Cloning, expression, and purification of recombinant AKR1D1 for therapeutic applications.

AKR1D1, a key enzyme in the aldo-keto reductase superfamily, plays a dual role in both steroid metabolism and bile acid synthesis by catalyzing the NADPH-dependent reduction of carbon-carbon double bonds, specifically converting 3-ketosteroid hormones into 5β-steroids. Positioned at the critical intersection of steroid hormone and bile acid metabolism, AKR1D1 has the potential to profoundly influence metabolic homeostasis and drug metabolism. Despite its importance, the enzyme's therapeutic implications and role in drug metabolism remain underexplored.

Proposal to add a Note to Rule 8 of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes to clarify the meaning of the term 'stem'.

According to the Rules of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) and its appendices, names of higher taxa are formed by the addition of the appropriate suffix to the stem of the name of the type genus, and word stems derived from Latin and/or Greek are combined to compound names by means of an appropriate connecting vowel. The way the word 'stem' is used in the ICNP differs from the meaning of this term in textbooks of Latin and Greek grammar. We therefore propose to add a Note to Rule 8, clarifying that the term 'stem' when used in the ICNP corresponds with that part of the word that does not vary among the forms of the noun in the oblique cases, i.

Unveiling The Neuropathology Tumour Landscape: 10-Year Statistical Analysis With Global Comparison - Single Centre Experience.

: Central nervous system (CNS) tumours represent a significant public health issue worldwide, and their incidence and distribution vary across different populations. Although studies on CNS tumours have been conducted in various countries, there is a lack of information regarding their patterns in Macedonia. Therefore, this study is aimed at investigating the distribution, histopathological types and subtypes and demographic features of CNS tumours in our country.

Association of the Polymorphism rs3918242 of the Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Gene with Coronary Artery Disease in a Younger Population.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a complex disease resulting from the interaction of numerous so-called traditional risk factors and comorbid conditions on the one side (such as dyslipidemia, smoking, obesity, diabetes, hypertension) and genetic factors on the other. The evidence of a genetic contribution to the development of CAD, especially in the last 2 decades is consistent. It is important that a number of established gene polymorphisms in the younger CAD population are in the genes involved in the inflammatory response and tissue maintenance and remodeling processes.

Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of imported falciparum malaria in the Republic of North Macedonia : A 13-year experience.

Background: Plasmodium falciparum is the leading cause of imported malaria and the most common cause of death in returning travellers.

Aim: To identify the main epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with imported falciparum malaria in the Republic of North Macedonia.

Material And Methods: Retrospectively analyzed were the epidemiological and clinical features of 34 patients with imported falciparum malaria who were diagnosed and treated at the university clinic for infectious diseases and febrile conditions in Skopje from 2010 to 2022.

Comparation Among Opioid-Based, Low Opioid and Opioid Free Anesthesia in Colorectal Oncologic Surgery.

: Opioids are the "gold standard" for pain treatment during and after colorectal surgery. They can inhibit cellular and humoral immunity and it is assumed that can promote cancer cell proliferation and metastatic spread. Adequate pain management can be achieved not only with opioids, but also with non-opioid drugs, which can be used together in small doses, i.

Skull variation in different breeds sheep from Balkan countries.

The Balkan Peninsula region has a very diverse agricultural and livestock tradition, and almost every country has its own local breed of sheep. Different breeds of sheep and different breeding traditions, despite the small geographical distance, determine the morphological and morphometric variability among animal breeds. In this study, this morphological diversity among the skulls of sheep breeds of some countries in the Balkan region was examined by the geometric morphometric method.

The impact of state capacity on the cross-country variations in COVID-19 vaccination rates.

The initial period of vaccination shows strong heterogeneity between countries' vaccinations rollout, both in the terms of the start of the vaccination process and in the dynamics of the number of people that are vaccinated. A predominant thesis for this observation is that a key determinant of the swift and extensive vaccine rollout is state capacity. Here, we utilize two measures that quantify different aspects of the state capacity: (i) the external capacity (measured through the soft power of the country) and (ii) the internal capacity (measured via the country's government effectiveness) and provide an empirical test for their relationship with the coronavirus vaccination outcome in the initial period (up to 31st March 2021).

Patients With Cancer in the Countries of South-East Europe (the Balkans) Region and Prospective of the Particle Therapy Center: South-East European International Institute for Sustainable Technologies (SEEIIST).

Purpose: A recent initiative was launched for establishing the South-East European International Institute for Sustainable Technologies (SEEIIST), which will provide a cutting-edge Hadron radiation therapy treatment and research institute for treating cancer patients with Hadron therapy (HT). To justify the initiative for building the SEEIIST facility, a study was conducted to estimate the number of patients with cancer from the SEE region that would be eligible for HT.

Methods And Materials: Two different methods for projecting the future annual cancer incidence have been applied: (1) using the International Agency on Research on Cancer@World Health Organization's (WHO) Globocan model which uses country's demographic factors, and (2) averaging the crude incidence data of 3 SEE countries with available national cancer registries, using a linear regression model of combined incidence per 100,000, and applying it to the entire SEE region.

Clinical indications for image-guided interventional procedures in the musculoskeletal system: a Delphi-based consensus paper from the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology (ESSR)-part V, knee.

Objectives: Interventional procedures around the knee are widely adopted for treating different musculoskeletal conditions. A panel of experts from the Ultrasound and Interventional Subcommittees of the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology (ESSR) reviewed the existing literature to assess the evidence on image-guided musculoskeletal interventional procedures around the knee, with the goal of highlighting some controversies associated with these procedures, specifically the role of imaging guidance, as well as the efficacy of the medications routinely injected.

Methods: We report the results of a Delphi-based consensus of 53 experts in musculoskeletal radiology, who reviewed the published literature for evidence on image-guided interventional procedures around the knee to derive a list of pertinent clinical indications.

Validation of TaqMan-Based Assays for Specific Detection and Differentiation of Wild-Type and Neethling Vaccine Strains of LSDV.

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an important animal disease with significant health and economic impacts. It is considered a notifiable disease by the OIE. Attenuated strains of LSDV have been successfully used as vaccines (LAV) but can also produce mild or systemic reactions.

Deep learning in systems medicine.

Systems medicine (SM) has emerged as a powerful tool for studying the human body at the systems level with the aim of improving our understanding, prevention and treatment of complex diseases. Being able to automatically extract relevant features needed for a given task from high-dimensional, heterogeneous data, deep learning (DL) holds great promise in this endeavour. This review paper addresses the main developments of DL algorithms and a set of general topics where DL is decisive, namely, within the SM landscape.

Attitudes and Beliefs of Eastern European Consumers Towards Animal Welfare.

The aim of this exploratory work, because of the existing bias on the size of the sample and some of the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, was to investigate the Eastern European consumers' beliefs and attitudes toward animal welfare, to perform a cross-country segmentation analysis and to observe possible differences with their Western European counterparts. For this purpose, a survey was conducted with 5508 consumers from 13 Eastern European countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, North Macedonia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine) using a questionnaire with nine statements about consumers beliefs regarding animal welfare (aspects of management, ethical issues about animals, and consequences of animal welfare on meat quality and price), one statement about the willingness to pay more for meat produced under better welfare conditions, and four statements regarding attitudes toward animal welfare. Differences between countries were detected for all the statements.

Molecular Imaging in Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among females with more than 2 million new cases diagnosed worldwide in 2018. Although the prognosis in the majority of cases in the early stages combined with appropriate treatment is positive, there are still about 30% of patients who will develop locoregional diseases and distant metastases. Molecular imaging is very important in the diagnosis, staging, follow-up, and radiotherapy planning.

Attitudes and beliefs of Eastern European consumers towards piglet castration and meat from castrated pigs.

Castration of male piglets is a common practice to avoid boar taint but is being questioned. The present work has an exploratory character and aims to investigate the beliefs and attitudes of Eastern European consumers regarding boar taint, surgical castration immunocastration and perception of meat from castrated pigs and to find out possible segments of consumers regarding these attitudes and beliefs. For this purpose, a consumer study was carried out involving 5508 consumers from 13 Eastern European countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, North Macedonia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine).

Review: Early life predisposing factors for biting in pigs.

The pig industry faces many animal welfare issues. Among these, biting behaviour has a high incidence. It is indicative of an existing problem in biters and is a source of physical damage and psychological stress for the victims.

Methodologies for Assessing Disease Tolerance in Pigs.

Features of intensive farming can seriously threaten pig homeostasis, well-being and productivity. Disease tolerance of an organism is the adaptive ability in preserving homeostasis and at the same time limiting the detrimental impact that infection can inflict on its health and performance without affecting pathogen burden . While disease resistance (DRs) can be assessed measuring appropriately the pathogen burden within the host, the tolerance cannot be quantified easily.

Tracing of Contamination Routes in Fermented Sausage Production Chain by Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis Typing.

In this study, the presence of was assessed along the production process of fermented sausages in a small-scale facility. Following the isolation of the pathogen from the final product (ISO 11290-1), retrospective sampling was performed during the production of a new batch of sausages, including raw materials, casings, additives, sausage mixtures, sausages during fermentation, and environmental samples. was recovered from the following sampling points: the defrosting room and the cuttering, mixing, stuffing, and fermentation phases.

Community effort endorsing multiscale modelling, multiscale data science and multiscale computing for systems medicine.

Systems medicine holds many promises, but has so far provided only a limited number of proofs of principle. To address this road block, possible barriers and challenges of translating systems medicine into clinical practice need to be identified and addressed. The members of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action CA15120 Open Multiscale Systems Medicine (OpenMultiMed) wish to engage the scientific community of systems medicine and multiscale modelling, data science and computing, to provide their feedback in a structured manner.

First international collaborative study to evaluate rabies antibody detection method for use in monitoring the effectiveness of oral vaccination programmes in fox and raccoon dog in Europe.

The most effective and sustainable method to control and eliminate rabies in wildlife is the oral rabies vaccination (ORV) of target species, namely foxes and raccoon dogs in Europe. According to WHO and OIE, the effectiveness of oral vaccination campaigns should be regularly assessed via disease surveillance and ORV antibody monitoring. Rabies antibodies are generally screened for in field animal cadavers, whose body fluids are often of poor quality.

Frequencies of single-nucleotide polymorphisms and haplotypes of the SLCO1B1 gene in selected populations of the western balkans.

As a membrane influx transporter, organic anion-transporting polypeptide 1B1 (OATP1B1) regulates the cellular uptake of a number of endogenous compounds and drugs. The aim of this study was to characterize the diversity of the solute carrier organic anion transporter family member 1B1 (SLCO1B1) gene encoding this transporter in two ethnic groups populating the Western Balkans. The distribution of SCLO1B1 alleles was determined at seven variant sites (c.