Telemedicine Use and the Perceived Risk of COVID-19: Patient Experience.

Introduction: The COVID-19 outbreak resulted in an increased demand for telemedicine worldwide. Telemedicine is a technology-based virtual platform that allows the exchange of clinical data and images over remote distances. This study aims to examine the impact of the perceived risk of COVID-19 on telemedicine use in Bangladesh.

Effectiveness of case scenario-based teaching to transition international Master of Public Health students specialising in health promotion from memorization to critical thinking.

Issue Addressed: Critical thinking is essential to health promotion to overcome increasingly complex health issues. International students from Middle East and Asia are however disadvantaged when required to demonstrate critical thinking mainly because of their previous training in memorisation. This study addresses this need by evaluating the effect of case scenario-based teaching on transition from memorisation to critical thinking among international students in an Australia university.

Beneficial effect of a multimerized immunoglobulin Fc in an animal model of inflammatory neuropathy (experimental autoimmune neuritis).

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) is one of the first-line therapies for inflammatory neuropathies. Clinical use of IVIg for these disorders is limited by expense and availability. Here, we investigated a synthetic product alternative to IVIg.

Cytosolic phospholipase A2α sustains pAKT, pERK and AR levels in PTEN-null/mutated prostate cancer cells.

Constitutive phosphorylation of protein kinase B (AKT) is a common feature of cancer caused by genetic alteration in the phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) gene and is associated with poor prognosis. This study determined the role of cytosolic phospholipase A2α (cPLA2α) in AKT, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and androgen receptor (AR) signaling in PTEN-null/mutated prostate cancer cells. Doxycycline (Dox)-induced expression of cPLA2α led to an increase in pAKT, pGSK3β and cyclin D1 levels in LNCaP cells that possess a PTEN frame-shift mutation.

Decrease in expression or activity of cytosolic phospholipase A2alpha increases cyclooxygenase-1 action: A cross-talk between key enzymes in arachidonic acid pathway in prostate cancer cells.

The eicosanoid pathway is activated in many types of cancers including prostate. Eicosanoids are synthesized from intracellular arachidonic acid (AA), which is released from membrane glycerophospholipids mainly by the action of cytosolic phospholipase A(2)alpha (cPLA(2)alpha). Thus, targeting cPLA(2)alpha has been proposed as a treatment option.

Pitfalls in the use of arachidonic acid oxidation products to assign lipoxygenase activity in cancer cells.

Arachidonic acid (AA) reaction with cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenases (LOX) yield eicosanoids that can mediate prostate cancer proliferation and enhance both tumour vascularization and metastasis. Increasingly measurement of eicosanoids with liquid chromatography is employed to implicate LOX activity in different biological systems and in particular link LOX activity to the progression of cancer in experimental models. This study demonstrates that simply identifying patterns of eicosanoid regio-isomerism is insufficient to designate LOX activity in prostate cancer cells and the analysis must include complete stereochemical assignment of the various isomers in order to validate the assignment of LOX activity.

Cytosolic phospholipase A2-alpha: a potential therapeutic target for prostate cancer.

Purpose: Cytosolic phospholipase A2-alpha (cPLA2-alpha) provides intracellular arachidonic acid to supply both cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase pathways. We aim to determine the expression and activation of cPLA2-alpha in prostate cancer cell lines and tissue and the effect of targeting cPLA2-alpha in vitro and in vivo.

Experimental Design: The expression of cPLA2-alpha was determined in prostate cancer cells by reverse transcription-PCR, Western blot, and immunocytochemistry.

Molecules in focus: cytosolic phospholipase A2-alpha.

Cytosolic phospholipase A(2)-alpha (cPLA(2)-alpha) cleaves its preferred substrate, arachidonic acid, at the sn-2 position of membrane glycerophospholipids. Stimulation of cells with agents that mobilize intracellular calcium and/or promote the phosphorylation of cPLA(2)-alpha leads to (i) translocation of the enzyme from cytosol to endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus and perinuclear membranes-where it associates with the arachidonic acid in close proximity to downstream eicosanoid-producing enzymes; and (ii) the change in configuration induced by phosphorylation increases the phospholipid binding affinity and arachidonic acid release. As a mediator of growth factors, cytokines, chemokines, and hormones that modulate survival and growth in various cell types, cPLA(2)-alpha has attracted considerable attention as a potential therapeutic target in control of inflammation and cancer.