Systemically Administered, Target-Specific, Multi-Functional Therapeutic Recombinant Proteins in Regenerative Medicine

Growth factors, chemokines and cytokines guide tissue regeneration after injuries. However, their applications as recombinant proteins are almost non-existent due to the difficulty of maintaining their bioactivity in the protease-rich milieu of injured tissues in humans. Safety concerns have ruled out their systemic administration. The vascular system provides a natural platform for circumvent the limitations of the local delivery of protein-based therapeutics. Tissue selectivity in drug accumulation can be obtained as organ-specific molecular signatures exist in the blood vessels in each tissue, essentially forming a postal code system (“vascular zip codes”) within the vasculature. These target-specific “vascular zip codes” can be exploited in regenerative medicine as the angiogenic blood vessels in the regenerating tissues have a unique molecular signature. The identification of vascular homing peptides capable of finding these unique “vascular zip codes” after their systemic administration provides an appealing opportunity for the target-specific delivery of therapeutics to tissue injuries. Therapeutic proteins can be “packaged” together with homing peptides by expressing them as multi-functional recombinant proteins. These multi-functional recombinant proteins provide an example how molecular engineering gives to a compound an ability to home to regenerating tissue and enhance its therapeutic potential. Regenerative medicine has been dominated by the locally applied therapeutic approaches despite these therapies are not moving to clinical medicine with success. There might be a time to change the paradigm towards systemically administered, target organ-specific therapeutic molecules in future drug discovery and development for regenerative medicine

Kõõluste ülekoormusvigastuste konservatiivne ravi

Pikaajalised kõõluste ülekoormusvaevused ehk ülekoormustendopaatiad on sportlaste ja pidevalt sarnaseid tööliigutusi tegevate inimeste üks enam levinud ja häirivam probleem. Ülekoormustendopaatiate etioloogia, patogenees ja krooniliseks muutumine on ikka veel paljuski ebaselge. Senimaani ei ole isegi teada, kui suur roll on koormusel endal nende kaebuste tekkes. Kuna tendopaatiate etiopatogenees ei ole selge, on ka nende mitmekülgne ravi enam kliiniliste kogemuste pagasile toetuv kui teaduslikult tõestatud ja kontrollitud. Teaduslikult on tõestatud seos korikosteroidhormoonide süstete ja lihaskõõlusaparaadi ekstsentriliste harjutuste ehk pidurdusmehhanismil põhinevate liigutuste ravitoime. Teiste konservatiivsete ravimeetodite kohta puudub korrektsetel uuringutel põhinev analüüs või on saadud tulemused vasturääkivad. Eesti Arst 2005; 84 (10): 718–72

Risk factors and survival routes : social exclusion as a life-historical phenomenon

"Social exclusion is a popular and widely used concept in the social sciences as well as in current European policy rhetoric. However, there is no general agreement on the content and use of the term; it has been used differently and for different purposes in different historical and social contexts. In this article, the social exclusion is understood as life-historical phenomenon. Two cases have been selected as representing the most extreme trajectories based on a larger follow-up study concerning former students of residential institutions for young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties in Finland. The cases give us an example of a detailed life-course analysis, with the emphasis on risk and protective factors and demonstrate that the process of social exclusion is a complicated issue that cannot totally be understood by analysing the statistical connections between certain risk factors and the life-course.""Social exclusion is a popular and widely used concept in the social sciences as well as in current European policy rhetoric. However, there is no general agreement on the content and use of the term; it has been used differently and for different purposes in different historical and social contexts. In this article, the social exclusion is understood as life-historical phenomenon. Two cases have been selected as representing the most extreme trajectories based on a larger follow-up study concerning former students of residential institutions for young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties in Finland. The cases give us an example of a detailed life-course analysis, with the emphasis on risk and protective factors and demonstrate that the process of social exclusion is a complicated issue that cannot totally be understood by analysing the statistical connections between certain risk factors and the life-course.""Social exclusion is a popular and widely used concept in the social sciences as well as in current European policy rhetoric. However, there is no general agreement on the content and use of the term; it has been used differently and for different purposes in different historical and social contexts. In this article, the social exclusion is understood as life-historical phenomenon. Two cases have been selected as representing the most extreme trajectories based on a larger follow-up study concerning former students of residential institutions for young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties in Finland. The cases give us an example of a detailed life-course analysis, with the emphasis on risk and protective factors and demonstrate that the process of social exclusion is a complicated issue that cannot totally be understood by analysing the statistical connections between certain risk factors and the life-course."Peer reviewe