Medical & Health Sciences

Rabies is transmitted from animals to humans through the bite of an infected animal, all too often with fatal consequences, particularly in the developing world. Dr Joanne Maki, Technical Director for the Veterinary Public Health Centre at Boehringer-Ingelheim Animal Health, has worked in rabies prevention for 30 years. With extensive background and experience gained in the rabies vaccine industry, Dr Maki shares her perspectives on the call to action to eliminate this deadly zoonotic disease.

The processes and metabolic pathways in our cells are complex and extensive, but essential for normal life functions, including cell respiration and energy production via the mitochondria. However, sometimes these processes go wrong resulting in disease, including cancer. Dr Chao Sun from the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, dedicates his research to unravelling the mechanisms behind tumour progression in relation to mitochondrial dysfunction.

Despite their numerous side effects, opioid drugs and morphine-like agents have remained a pillar in the medical management of pain. Most clinically used opioid drugs act through mu opioid receptors. Dr Ying-Xian Pan and his team from the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, USA, studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms of mu opioid receptors and aim to develop novel strategies and opioid analgesics for better treating pain without side effects associated with traditional opiates. Efforts to find substitutes for traditional opioid drugs are helping address the opiate abuse crisis that affects many countries around the globe.

Kidney disease impacts many people throughout the world and it can sometimes take the severe form of nephrotic syndrome. This condition results in many difficult symptoms but it is best represented by the presence of oedema, which is the severe swelling of the legs and eyelids. Currently, the exact mechanisms underlying oedema formation are poorly understood. Prof Ferruh Artunc from the Tübingen University Hospital in Germany is using his expertise in nephrology to uncover these mechanisms. His work has strengthened our comprehension of oedema formation in nephrotic syndrome and it may even lead to novel therapeutics in the future.

Identifying the cause of an illness in a sick baby or child is not always easy, particularly if the disease is rare. Throughout his career, Dr Michael Wangler, at the Baylor College of Medicine and Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, has investigated rare childhood diseases. Combining his expertise in paediatrics and genetics, Dr Wangler utilises genomics, metabolomics and the humble fruit fly to identify the genes responsible for rare and undiagnosed diseases to improve both diagnosis and treatment.

Radiation therapy is an effective and widely used method of treating cancer, and as with any treatment, it is essential to get the right dose. However, Dr Stephen Kry from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has found widespread errors in the systems that calculate the doses patients receive. Through his research, he has helped to identify where these errors occur, how common they are, and provide possible solutions. He hopes that his work will go on to improve the quality and efficacy of radiotherapy for many cancer patients.

Immunity is generated normally against invaders, such as viruses and cancer cells, but not against parts of the body to which the immune system belongs. In 1970, Dr Peter Bretscher and Dr Melvin Cohn proposed a theory to account for how this is achieved. Importantly, immune responses against invaders can take one of two main forms, and Dr Bretscher (currently at the University of Saskatchewan) also proposed an explanation for how the choice of immunity is made. These two proposals are supported by diverse findings. Here, we outline and justify these proposals and explain how they lead to strategies to prevent and treat diverse diseases.

Patients with diabetes mellitus face an increased risk of developing heart disease. The high levels of sugars, lipid and cholesterol associated with diabetes cause thickening of the blood vessels, increasing the incidence of coronary heart disease and stroke. The pioneering team from the Centre of Molecular Immunology, Cuba, in collaboration with Dr Spencer Proctor from the University of Alberta in Canada are testing an antibody that targets the walls of the blood vessels, preventing the binding and accumulation of cholesterol.

In silico drug discovery is useful for screening and identifying large numbers of drug candidate compounds in a way that is not possible using classical experimental approaches. Dr Y-H Taguchi at Chuo University, Japan, has developed a computational technique known as ‘tensor decomposition-based unsupervised feature extraction’. He has successfully applied this as an in silico phenotype-based drug discovery method to repurpose known drugs for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and has successfully identified various known anti-viral drugs as viable candidates for the successful treatment of COVID-19.

Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is one of the most commonly used pesticides in the world. Agricultural workers in Egypt have relatively high levels of exposure to it when working in the cotton fields but until now, the neurotoxic impact of this has been uncertain due to a lack of evidence linking CPF dose and neurotoxicity. Dr W. Kent Anger, Dr Fayssal M. Farahat, Dr Pamela J. Lein and Dr Diane S. Rohlman have brought together their respective research expertise to collaborate on this issue. Their findings have the potential to greatly improve the long-term health of employees working with pesticides.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) touches the lives of millions of people all over the world. Successful antiretroviral drugs allow patients to live longer and healthier lives, without the threat of acquired immunodeficiency developing. However, as with all viruses, HIV can mutate and become resistant to once-effective therapies. Dr Eric Freed at the USA’s National Cancer Institute focuses on elucidating the late stages of HIV replication and how the virus becomes resistant to antiretroviral drugs. His promising results are paving the way for developing new drugs that can combat HIV drug resistance.

All women are exposed to oestrogen from puberty through menopause. Oestrogen is a natural hormone that is important for breast development and the maintenance of tissues in women but is also linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. As many as 1 in 8 women in the USA will be diagnosed with breast cancer over their lifetime, and the majority of these breast cancers are sensitive to oestrogen. Dr Joseph Jerry and his collaborators at the University of Massachusetts are studying the environmental exposures and genetic differences that alter the consequences of exposure to oestrogens.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is an increasingly common disease that causes significant visual impairment. The implications include socioeconomic burdens for individuals and the population as a whole. Working to elucidate the issues surrounding AMD is Professor Gemmy Cheung, who holds senior roles at the Singapore National Eye Centre and the Singapore Eye Research Institute. She has brought together a group of expert scientists to form the Translational Asian Age-Related Macular Degeneration Program. The team is elucidating the mechanisms behind AMD to develop novel therapies, cultivate diagnostics and develop tools to better understand the impact of the disease from patients’ perspective.

Every year, approximately 700,000 new diagnoses of squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, are reported to dermatologists in the USA alone, constituting the second most common form of cancer. Treating pre-cancerous skin cells with a therapeutic topical cream could significantly reduce the number of harmful cells, potentially inhibiting the growth of squamous cell carcinoma. Dr John T. Seykora and his team from the University of Philadelphia have been researching the biology of skin squamous cell carcinoma and related precursor lesions to identify new therapeutic targets that could be treated using topical approaches with exciting results.

Damage and disease of the cornea are some of the leading causes of sight loss. This can often be remedied is through a transplant with a healthy cornea from a donor. However, donors are few and far between, so innovative solutions are required. Dr Zi-Bing Jin from the Beijing Institute of Ophthalmology in China is working on this with some exciting results. Utilising specific small molecules to control cell differentiation, he has discovered a new method for creating the necessary cells for corneal transplant, without the need of a cornea donor.

Despite improvements in children’s nutrition over the past few decades, undernutrition remains a huge threat to the health and life of infants and young children worldwide. Health and nutrition actors have usually approached the problems of children being wasted, (thinner than they should be) and children who are stunted (shorter than they should be) as different outcomes of undernutrition with different causes and different interventions. Facilitated by the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN), since 2014 the Wasting and Stunting Technical Interest Group (WaSt TIG) has challenged this view, and has begun to work to provide evidence for a unified approach to tackling these two outcomes of undernutrition.

Great advances in the field of science and medicine have seen treatments and cures developed for some of the worst diseases ever known. Despite this, the potentially devastating, but sadly common occurrence of preterm birth is not yet preventable. Dr Iain Buxton at the University of Nevada, USA, has been studying the role of the smooth muscle of the uterus to elucidate its role in preterm labour and birth. His research is paving the way for the development of much-needed interventions to prevent early birth.

Mutations affecting the expression of cone photoreceptors can lead to retinal degeneration, which in many cases can result in a permanent loss of vision. However, preclinical models for human retinal degenerative diseases are lacking. Dr Zi-Bing Jin and his colleagues study rhesus macaque models of achromatopsia (a congenital disorder characterised by an inability to distinguish colours) and oculocutaneous albinism (characterised by a disorder of melanin synthesis, leading to loss of visual acuity). The animal models utilised in the Jin laboratory offer important opportunities for studies on disease mechanisms as well as therapeutic development.

A transcription factor known as Early B-Cell Factor 1 (EBF1) is key to the formation of fat cells, called adipocytes. Although it is also active in mature adipocytes, the function of EBF1 at this stage has been unclear. Dr Michael Griffin at Sam Houston State University in Texas is investigating how EBF1 is involved in the process of adipose tissue inflammation caused by obesity. This type of inflammation is believed to be the underlying cause of a multitude of diseases ranging from diabetes to cancer.