ABSTRACT
Licht, Laser und Akupunktur haben auch in der aktuellen Pandemie wichtige Beiträge zur Medizin geleistet. Hauptziel einer vor kurzem veröffentlichten Übersichtsarbeit war es zu untersuchen, wie Licht als therapeutische Methode während der durch COVID-19 ausgelösten Krise bislang eingesetzt wurde. Ein weiteres Ziel ist es, Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler sowie die Industrie zu ermutigen, schnell neue einfache Verfahren der Photobiomodulationstherapie (PBMT) und/oder photodynamischen Therapie (PDT) für zu Hause zu entwickeln. Die bisherigen Ergebnisse zeigten, dass PBMT teilweise erfolgreich bei SARSCoV-2-Infektionen angewendet werden kann und signifikante Verbesserungen bei Atemwegsentzündungen und dem allgemeinen klinischen Zustand der Patientinnen und Patienten ermöglichte. Die Anwendung nur in einer begrenzten Anzahl von Fällen impliziert die Notwendigkeit zukünftiger randomisierter, placebokontrollierter klinischer Studien, um die Wirkung von PBMT und PDT bei COVID-19 tatsächlich zu objektivieren. Bei dieser anhaltenden und herausfordernden Suche nach dem scheinbar nicht greifbaren Ende dieser Pandemie scheinen die PBMT und PDT nicht-invasive, leicht zugängliche, sichere und nebenwirkungsfreie Methoden zu sein.
ABSTRACT
Dieses innovative Projekt im Rahmen einer erfolgreichen chinesisch-österreichischen Kooperation zur Hightech-Akupunktur zwischen der Pekinger Universität für Chinesische Medizin und der Medizinischen Universität Graz befasst sich mit der Förderung eines neuen Forschungsfeldes mit den Bezeichnungen Laserakupunktur und Lasermedizin. Laserakupunktur ist definiert als „Photonische Stimulation von Akupunkturpunkten und Bereichen, um therapeutische Wirkungen zu initiieren, die denen der Nadelakupunktur und verwandten Therapien ähnlich sind, zusammen mit den Vorteilen der PhotoBio-Modulation (PBM)“. Die Praxis der Laserakupunktur scheint in China noch in den Kinderschuhen zu stecken. Daher wird gemeinsam mit dem österreichischen Projektpartner in China, dem Dekan der Pekinger Universität für Chinesische Medizin, eine qualitativ hochwertige Einführung in die Thematik in Peking durchgeführt. Dazu ist bereits vor kurzem der erste lehrbuchspezifische Bericht über Laserakupunktur und innovative Lasermedizin in chinesischer Sprache erschienen. Im Rahmen von Meinungsführer- und Studentendiskussionen und Vorträgen soll das wichtige neue Forschungsfeld evidenzbasiert wissenschaftlich aufgrund der Pandemie „online“ beworben werden. Dies bietet die Chance, bestehende Kooperationen zu intensivieren und gegebenenfalls nach Zeiten der COVID-19-Pandemie neue gemeinsame Forschungsaktivitäten zu starten.
ABSTRACT
Systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) and its complication, macrophage activation syndrome (sJIA-MAS), are rare but sometimes very serious or even critical diseases of childhood that can occasionally be characterized by nonspecific clinical signs and symptoms at onset-such as non-remitting high fever, headache, rash, or arthralgia-and are biologically accompanied by an increase in acute-phase reactants. For a correct positive diagnosis, it is necessary to rule out bacterial or viral infections, neoplasia, and other immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Delays in diagnosis will result in late initiation of targeted therapy. A set of biomarkers is useful to distinguish sJIA or sJIA-MAS from similar clinical entities, especially when arthritis is absent. Biomarkers should be accessible to many patients, with convenient production and acquisition prices for pediatric medical laboratories, as well as being easy to determine, having high sensitivity and specificity, and correlating with pathophysiological disease pathways. The aim of this review was to identify the newest and most powerful biomarkers and their synergistic interaction for easy and accurate recognition of sJIA and sJIA-MAS, so as to immediately guide clinicians in correct diagnosis and in predicting disease outcomes, the response to treatment, and the risk of relapses. Biomarkers constitute an exciting field of research, especially due to the heterogeneous nature of cytokine storm syndromes (CSSs) in the COVID era. They must be selected with utmost care-a fact supported by the increasingly improved genetic and pathophysiological comprehension of sJIA, but also of CSS-so that new classification systems may soon be developed to define homogeneous groups of patients, although each with a distinct disease.
Subject(s)
Arthritis, Juvenile , COVID-19 , Macrophage Activation Syndrome , Humans , Child , Macrophage Activation Syndrome/diagnosis , Macrophage Activation Syndrome/drug therapy , Macrophage Activation Syndrome/etiology , Arthritis, Juvenile/diagnosis , Arthritis, Juvenile/drug therapy , COVID-19/diagnosis , BiomarkersABSTRACT
Light and lasers, as high-tech devices whose medical potential has yet to be fully discovered, have made important contributions to medicine, even in the current pandemic. The main aim of this review was to investigate how light was applied as a therapeutic tool during a crisis triggered by COVID-19. Another goal was to encourage scientists and industry to quickly design new at-home photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) and/or antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) easy to use systems to end this pandemic, especially for those who believe in high-tech but would never get vaccinated. This review revealed that PBMT has been successfully applied as adjunct therapy, in combination with conventional medical treatment, and as a pioneering action in SARS-CoV-2 infection, demonstrating significant improvements in airway inflammation and general clinical condition of patients, a faster recovery, avoiding intensive care unit (ICU) hospitalization, mechanical ventilation, mortality, and overcoming long-term sequelae. Application in only a limited number of cases strongly suggests the need for future randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials to objectively determine the action and effects of PBMT in COVID-19. Implementation of unparalleled theragnostics methods and light-based techniques for disinfection of spaces, air, skin, mucosae, and textures to decrease the load of SARS-CoV-2 virus would save lives, time, and money. In this ongoing and challenging search for the seemingly intangible end of this pandemic, a non-invasive, easily accessible, safe, and side-effect-free adjuvant method appears to be PBMT, alone or in synergistic combination with aPDT, which has been shown to work in COVID-19 and opens unprecedented potential for use as home self-treatment to end the pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Celiac disease (CD) comprises over 1% of the world's population and is a chronic multisystem immune-mediated condition manifested by digestive and/or extradigestive symptoms caused by food intake of gluten. This review looked at the risk of children diagnosed with CD developing SARS-CoV-2 infection and possible severe forms of COVID-19. A better understanding of the interaction and effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in CD is very important, as is the role of environmental and genetic factors, but especially the molecular mechanisms involved in modulating intestinal permeability with impact on autoimmunity. CD inspired the testing of a zonulin antagonist for the fulminant form of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and paved the way for the discovery of new molecules to regulate the small intestine barrier function and immune responses. Original published works on COVID-19 and CD, new data and points of view have been analyzed because this dangerous virus SARS-CoV-2 is still here and yet influencing our lives. Medical science continues to focus on all uncertainties triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection and its consequences, including in CD. Although the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be gradually extinguishing, there is a wealth of information and knowledge gained over the last two years and important life lessons to analyze, as well as relevant conclusions to be drawn to deal with future pandemics. Zonulin is being studied extensively in immunoengineering as an adjuvant to improving the absorption of new drugs and oral vaccines.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Celiac Disease , Autoimmunity , COVID-19/complications , Celiac Disease/epidemiology , Child , Humans , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2 , Systemic Inflammatory Response SyndromeABSTRACT
Die durch die COVID-19-Pandemie bedingten schwierigen Zeiten und damit verbundenen Probleme auch im Bereich des Forschungsmanagements von interkontinentalen Akupunktur-Forschungsprojekten erfordern zielführende adäquate Lösungen. So konnte beispielsweise ein vom Eurasia Pacific Uninet genehmigtes Forschungsprojekt des Autors, welches durch gegenseitigen Wissenschaftlerinnen- und Wissenschaftleraustausch bewerkstelligt werden hätte sollten, coronabedingt ausschließlich „online“ durch die nunmehr etablierte Methode der Teleakupunktur realisiert werden. In diesem Bericht wird fokussiert über die langjährige Zusammenarbeit zwischen dem TCM- (Traditionelle Chinesische Medizin-) Forschungszentrum der Medizinischen Universität Graz in Österreich und der Heilongjiang Universität in Harbin in China berichtet. Neben der Methodik der Skalp-Akupunktur, den Interventionen und der Bewertung mittels Herzratenvariabilität (HRV) werden in dem Artikel Resultate von Patientinnen und Patienten mit Schlafstörungen zusammengefasst. Skalp- Akupunktur kann nach den Ergebnissen dieses Pilotprojekts als wirksame Methode bei Patientinnen und Patienten nach Schlaganfall mit Schlafstörungen und Milz-Qi-Mangel eingesetzt werden. Eine Diskussion der Skalp-Akupunktur in Zusammenhang mit der HRV sowie historische Betrachtungen zur Thematik ergänzen den Projektbericht.
ABSTRACT
Systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) is a serious multifactorial autoinflammatory disease with a significant mortality rate due to macrophage activation syndrome (MAS). Recent research has deepened the knowledge about the pathophysiological mechanisms of sJIA-MAS, facilitating new targeted treatments, and biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs), which significantly changed the course of the disease and prognosis. This review highlights that children are less likely to suffer severe COVID-19 infection, but at approximately 2-4 weeks, some cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) have been reported, with a fulminant course. Previous established treatments for cytokine storm syndrome (CSS) have guided COVID-19 therapeutics. sJIA-MAS is different from severe cases of COVID-19, a unique immune process in which a huge release of cytokines will especially flood the lungs. In this context, MIS-C should be reinterpreted as a special MAS, and long-term protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection can only be provided by the vaccine, but we do not yet have sufficient data. COVID-19 does not appear to have a substantial impact on rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) activity in children treated with bDMARDs, but the clinical features, severity and outcome in these patients under various drugs are not yet easy to predict. Multicenter randomized controlled trials are still needed to determine when and by what means immunoregulatory products should be administered to patients with sJIA-MAS with a negative corticosteroid response or contraindications, to optimize their health and safety in the COVID era.
Subject(s)
Antirheumatic Agents , Arthritis, Juvenile , COVID-19 , Macrophage Activation Syndrome , Antirheumatic Agents/therapeutic use , COVID-19/complications , Child , Humans , Macrophage Activation Syndrome/drug therapy , Macrophage Activation Syndrome/etiology , Multicenter Studies as Topic , SARS-CoV-2 , Systemic Inflammatory Response SyndromeABSTRACT
Up to now it has not yet been scientifically proven whether the technical methods of photonics in the field of photobiomodulation (PBM), photodynamic therapy (PDT), and laser acupuncture in connection with COVID-19 have achieved effective medical success. As part of this short technical note, an overview of the current scientific status is given and new equipment from our own research area is briefly presented. Although there are still many unanswered questions, it seems to be emerging that PBM and PDT in connection with the corresponding photosensitizers may make it appear worthwhile to perform experimental and clinical studies, primarily as so-called home therapy studies. In any case, the technical requirements for this are already in progress.
ABSTRACT
In recent decades, researchers around the world have been studying intensively how micro-organisms that are present inside living organisms could affect the main processes of life, namely health and pathological conditions of mind or body. They discovered a relationship between the whole microbial colonization and the initiation and development of different medical disorders. Besides already known probiotics, novel products such as postbiotics and paraprobiotics have been developed in recent years to create new non-viable micro-organisms or bacterial-free extracts, which can provide benefits to the host with additional bioactivity to probiotics, but without the risk of side effects. The best alternatives in the use of probiotics and postbiotics to maintain the health of the intestinal microbiota and to prevent the attachment of pathogens to children and adults are highlighted and discussed as controversies and challenges. Updated knowledge of the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in the balance between microbiota and immune system for the introspection on the gut-lung-brain axis could reveal the latest benefits and perspectives of applied photobiomics for health. Multiple interconditioning between photobiomodulation (PBM), probiotics, and the human microbiota, their effects on the human body, and their implications for the management of viral infectious diseases is essential. Coupled complex PBM and probiotic interventions can control the microbiome, improve the activity of the immune system, and save the lives of people with immune imbalances. There is an urgent need to seek and develop innovative treatments to successfully interact with the microbiota and the human immune system in the coronavirus crisis. In the near future, photobiomics and metabolomics should be applied innovatively in the SARS-CoV-2 crisis (to study and design new therapies for COVID-19 immediately), to discover how bacteria can help us through adequate energy biostimulation to combat this pandemic, so that we can find the key to the hidden code of communication between RNA viruses, bacteria, and our body.