A Novel Method to Identify Autoantibodies against Putative Target Proteins in Serum from beta-Thalassemia Major: A Pilot Study.

Abnormal immune reactivity in patients with beta-thalassemia (beta-thal) major can be associated with poor prognosis. Immunome protein-array analysis represents a powerful approach to identify novel biomarkers. The Sengenics Immunome Protein Array platform was used for high-throughput quantification of autoantibodies in 12 serum samples collected from nine beta-thal major patients and three non-thalassemia controls, which were run together with two pooled normal sera (Sengenics Internal QC samples). To obtain more accurate and reliable results, the evaluation of the biological relevance of the shortlisted biomarkers was analyzed using an Open Target Platform online database. Elevated autoantibodies directed against 23 autoantigens on the immunome array were identified and analyzed using a penetrance fold change-based bioinformatics method. Understanding the autoantibody profile of beta-thal major patients would help to further understand the pathogenesis of the disease. The identified autoantigens may serve as potential biomarkers for the prognosis of beta-thal major.

Student preparedness characteristics important for clinical learning: perspectives of supervisors from medicine, pharmacy and nursing.

BACKGROUND: Student perspectives of clinical preparedness have been studied in the literature, but the viewpoint of supervisors is limited. Hence, the aim was to examine the perspective of supervisors on the characteristics of health professional students important for preparedness for clinical learning. METHODS: This was a descriptive, questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study conducted at three higher education institutions in Malaysia. A previously published questionnaire with 62 characteristics was adopted with modifications after pre-testing. Descriptive analysis was completed for the demographic data. The sample was grouped based on health profession, clinical practice experience and teaching experience for further analysis. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was selected to evaluate differences in mean ranks to assess the null hypothesis that the medians are equal across the groups. Kruskal-Wallis post-hoc pair wise comparison was performed on samples with significant differences across samples. RESULTS: The sample was comprised of 173 supervisors from medicine (55, 32%), pharmacy (84, 48%) and nursing (34, 20%). The majority (63%) of the supervisors were currently in professional practice. A high percentage (40%) of supervisors had less than 4 years of teaching experience. The highest theme ratings were for willingness (6.00) and professionalism (5.90). There was a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the medians, among medicine, pharmacy and nursing professional speciality for willingness (5.70, 6.00 and 6.00), professionalism (5.70, 5.90 and 6.15), communication and interaction (5.42, 5.67 and 6.00), personal attributes (5.42, 5.71 and 6.02) and the professional and interpersonal skills (5.50, 5.63 and 6.00) themes. Post-hoc analysis showed a significant difference (p < 0.05) between medicine and nursing groups in the willingness (5.70 and 6.00), professionalism (5.70 and 6.15) and personal attributes (5.42 and 6.02) themes. Supervisors who are currently in practice had given high ratings compared to other groups. There were no significant differences observed within groups with different level of teaching experiences. CONCLUSIONS: All supervisors rated professionalism and willingness as the most important characteristics followed by personal attributes. Further strengthening learning opportunities related to these characteristics in the curriculum may improve the students' preparedness in clinical learning.

Review: Beta-thalassemia and molecular chaperones.

Thalassemia is known as a diverse single gene disorder, which is prevalent worldwide. The molecular chaperones are set of proteins that help in two important processes while protein synthesis and degradation include folding or unfolding and assembly or disassembly, thereby helping in cell homeostasis. This review recaps current knowledge regarding the role of molecular chaperones in thalassemia, with a focus on beta thalassemia.