ON THE FORMATION OF ETHNOMEDICINE OF THE NORTH CAUCASUS PEOPLES

Статья посвящена истории формирования этномедицины народов Северного Кавказа. Ставится задача уточнения динамики исторического процесса относительно формирования этномедицины народов Северного Кавказа. Материалы исследований многих авторов по истории медицины подтверждают высокую эффективность лекарского искусства в оказании хирургической помощи, которую отмечали многие наблюдатели в период Кавказской войны. Несомненно, опыт лекарского искусства на Кавказе имеет весьма древнюю историю. Он накапливался эмпирическим путем и, передаваясь от отца к сыну, формировал династии лекарей, имевшие свой опыт и свои секреты врачевания. Не исключается взаимовлияние культур народов, в частности арабской медицины, которая способствовала формированию врачей традиционной арабской школы медицины. Таким образом, народных целителей можно разделить на два типа: чье лечение содержало доисламские и исламские методы. Отмечается, что именно народные лекари с доисламским опытом сопровождали войска в походах и показали высокую эффективность своих методов, получив заслуженную оценку многих врачей в годы Кавказской войны. The paper is devoted to the history of formation of ethnomedicine of the peoples of the North Caucasus. The task is to clarify the dynamics of the historical process regarding the formation of ethnomedicine of the peoples of the North Caucasus. The research materials of many authors on the history of medicine confirm the high effectiveness of medicinal art in the provision of surgical care, which was noted by many observers during the Caucasian War. Undoubtedly, the experience of medicinal art in the Caucasus has a very ancient history. It accumulated empirically and, passing from father to son, formed dynasties of doctors who had their own experience and their secrets of healing. The mutual influence of the cultures of peoples, in particular Arab medicine, which contributed to the formation of doctors of the traditional Arab school of medicine, is not excluded. Thus, folk healers can be divided into two types: whose treatment contained pre-Islamic and Islamic methods. It is noted that it was people's doctors with pre-Islamic experience who accompanied the troops on campaigns and showed the high effectiveness of their methods, having received a well-deserved assessment of many doctors during the Caucasian war.

212Pb: Production Approaches and Targeted Therapy Applications

Over the last decade, targeted alpha therapy has demonstrated its high effectiveness in treating various oncological diseases. Lead-212, with a convenient half-life of 10.64 h, and daughter alpha-emitter short-lived 212Bi (T1/2 = 1 h), provides the possibility for the synthesis and purification of complex radiopharmaceuticals with minimum loss of radioactivity during preparation. As a benefit for clinical implementation, it can be milked from a radionuclide generator in different ways. The main approaches applied for these purposes are considered and described in this review, including chromatographic, solution, and other techniques to isolate 212Pb from its parent radionuclide. Furthermore, molecules used for lead’s binding and radiochemical features of preparation and stability of compounds labeled with 212Pb are discussed. The results of preclinical studies with an estimation of therapeutic and tolerant doses as well as recently initiated clinical trials of targeted radiopharmaceuticals are presented.

SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccine Breakthrough Infections in Fully Vaccinated Healthcare Personnel: A Systematic Review

The number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 increases worldwide every day; however, it is important to study the risk of breakthrough infections in vaccinated individuals at high risk of exposure such as healthcare personnel (HCP). A systematic literature review (SLR) applying the PRISMA declaration and the PECOS format using the following entry terms was used: “Health Personnel OR Healthcare Worker OR Healthcare Provider OR Healthcare Personnel AND breakthrough OR infection after vaccine*”. The research was carried out utilizing the following databases: SCOPUS, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Sciences. An overall very low incidence of post-vaccination breakthrough infections was found, ranging from 0.011 to 0.001 (per 100 individuals at risk). Our findings further support the published high effectiveness rates of mRNA vaccines in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infections among fully vaccinated HCP. Additional studies are needed to define the duration of the vaccine-induced protection among HCP.

Point-of-Care Urine Gram Stain for Managing Febrile Urinary Tract Infection in Adults

Background Febrile urinary tract infections (fUTIs), which include pyelonephritis, prostatitis, and urosepsis, are the most common cause of sepsis. However, the treatment has become more complex because of the world-wide increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The objective of this study was to clarify whether point-of-care Gram stain (PCGS) of urine contributed to fUTI diagnosis and treatment in adults. Methods This hospital-based observational study was undertaken between January 2013 and March 2015 in Okinawa, Japan. All enrolled patients were adults who had been admitted to the Division of Infectious Diseases with suspected fUTI. The usefulness of PCGS results were compared for urinalysis (U/A) and urine cultures (U/Cs). The targeted therapy type and its effectiveness based on PCGS were analyzed, and each was investigated in two groups: the uncomplicated pyelonephritis group and the complicated pyelonephritis/prostatitis group. Results Two hundred sixty-six patients were enrolled. The results of PCGS were closely correlated with those of U/A for pyuria and bacteriuria, and moderately correlated with the results of U/C for bacterial types. In the uncomplicated group, narrow-spectrum antimicrobials such as cefotiam were initially selected in 97.9% (47/48) of patients, and their effectiveness was 97.9% (47/48). In the complicated group, the effectiveness was 84.2% (186/221) (p=0.009) despite frequent AMRs (14.7%; 32/218) and low use of broad-spectrum antimicrobials such as carbapenems (7.7%; 17/221). Conclusion Urine PCGS led to a more precise fUTI diagnosis and prompted clinicians to select narrower-spectrum antibiotics with high effectiveness.

mRNA COVID-19 vaccine: A future hope for cancer treatment

Background: mRNA vaccines have a strong potential for a possible cancer therapy platform. They express tumor antigens in antigen-presenting cells (APCs) after immunization, facilitating innate/adaptive immune stimulation. Because of its high effectiveness, safe administration, rapid development potential, and cost-efficient manufacturing, the mRNA cancer vaccine surpasses other traditional vaccination platforms. Conclusion: Careful evaluation of promising mRNA vaccines to supervise as carriers of lipids for cancer patients needs to be done. In addition, a possible revaluation for optimal protection is required. However, the extent to which solid tumours might take a significant part of the vaccine doses is still unknown.

Effectiveness of the WHO-Authorized COVID-19 Vaccines: A Rapid Review of Global Reports till 30 June 2021

Large clinical trials have proven the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine, and the number of studies about the effectiveness rapidly grew in the first half of the year after mass vaccination was administrated globally. This rapid review aims to provide evidence syntheses as a means to complement the current evidence on the vaccine effectiveness (VE) against various outcomes in real-world settings. Databases (PubMed, EMBASE, and MedRxiv) were searched up to 30 June 2021, (PROSPERO ID: 266866). A total of 39 studies were included, covering over 15 million participants from 11 nations. Among the general population being fully vaccinated, the VE against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection was estimated at 89–97%, 92% (95% CI, 78–97%), and 94% (95% CI, 86–97%) for BNT162b2, ChAdOx1, and mRNA-1273, respectively. As for the protective effects against B.1.617.2-related symptomatic infection, the VE was 88% (95% CI, 85.3–90.1%) by BNT162b2 and 67.0% (95% CI, 61.3–71.8%) by ChAdOx1 after full vaccination. This review revealed a consistently high effectiveness of certain vaccines among the general population in real-world settings. However, scarce data on the major variants of SARS-CoV-2 and the shortness of the study time may limit the conclusions to the mRNA vaccines and ChAdOx1.

Preclinical Trial of the Effectiveness of the Safety Nasogastric Tube to Detecting Tube Position Based on Tidal Volume and Pepsin Assay Results in the Gastrointestinal Tract of Macaca Fascicularis

Background: Generally, insertion of a nasogastric tube (NGT) does not use imaging guidance. This procedure has a risk of malposition to the lungs from 0.3–15%. The NGT verification only detects the position of the tube in the end of procedure. Misplacement of NGT into the respiratory tract can result in damage to the lungs. Safety nasogastric tube (SNGT) has been created to detect the position of the tube in real-time, simple, and inexpensive. This study aims to prove the effectiveness of the SNGT prototype in Macaca fascicularis. Result: The SNGT with an airbag size of 50% of tidal volume (SNGT 50% TV) had 100% sensitivity and specificity in detecting the position of the tube. While the SNGT with an airbag size of 100% of TV (SNGT 100% TV) has sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 87.5%. There was significant difference between the movement of airbag of SNGT 50% TV and SNGT 100% TV (p ≤ 0.05). However, there was no significant difference between the accuracy of placement of 50% TV SNGT, 100% TV SNGT, and conventional NGT (p > 0.05). The pepsin enzyme has better sensitivity (100%) than pH paper (91.66%) in detecting the end position of tube. Conclusion: SNGT tube has high effectiveness in detecting the position of the tube inside of the respiratory and digestive tracts to prevent misplacement.

A review of Chinese medicine for the treatment of psoriasis: principles, methods and analysis

Chinese medicine (CM) has a long history in the treatment of psoriasis, and its different understanding angle and treatment mode from modern medicine have unique wisdom. In this article, we consulted a large number of literatures and collected data in order to systematically clarify how CM understands psoriasis, including the classification and judgment of syndrome types, the diagnosis and thinking of etiology and pathogenesis, the application of treatment ideas, principles, methods and various prescriptions, and suggestions on patient care, so as to provide a clear CM treatment process and experience for the world clinic. In addition, we analyzed the efficacy and safety through clinical data, and summarize the methods and prescriptions worthy of promotion, so as to provide reference for doctors to prescribe prescriptions and medication. Finally, we found that compared with modern medicine, CM has unique advantages in the treatment of psoriasis, including the uniqueness of syndrome classification, the abundantly and flexibility of treatment ideas. Not only many famous doctors have studied the ideas in ancient books, but also made great efforts to innovate, which has left a lot of valuable experiences for clinical practice. Moreover, a large number of treatment methods, prescriptions and medicines have achieved high effectiveness and safety in clinical practices for many years, which has been proved to be worthy of clinical reference and in-depth research. In addition, we also think about the deficiencies of CM in the treatment of psoriasis and the direction of breakthrough combined with modern medicine. The treatment of psoriasis with CM is worth popularizing, and we hope it can benefit more patients.

HCH Removal in a Biochar-Amended Biofilter

This study evaluated the efficiency of two biofilter systems, with and without biochar chambers installed, at degrading and removing HCH and its isomers in natural drainage water. The biochar biofilter proved to be 96% efficient at cleaning HCH and its transformation products from drainage water, a significant improvement over classic biofilter that remove, on average, 68% of HCH. Although iron- and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, such as Gallionella and Sulfuricurvum, were dominant in the biochar bed outflows, they were absent in sediments, which were rich in Simplicispira, Rhodoluna, Rhodoferax, and Flavobacterium. The presence of functional genes involved in the biodegradation of HCH isomers and their byproducts was confirmed in both systems. The high effectiveness of the biochar biofilter displayed in this study should further encourage the use of biochar in water treatment solutions, e.g., for temporary water purification installations during the construction of other long-term wastewater treatment technologies, or even as final solutions at contaminated sites.