חדשות המחקר
Muhammad Mansour, Rola Khamisy-Farah, Raymond Farah: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Tocilizumab Therapy versus Standard of Care in over 15,000 COVID-19 Pneumonia Patients during the First Eight Months of the Pandemic (Int J Environ Res Public He
Tocilizumab is an anti-IL-6 therapy widely adopted in the management of the so-called "cytokine storm" related to SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, but its effectiveness, use in relation to concomitant corticosteroid therapy and safety were unproven despite widespread use in numerous studies, mostly open label at the start of the pandemic. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies utilising tocilizumab in COVID-19 on different databases (PubMed/MEDLINE/Scopus) and preprint servers (medRxiv and SSRN) from inception until 20 July 2020 (PROSPERO CRD42020195690). Subgroup analyses and meta-regressions were performed. The impact of tocilizumab and concomitant corticosteroid therapy or tocilizumab alone versus standard of care (SOC) on the death rate, need for mechanical ventilation, ICU admission and bacterial infections were assessed.
Basem Hijazi, Karl Skorecki: HIV Viremia Is Associated With APOL1 Variants and Reduced JC-Viruria (Front Med (Lausanne) .)
Variants in the Apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) gene (G1-rs60910145, rs73885319, G2-rs71785313) are common in Africans and in individuals of recent African ancestry and are associated with an increased risk of non-diabetic chronic kidney disease (CKD) and in particular of HIV associated nephropathy (HIVAN). In light of the significantly increased risk of HIVAN in carriers of two APOL1 risk alleles, a role in HIV infectivity has been postulated in the mechanism of APOL1 associated kidney disease. Herein, we aim to explore the association between HIV viremia and APOL1 genotype.
Sumit Mukherjee, Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern: Emerging Role of Chimeric RNAs in Cell Plasticity and Adaptive Evolution of Cancer Cells (Cancers (Basel) . )
Gene fusions can give rise to somatic alterations in cancers. Fusion genes have the potential to create chimeric RNAs, which can generate the phenotypic diversity of cancer cells, and could be associated with novel molecular functions related to cancer cell survival and proliferation. The expression of chimeric RNAs in cancer cells might impact diverse cancer-related functions, including loss of apoptosis and cancer cell plasticity, and promote oncogenesis. Due to their recurrence in cancers and functional association with oncogenic processes, chimeric RNAs are considered biomarkers for cancer diagnosis. Several recent studies demonstrated that chimeric RNAs could lead to the generation of new functionality for the resistance of cancer cells against drug therapy. Therefore, targeting chimeric RNAs in drug resistance cancer could be useful for developing precision medicine. So, understanding the functional impact of chimeric RNAs in cancer cells from an evolutionary perspective will be helpful to elucidate cancer evolution, which could provide a new insight to design more effective therapies for cancer patients in a personalized manner.
Rola Khamisy-Farah, Peter Gilbey, Raymond Farah: Big Data for Biomedical Education with a Focus on the COVID-19 Era: An Integrative Review of the Literature (Int J Environ Res Public Health .)
Medical education refers to education and training delivered to medical students in order to become a practitioner. In recent decades, medicine has been radically transformed by scientific and computational/digital advances-including the introduction of new information and communication technologies, the discovery of DNA, and the birth of genomics and post-genomics super-specialties (transcriptomics, proteomics, interactomics, and metabolomics/metabonomics, among others)-which contribute to the generation of an unprecedented amount of data, so-called 'big data'. While these are well-studied in fields such as medical research and methodology, translational medicine, and clinical practice, they remain overlooked and understudied in the field of medical education. For this purpose, we carried out an integrative review of the literature. Twenty-nine studies were retrieved and synthesized in the present review.
Yahel Shemesh, Orna Nitzan, Maya Azrad, Avi Peretz: Tinea capitis in an immigrant pediatric community; a clinical signs-based treatment approach (BMC Pediatr .)
Tinea capitis is a common cutaneous infection of the scalp and hair follicles, typically diagnosed by direct examination and culture. Treatment with oral antifungals is usually withheld until mycology results are available. In Israel, African refugee children demonstrate higher susceptibility to Tinea capitis and generally fail to undergo follow-up evaluations. This study aimed to identify the clinical characteristics and treatment responses of refugee children in Israel with Tinea capitis, in order to formulate a treatment plan for primary care physicians.
Karl Skorecki: Ancestral patterns of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa mutations in Hispanic populations suggest sephardic ancestry (Am J Med Genet A .)
Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) is a rare genodermatosis caused by mutations in the gene coding for type VII collagen (COL7A1). More than 800 different pathogenic mutations in COL7A1 have been described to date; however, the ancestral origins of many of these mutations have not been precisely identified. In this study, 32 RDEB patient samples from the Southwestern United States, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia carrying common mutations in the COL7A1 gene were investigated to determine the origins of these mutations and the extent to which shared ancestry contributes to disease prevalence.
Maamoun Basheer, Elias Saad, Nimer Assy: Pulmonary Embolism in Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Patient Induced by Inferior Vena Cava Mechanical Compression (Eur J Case Rep Intern Med .)
Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease is a common syndrome. Renal and hepatic cysts can cause discomfort, bleeding, rupture, infection, hypertension and a mass effect with compression of adjacent organs.
Computational analysis of sense-antisense chimeric transcripts reveals their potential regulatory features and the landscape of expression in human cells (NAR Genom Bioinform . )
Many human genes are transcribed from both strands and produce sense-antisense gene pairs. Sense-antisense (SAS) chimeric transcripts are produced upon the coalescing of exons/introns from both sense and antisense transcripts of the same gene. SAS chimera was first reported in prostate cancer cells. Subsequently, numerous SAS chimeras have been reported in the ChiTaRS-2.1 database. However, the landscape of their expression in human cells and functional aspects are still unknown. We found that longer palindromic sequences are a unique feature of SAS chimeras. (Sumit Mukherjee, Rajesh Detroja, Deepak Balamurali, Alessandro Gorohovski, Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern)
Nikola Lukic, Stefanie Lapetina, Kolluru D Srikanth, Shams Twafra, Jonathan Solomon, Tal Sneh, Michal Gendler, Hava Gil-Henn: Pyk2 regulates cell-edge protrusion dynamics by interacting with Crk (Mol Biol Cell . )
Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is well established as a regulator of cell migration, but whether and how the closely related proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2) regulates fibroblast motility is still under debate. Using mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) from Pyk2-/- mice, we show here, for the first time, that lack of Pyk2 significantly impairs both random and directed fibroblast motility.
Khalaf Kridin: Assessment of Treatment Approaches and Outcomes in Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis: Insights From a Pan-European Multicenter Study (JAMA Dermatol . )
Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are severe drug reactions associated with a high rate of mortality and morbidity. There is no consensus on the treatment strategy.
Objective: To explore treatment approaches across Europe and outcomes associated with the SJS/TEN disease course, as well as risk factors and culprit drugs.
Amir Mari, Tawifik Khoury: The Inflammatory Bowel Disease Disk Application: A Platform to Assess Patients Priorities and Expectations from Treatment (J Dig Dis)
Inflammatory bowel disease significantly impacts patient's well-being. Patients' preferences regarding treatment outcomes do not necessarily fit physicians' goals. We aimed to examine patient's priorities and expectations from treatment.
Rela Oved, Gavi Jankelowitz, Sondra Turjeman, Omry Koren: Molecular genetics for probiotic engineering: dissecting lactic acid bacteria (Trends Microbiol . )
The composition of the gut microbiome is greatly influenced by nutrition and dietary alterations which can also induce large temporary microbial shifts. However, the molecular mechanisms that promote these changes remain to be determined. Species of the family Lactobacillaceae and Bacillus species are genetically manipulatable bacteria that are naturally found in the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract and are often considered models of beneficial microbiota. Here, we identify specific conserved molecular pathways that play a key role in host colonization by beneficial members of the microbiota.
Offir Ertracht, Tal Reuveni, Shaul Atar: Vasodilation and blood pressure-lowering effect mediated by 5,6-EEQ lactone in 5/6 nephrectomy hypertensive rats (Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Cell Biol Lipids .)
Microvascular dysfunction is a key contributor to vascular hypertension, one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. Microvascular dysfunction leads to the loss of nitric oxide-mediated endothelial dilation and the subsequent compensatory function of endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing (EDH) factors in the regulation of vascular tone. Previously, we showed that lactone metabolite derived from arachidonic acid induces endothelial-dependent vasodilation in isolated human microvessels. Based on structural similarities, we hypothesize that additional lactone metabolites formed from eicosapentaenoic fatty acid (EPA) may bear EDH properties.
Maamoun Basheer, Elias Saad, Hagai Rechnitzer, Simona Zisman-Rozen, David Azoulay, Nimer Assy: Clearance of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus in an Immunocompromised Patient Mediated by Convalescent Plasma without B-Cell Recovery (Int J Mol Sci .)
This case report presents a patient who had difficulty eradicating the corona virus due to being treated with Rituximab, which depletes B lymphocyte cells and therefore disables the production of neutralizing antibodies.
אימונוגניות של SARS-CoV-2 באנשים שנדבקו לפני ואחרי חיסון ל- COVID-19: ישראל, ינואר-מרץ 2021 (Epidemiol Infect)
מדדנו באופן סדרתי את תגובת הנגד של רמות IgG בקבוצת עובדים מחוסנים במערכת הבריאות על פי מצב הידבקות ב- SARS-CoV2 (מעולם לא נדבקו או נדבקו לפני או אחרי החיסון) על מנת לעדכן את מדיניות החיסון.
(כמאל אבו ג'בל, הילה בן עמרם, קארין ביירותי, אירה ברימט, אשרף אבו סעדה, יונס בטחיש, כריסטיאן סוזאן, סלמאן זרקא, מיכאל אדלשטיין)