Category Archives: Physiology

Physiology

This Red Light Means ‘Go’ for Medical Discoveries – University of Virginia

With a little tweak of the color palette, University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have made it easier for scientists to understand biological processes, track happenings inside individual cells, unravel the mysteries of disease and develop new treatments.

UVAs Hui-wang Ai and Shen Zhang have developed a simple and effective improvement to fluorescent biosensors widely used in scientific and medical research. The biosensors detect specific targets inside cells and sets them aglow, so that scientists can monitor and quantify biological events they otherwise could not.

Most fluorescent protein biosensors give a green or yellow glow, but Ai and Zhang have discovered a way to shift the green to red. This comes with big benefits, including making it easier for scientists to monitor multiple targets at a time and to peer more deeply into tissues.

This innovative method can convert not only existing biosensors, but also any green biosensors developed in the future, Ai said. Multicolor and/or multiplexed imaging with fluorescent biosensors cells will thus become widely accessible.

While there are existing red biosensors, they are typically outperformed by their green counterparts. So scientists have been eager to find ways to shift the green color into red, retaining the benefits of the green sensors while adding new ones, such as reducing the visual confusion that can be caused by the natural fluorescence of tissues and cells.

Ai and Zhang found a solution partly by a stroke of luck or serendipity, as they describe it in a new scientific paper. In the course of their regular lab work, they found that adding a particular amino acid, 3-aminotyrosine, to the green biosensor made it turn red.

This is simple to do and quite effective, they report. The red version preserved the brightness, dynamic range and responsiveness of the green sensor, while offering the additional benefits of a red one.

We modified a panel of green biosensors for metal ions, neurotransmitters and cell metabolites, Zhang said. Spontaneous and efficient green-to-red conversion was observed for all tested biosensors, and little optimization on individual sensors was needed.

The researchers tested their improved biosensor on cells that make insulin in the pancreas. They were able to monitor the effect of high levels of glucose on the cells, gaining new insights and giving the researchers new directions to explore.

They hope their quick-and-easy sensor upgrade will offer similar benefits to many other scientists and lines of scientific research.

It will have lots of applications, Ai said, such as acceleration of our understanding of how pancreas controls insulin secretion or how neuronal activity patterns in the brain correlate with complex behavior.

The researchers have described their technique in the scientific journal Nature Chemical Biology. Ai and Zhang are both part of UVAs Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, UVAs Department of Chemistry, the Center for Membrane and Cell Physiology, and the UVA Cancer Center.

The research was supported by UVA and the National Institutes of Health, grants R01GM118675, R01GM129291, U01CA230817 and R01DK122253.

To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to the Making of Medicine blog.

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This Red Light Means 'Go' for Medical Discoveries - University of Virginia

Physiology

Landmark Legislation to Create NIH Center for Advancing Non-Animal Research Introduced in Congress Tuesday – PR Web

Lung Chip

WASHINGTON (PRWEB) October 22, 2020

A New York-based nonprofit group, CAARE, that led the drive to create legislation to promote cutting-edge methods of research superior to animal-based testing, today lauded the announcement that the Humane Research and Testing Act of 2020 has been introduced in Congress.

Landmark bipartisan legislation to promote and fund scientifically advanced, human-relevant, non-animal methods through the establishment of a dedicated center under the National Institute of Health (NIH) was introduced here Tuesday (Oct. 20) by Congressional members Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Vern Buchanan (R-FL).

Barbara Stagno, president of Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research & Experimentation, commends the effort, noting: CAARE is grateful to Representatives Hastings and Buchanan for introducing this legislation that has great promise to change the current paradigm of routine use of animals in laboratories when there are available alternatives, and gives real impetus to reducing animals by establishing a center exclusively for that purpose.

The "Humane Research and Testing Act of 2020" would create a dedicated center under the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide resources, funding and training to advance humane, cost-effective, and scientifically suitable non-animal methods, Stagno added.

Because the exact number of animals used in U.S. research is unknown, ranging between 17 million and 100 million annually, the Humane Research and Testing Act of 2020 is also designed to obtain that data, and requires the NIH to outline a plan for reducing those numbers.

Congressman Hastings, the leading sponsor points out: As science and medicine advance, we have a better understanding of the relevancy and benefits of animal-based medical research and testing on human health outcomes. We are finding methods that can better predict human results without the needless suffering of animals. This legislation will not just reduce animal testing and research but will ultimately improve medical treatments for humans as they are developed from beginning to end primarily with test subjects that replicate human biology and physiology.

CAARE is excited that the bill has received many influential endorsements including the Jane Goodall Institute, Cruelty Free International, Vanda Pharmaceuticals and Dr. Donald Ingber MD, PhD, one of the pioneers in developing organs-on-chips, a game-changing technology for replacing animals.

I have watched for decades as millions of animals have been used in experiments of every sort that have led to insufficient knowledge gained for human medicine, said Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace. We now have the opportunity to go in a more promising direction, based on modern knowledge and innovative technologies that open up a new humane pathway for research.

Dr. Don Ingber, chaired professor at Harvards Medical and Engineering Schools and Founding Director of its Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering expounds, We are reaching a tipping point in the field of in vitro human emulation technologies where they are able to recapitulate human physiology and disease states, as well as response to drugs, radiation, and toxins. A new NIH Center focused on meeting this goal would benefit this field, save animal lives, and expedite the development of more effective and safer therapies.

Cruelty Free International is one of the worlds longest standing and most respected animal protection organizations and has initiated and influenced legislation around the world to eliminate animal testing and advance humane science. Monica Engebretson, Cruelty Free Internationals Head of Public Affairs for North America said The need for cost-effective and reliable tools for the development of medicines and treatments has led to a wealth of new approach methodologies that focus on human biology and utilize modern technologies without the use of animals. Recent global events have highlighted the need for continued investment in these modern approaches to confront public health challenges.

Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research & Experimentation is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, established to highlight and promote research without animals. CAAREs mission is to reduce animal suffering by disseminating information about the power and progress of research without animals.

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Physiology

What chilly lizards in Miami can inform us about local weather change resilience – The Shepherd of the Hills Gazette

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

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IMAGE:CENTRAL AMERICAN BROWN BASILISKS (BASILISCUS VITTATUS) ARE AMONG THE MEMBERS OF A LIZARD COMMUNITY THAT CONVERGED ON A LOWER TEMPERATURE TOLERANCE AFTER A COLD SNAP IN MIAMI.viewmoreCREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY DAYS EDGE PRODUCTIONS

It was raining iguanas on a sunny morning.

BiologistJames Strouds phone started buzzing early on Jan. 22. A friend who was bicycling to work past the white sands and palm tree edges of Key Biscayne, an island town south of Miami, sent Stroud a picture of a 2-foot long lizard splayed out on its back. With its feet in the air, the iguana took up most of the sidewalk.

The previous night was south Floridas coldest in 10 years, at just under 40 degrees Fahrenheit. While most people reached for an extra blanket or a pair of socks, Stroud a postdoctoral research associate in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis frantically texted a collaborator:

Todays the day to drop everything, go catch some lizards.

When temperatures go below a critical limit, sleeping lizards lose their grip and fall out of trees. From previous research, Stroud and his colleagues had learned that different types of lizards in Miami can tolerate different low temperatures, ranging from about 46 to 52 degrees Fahrenheit, before they are stunned by cold. This cold snap provided a unique opportunity to understand how they are affected by extreme climate events.

But when the researchers collected the scaled survivors of that coldest night, they discovered that the lizard community responded in an unexpected way: all of them could tolerate cold temperatures down to about 42 degrees Fahrenheit, regardless of their species previous ability to withstand cold. The findings are reported Oct. 21 in the journalBiology Letters.

Prior to this, and for a different study, we had measured the lowest temperatures that six lizard species in south Florida could tolerate, Stroud said. We realized after the 2020 cold event that these data were now extremely valuable we had the opportunity to re-measure the same lizard populations to observe if their physiological limits had changed; in other words, could these species now tolerate lower temperatures?

In the days that followed the January cold snap, researchers collected representatives of as many different kinds of lizards as they could find in the local area, rounding up small and large lizards and those that are active during the day and at night. Then the researchers tested their response to cold.

A major unexpected result of this study was that all species converged on the same new, lower level of thermal tolerance, Stroud said. While there was great variation in temperature tolerance before the cold event some, like the large-bodied brown basilisk, were very intolerant of low temperatures, while others like the Puerto Rican crested anole were more robust we observed that all species could now tolerate, on average, the same lowest temperature.

Given great variation in body size, ecology and physiology, this was unexpected, he said.

Only one of the species in the study is native to the area; the rest have been introduced to Florida over the past century, researchers noted.

The results provide evidence that tropical, cold-blooded creatures often characterized as unable to withstand rapid changes in climatic conditions can sometimes endure conditions that exceed their established physiological limits.

The shifts to tolerate significantly lower temperatures that we observed were so large that we found it unclear whether natural selection was responsible, Stroud said. And so in our paper we discuss other alternative processes which may also have led to this pattern.

The results of this study are surprising and unexpected. Who would have thought that tropical lizards from places like Puerto Rico and Central America could withstand temperatures near freezing? said Jonathan Losos, the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor and professor of biology in Arts & Sciences and director of the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University.

What we now need to find out is how this was accomplished. Is this evidence of natural selection, with those lizards that just happened to have a lower cold tolerance surviving and others freezing to death, or was it an example of physiological adjustment termed acclimation in which exposure to lower temperatures changes a lizards physiology so that it is capable of withstanding lower temperatures?

Regardless of the underlying mechanism, the new study provides a critically important piece of information for understanding the impacts of climate change.

Scientists expect that air temperatures will gradually become warmer under climate change, but also that temperatures will become more chaotic.

Events that spike temperature to extremes both exceptionally hot and exceptionally cold episodes will increase in frequency and magnitude. As such, it is important to understand both the effects of gradual, long-term increases in air temperatures as well as the consequences of abrupt, short-term extreme events.

It is widely thought that tropical and subtropical species are going to be especially vulnerable to changes in temperature particularly extreme spikes of heat or cold as tropical areas do not typically have strong seasons, Stroud said. Unlike temperate species, which are adapted to summer highs and winter lows, tropical species have typically evolved in very thermally stable environments.

While there is no doubt that climate change represents a major threat to species and ecosystems around the world, and deserves as much research attention as possible, this study provides fascinating insight and a glimpse of hope, he said. Perhaps tropical and subtropical species can withstand more extreme climatic conditions.

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Physiology

Researchers Examine Effects of Repeated Droughts on Different Kinds of Forests – Noozhawk

Anna-Trugman

Drought is endemic to the American West, along with heatwaves and intense wildfires. But scientists are only beginning to understand how the effects of multiple droughts can compound to affect forests differently than a single drought alone.

UC Santa Barbara forest ecologist Anna Trugman along with her colleagues at the University of Utah, Stanford University and the U.S. Forest Service investigated the effects of repeated, extreme droughts on various types of forests around the globe.

They found that a variety of factors can increase and decrease a forests resilience to subsequent droughts. However, the study, published in Nature Climate Change, concluded that successive droughts are generally increasingly detrimental to forests, even when each drought was no more extreme than the initial one.

Droughts usually leave individual trees more vulnerable to subsequent droughts. Compounding extreme events can be really stressful on forests and trees, said Trugman, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography.

She compares the experience to a person battling an illness: Youll be harder hit if you get sick again while youre still recovering.

That said, the case is not quite so clear cut. Theoretically, responses to subsequent droughts could be quite varied depending on a wide range of tree-level and ecosystem-level factors, said lead author William Anderegg, an assistant professor at the University of Utah.

So, while a drought may place a tree under considerable stress, it could also kill off some of its neighbors, leaving the survivors with less competition for water should arid conditions return.

Trugman and her colleagues used a variety of data sources to investigate this effect on a broad scale. Tree ring data spanning over 100 years enabled them to see how trees that survived an initial drought grew afterward.

Data from the U.S. Forest Inventory and Analysis gave them access to metrics on tree mortality for more than 100,000 forest plots from 2000 through 2018. They combined these sources with satellite measurements of the water content in forest canopies.

Two clear tends emerged. We found that generally trees seem to become more vulnerable to stress after multiple droughts, especially conifers, Anderegg said.

The second finding, the researchers believe, comes down to basic physiology. Conifers and their kin have different vascular systems than broadleaf trees, or angiosperms. As a result, they may sustain more damage in an initial drought and be at a disadvantage compared to angiosperms during subsequent periods of drought stress.

The tree ring data bears this out, showing conifers that survived a drought grew much more slowly, especially if another drought settled in.

By contrast, angiosperms have much more flexible anatomy and physiology, and this seems to help them recover faster and more fully after initial droughts, Anderegg said.

Anderegg was particularly surprised by the impact repeated drought had on the Amazon Rainforest. We tend to think of these forests as not very impacted by drought and, due to their high tree diversity, able to recover quickly, he said. But our results indicate the Amazon has been hit hard by three very severe droughts in the past 15 years.

Forests are complex systems, and a variety of factors ultimately dictate how they respond to extreme events.

In terms of damage you need to not only think about it at the individual level, but at the forest level as well, said Trugman. So, while they will need time to recover from an extreme drought, surviving trees will face less competition for water resources than before. This could leave them in a better situation if drought returns to the area.

Whats more, natural selection will drive the forest as a whole to transition toward more resilient individuals, or even to more drought tolerant species overall. Repeated droughts affect forest pests and pathogens as well, and their response to these conditions will also influence how forests behave.

Scientists are still working to untangle the conditions under which each of these factors rises to the top. This [study] provides a lot of motivation, said Trugman, but I think the next pressing step is to get at the underlying mechanisms at a physiological level and ecological level.

Researchers can use these insights to improve computer models and make more accurate forecasts about the future of forests in a changing climate. Climate change is going to bring more frequent droughts, Anderegg said. So we have to understand and be able to forecast how forests will respond to multiple droughts.

These results are especially crucial in the western U.S., where we've had a number of major droughts in the past 20 years.

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Researchers Examine Effects of Repeated Droughts on Different Kinds of Forests - Noozhawk

Physiology

The Increasing Role of Artificial Intelligence in Health Care: Will Ro | IJGM – Dove Medical Press

Abdullah Shuaib1,, Husain Arian,1 Ali Shuaib2

1Department of General Surgery, Jahra Hospital, Jahra, Kuwait; 2Biomedical Engineering Unit, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Kuwait City, Kuwait

Dr Abdullah Shuaib passed away on July 21, 2020

Correspondence: Ali ShuaibBiomedical Engineering Unit, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Kuwait City, KuwaitTel +965 24636786Email ali.shuaib@ku.edu.kw

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) pertains to the ability of computers or computer-controlled machines to perform activities that demand the cognitive function and performance level of the human brain. The use of AI in medicine and health care is growing rapidly, significantly impacting areas such as medical diagnostics, drug development, treatment personalization, supportive health services, genomics, and public health management. AI offers several advantages; however, its rampant rise in health care also raises concerns regarding legal liability, ethics, and data privacy. Technological singularity (TS) is a hypothetical future point in time when AI will surpass human intelligence. If it occurs, TS in health care would imply the replacement of human medical practitioners with AI-guided robots and peripheral systems. Considering the pace at which technological advances are taking place in the arena of AI, and the pace at which AI is being integrated with health care systems, it is not be unreasonable to believe that TS in health care might occur in the near future and that AI-enabled services will profoundly augment the capabilities of doctors, if not completely replace them. There is a need to understand the associated challenges so that we may better prepare the health care system and society to embrace such a change if it happens.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, technological singularity, health care system

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.

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The Increasing Role of Artificial Intelligence in Health Care: Will Ro | IJGM - Dove Medical Press

Physiology

Enrollment open for paramedic courses in Fairview and Alva – Enid News & Eagle

FAIRVIEW, Okla. Northwest Technology Center is enrolling students in its paramedic training program.

The program is for adult students with an EMT credential and a high school diploma or GED. Classes begin April 20, 2021, and run through June 21, 2022. The 14-month program is 1,210 hours and prepares students to "perform comprehensive patient assessments and advanced emergency procedures all in a pre-hospital setting," according to a press release.

Prior to acceptance into the course, an EMT certification must be obtained and completion of an anatomy and physiology class is required. Anatomy and physiology can be taken at Northwest Technology Center. It begins Feb. 2, 2021, and runs through April 15. "It is strongly recommended that students take this anatomy and physiology class even if a credit for the class has been obtained elsewhere," according to the press release.

"Several job opportunities are available to those in the field, including ambulance and fire services, clinics and hospitals, air medical services and many others," according to the press release. "Higher paying job opportunities are available, paramedics in Oklahoma can make $33,000-$52,000 per year, as well as opportunities to provide better service to the community."

Program instructor Lisa Dyer, who teaches the paramedic program at Kiamichi Technology Center, will walk students through 11 courses via distance learning. The training is delivered through distance learning and the skills portion of the training will be taught with an in-person instructor at the Fairview campus.

Applications for the program are open through March 1, 2021. Along with the application, immunization records, personal health history, physical examination and students work references must be submitted, and applicants must pass a physical ability assessment.

In-district tuition is $4,230 for the 14-month program. Out-of-district tuition is $6,410. Financial aid assistance is available to those who qualify. For more information, go to http://www.nwtech.edu or call (580) 327-0344 in Alva or (580) 227-3708 in Fairview.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

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Enrollment open for paramedic courses in Fairview and Alva - Enid News & Eagle

Physiology

Physiology in PCI: It’s Not That Simple – MedPage Today

Coronary physiology flopped in several studies for determining whether to defer invasive procedures and in optimizing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), researchers reported, suggesting there's more to learn.

"We need to pay more attention to the precise physiology of what we're measuring and what it means," said K. Lance Gould, MD, of McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston.

One group found that routine use of computed tomography-derived fractional flow reserve (FFRCT) did not shave healthcare costs in people with stable chest pain, whereas another reported that operators taking extra steps during stenting did not achieve more optimal FFRs after PCI.

Finally, an observational study showed that coronary flow reserve (CFR) couldn't trump FFR at current thresholds in deciding which patients may defer revascularization.

The three studies were presented during the same late-breaking trial session at this year's TCT Connect, held virtually by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation.

FORECAST

Resource utilization was about the same whether chest pain clinics in the U.K. adopted routine FFRCT as a frontline test or continued usual care, according to a randomized trial.

Total medical costs -- counting the cost of non-invasive cardiac tests, invasive coronary angiography (ICA), revascularization, hospitalization for cardiac events, cardiac medications, and outpatient attendances -- averaged 1,605.50 at 9 months for people randomly assigned to frontline FFRCT testing vs 1,491.46 in controls (or median 600 vs 670, P=0.962).

There was no difference between groups in clinical outcomes nor quality-of-life status at that point, according to Nick Curzen, PhD, of the University of Southampton in England.

Thus, the results contradict U.K. guidelines, which recommend coronary CT angiography and HeartFlow FFRCT together as a cost-saving strategy based on National Institute for Health and Care Excellence projections.

FFRCT is FFR derived from coronary CT angiography, thus providing anatomical and physiological information, and is thought to be a safe way to select patients for subsequent invasive testing and treatment of angina.

"The real crux of FFRCT is can it save money? We can, but not by doing it so freely," Curzen concluded at a press conference.

For the FORECAST study, investigators had 1,400 people presenting to 11 chest pain clinics in the U.K. randomized to the test group getting routine FFRCT or usual care. Median age was around 60 years, and just over half of the participants were men.

Coronary CT angiography use was 96% in the test group and 66% in the reference group. Total ICA tests were 14% lower in the test group (P=0.02), which also had 22% fewer patients undergoing ICAs (P=0.01).

On closer inspection, the test group had coronary CT angiography alone in 64.9% of cases, as most people had no lesions with >40% stenosis. Another 31.5% actually went on to receive FFRCT assessment. None underwent stress echocardiography, perfusion scanning, stress MRI, exercise ECG, or ICA testing.

In contrast, the reference group had patients stop at coronary CT angiography in 61.4% of cases. Dozens received the other non-invasive and invasive tests.

Nevertheless, ICAs and revascularizations were not reduced enough by the FFRCT strategy to make it cost-dominant, Curzen said.

TARGET-FFR

Operators following a physiology-guided incremental optimization strategy did not see an improvement in the number of patients coming out of PCI with optimal FFRs, one center reported.

After angiographically successful PCI, FFR was 0.90 in 32% of patients, 0.81-0.89 in 39%, and 0.80 in 29%, according to Damien Collison, MD, of Golden Jubilee National Hospital and University of Glasgow in Scotland.

Patients randomized to further intervention to boost FFR wound up with 38.1% achieving FFR 0.90, which was statistically no better than the 28.1% of controls (P=0.099). However, the proportion of patients with a final FFR 0.80 was lower in the intervention group (18.6% vs 29.8%, P=0.045).

Collison noted that it is rare for operators to assess PCI results using FFR.

"It's shocking to see so few patients who meet the criteria for optimal physiology at the end of the procedure," said the moderator of the press conference, Roxana Mehran, MD, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Chad Rammohan, MD, of Mountain View Center in California, agreed: It's "a little sobering" to realize that 30% of patients at a good center are still ischemic at the end of PCI, with an FFR below 0.80. The study moves the field toward optimization and using imaging to make PCI results more durable, he said.

The small TARGET-FFR trial was conducted at a single center. Included were 260 people who had angiographically successful PCI before randomization to physiology-guided PCI optimization or usual care.

Operators following the intervention algorithm performed further post-dilation, intracoronary imaging, additional stenting depending on coronary physiology results, and hyperemic pullback assessment.

Further optimization was targeted in 46% of the intervention group. Two-thirds of these patients were deemed appropriate for additional post-dilation and/or stenting.

In these 40 patients who actually received PCI optimization, mean FFR increased from 0.76 to 0.82 (P<0.00) and mean coronary flow reserve was boosted from 3.0 to 4.0 (P=0.02).

Mehran cautioned that perfect is the enemy of the good, as performing extra procedures in PCI may run the risk of cardiac perforation.

DEFINE-FLOW

FFR-positive patients did not have good clinical outcomes if they had PCI deferred due to a negative CFR result, according to an observational study of combined CFR and FFR assessment.

A treatment algorithm for 455 people with stable coronary lesions dictated that only those who had abnormally low FFR (0.8 or below) and CFR (below 2) would receive PCI, with all others receiving initial medical therapy, Gould reported.

Resulting major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) rates, counting all-cause death, myocardial infarction, and revascularization, revealed that outcomes were not equal among patients at 2 years:

The 10.8% MACE rate of the FFR+/CFR- group was not as good as the 5.8% rate for FFR-/CFR- (P=0.065 for non-inferiority), Gould reported.

"Trust the FFR" was Rammohan's take-away in discussing the DEFINE-FLOW study at a press conference.

Gould suggested the possibility that reduced FFR and CFR together may still incur additive risk, just at lower thresholds than the ones used for this study. Large randomized trials are needed with thresholds that may actually result in a decrease in morbidity and mortality, he said.

CFR is the ratio between resting and maximal possible coronary blood flow. This measure fails to distinguish flow-limiting stenosis from diffuse or microvascular disease, Gould noted.

Mechanisms controlling coronary blood flow are complex, with physiology differing between the subepicardium and the subendocardium. For instance, high flow may be good for the former but not the latter, he said.

Last Updated October 16, 2020

Nicole Lou is a reporter for MedPage Today, where she covers cardiology news and other developments in medicine. Follow

Disclosures

FORECAST was funded by an unrestricted grant from HeartFlow.

TARGET FFR was funded by the U.K.'s NHS.

DEFINE-FLOW was funded by Philips.

Curzen reported a financial relationship with HeartFlow.

Collison reported financial relationships with Abbott Medical and MedAlliance.

Gould had no disclosures.

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Physiology in PCI: It's Not That Simple - MedPage Today

Physiology

UTHSC professor receives $2.2 million for research into arterial stiffness and hypertension – News-Medical.Net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 15 2020

In humans, large arteries lose elasticity and thicken with age and other pathological conditions, leading to arteriosclerosis and high blood pressure. Age-related arterial stiffening affects a large population and is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, yet it remains poorly understood, with no effective intervention.

Work being done in the lab of Zhongjie Sun, MD, PhD, FAHA, professor and chair of the UTHSC Department of Physiology, is focused on discovering the epigenetic causes of this condition. The National Institutes of Health is supporting these efforts, recently awarding Dr. Sun $2.25 million for his project, "Investigation into Arterial Stiffness and Hypertension."

The study centers on the protein KDM6A, a recently discovered histone demethylase (an enzyme that controls the activity of certain genes by modifying specific proteins). Mutation of this gene causes severe defects in the formation and development of human embryos. The proposed research will investigate whether KDM6A in cells lining the blood vessel walls help regulate the elasticity and structural soundness of the arteries. It will also investigate whether KDM6A is involved in arterial stiffness and hypertension that occurs as we get older.

The idea that KDM6A is essential in maintaining normal arterial health is new, as is the technical approach being taken to prove this hypothesis. Dr. Sun's lab will be using state-of-the-art techniques that allow temporary control of KDM6A at a given time-point in an animal model. This will enable the researchers to study the precise effects of inactivating the enzyme within certain cells.

This grant will help us further explore why blood vessels get stiff in aged people. Our studies may lead to discovery of a new therapeutic target (KDM6A) for aging-related arterial stiffness."

Dr. Zhongjie Sun, the Thomas A. Gerwin Chair of Excellence in Physiology and co-director of the UT Methodist Cardiovascular Institute

Dr. Sun's project is being funded for four years by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

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UTHSC professor receives $2.2 million for research into arterial stiffness and hypertension - News-Medical.Net

Physiology

These Are the 57 Women Who Have Won the Nobel Prize – Newsweek

With 2020 Nobel prizes going so far to Andrea Ghez for physics, Jennifer A. Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier for chemistry, and Louise Glck for literature, there are now 57 women who have been awarded a Nobel Prize out of the more than 900 recipients. One womanMarie Curiereceived two Nobel prizes.

To highlight all the winners, Stacker turned to data from the Nobel Prize website. These women have made outstanding contributions to the worlds of medicine, science, art, and peace-keeping. Just reaching this height of fame and recognition meant facing seemingly insurmountable challenges. Many women on this list had to contend with extreme sexism in male-dominated professions, but some Nobel Prize winners also had to overcome physical violence. All their stories are unique and equally inspiring.

Nobel committees have distinct methods for deciding winners. The Nobel Peace Prize, for example, is awarded by a five-person committee and anyone who meets the criteria can be nominated. For literature, however, nominations can only be made by qualified people. Despite the different nominating and selection processes, two rules apply to all awards: No person can nominate themself, and the names of the nominators and the nominees cannot be revealed until 50 years after winners are announced.

Read on to learn about these women's exciting contributions to society, from helpful advancements in the HIV epidemic to the abolition of landmines toin the case of Andrea Ghezpioneering research on the Milky Way's supermassive black hole.

You may also like: 50 most peaceful countries in the world

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physics- Year: 1903

Marie Curie, who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, coined the term "radioactivity." In 1903, she and her husband won the Nobel Prize for Physics for their study into spontaneous radiation. They share the award with Antoine Henri Becquerel for his discovery of radioactivity.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 1905

Referred to as the "generalissimo of the peace movement," this Austrian woman penned an anti-war novel called "Lay Down Your Arms" that won her the Nobel Peace Prize. It was one of the most influential books during the century with a strong anti-militaristic message.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 1909

Born in Sweden, Lagerlf won the Nobel Prize in Literature. She's often credited for having a vivid imagination, and she has used stories from her hometown in Vrmland County as inspiration. "Gsta Berling's Saga" was the name of her first novel.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Chemistry- Year: 1911

Marie Curie received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year for her further investigation of radium and polonium. She was the first person to receive two Nobel Prizes, and she promoted the use of radium in the First World War to treat soldiers who were injured.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 1926

This Italian writer who lived in Rome for part of her life earned the Nobel Prize for Literature for stories about life on her native island of Sardinia. She also developed some of her characters based on people she knew in real life.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 1928

The Second World War and the Nazi invasion forced this writer to flee Norway, but she returned when the war was over. She was born in Denmark and wrote a trilogy about life in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages, called "Kristin Lavransdatter."

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 1931

Born in Cedarville, Ill., Jane Addams was a social worker and a feminist. She stood at the forefront of the settlement house movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Chemistry- Year: 1935

Born in Paris, this French scientist was the daughter of Nobel winners Marie Curie and Pierre Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awarded the Nobel for discovering artificial radioactivity. Her research was an important step in the discovery of uranium fission.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 1938

Pearl Buck, who was born in West Virginia, began writing in the '20s. She was the daughter of missionaries and spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, China. Her novel "The Good Earth" won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and was a best-seller.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 1945

Mistral is a pseudonym for Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga. She was born in Vicua, Chile, and began to write poetry after her lover, a railway employee, committed suicide. She taught at various universities around the U.S.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 1946

Balch was 79 when she received the Nobel. An American economist and sociologist born in Boston, she tackled difficult social issues, from poverty to immigration, that were widespread at the time.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine- Year: 1947

Born in Prague, Gerty Theresa Cori was a Jewish Austrian American biochemist. She was married to Carl Cori, and the two studied how the body utilizes energy. Both are credited for development of the Cori cycle, an essential part of metabolism.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physics- Year: 1963

Goeppert-Mayer was born in Germany. After she married, she migrated to America, where she worked on an American atom bomb project during World War II. Her work uncovered important discoveries about nuclear structure, and Goeppert-Mayer is one of only two women to win the Nobel Prize in physics.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Chemistry- Year: 1964

Hodgkin was a British chemist whose interest in research began when, as a child, she received a chemistry book containing experiments with crystals. She studied at Oxford University and developed protein crystallography, which advanced the development of X-rays. This earned her the Nobel Prize.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 1966

Nelly Sachs was a writer whose experiences during World War II resonated with other Jewish people. She wrote plays and poetry collections, such as "Zeichen im Sand," and did not shy away from difficult subjects, such as the horrors of life in concentration camps.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 1976

A peace activist who began working in the Northern Ireland peace movement and later co-founded the Community for Peace People, Mairead Corrigan was born in Belfast. Her sister, who was the Northern Irish secretary, lost three of her children in a shooting incident in Belfast. She and a witness to the crime founded a peace organization to help put the conflict to rest.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 1976

Betty Williams was the witness to the killing of Mairead Corrigan's sister's three children, and she jointly shares the Nobel Peace Prize with Corrigan, as the co-founder of the Community for Peace People. An advocate of religious tolerance, Williams is the daughter of a Protestant father and Catholic mother.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine- Year: 1977

Rosalyn Yalow, a lifelong New Yorker, was a nuclear physicist. She shares the Nobel for the development of the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique with physician Solomon Berson. The duo proved that type 2 diabetes is caused by the body's inefficient usenot a lackof insulin. RIA can be used to measure hormones in the blood.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 1979

Mother Teresa was only 12 when she felt called to God and became a missionary. She joined the convent, then left to work among the slums of Calcutta. Wanting to help, she created the Missionaries of Charity, and by the same year she won her Nobel, there were 158 Missionaries of Charity foundations.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 1982

This Swedish diplomat shared the Nobel with Alfonso Garcia Robles, a Mexican diplomat who, like Myrdal, advocated nuclear disarmament. Myrdal worked for the United Nations and for UNESCO.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine- Year: 1983

By studying the hereditary of corn, such as the different colors of kernels, McClintock proved that genetic elements can sometimes swap into a new position on a chromosome. McClintock, who was from Connecticut, studied at Cornell's College of Agriculture.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine- Year: 1986

Born in Italy, Rita Levi-Montalcini received the Nobel for her work in neurobiology. She shares the honor jointly with her colleague Stanley Cohen for the discovery of "nerve growth factor" that has shed new light on tumors, wound healing, and other medical problems.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine- Year: 1988

Gertrude Elion's discoveries of important principles for drug treatment garnered the Nobel for her. Elion had watched her grandfather die of cancer, and she vowed to fight the disease throughout her life. Elion, together with George Hitchingswho shares the award with hercreated a system for drug production that relies heavily on biochemistry.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 1991

Nadine Gordimer, a South African child of Jewish immigrants, was a writer who was only 15 when her first literary work was published. But it was her novel, "The Conservationist," for which she was well known. A good portion of her work discussed apartheid.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 1991

Aung San Suu Kyi is a modern symbol of freedom for Burma (Myanmar), as she opposes violence, in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi. She assumed a leading role in opposing Burma's military junta and was a founder of the National League for Democracy.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 1992

This Guatemalan Indian-rights activist gained worldwide attention with her book "I, Rigoberta Mench," a memoir that recaps the murders of her brother and mother. She received the Nobel for efforts to achieve social justice in Guatemala.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 1993

Toni Morrison's book "Beloved" earned her the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award. Born in Ohio, Morrison was a writer whose work often chronicled life in the Black community; she also served as professor emeritus at Princeton University.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine- Year: 1995

Called "decidedly lazy" by a high school teacher, Christiane Nsslein-Volhard is a geneticist who published her first book for a popular audience, "Coming to Life," in 2006. One of only 12 women to win a Nobel in the sciences, she took the helm of a landmark study that looked at genetic mutations in the fruit fly.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 1996

A native of Poland, Wislawa Szymborska was recognized by the Nobel committee for writing poetry that has "ironic precision." Szymborska lived most of her life in Krakow. She attended Jagiellonian University and studied Polish literature.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 1997

Jody Williams, born in Vermont, advocates against landmines and is a prominent peace activist. She got her feet wet doing aid work in El Salvador and helped launch an international campaign against landmines.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 2003

Ebadi earned her Nobel for spearheading democracy and furthering human rights, especially as they relate to women, refugees, and children. She's also an Iranian lawyer and the founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine- Year: 2004

Buck attributes her mother's interest in puzzles as what ignited the flame for her interest in science. She is an American biologist and Seattle native whose work on olfactory receptors earned her the Nobel, along with Richard Axel.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 2004

Born in Nyeri, Kenya, Wangari Muta Maathai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to receive a doctorate degree. All her work to advance democracy and human rights earned her Nobel. She has spoken in front of the U.N. and at special sessions of the General Assembly.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 2004

Although a social phobia prevented this Austrian author from accepting her Nobel in person, Jelinek has composed famous works such as the novels "The Piano Teacher" and "Lust." She is a critic of modern consumer society and sets out in her work to chronicle the hidden structures of topics such as sexism.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 2007

First published at age 15, Lessing was a visionary novelist, poet, and playwright. She was born in Iran to British parents, later moved to London, and has written 50 books.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine- Year: 2008

Franoise Barr-Sinoussi made strides against the AIDS epidemic and in advancing treatment for her work with HIV. Barr-Sinoussi shares the Nobel with Luc Montagnier, who discovered a retrovirus in patients marked with swollen lymph glands that attacked lymphocytes.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine- Year: 2009

Carol Greider, an American molecular biologist, is a professor at Johns Hopkins University. She shares her Nobel with Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak for their studies of the telomere, an enzyme structure at the end of chromosomes that protects it.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 2009

This Romanian-born German writer won the Nobel Prize for writings that showcased the harshness of life in Romania under dictator Nicolae Ceauescu. Themes such as totalitarianism and exile are the threads that permeate her work.

- Award: Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel- Year: 2009

Elinor Ostrom was an American political economist whose groundbreaking research revealed that ordinary people can create guidelines that allow for the sustainable and fair management of shared resources. This discovery earned her the Nobel, which she shared with economist Oliver Williamson, a University of California, Berkeley professor.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine- Year: 2009

The daughter of two doctors, Blackburn studied the telomere, a structure at the end of chromosomes that protects it. She is responsible for co-discovering telomerase, which is an enzyme that replenishes the telomere. She shares her Nobel with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Chemistry- Year: 2009

Ada E. Yonath is an Israeli crystallographer best known for her work on the structure of the ribosome, a cellular particle. As a post-doc fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she started to investigate the structure of ribosomes using X-ray crystallography. Yonath is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 2011

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa. She has written many books and was one of three recipientsalong with Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman, who won the Nobel for efforts to further women's rights.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 2011

A Yemeni journalist, Karman has been involved in demonstrations and actions critical of the Yemeni regime, where democracy is restricted. She has even been arrested, and murder threats were made on her life. Karman co-founded the group Women Journalists Without Chains to promote freedom of expression and democratic rights.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 2011

This Liberian peace activist is the founder and president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa. She's most recognized for leading a peaceful movement, combining both Christian and Muslim women, to help end Liberia's civil war.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Literature- Year: 2013

Most of Munro's books are short story collections. Most of them are set in her home nation of Canada and examine relationships through the lens of everyday events. They are not first person, but most of them reflect her experiences.

- Award: Nobel Peace Prize- Year: 2014

Malala Yousafzai has made a huge impact in Pakistan, demanding gender equality, specifically fighting for girls to be allowed to receive an education. A Taliban gunman shot her in the head when she was coming home from school in 2012, but she survived and won the Nobel Peace Prize two years later, becoming the youngest-ever Nobel laureate.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine- Year: 2014

May-Britt Moser studied psychology and made a crucial discovery that provided insight on how humans and animals know where they are. Moser found a certain cell that determines one's position; it is close to the hippocampus, centrally located in the brain.

- Award: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine- Year: 2015

Excerpt from:
These Are the 57 Women Who Have Won the Nobel Prize - Newsweek

Physiology

Nobel Prize awarded to scientists who discovered Hepatitis C – The Mancunion

This year the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton, and Charles M. Rice, who discovered the Hepatitis C virus. The disease, which 71 million people are estimated to be suffering world-wide, is estimated to have killed approximately 399 000 people in 2016 alone.

Hepatitis C is spread through mixing of blood and bodily fluids. Infection can happen through injection drug use, during birth from an infected mother, unregulated tattooing, and in unsafe healthcare settings although the latter is rare in todays modern world.

It is an insidious disease. When the virus first enters the blood it generates an immune response. If the immune response is adequate the virus will be killed and cleared from the body. This, however, is only 15%-30% of cases.

In 70-85% of those infected the infection will become chronic. It targets the liver with severe scarring, known as cirrhosis, varying from person to person in the time it takes to scar. In some people it can happen within a couple of years, while for others it may take decades, with the possibility of the organ losing its function in many cases.

In some people the Hepatitis C virus may even cause cancer. This is because the liver tries to repair itself by generating new cells, but the virus can damage the DNA of these. If mutations in replication-controlling genes occur, the cells begin to proliferate uncontrollably; the result sometimes being cancerous.

The virus causes further damage by promoting inflammation. While inflammation is a healthy response meant to fight off invading pathogens, chronic inflammation can damage and kill cells in multiple ways. One such way is immune cells stimulating liver cells to produce collagen, which makes up the scar tissue. In a chronic infection like Hepatitis C this collagen fibre scar tissue is never properly dissolved. As a result, cells around the scar tissue may be starved for oxygen.

Because of the prevalence and mortality of Hepatitis C, the discovery of the virus causing it is immensely significant. It allowed for the development of blood tests and anti-viral drugs which can effectively treat the disease by blocking the virus from entering liver cells.

However, some obstacles remain. Firstly, the anti-viral drugs are expensive, subsequently limiting their accessibility. Secondly, while the ability to treat the disease is a significant advancement, it is not capable of stopping the spread of the virus. For that, we need a vaccine. And who knows, maybe that will itself be worth a Nobel Prize in a few years time.

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Nobel Prize awarded to scientists who discovered Hepatitis C - The Mancunion