Adv Exp Med Biol
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Adoptive T cell transfer (ACT) is a new era for cancer treatment, involving infusion of autologous lymphocytes. Chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) on the surface of T cells are emerging as a novel therapeutic that is giving other direction to T-cell specificity and precision medicine. ⋯ Solid tumors have heterogeneous antigens and tumor microenvironment that hinder CAR-T cell efficacy and increase the risk of on-target/off-tumor. Novel strategies to increase CAR-Ts specificity, safety and efficacy are ongoing in clinical trials to improve clinical outcomes in hematological and solid malignances.
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Short upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are cis-acting elements located within the 5'-leader sequence of transcripts and are defined by an initiation codon in-frame with a termination codon located upstream or downstream of its main ORF (mORF) initiation codon. Recent genome-wide ribosome profiling studies have confirmed the widespread presence of uORFs and have shown that many uORFs can initiate with non-AUG codons. uORFs can impact gene expression of the downstream mORF by triggering mRNA decay or by regulating translation. Thus, disruption or creation of uORFs can elicit the development of several genetic diseases. ⋯ We also show some examples of uORF deregulation in human genetic diseases, focusing mainly on cancer. The knowledge of how uORF deregulation drives the onset of a disease, points out the need to screen the 5'-leader sequences of the transcripts in search for potential disease-related variants. This information will be relevant for the implementation of new diagnostic and/or therapeutic tools.
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Personalized medicine aims to integrate a number of characteristics such as genetic and epigenetic variations, other biomarkers, clinical symptoms, and environmental factors in order to predict susceptibility to disease, aid in diagnosis, and identify efficacious treatments with maximum likelihood of favorable response and minimal chance of adverse effects. The use of personalized medicine approaches in psychiatry is underdeveloped, but has a profound potential for improving prevention and treatment. ⋯ Ultimately, the best model for precision medicine in complex, multifactorial diseases such as psychiatric illnesses will likely involve integrated methodology that combines information from multiple sources including biologic, clinical, and environmental data. While much progress has been made in the development of valid biomarkers in psychiatric disorders, there is much work to be done in determining their clinical utility.
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Behavioral cognitive therapy is recommended for lung cancer-related pain. The aim of the study was to analyze the strategies of coping with pain in relation to the histological type of lung cancer. The study included 257 lung cancer patients, divided into small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) group (n = 72) and non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) group (n = 185). ⋯ The significant independent determinants of pain perception in the NSCLC group were: pain control strategy (β = -0.39) and coping self-statement (β = 0.72). We conclude that in NSCLC patients both pain control and the ability to decrease pain are the strategies which decrease the intensity of perceived pain. In contrast, SCLC patients have no clear strategy for pain-coping.
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The first massive open online courses or MOOCs were offered in 2008 in the USA, since then MOOCs have hit the higher education (HE) section by storm and have continued to grow rapidly since 2012, with hundreds of HE establishments across the globe engaged in providing MOOCs. MOOCs are online courses that are open to everyone and anyone to join with typically no limits to the number of participants or prerequisite qualifications. In some MOOCs there is an option to pay for a certificate upon completion. ⋯ There is also a growing use of MOOCs in higher education as a recourse for campus degree programmes, known as hybrid MOOCs, where the MOOC provides the learning and the assessment is undertaken by the educational institution. The growing number of MOOCs available for credit is changing the way some learners are accessing higher education and the development of micro degrees obtained through the completion of a number of MOOCs may potentially change the way higher education is provided in the future. Finally, the potential of artificial intelligence to provide virtual classroom assistants is also a possible game changer, allowing more personalised learning to be delivered at scale.