The malarial blood transcriptome: translational applications.

The blood transcriptome of malaria patients has been used extensively to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms and host immune responses to disease, identify candidate diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, and reveal new therapeutic targets for drug discovery. This review gives a high-level overview of the three main translational applications of these studies (diagnostics, prognostics, and therapeutics) by summarising recent literature and outlining the main limitations and future directions of each application. It highlights the need for consistent and accurate definitions of disease states and subject groups and discusses how prognostic studies must distinguish clearly between analyses that attempt to predict future disease states and those which attempt to discriminate between current disease states (classification).

Stress and coping strategies in the general population of Greece and Cyprus in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown policy had a profound psychological impact on the general population worldwide. The aim of this study was to assess the level of stress and coping strategies used during the initial stage of the COVID-19 outbreak and their association. Secondary aims were to a) identify the most important coping strategies and b) investigate predictors of stress.

A Cybersecurity Culture Survey Targeting Healthcare Critical Infrastructures.

Recent studies report that cybersecurity breaches noticed in hospitals are associated with low levels of personnel's cybersecurity awareness. This work aims to assess the cybersecurity culture in healthcare institutions from middle- to low-income EU countries. The evaluation process was designed and performed via anonymous online surveys targeting individually ICT (internet and communication technology) departments and healthcare professionals.

Comparative transcriptomic analysis reveals translationally relevant processes in mouse models of malaria.

Recent initiatives to improve translation of findings from animal models to human disease have focussed on reproducibility but quantifying the relevance of animal models remains a challenge. Here, we use comparative transcriptomics of blood to evaluate the systemic host response and its concordance between humans with different clinical manifestations of malaria and five commonly used mouse models. 17XL infection of mice most closely reproduces the profile of gene expression changes seen in the major human severe malaria syndromes, accompanied by high parasite biomass, severe anemia, hyperlactatemia, and cerebral microvascular pathology.