ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The role of platelets in disease progression as well as the function of platelets as part of the haemostatic and immunological system in patients with liver cirrhosis is only incompletely understood. This is partly due to difficulties in assessing platelet function. Proteome analyses of platelets have been used to further investigate the role of platelets in other diseases. AIM: To assess possible changes in the platelet proteome during different stages of alcohol induced liver cirrhosis compared to healthy donors. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A 45 ml blood sample was drawn from 18 participants aged 18-80 years evenly divided into three groups of healthy donors, patients with less advanced alcohol induced liver cirrhosis (Child-Pugh < 7) and patients with advanced liver cirrhosis (Child-Pugh > 10). The blood was processed to isolate platelets and perform subsequent two-dimensional gel-electrophoresis using a SYPRO™ Ruby dye. After computational analysation significantly in- or decreased protein spots (defined as a two-fold abundance change between different study cohorts and ANOVA < 0.05) were identified via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS) and searching against human protein databases. RESULTS: The comparative analysis identified four platelet proteins with progressively decreased protein expression in patients with liver cirrhosis. More specifically Ras-related protein Rab-7a (Rab-7a), Ran-specific binding protein 1 (RANBP1), Rho GDP-dissociation inhibitor 1 (RhoGDI1), and 14-3-3 gamma. CONCLUSION: There is significant change in protein expression in the platelet proteome throughout the disease progression of alcohol induced liver cirrhosis. The identified proteins are possibly involved in haemostatic and immunoregulatory function of platelets.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Stroke is a major global health problem and was the second leading cause of death worldwide in 2020. However, the lack of public stroke awareness especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as Nepal severely hinders the effective provision of stroke care. Efficient and cost-effective strategies to raise stroke awareness in LMICs are still lacking. This study aims to (a) explore the feasibility of a social media-based stroke awareness campaign in Nepal using a cost-benefit analysis and (b) identify best practices for social media health education campaigns. METHODS: We performed a stroke awareness campaign over a period of 6 months as part of a Stroke Project in Nepal on four social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok) with organic traffic and paid advertisements. Adapted material based on the World Stroke Day Campaign and specifically created videos for TikTok were used. Performance of the campaign was analyzed with established quantitative social media metrics (impressions, reach, engagement, costs). RESULTS: Campaign posts were displayed 7.5 million times to users in Nepal. 2.5 million individual social media users in Nepal were exposed to the campaign on average three times, which equals 8.6% of Nepal's total population. Of those, 250,000 users actively engaged with the posts. Paid advertisement on Facebook and Instagram proved to be more effective in terms of reach and cost than organic traffic. The total campaign cost was low with a "Cost to reach 1,000 users" of 0.24 EUR and a "Cost Per Click" of 0.01 EUR. DISCUSSION: Social media-based campaigns using paid advertisement provide a feasible and, compared to classical mass medias, a very cost-effective approach to inform large parts of the population about stroke awareness in LMICs. Future research needs to further analyze the impact of social media campaigns on stroke knowledge.
