Endovascular thrombectomy for acute large-vessel occlusion in patients with active cancer remains a difficult clinical decision. Multiple cohort studies and meta-analyses indicate that, when standard imaging and clinical criteria are applied, reperfusion success is high and symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage is broadly comparable with non-cancer populations, arguing against categorical exclusion. At the same time, registries show lower 90-day functional independence and higher 90-day mortality in active-cancer cohorts—effects likely driven by malignancy-related systemic factors and pre-existing functional compromise rather than procedural harm. This narrative review synthesizes efficacy and safety signals, highlights decision-grade outcomes that are seldom reported—early neurological change, performance status around 90 days, and whether systemic anticancer therapy is started or resumed. It sets out a clinical–ethical–economic framework to support selection, consent, and aftercare, including a pragmatic pathway for under-resourced settings based on non-contrast computed tomography (CT) or single-phase CT angiography where advanced perfusion imaging or magnetic resonance imaging are unavailable. We outline an Asia–Pacific collaborative program designed to identify subgroups that may benefit from reperfusion and initiation of active cancer care.

In the Philippines, organ donation is regulated under the Organ Donation Act (RA7170) and promoted by the Department of Health through the Philippine Network for Organ Sharing (PHILNOS). The number of organ donors to meet the increasing demand in the country continues to lag. The emergency department (ED) was identified in several foreign studies to be a significant source of successful organ donation. This action research project investigated the attitude and perception of 125 ED healthcare workers (HCWs) from three hospitals in Metro Manila before and after an awareness event. The study reveals that ED nurses and doctors are generally supportive and hold positive perceptions and attitudes toward organ donation. Despite the positive attitude, HCWs seem to be uncomfortable or unwilling to perform tasks important to organ donation such as approaching relatives and management of the deceased organ donor. Future training on organ donation will increase the positive attitude, confidence and likelihood to participate in organ donation and transplant activities.
Tissue and Organ Procurement ; Emergency Service, Hospital

BACKGROUND: Beginning with the concepts of stress developed by Selye, an approach to stress and pain management, known as neuro-emotional technique (NET), has been developed. It is a treatment approach based on the principle that the stressor effects of dormant and/or current unresolved issues or trauma are what determine one's bodily responses. These responses are relatively personalized to the conditioned, experiential and emotional reality of the individual. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of NET on patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) over time. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, AND INTERVENTIONS: In a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study conducted in a single clinic, NET or control treatments were given twice weekly for 4 weeks in a population of 112 patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome measures, including Oswestry Disability Index, Quadruple Visual Analogue Scale, the psychoneuroimmunology markers of blood serum levels of C-reactive protein, tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1 (IL-1), IL-6, and IL-10, and 10 dimensions of the Short Form Health Survey scale, were assessed at baseline and at 1, 3 and 6 months following the intervention period. RESULTS: Compared to placebo, NET produced clinical and statistical significance (P < 0.001) via declines of virtually all physiological, pain and disability markers, accompanied by gains in quality-of-life indicators at 0 (baseline), 1, 3 and 6 months. Reductions of the percentages of patients whose 5 biomarkers lay outside the normative range were achieved at 1, 3 and 6 months by NET but not control interventions. CONCLUSION: A randomized, controlled trial of CLBP patients indicated that 8 NET interventions, compared to placebo, produced clinically and statistically significant reductions in pain, disability and inflammatory biomarkers, and improvements in quality-of-life measures. TRIAL REGISTRATION The trial was registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (No. ACTRN12608000002381).
Australia ; Chronic Pain/therapy* ; Double-Blind Method ; Humans ; Low Back Pain/therapy* ; Pain Measurement ; Treatment Outcome

Mind-body therapies (MBTs) such as mindfulness, yoga, qigong, tai chi, meditation, and many more have become very popular in the last few decades as useful tools to reduce stress and improve health. These methods are non- invasive and cost-effective. There are several reports that infer MBT can modulate the host immune system in many diseases. Although there are some discrepancies in the reported effects, the majority imply favourable effects of MBTs. This review summarizes the effects of MBTs in various chronic disease including cardiorespiratory conditions, metabolic diseases, cancer, HIV, gastrointestinal diseases, and depression. The results from most studies show that MBT reduced stress and anxiety; whilst improving sleep and overall quality of life. These observations were coupled with a decrease in cortisol level, an increase in glucocorticoid receptors, modulation of the autonomic nervous system, and changes in oxidative stress pathways, which may have resulted in improved immune functions. Furthermore, interactions between different parts of the brain such as the limbic system and hypothalamus upon exposure to MBTs can lead to reduced sympathetic nervous system outflow, which can improve the function of different organ systems resulting in the favourable host immunological responses observed in these studies.
Chronic Disease

Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) and the Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin with high-throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq) have become essential technologies to effectively measure protein–DNA interactions and chromatin accessibility. However, there is a need for a scalable and reproducible pipeline that incorporates proper normalization between samples, correction of copy number variations, and integration of new downstream analysis tools. Here we present Containerized Bioinformatics workflow for Reproducible ChIP/ATAC-seq Analysis (CoBRA), a modularized computational workflow which quantifies ChIP-seq and ATAC-seq peak regions and performs unsupervised and supervised analyses. CoBRA provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art ChIP-seq and ATAC-seq analysis pipeline that can be used by scientists with limited computational experience. This enables researchers to gain rapid insight into protein–DNA interactions and chromatin accessibility through sample clustering, differential peak calling, motif enrichment, comparison of sites to a reference database, and pathway analysis. CoBRA is publicly available online at https://bitbucket. org/cfce/cobra.

The mammalian epididymis not only plays a fundamental role in the maturation of spermatozoa, but also provides protection against various stressors. The foremost among these is the threat posed by oxidative stress, which arises from an imbalance in reactive oxygen species and can elicit damage to cellular lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. In mice, the risk of oxidative damage to spermatozoa is mitigated through the expression and secretion of glutathione peroxidase 5 (GPX5) as a major luminal scavenger in the proximal caput epididymidal segment. Accordingly, the loss of GPX5-mediated protection leads to impaired DNA integrity in the spermatozoa of aged Gpx5

To address the increasing need for detecting and validating protein biomarkers in clinical specimens, mass spectrometry (MS)-based targeted proteomic techniques, including the selected reaction monitoring (SRM), parallel reaction monitoring (PRM), and massively parallel data-independent acquisition (DIA), have been developed. For optimal performance, they require the fragment ion spectra of targeted peptides as prior knowledge. In this report, we describe a MS pipe-line and spectral resource to support targeted proteomics studies for human tissue samples. To build the spectral resource, we integrated common open-source MS computational tools to assemble a freely accessible computational workflow based on Docker. We then applied the workflow to gen-erate DPHL, a comprehensive DIA pan-human library, from 1096 data-dependent acquisition (DDA) MS raw files for 16 types of cancer samples. This extensive spectral resource was then applied to a proteomic study of 17 prostate cancer (PCa) patients. Thereafter, PRM validation was applied to a larger study of 57 PCa patients and the differential expression of three proteins in prostate tumor was validated. As a second application, the DPHL spectral resource was applied to a study consisting of plasma samples from 19 diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients and 18 healthy control subjects. Differentially expressed proteins between DLBCL patients and healthy control subjects were detected by DIA-MS and confirmed by PRM. These data demonstrate that the DPHL supports DIA and PRM MS pipelines for robust protein biomarker discovery. DPHL is freely accessible at https://www.iprox.org/page/project.html?id=IPX0001400000.

PURPOSE: Across Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, (referred to as Asia) approximately 30–53 million individuals of the 151 million employed suffer from allergic rhinitis (AR) and urticaria. It is estimated that approximately 90% of patients with these allergic conditions are insufficiently treated, impacting the socioeconomic burden in terms of absence from work and decreased productivity. This study aims to estimate the socioeconomic burden of allergies in Asia and the cost savings that their adequate management can provide. Due to the limited availability of regional data, this study focused AR and urticaria in selected countries. METHODS: Published literature, information from statistical bureaus, clinician surveys and extrapolation of selected data from the European Union were used to determine the socioeconomic costs of AR and urticaria. RESULTS: Many patients in Asia suffer from perennial allergies and experience symptoms of AR and urticaria for up to 298 days per year. An estimate of the indirect costs of patients insufficiently treated for AR and urticaria amounts to USD 105.4 billion a year, which equates to USD 1,137–2,195 per patient due to absenteeism and presenteeism. Adherence to guideline-approved treatment can lead to estimated savings of up to USD 104 billion. CONCLUSIONS: The current study suggests that within Asia, the socioeconomic impact of AR and urticaria is similar to that seen in the European Union in spite of the lower wages in Asia. This is due to the mainly perennial allergens prevailing in Asia, whereas the sensitization patterns observed in the European Union are dominated by seasonal exposure to pollen. These results underline the need for governmental initiatives to increase public awareness on the prevention and treatment of these and other allergic diseases as well as greater research funding and large-scale studies to reduce their growing socioeconomic burden in coming years.
Absenteeism ; Allergens ; Asia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Cost Savings ; Efficiency ; European Union ; Financial Management ; Hong Kong ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Income ; Malaysia ; Philippines ; Pollen ; Presenteeism ; Rhinitis, Allergic* ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits ; Seasons ; Singapore ; Thailand ; Urticaria* ; Vietnam

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most prevalent and most commonly studied oral cancer. However, there is a void regarding the role that the oral microbiome may play in OSCC. Although the relationship between microbial community composition and OSCC has been thoroughly investigated, microbial profiles of the human microbiome in cancer are understudied. Here we performed a small pilot study of community-wide metatranscriptome analysis to profile mRNA expression in the entire oral microbiome in OSCC to reveal molecular functions associated with this disease. Fusobacteria showed a statistically significantly higher number of transcripts at tumour sites and tumour-adjacent sites of cancer patients compared to the healthy controls analysed. Regardless of the community composition, specific metabolic signatures were consistently found in disease. Activities such as iron ion transport, tryptophanase activity, peptidase activities and superoxide dismutase were over-represented in tumour and tumour-adjacent samples when compared to the healthy controls. The expression of putative virulence factors in the oral communities associated with OSCC showed that activities related to capsule biosynthesis, flagellum synthesis and assembly, chemotaxis, iron transport, haemolysins and adhesins were upregulated at tumour sites. Moreover, activities associated with protection against reactive nitrogen intermediates, chemotaxis, flagellar and capsule biosynthesis were also upregulated in non-tumour sites of cancer patients. Although they are preliminary, our results further suggest that Fusobacteria may be the leading phylogenetic group responsible for the increase in expression of virulence factors in the oral microbiome of OSCC patients.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; microbiology ; Humans ; Metagenome ; Microbiota ; Mouth Neoplasms ; microbiology ; Phylogeny ; Pilot Projects ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; Transcriptome ; Virulence ; Virulence Factors ; metabolism