs (pMSCs). Although we focus here on pMSCs, it is important to bear in mind that pericytes are found in many types of blood vessels, and that not all pericytes are thought to be MSCs.

Source: NatureReviews

Hepatocellular carcinoma

Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally and has an incidence of approximately 850,000 new cases per year. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents approximately 90% of all cases of primary liver cancer. The main risk factors for developing HCC are well known and include hepatitis B and C virus infection, alcohol intake and ingestion of the fungal metabolite aflatoxin B1.

Additional risk factors such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis are also emerging. Advances in the understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of HCC have led to identification of critical driver mutations; however, the most prevalent of these are not yet druggable targets. The molecular classification of HCC is not established, and the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging classification is the main clinical algorithm for the stratification of patients according to prognosis and treatment allocation. Surveillance programmes enable the detection of early-stage tumours that are amenable to curative therapies — resection, liver transplantation or local ablation. At more developed stages, only chemoembolization (for intermediate HCC) and sorafenib (for advanced HCC) have shown survival benefits. There are major unmet needs in HCC management that might be addressed through the discovery of new therapies and their combinations for use in the adjuvant setting and for intermediate- and advanced-stage disease. Moreover, biomarkers for therapy stratification, patient-tailored strategies targeting driver mutations and/or activating signalling cascades, and validated measurements of quality of life are needed. Recent failures in the testing of systemic drugs for intermediate and advanced stages have indicated a need to refine trial designs and to define novel approaches.

Autistic people have higher gene mutations but lesser risk to cancer

While people with autism have more cancer-related gene mutations, they are at lower risk for developing the disease. This is the conclusion of a new study by researchers from the University of Iowa.

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by problems with social interaction, communication and repetitive behaviors.

In the US, it is estimated that 1 in 68 children have autism, most of whom are boys.

Study leader Dr. Benjamin Darbro, of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, notes that the finding of a genetic link between autism and cancer is not a new discovery; previous research has established that the conditions share risk genes.

Autism patients have more mutations in cancer-related genes, but they are at lower risk of developing
cancer than those without autism.

Source: medicalnewsto day

Gastritis: Facts, Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment

Gastritis is the inflammation of the stomach lining, which can have a multitude of causes.

The condition can be an acute (sudden onset, short-term) or chronic (persistent, long-term) issue that increases the risk of other conditions such as stomach ulcers, bleeding or cancer.

Facts about gastritis.

Gastritis can increase the risk of other gastrointestinal conditions such as stomach ulcers and cancer
People with gastritis typically report that their abdominal pain is located in the upper center of the abdomen
Gastritis can also cause pain in the upper left portion of the stomach radiating to the back
Pain caused by gastritis is often described as sharp, stabbing or burning
Treatment of gastritis depends on the factors that caused the illness along with whether the disease is acute or chronic.

Causes of gastritis

Gastritis occurs when the protective mucus lining of the stomach is weakened. When this happens, the digestive juices in the stomach can damage and inflame the walls of the stomach.

Gastritis occurs when the mucus lining of the stomach is weakened, enabling the digestive juices
to damage the stomach wall.

Source: steptohealth

Novel Use of Insulin-Producing Beta Cells

While not having love handles in the first place would probably be an ideal situation, scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich have found an exciting new use for the cells that reside in the undesirable flabby tissue—creating pancreatic beta cells. The ETH researchers extracted stem cells from a 50-year-old test subject's fatty tissue and reprogrammed them into mature, insulin-producing beta cells.

The findings from this study were published recently in Nature Communications in an article entitled “A Programmable Synthetic Lineage-Control Network That Differentiates Human IPSCs into Glucose-Sensitive Insulin-Secreting Beta-Like Cells.”

The investigators added a highly complex synthetic network of genes to the stem cells to recreate precisely the key growth factors involved in this maturation process. Central to the process were the growth factors Ngn3, Pdx1, and MafA; the researchers found that concentrations of these factors change during the differentiation process.

The diagram shows the dynamics of the most important growth factors during differentiation of
human induced pluripotent stem cells to beta-like cells.

Source: ETH Zurich

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Essentials of MEDICAL PHARMACOLOGY 7e

Medical pharmacology is a unique synthesis of basic pharmacology with clinical pharmacology and pharmacotherapeutics. The subject is highly dynamic. Developments are occurring both in defining molecular targets for drug action and finding targeted drugs, as well as in accruing credible evidence regarding the impact of different treatment modalities on therapeutic outcomes. These efforts have begun to crystallize into evidence based medicine and clear cut therapeutic guidelines. The present edition endeavours to amalgamate the developments with the core content of the subject.

While the primary theme of the book outlined in the preface to the first edition is maintained, the successive editions have become more descriptive and more comprehensive. In preparing this edition, all chapters have been revisited and extensively updated. Latest therapeutic guidelines from authoritative sources like WHO, British National Formulary, National Formulary of India, as well as from eminent professional bodies have been incorporated, especially in areas like hypertension, dyslipidaemias, acute coronary syndromes, surgical prophylaxis, tuberculosis (including MDR-TB), MAC-infection, leprosy, HIV-AIDS, malaria, kala-azar, etc. Recent innovations have been highlighted, notably in antidiabetic drugs, psychopharmacological agents, antiplatelet drugs, treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, drugs affecting renin-angiotensin system, anticoagulants, antiviral (including anti-HIV) drugs, targeted anticancer drugs, etc…

Hardcover: 1002 pages

Publisher: Jaypee Brothers Medical Pub; 7 edition (July 2013)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 9350259370

ISBN-13: 978-9350259375

Product Dimensions: 2 x 7 x 9.5 inches

Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds

Download here: 1, Essential of MEDICAL PHARMACOLOGY 7e;
2, Google Drive

Source: Medsouls Medical Books

Being Too Nice Can be Depressive!

There is such a thing as being too nice, too giving and too caring. To overcome depression you must stop the habit of bending over to gain people’s approval. I know, it’s easier said than done. But no one said it’d be easy.

Those who are affected by depression tend to be people-pleasers. And yet, ironically, quite often their actions are viewed by others as selfish and self-centered. For over three decades I believed in that crap myself. I believed I was selfish and self-involved. I was convinced I had nothing to offer. I also thought that it didn’t matter what I thought. That my opinion was less important than anyone else’s. It seemed as if I was always living someone else’s life.

Finally, after two major brain seizures caused by a suicide attempt, I stopped living someone else’s life and looked deep within…

Someone Else’s Life

I was the child who was “too young to understand things” and therefore to make decisions. My life was run by the grown ups, who weren’t able to see the serious damage caused by the primitive belief such as; “children should be seen but not heard.” Then later, I became an young adult, clinging to any guy who’d find anything whatsoever appealing in me.

Source: WakeupWorld

Biomedical Laboratory Science