Search

Death among resuscitated patients is mainly caused by brain injury after cardiac arrest/cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CA/CPR). The angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2)/angiotensin (Ang)-(1-7)/Mas receptor (MasR) axis has beneficial effects on brain injury. Therefore, we examined the roles of the ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/MasR axis in brain injury after CA/CPR.

The concept of entrustable professional activities (EPAs) was initiated by a medical professor in the Netherlands in 2005 with the aim of enhancing the implementation of competency-based medical education (CBME) in clinical practice. After more than ten years of development, great progress has been made in EPAs (mainly for training and assessment) in a variety of medical specialties in many countries, which has influenced general practice significantly. Some countries such as Canada, Australia and the U.S. have been developing their own EPAs in general practice, which can be applied to the supervision and assessment of trainees, and the entrustment decisions of supervisors. To our best knowledge, limited research in China has been focused on the EPAs, let alone their applications in general practice. We analysed the research developments, potential challenges and prospects of EPAs in general practice, hoping to provide evidence for future research in China.

Tumor-associated myeloid cells constitute a series of plastic and heterogeneous cell populations within the tumor microenvironment (TME), and exhibit different phenotypes and functions in response to various microenvironmental signals. In light of promising preclinical data indicating that myeloid-based therapy can effectively suppress tumor growth, a series of novel immune-based therapies and approaches are currently undergoing clinical evaluation. A better understanding of the diversity and functional roles of different myeloid cell subtypes and of how they are associated with TME remodeling may help to improve cancer therapy. Herein, we focus on myeloid cells and discuss how tumor cells can simultaneously reprogram these cells through tumor-derived factors and metabolites. In addition, we discuss the interactions between myeloid cells and other cells in the TME that have the potential to directly or indirectly regulate tumor initiation, invasion, or angiogenesis. We further discuss the current and future potential applications of myeloid cells in the development of focused therapeutic strategies in cancer treatment.

The discovery of an HIV-1 cure remains a medical challenge because the virus rebounds quickly after the cessation of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Here, we investigate the potential of an engineered tandem bi-specific broadly neutralizing antibody (bs-bnAb) as an innovative product for HIV-1 prophylactic and therapeutic interventions. We discovered that by preserving 2 single-chain variable fragment (scFv) binding domains of each parental bnAb, a single gene-encoded tandem bs-bnAb, BiIA-SG, displayed substantially improved breadth and potency. BiIA-SG neutralized all 124 HIV-1-pseudotyped viruses tested, including global subtypes/recombinant forms, transmitted/founder viruses, variants not susceptible to parental bnAbs and to many other bnAbs with an average [IC.sub.50] value of 0.073 [micro]g/ml (range < 0.001-1.03 [micro]g/ml). In humanized mice, an injection of BiIA-SG conferred sterile protection when administered prior to challenges with diverse live HIV-1 stains. Moreover, whereas BiIA-SG delayed viral rebound in a short-term therapeutic setting when combined with cART, a single injection of adeno-associated virus-transferred (AAV-transferred) BiIA-SG gene resulted dose-dependently in prolonged in vivo expression of BiIA-SG, which was associated with complete viremia control and subsequent elimination of infected cells in humanized mice. These results warrant the clinical development of BiIA-SG as a promising bs-bnAb-based biomedical intervention for the prevention and treatment of HIV-1 infection., Introduction Since the discovery of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) as the causative agent of AIDS in 1983, the search for an effective vaccine or a therapeutic cure has [...]