Autoimmune diseases, characterized by the immune system's attack on the body's own tissues, affect millions of people worldwide. Current treatments, which primarily rely on broad immunosuppression and symptom management, are often associated with significant adverse effects and necessitate lifelong therapy. This review explores the next generation of therapies for immune-mediated diseases, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell and regulatory T cell (Treg)-based approaches, which offer the prospect of targeted, durable disease remission.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe capacity to deliver programmes that prevent and control infectious diseases is a key public health function. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) aims to support and strengthen this capacity in European Union/ European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries as part of its 2021-27 strategy which includes explicit attention to social and behavioural aspects of disease prevention. To achieve its strategic goals, it is important that ECDC improves its knowledge of prevention strategies, actors and activities in EU/EEA countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Renal artery aneurysm (RAA) is a rare vascular disease with a mortality rate of up to 80% upon rupture. This study aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of ex situ repair and autotransplantation for endovascularly untreatable RAA.
Methods: A retrospective nationwide cohort study was conducted in RAA patients undergoing ex situ repair and autotransplantation in the Netherlands.
The atrioventricular (AV) conduction axis provides electrical continuity between the atrial and ventricular chambers. The "nodal" cardiomyocytes populating this region (AV canal in the embryo, AV node from fetal stages onward) propagate impulses slowly, ensuring sequential contraction of the chambers. Dysfunction of AV nodal tissue causes severe disturbances in rhythm and contraction, and human models that capture its salient features are limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: A growing interest in renal normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) has resulted in more clinically available perfusion devices. While all perfusion systems have the same aim, there are significant differences in their circuits, pumps, sensors, and software. Therefore, our objective was to assess the impact of different perfusion protocols and devices on kidney function and perfusion parameters during NMP.
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