Development of Neural Stem Cell-Based Therapies for Parkinson’s Disease

Neural stem cell (NSC)-based therapies, such as cell transplantation, are an emerging strategy for restoring neuronal function in Parkinson’s disease (PD), which is characterized by a profound and selective loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic (DA) neurons. Advanced researches on the microenvironment of grafted cells will promote clinical applications of NSCs for neurological disorders. A novel cell culture model of the neurovascular network was therefore devised to investigate autocrine, paracrine, and juxtacrine signaling in the neurovascular unit generated by NSCs and vascular endothelial cells. Preclinical studies using cutting-edge technologies, including cellular reprogramming, advancement in scaffolds for brain tissue engineering, image-guided injection, and noninvasive monitoring of tissue regeneration will pave the way for successful clinical trials of NSC-based therapies for PD. Once the implanted or regenerated DA neurons are integrated into the existing nigrostriatal DA pathway, the symptoms of PD can potentially be alleviated by reversing characteristic neurodegeneration

Trends and characteristics of pethidine use in Taiwan: a six-year-long survey

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the trends and characteristics of pethidine prescriptions and users in Taiwan from 2002 to 2007. METHOD: All pethidine users (n = 3,301,136) in Taiwan from 2002 to 2007 were linked to National Health Insurance claims to identify pethidine prescriptions. We examined the trends in pethidine user prevalence and the proportion of pethidine prescriptions according to health care characteristics. A logistic regression model was used to compare patient demographics and health care characteristics associated with pethidine prescriptions between 2002 and 2007. RESULTS: Despite the decline in the number of pethidine users and prescriptions over the six-year period, more than half a million people were prescribed pethidine annually. In fact, an increasing proportion of pethidine prescriptions were observed in clinics, outpatient settings, and patients who had both operations and cancer diagnoses. Pethidine prescriptions were mostly associated with a non-operation status without a cancer diagnosis (>;60%). However, approximately 10% of the total pethidine prescriptions were found in patients with a cancer diagnosis but no operation. Compared to those in 2002, pethidine prescriptions in 2007 were more likely to be found in people 80 years or older, rural residents, patients from clinics, outpatient settings and operation patients with cancer diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: A population-based survey in Taiwan demonstrated decreasing consumption of pethidine from 2002 to 2007; however, an increased proportion of prescriptions in certain health care settings was observed. In addition, 10% of the pethidine prescriptions were for cancer patients without operations. These cases need further evaluation for the determination of appropriate pethidine use

The potential impact of primary headache disorders on stroke risk

Distribution of PHDs. (DOC 55 kb

The optimal pulse pressures for healthy adults with different ages and sexes correlate with cardiovascular health metrics

BackgroundPulse pressure (PP) may play a role in the development of cardiovascular disease, and the optimal PP for different ages and sexes is unknown. In a prospective cohort, we studied subjects with favorable cardiovascular health (CVH), proposed the mean PP as the optimal PP values, and demonstrated its relationship with healthy lifestyles.Methods and resultsBetween 1996 and 2016, a total of 162,636 participants (aged 20 years or above; mean age 34.9 years; 26.4% male subjects; meeting criteria for favorable health) were recruited for a medical examination program. PP in male subjects was 45.6 ± 9.4 mmHg and increased after the age of 50 years. PP in female subjects was 41.8 ± 9.5 mmHg and increased after the age of 40 years, exceeding that of male subjects after the age of 50 years. Except for female subjects with a PP of 40–70 mmHg, PP increase correlates with both systolic blood pressure (BP) increase and diastolic BP decrease. Individuals with mean PP values are more likely to meet health metrics, including body mass index (BMI) <25 kg/m2 (chi-squared = 9.35, p<0.01 in male subjects; chi-squared = 208.79, p < 0.001 in female subjects) and BP <120/80 mmHg (chi-squared =1,300, p < 0.001 in male subjects; chi-squared =11,000, p < 0.001 in female subjects). We propose a health score (Hscore) based on the sum of five metrics (BP, BMI, being physically active, non-smoking, and healthy diet), which significantly correlates with the optimal PP.ConclusionThe mean PP (within ±1 standard deviation) could be proposed as the optimal PP in the adult population with favorable CVH. The relationship between health metrics and the optimal PP based on age and sex was further demonstrated to validate the Hscore

Women with endometriosis have higher comorbidities: Analysis of domestic data in Taiwan

AbstractEndometriosis, defined by the presence of viable extrauterine endometrial glands and stroma, can grow or bleed cyclically, and possesses characteristics including a destructive, invasive, and metastatic nature. Since endometriosis may result in pelvic inflammation, adhesion, chronic pain, and infertility, and can progress to biologically malignant tumors, it is a long-term major health issue in women of reproductive age. In this review, we analyze the Taiwan domestic research addressing associations between endometriosis and other diseases. Concerning malignant tumors, we identified four studies on the links between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, one on breast cancer, two on endometrial cancer, one on colorectal cancer, and one on other malignancies, as well as one on associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome, one on links with migraine headache, three on links with pelvic inflammatory diseases, four on links with infertility, four on links with obesity, four on links with chronic liver disease, four on links with rheumatoid arthritis, four on links with chronic renal disease, five on links with diabetes mellitus, and five on links with cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc.). The data available to date support that women with endometriosis might be at risk of some chronic illnesses and certain malignancies, although we consider the evidence for some comorbidities to be of low quality, for example, the association between colon cancer and adenomyosis/endometriosis. We still believe that the risk of comorbidity might be higher in women with endometriosis than that we supposed before. More research is needed to determine whether women with endometriosis are really at risk of these comorbidities

Вихретоковый анизотропный термоэлектрический первичный преобразователь лучистого потока

Представлена оригинальная конструкция первичного преобразователя лучистого потока, который может служить основой для создания приемника неселективного излучения с повышенной чувствительностью

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (P interaction  = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications