Evidence-based Practice in Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy

book review

Eyes open to stem cells: safety trial may pave the way for cell therapy to treat retinal disease in patients

A clinical trial using human embryonic stem cell (hESC) therapy for an inherited retinal degenerative disease is about to commence. The Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) trial will treat patients with Stargardt's macular dystrophy using transplanted retinal pigment epithelium derived from hESCs. Currently, no effective treatment is available for Stargardt's disease so a stem cell-based therapy that can slow progression of this blinding condition could represent a significant breakthrough. While there are some hurdles to clear, the ACT trial is a fine example of translational research that could eventually pave the way for a range of stem cell therapies for the retina and other tissues.

Scurvy in the Great Irish Famine: Evidence of Vitamin C Deficiency From a Mid-19th Century Skeletal Population

Scurvy has increasingly been recognized in archaeological populations since the 1980s but this study represents the first examination of the paleopathological findings of scurvy in a known famine population. The Great Famine (1845–1852) was a watershed in Irish history and resulted in the death of one million people and the mass emigration of just as many. It was initiated by a blight which completely wiped out the potato—virtually the only source of food for the poor of Ireland. This led to mass starvation and a widespread occurrence of infectious and metabolic diseases. A recent discovery of 970 human skeletons from mass burials dating to the height of the famine in Kilkenny City (1847–1851) provided an opportunity to study the skeletal manifestations of scurvy—a disease that became widespread at this time due to the sudden lack of Vitamin C which had previously almost exclusively been provided by the potato. A three-scale diagnostic reliance approach has been employed as a statistical aid for diagnosing the disease in the population. A biocultural approach was adopted to enable the findings to be contextualized and the etiology and impact of the disease explored. The results indicate that scurvy indirectly influenced famine-induced mortality. A sex and stature bias is evident among adults in which males and taller individuals displayed statistically significantly higher levels of scorbutic lesions. The findings have also suggested that new bone formation at the foramen rotundum is a diagnostic criterion for the paleopathological identification of scurvy, particularly among juveniles. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Nanodosimetric effects of gold nanoparticles in megavoltage radiation therapy

Background and purpose: The addition of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) to tumours leads to an increase in dose due to their high density and energy absorption coefficient, making it a potential radiosensitiser. However, experiments have observed radiosensitisations significantly larger than the increase in dose alone, including at megavoltage energies where gold's relative energy absorption is lowest. This work investigates whether GNPs create dose inhomogeneities on a sub-cellular scale which combine with non-linear dose dependence of cell survival to be the source of radiosensitisation at megavoltage energies.