Progress in tuberculosis vaccine development and host-directed therapies-a state of the art review

Tuberculosis continues to kill 1.4 million people annually. During the past 5 years, an alarming increase in the number of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis has been noted, particularly in eastern Europe, Asia, and southern Africa. Treatment outcomes with available treatment regimens for drug-resistant tuberculosis are poor. Although substantial progress in drug development for tuberculosis has been made, scientific progress towards development of interventions for prevention and improvement of drug treatment outcomes have lagged behind. Innovative interventions are therefore needed to combat the growing pandemic of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. Novel adjunct treatments are needed to accomplish improved cure rates for multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. A novel, safe, widely applicable, and more effective vaccine against tuberculosis is also desperately sought to achieve disease control. The quest to develop a universally protective vaccine for tuberculosis continues. So far, research and development of tuberculosis vaccines has resulted in almost 20 candidates at different stages of the clinical trial pipeline. Host-directed therapies are now being developed to refocus the anti-Mycobacterium tuberculosis-directed immune responses towards the host; a strategy that could be especially beneficial for patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis or extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. As we are running short of canonical tuberculosis drugs, more attention should be given to host-directed preventive and therapeutic intervention measures.

Insulin-Like Growth Factor System in Cancer: Novel Targeted Therapies

Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are essential for growth and survival that suppress apoptosis and promote cell cycle progression, angiogenesis, and metastatic activities in various cancers. The IGFs actions are mediated through the IGF-1 receptor that is involved in cell transformation induced by tumour. These effects depend on the bioavailability of IGFs, which is regulated by IGF binding proteins (IGFBPs). We describe here the role of the IGF system in cancer, proposing new strategies targeting this system. We have attempted to expand the general viewpoint on IGF-1R, its inhibitors, potential limitations of IGF-1R, antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and IGFBP actions. This review discusses the emerging view that blocking IGF via IGFBP is a better option than blocking IGF receptors. This can lead to the development of novel cancer therapies.

A Zero-Crossing Rate Property of Power Complementary Analysis Filterbank Outputs

We establish zero-crossing rate (ZCR) relations between the input and the subbands of a maximally decimated M-channel power complementary analysis filterbank when the input is a stationary Gaussian process. The ZCR at lag is defined as the number of sign changes between the samples of a sequence and its 1-sample shifted version, normalized by the sequence length. We derive the relationship between the ZCR of the Gaussian process at lags that are integer multiples of Al and the subband ZCRs. Based on this result, we propose a robust iterative autocorrelation estimator for a signal consisting of a sum of sinusoids of fixed amplitudes and uniformly distributed random phases. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed estimator is better than the sample autocorrelation over the SNR range of -6 to 15 dB. Validation on a segment of a trumpet signal showed similar performance gains.

Photographic database development of Nigerian fisheries: a complementary source of information documentation

The paper traces the history of the different documentation media used for information dissemination. Such early media are clay tablets, papyrus, and vellum or parchment codex. The invention of printing however revolutionized the information industry, enabling the production of books in multiple copies. Photography came into documentation mainly to preserve rare materials and those that easily deteriorate. This paper reports the efforts of National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research (NIFFR) and Kainji Lake Fisheries Promotion Project (KLFPPP), Nigeria, to develop an Object Oriented Database (OOD) using photographs. The photographs are stored in digitized form on commercial computers, using the program ACDSee 32 for classification, description and retrieval. Specifically the paper focuses on photographs in fisheries as visual communication and expression. Presently, the database contains photo documents about the following aspects of Kainji Lake fisheries: fishing gears and crafts, fish preservation methods

A utilização da fitoterapia e de plantas medicinais em unidades básicas de saúde nos municípios de Cascavel e Foz do Iguaçu Paraná: a visão dos profissionais de saúde

A fitoterapia e o uso de plantas medicinais fazem parte da prática da medicina popular, que diminuiu frente ao processo de industrialização nas décadas de 1940 e 1950, aumentando a busca, pela população, por terapias menos agressivas destinadas ao atendimento primário à saúde. Essa complementa o tratamento usualmente empregado para a população de menor renda. O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar o conhecimento dos gestores e profissionais de saúde que atuam na atenção primária, sobre fitoterapia e uso de plantas medicinais, nos municípios de Cascavel e Foz do Iguaçu - Paraná. Para tanto, no período de fevereiro a julho de 2009, foi realizado estudo exploratório, descritivo, qualitativo, empregando como instrumentos de pesquisa entrevistas semiestruturadas e um questionário estruturado, auto aplicado, com perguntas fechadas, a fim de contemplar os seguintes aspectos: perfil dos profissionais; aceitabilidade quanto à implantação da fitoterapia na atenção básica; confiança nos tratamentos com fitoterápicos; capacitação e formação profissional relacionadas à fitoterapia, entre outros itens. Um dos gestores considerou recente o programa de fitoterapia. Indicadores de satisfação da população quanto ao uso dos fitoterápicos ou plantas medicinais ainda não existem. O gestor do município de Cascavel relatou interesse na implantação do programa. Os demais profissionais entrevistados, de maneira geral, relataram não haver recebido formação sobre o tema durante a graduação, nem mesmo dentro das UBS onde trabalham. Entre os profissionais entrevistados seis (60%) relataram o acesso às informações sobre fitoterapia através do conhecimento popular, uma (10%) formação na UBS, dois (20%) através de periódicos, quatro (40%) através de meio de comunicação, sendo que quatro citaram mais que uma das opções. Em Foz do Iguaçu, nas UBS onde a terapêutica está implantada, os profissionais relataram não terem sido consultados antes de sua implantação, e a avaliação das plantas utilizadas pelos pacientes atendidos ocorre somente através de avaliação objetiva e subjetiva do tratamento Para implantação da fitoterapia nas UBS desses dois municípios, é necessário capacitar os profissionais quanto ao tema, desde o cultivo até a prescrição, melhorando o uso racional desses medicamentos.

Evaluation of rockfish abundance in untrawlable habitat: combining acoustic and complementary sampling tools

Rockfishes (Sebastes spp.) are an important component of North Pacific marine ecosystems and commercial fisheries. Because the rocky, high-relief substrate that rockfishes often inhabit is inaccessible to standard survey trawls, population abundance assessments for many rockfish species are difficult. As part of a large study to classify substrate and compare complementary sampling tools, we investigated the feasibility of using an acoustic survey in conjunction with a lowered stereo-video camera, a remotely operated vehicle, and a modified bottom trawl to estimate rockfish biomass in untrawlable habitat. The Snakehead Bank south of Kodiak Island, Alaska, was surveyed repeatedly over 4 days and nights. Dusky rockfish (S. variabilis), northern rockfish (S. polyspinis), and harlequin rockfish (S. variegatus) were the most abundant species observed on the bank. Backscatter attributed to rockfish were collected primarily near the seafloor at a mean height off the bottom of 1.5 m. Total rockfish backscatter and the height of backscatter off the bottom did not differ among survey passes or between night and day. Biomass estimates for the 41 square nautical-mile area surveyed on this small, predominantly untrawlable bank were 2350 metric tons (t) of dusky rockfish, 331 t of northern rockfish, and 137 t of harlequin rockfish. These biomass estimates are 5–60 times the density estimated for these rockfish species by a regularly conducted bottom trawl survey covering the bank and the surrounding shelf. This finding shows that bottom trawl surveys can underestimate the abundance of rockfishes in untrawlable areas and, therefore, may underestimate overall population abundance for these species.