Nutritional strategies of tumor cells – review of selected cancer types involving changes of expression level and pattern of glucose

Zaburzona równowaga pomiędzy proliferacją a dojrzewaniem i różnicowaniem komórek nowotworowych powoduje szybki wzrost guza, prowadząc do zwiększenia zapotrzebowania na składniki odżywcze, m.in. glukozę i tlen. Pierwszą odpowiedzią komórek nowotworowych na niewystarczającą ilość składników odżywczych jest zmiana metabolizmu na beztlenowy (efekt Warburga). Glukoza niezbędna do przeprowadzenia tego procesu dostarczana jest za pomocą transporterów – najczęściej białek GLUT1 i SGLT1. Zmiana poziomu i wzoru ekspresji transporterów glukozy w komórkach nowotworowych w porównaniu z komórkami odpowiednich tkanek prawidłowych świadczy o adaptacji, do której doszło w obrębie guza. Dotychczasowe badania pozwoliły ustalić, w których rodzajach nowotworów dochodzi do zmian w ekspresji białek GLUT1 i SGLT1 oraz pokazały, że zmiany te mogą mieć bezpośredni związek z zaawansowaniem choroby i rokowaniem dla pacjentów. Niniejsza praca ma charakter przeglądowy i stanowi zestawienie zmian w poziomie ekspresji transporterów glukozy w niektórych typach nowotworów. Określenie poziomu ekspresji tych białek w komórkach nowotworowych może mieć kluczowe znaczenie dla spersonalizowanej terapii przeciwnowotworowej.Due to imbalance between proliferation, differentiation and maturation, cancer cells grow rapidly and require elevated levels of oxygen and glucose. The main strategy of cancer cells is to prevent starvation is the anaerobic adaptation of cellular metabolism known as the Warburg’s effect. Increased glucose uptake is maintained by alterating the level and the pattern of glucose transporters expression, mainly GLUT1 and SGLT1. In many cancer types, these proteins are present despite their absence in healthy tissue. Previous researches revealed cancer types in which GLUT1 and SGLT1 expression are altered. There is a strong direct correlation between their expression pattern, cancer stage and prognosis for the patient. This review provides an overview of changes in the level of glucose transporters expression in some cancer types. Determination of glucose transporters expression levels in cancer cells could be crucial for personalized cancer treatment

Telerehabilitation approach for patients with hand impairment

Purpose: Telerehabilitation is one of the newest branches of telemedicine which has been developed because patients need regular trainings outside the medical institution but still under specialist supervision. It helps maintain regularity of exercises and reduces costs. The professional and advanced systems for telerehabilitation are presented in papers however, there is still lack of development of minor systems which provide therapeutic values and are more accessible to people. Therefore we focus on a solution for hand telerehabilitation of post-stroke patients, based solely on a personal computer and camera. Methods: We focused on the manipulative hand (fingers, metacarpus, wrist) movements trainings for patients with cerebral palsy. The contact between patient and physiotherapist is provided by using web cameras and web service. Additionally the camera can be used to monitor the effectiveness of performed exercises. Computer vision system keeps track of the patient’s hand movement. The digital image processing is used to detect if the patient performs exercises correctly. Results: We created web service and software application TeleReh that provides therapeutic values for the hand impaired people. The created system was evaluated by three physiotherapists, one doctor and a cerebral palsy patient. Conclusions Our solution applies to all patients who have undergone basic rehabilitation in hospital and need to continue hand rehabilitation at home. The main advantages are: easily adaptation to the individual needs and abilities, monitoring the progress by using automatically generated reports after each training session. It is worth noticing, that discussion between IT specialists, rehabilitants and patients was necessary to achieve good results