Application of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) as a Healing Aid after Extraction of Incisors in the Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis syndrome

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is a stress-free, relatively safe method supporting the treatment of many different diseases. Although it is widely used in human medicine (including dentistry), in veterinary medicine, especially in the treatment of horses, there are not many scientifically described and documented cases of its use. Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis syndrome is a disease that affects older horses and significantly reduces their quality of life. The only effective treatment for this condition is extraction of the incisors. The described case compares the recovery process of the alveolar area after extraction of incisors during the course of EOTRH syndrome without and with the use of a chamber, in horses with the same clinical picture of the disease, of the same age, and living in the same conditions. According to the authors’ knowledge, the presented case describes the use of a chamber in equine dentistry for the first time.

Selected Livestock-Associated Zoonoses as a Growing Challenge for Public Health

The aim of this paper is to review the most significant livestock-associated zoonoses. Human and animal health are intimately connected. This idea has been known for more than a century but now it has gained special importance because of the increasing threat from zoonoses. Zoonosis is defined as any infection naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans. As the frequency and prevalence of zoonotic diseases increase worldwide, they become a real threat to public health. In addition, many of the newly discovered diseases have a zoonotic origin. Due to globalization and urbanization, some of these diseases have already spread all over the world, caused by the international flow of goods, people, and animals. However, special attention should be paid to farm animals since, apart from the direct contact, humans consume their products, such as meat, eggs, and milk. Therefore, zoonoses such as salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, tuberculosis, swine and avian influenza, Q fever, brucellosis, STEC infections, and listeriosis are crucial for both veterinary and human medicine. Consequently, in the suspicion of any zoonoses outbreak, the medical and veterinary services should closely cooperate to protect the public health.

Generation of Porcine Induced Neural Stem Cells Using the Sendai Virus

The reprogramming of cells into induced neural stem cells (iNSCs), which are faster and safer to generate than induced pluripotent stem cells, holds tremendous promise for fundamental and frontier research, as well as personalized cell-based therapies for neurological diseases. However, reprogramming cells with viral vectors increases the risk of tumor development due to vector and transgene integration in the host cell genome. To circumvent this issue, the Sendai virus (SeV) provides an alternative integration-free reprogramming method that removes the danger of genetic alterations and enhances the prospects of iNSCs from bench to bedside. Since pigs are among the most successful large animal models in biomedical research, porcine iNSCs (piNSCs) may serve as a disease model for both veterinary and human medicine. Here, we report the successful generation of piNSC lines from pig fibroblasts by employing the SeV. These piNSCs can be expanded for up to 40 passages in a monolayer culture and produce neurospheres in a suspension culture. These piNSCs express high levels of NSC markers (PAX6, SOX2, NESTIN, and VIMENTIN) and proliferation markers (KI67) using quantitative immunostaining and western blot analysis. Furthermore, piNSCs are multipotent, as they are capable of producing neurons and glia, as demonstrated by their expressions of TUJ1, MAP2, TH, MBP, and GFAP proteins. During the reprogramming of piNSCs with the SeV, no induced pluripotent stem cells developed, and the established piNSCs did not express OCT4, NANOG, and SSEA1. Hence, the use of the SeV can reprogram porcine somatic cells without first going through an intermediate pluripotent state. Our research produced piNSCs using SeV methods in novel, easily accessible large animal cell culture models for evaluating the efficacy of iNSC-based clinical translation in human medicine. Additionally, our piNSCs are potentially applicable in disease modeling in pigs and regenerative therapies in veterinary medicine.

Motivation and personality factors of Generation Z high school students aspiring to study human medicine

Background A new generation of medical students, Generation Z (Gen Z), is becoming the predominant population in medical schools and will join the workforce in a few years’ time. Medicine has undergone serious changes in high-income countries recently. Therefore, it is unclear how attractive the medical profession still is for high school students of Gen Z. The aim of this study was to investigate what motivation leads Gen Z students in their choice to study human medicine, and how they see their professional future. Our study was guided by motivation theory and the influence of personality traits and other personal factors on students’ choice of university major. Methods In a cross-sectional online survey, we included third- and fourth-year high school students in Northern Switzerland. We examined the importance of criteria when choosing a university major: personality traits, career motivation, life goals, and other considerations influencing the choice of human medicine versus other fields of study. Results Of 1790 high school students, 456 (25.5%) participated in the survey (72.6% women, mean age 18.4 years); 32.7% of the respondents aspired to major in medicine at university. For all respondents, the foremost criterion for selecting a field of study was ‘interest in the field,’ followed by ‘income’ and ‘job security.’ High school students aiming to study human medicine attached high importance to ‘meaningful work’ as a criterion; supported by 36.2% of those students answering that helping and healing people was a core motivation to them. They also scored high on altruism (p < 0.001 against all groups compared) and intrinsic motivation (p < 0.001) and were highly performance- (p < 0.001) and career-minded (p < 0.001). In contrast, all the other groups except the law/economics group had higher scores on extraprofessional concerns. Conclusions Swiss Gen Z students aspiring to study human medicine show high intrinsic motivation, altruism, and willingness to perform, sharing many values with previous generations. Adequate work-life balance and job security are important issues for Gen Z. Regarding the current working conditions, the ongoing shortage of physicians, and recent findings on physicians’ well-being, the potential for improvement and optimization is high.

Adaptation and validation of a scale to evaluate the quality of virtual courses developed for medical students in Peru during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical education migrated to digital environments, without clear guidelines for virtual courses or evaluations of how these courses have been developed. Objective: To adapt and validate a scale to evaluate the quality of virtual courses developed for human medicine students in Peru. Methods: Cross-sectional study that adapted a scale to assess the quality of virtual courses to the context of Peruvian medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the Delphi methodology and pilot tests for a rigorous evaluation of the items, resulting in a scale of 30 items that were described with summary statistics. In addition to the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with Oblimin rotation, together with the adequacy and sample fit with Bartlett test and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO), while the internal consistency was estimated with the alpha coefficient. Results: A total of 297 medical students in Peru were surveyed. The descriptive statistics for the items showed a normal distribution, while the Bartlett test showed no inadequacy (X2=6134.34, p<0.01) and with the KMO test an overall value greater than 0.92 was found, therefore an AFE was performed where five factors were identified (General Quality and Didactic Methodology, Design and Navigation of the Virtual Platform, Multimedia Resources, Academic Materials) with 30 items. In the internal consistency, an alpha coefficient greater than 0.85 was estimated for the factors evaluated. Conclusions: The adapted scale of 30 items grouped into five factors or domains, show adequate evidence of validity and reliability to be used in the evaluation of the quality of virtual courses developed for Peruvian human medicine students during the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Keywords: Education, Medical; Education, Distance; Validation; Surveys and Questionnaires; COVID-19.

Special Issue: Bacteriophage Treatment as an Alternative Technology to Inactivate Pathogenic Bacteria: A Generalized Worldwide Growing Acceptance

The increasing worldwide rate of antibiotic resistance has led to a higher incidence of bacterial infections that require alternative methods for their control not only in human medicine, but also in other areas, such as in veterinary medicine, agro-food field and wastewater treatment [...]

Occurrence of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in the Oral Cavity of Cats with Chronic Gingivostomatitis

Feline chronic gingivostomatitis (FCGS) is a severe immune-mediated inflammatory disease with concurrent oral dysbiosis (bacterial and fungal). Broad-spectrum antibiotics are used empirically in FCGS. Still, neither the occurrence of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria nor potential patterns of co-occurrence between AMR genes and fungi have been documented in FCGS. This study explored the differential occurrence of AMR genes and the co-occurrence of AMR genes with oral fungal species. Briefly, 14 clinically healthy (CH) cats and 14 cats with FCGS were included. Using a sterile swab, oral tissue surfaces were sampled and submitted for 16S rRNA and ITS-2 next-generation DNA sequencing. Microbial DNA was analyzed using a proprietary curated database targeting AMR genes found in bacterial pathogens. The co-occurrence of AMR genes and fungi was tested using point biserial correlation. A total of 21 and 23 different AMR genes were detected in CH and FCGS cats, respectively. A comparison of AMR-gene frequencies between groups revealed statistically significant differences in the occurrence of genes conferring resistance to aminoglycosides (ant4Ib), beta-lactam (mecA), and macrolides (mphD and mphC). Two AMR genes (mecA and mphD) showed statistically significant co-occurrence with Malassezia restricta. In conclusion, resistance to clinically relevant antibiotics, such as beta-lactams and macrolides, is a significant cause for concern in the context of both feline and human medicine.

Occurrence of Campylobacter spp. in duck and associated environmental samples in Thrissur district.

Campylobacteriosis caused by Campylobacter spp. is considered as the most common cause of bacterial diarrhoea in humans across the globe. The current research was undertaken to assess the occurrence of Campylobacter spp. in duck and the associated environmental samples. Among 220 samples analysed, 7.73 per cent samples revealed the presence of Campylobacter spp. Majority of the samples contained C. coli (4.55 per cent) and C. jejuni was detected in 3.18 per cent of the samples. The present study revealed a high occurrence of Campylobacter spp. in duck rearing facilities in Thrissur district, Kerala. As the demand for duck products is increasing every year, the risk of contamination by Campylobacter spp. has to be viewed seriously. The study revealed the importance of multifaceted one health approach including human medicine, veterinary medicine, epidemiology, environmental hygiene, public health institutes and epidemiological surveillance agencies to control food-borne diseases and up-gradation of biosecurity measures.

Coping Styles Among High School Graduates Aiming to Study Medicine in Dealing With Depressive and Anxious Symptoms

Background: Psychological distress, its associated stressors and resilience factors, and the implications derived for the education and training of medical students and physicians have long been the subject of international studies. The study presented here investigated affective symptoms in association with coping styles in the earliest phase of University medical education: high school graduates aiming to study medicine.Materials and Methods: We conducted a self-report survey at a medical school in Germany among high school graduates who indicated being interested in studying medicine at the university's on-campus recruitment day. The questionnaire included validated instruments for the self-assessment of symptoms of depression (i.e., Patient Health Questionnaire; PHQ-9) and anxiety (i.e., Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7), and participants were also asked to rate functional and dysfunctional behavior-based coping styles for symptoms of depression and anxiety. Additional variables addressed were gender, motivation, interest in studying medicine, and parental employment in medicine.Results: Of 400 high school graduates, 346 (87%) completed the survey. More than 40 (12.5%) and nearly 30 (8.4%) reported relevant symptoms of depression (PHQ-9 sum score ≥10) and anxiety (GAD-7 sum score ≥10), respectively. Among the graduates, young women had higher values for symptoms of depression than young men, and one's interested exclusively in studying human medicine tended to have marginally higher levels of symptoms of depression than ones who were also interested in other subjects. Relevant functional coping styles included seeking social support, relaxing, engaging in sports, listening to or making music, and reading books, whereas relevant dysfunctional coping styles included consuming alcohol, abusing drugs, restrictive eating, watching TV, surfing the Internet, and withdrawing and ruminating.Conclusion: The results clarify the burden and associated resilience factors of premedical high school graduates at the earliest phase of their University education. As such, they reveal ways to address educational and supportive services and support the need for further investigation into factors of success in studying human medicine.