Results of a Survey of the National Psoriasis Foundation Medical Board on the Management of Ear Psoriasis

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-31
Author(s):  
Amy Blake ◽  
Clinton Enos ◽  
April W. Armstrong ◽  
Amit Garg ◽  
Alice Gottlieb ◽  
...  

Background: There is limited literature on the occurrence and management of psoriasis involving the ear. Objective: To better understand psoriasis of the ear and current approaches for management. Methods: The Medical Board of the National Psoriasis Foundation was surveyed on the frequency and presentation of psoriasis of the ear, the types of examinations performed, and the rationale for choice of treatment. Results: In this survey, the observed frequency of ear psoriasis was wide (10%-70%). The scalp was the most common concurrent site of extra-auricular psoriasis. Inspection of the ear was commonly reported; however, 75% of respondents report not inspecting the canal. Topical corticosteroids were the most commonly used treatment. Systemic and biologic therapies are infrequently used. Limitations: This study is limited by the sample size of respondents. Not every question of the survey was answered by all those surveyed. Conclusions: Results from our survey suggest that the evaluation of psoriasis of the ear is often not complete. Inspection of the ear, including the canal, is recommended, especially if the scalp is involved. Routine inspection of the ear is recommended both to evaluate treatment response and for potential adverse side effects. In the setting of persistent ear disease, collaboration between dermatologists and otolaryngologists is encouraged.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Lafon-Hughes

BACKGROUND COVID-19 pandemic prompts the study of coronavirus biology and search of putative therapeutic strategies. OBJECTIVE To compare SARS-CoV-2 genome-wide structure and proteins with other coronaviruses, focusing on putative coronavirus-specific or SARS-CoV-2 specific therapeutic designs. METHODS The genome-wide structure of SARS-CoV-2 was compared to that of SARS and other coronaviruses in order to gain insights, doing a literature review through Google searches. RESULTS There are promising therapeutic alternatives. Host cell targets could be modulated to hamper viral replication, but targeting viral proteins directly would be a better therapeutic design, since fewer adverse side effects would be expected. CONCLUSIONS Therapeutic strategies (Figure 1) could include the modulation of host targets (PARPs, kinases) , competition with G-quadruplexes or nucleoside analogs to hamper RDRP. The nicest anti-CoV options include inhibitors of the conserved essential viral proteases and drugs that interfere ribosome slippage at the -1 PRF site.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026988112110152
Author(s):  
Melike Kevser Gul ◽  
Elif Funda Sener ◽  
Muge Gulcihan Onal ◽  
Esra Demirci

Objective: Atomoxetine (ATX), one of the most commonly used drugs after stimulants in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) treatment, is an inhibitor of the norepinephrine transporter ( NET/SLC6A2), which is also associated with the etiology of ADHD. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of NET gene polymorphisms on response to ATX treatment and to find the answers to the questions about whether there is a relationship between the severity of the disorder and the observed side effects in children with ADHD. Method: About 100 children with ADHD and 80 healthy controls (HCs) were included in this study. The dose of ATX was started at 0.5 mg/kg/day and titrated at 1.2 mg/kg/day. Response to treatment of 78 patients was evaluated 2 months after the beginning of the treatment. After whole blood samples were obtained, DNAs were isolated, and samples were stored at −80°C. Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs12708954 and rs3785143) were analyzed by real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR). Results: The patients with both rs12708954 and rs3785143 heterozygous genotype had better treatment response and more side effects than patients with wild type. There was not found any association between any of the investigated NET polymorphisms and ADHD severity. Conclusion: It was, however, found that the NET rs12708954 and rs3785143 genotypes affect the treatment response to ATX in our study; thus, further studies with a large population are needed to understand the effects of NET polymorphisms on treatment, side effects, and also the severity of ADHD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yann Ehinger ◽  
Ziyang Zhang ◽  
Khanhky Phamluong ◽  
Drishti Soneja ◽  
Kevan M. Shokat ◽  
...  

AbstractAlcohol Use Disorder (AUD) affects a large portion of the population. Unfortunately, efficacious medications to treat the disease are limited. Studies in rodents suggest that mTORC1 plays a crucial role in mechanisms underlying phenotypes such as heavy alcohol intake, habit, and relapse. Thus, mTORC1 inhibitors, which are used in the clinic, are promising therapeutic agents to treat AUD. However, chronic inhibition of mTORC1 in the periphery produces undesirable side effects, which limit their potential use for the treatment of AUD. To overcome these limitations, we designed a binary drug strategy in which male mice were treated with the mTORC1 inhibitor RapaLink-1 together with a small molecule (RapaBlock) to protect mTORC1 activity in the periphery. We show that whereas RapaLink-1 administration blocked mTORC1 activation in the liver, RapaBlock abolished the inhibitory action of Rapalink-1. RapaBlock also prevented the adverse side effects produced by chronic inhibition of mTORC1. Importantly, co-administration of RapaLink-1 and RapaBlock inhibited alcohol-dependent mTORC1 activation in the nucleus accumbens and attenuated alcohol seeking and drinking.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Leira ◽  
Esteban Jove ◽  
Jose M Gonzalez-Cava ◽  
José-Luis Casteleiro-Roca ◽  
Héctor Quintián ◽  
...  

Abstract Closed-loop administration of propofol for the control of hypnosis in anesthesia has evidenced an outperformance when comparing it with manual administration in terms of drug consumption and post-operative recovery of patients. Unlike other systems, the success of this strategy lies on the availability of a feedback variable capable of quantifying the current hypnotic state of the patient. However, the appearance of anomalies during the anesthetic process may result in inaccurate actions of the automatic controller. These anomalies may come from the monitors, the syringe pumps, the actions of the surgeon or even from alterations in patients. This could produce adverse side effects that can affect the patient postoperative and reduce the safety of the patient in the operating room. Then, the use of anomaly detection techniques plays a significant role to avoid this undesirable situations. This work assesses different one-class intelligent techniques to detect anomalies in patients undergoing general anesthesia. Due to the difficulty of obtaining real data from anomaly situations, artificial outliers are generated to check the performance of each classifier. The final model presents successful performance.


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