The African cancer burden: what is the potential role of modern oncology innovation in reducing the continent's rapidly rising mortality?

With increasing prevalence and an expected rise in disease burden, cancer is a cause of concern for African healthcare. The cancer burden in Africa is expected to rise to 2.1 million new cases per year and 1.4 million deaths annually by the year 2040. Even though efforts are being made to improve the standard of oncology service delivery in Africa, the current state of cancer care is not yet on par with the rise in the cancer burden. Cutting-edge technologies and innovations are being developed across the globe to augment the battle against cancer; however, many of them are beyond the reach of African countries. Modern oncology innovations targeted to ward Africa would be promising to address the high cancer mortality rates. The innovations should be cost-effective and widely accessible to tackle the rapidly rising mortality rate on the African continent. Though it may seem promising, a multidisciplinary approach is required to overcome the challenges associated with the development and implementation of modern oncology innovations in Africa.

NeuroVerse: neurosurgery in the era of Metaverse and other technological breakthroughs.

The tremendous evolution in modern technology has led to a paradigm shift in neurosurgery. The latest advancements such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and mobile applications have been incorporated into neurosurgical practice. NeuroVerse, representing the application of the metaverse in neurosurgery, brings enormous potential to neurology and neurosurgery. Implementation of NeuroVerse could potentially elevate neurosurgical and interventional procedures, enhance medical visits and patient care, and reshape neurosurgical training. However, it is also vital to consider the challenges that may be associated with its implementation, such as privacy issues, cybersecurity breaches, ethical concerns, and widening of existing healthcare inequalities. NeuroVerse adds phenomenal dimensions to the neurosurgical environment for patients, doctors, and trainees, and represents an incomparable advancement in the delivery of medicine. Therefore, more research is needed to encourage widespread use of the metaverse in healthcare, particularly focusing on the areas of morality and credibility. Although the metaverse is expected to expand rapidly during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains to be seen whether it represents an emerging technology that will revolutionize our society and healthcare or simply an immature condition of the future.

Multilevel Pharmacological Effects of Antipsychotics in Potential Glioblastoma Treatment.

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is a debilitating type of brain cancer with a high mortality rate. Despite current treatment options such as surgery, radiotherapy, and the use of temozolomide and bevacizumab, it is considered incurable. Various methods, such as drug repositioning, have been used to increase the number of available treatments. Drug repositioning is the use of FDA-approved drugs to treat other diseases. This is possible because the drugs used for this purpose have polypharmacological effects. This means that these medications can bind to multiple targets, resulting in multiple mechanisms of action. Antipsychotics are one type of drug used to treat GBM. Antipsychotics are a broad class of drugs that can be further subdivided into typical and atypical classes. Typical antipsychotics include chlorpromazine, trifluoperazine, and pimozide. This class of antipsychotics was developed early on and primarily works on dopamine D2 receptors, though it can also work on others. Olanzapine and Quetiapine are examples of atypical antipsychotics, a category that was created later. These medications have a high affinity for serotonin receptors such as 5- HT2, but they can also act on dopamine and H1 receptors. Antipsychotic medications, in the case of GBM, also have other effects that can affect multiple pathways due to their polypharmacological effects. These include NF-B suppression, cyclin deregulation, and -catenin phosphorylation, among others. This review will delve deeper into the polypharmacological, the multiple effects of antipsychotics in the treatment of GBM, and an outlook for the field's future progression.

Investigating thyroid dysfunction in the context of COVID-19 infection.

COVID-19 is a contagious viral infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2). One of the key features of COVID-19 infection is inflammation. There is increasing evidence pointing to an association between cytokine storm and autoimmunity. One autoimmune disease of interest in connection to COVID-19 is hyperthyroidism. COVID-19 has been shown to decrease TSH levels and induce thyrotoxicosis, destructive thyroiditis, and de novo Graves' disease. It has also been suggested that the immune response against SARS-CoV-2 antigens following vaccination can cross-react through a mechanism called molecular mimicry which can elicit autoimmune reactivity, potentially leading to potential thyroid disease post vaccine. However, if the COVID-19 vaccine is linked to reduced COVID-19 related serious disease, it could potentially play a protective role against post COVID-19 hyperthyroidism (de novo disease and exacerbations). Further studies investigating the complex interplay between COVID-19 or COVID-19 vaccine and thyroid dysfunction can help provide substantial evidence and potential therapeutic targets that can alter prognosis and improve COVID-19 related outcomes in individuals with or without preexisting thyroid disease.

Targeting Oxidative Stress Mechanisms to Treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease: A Critical Review.

Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are becoming more frequent as the age increases. Contemporary therapies provide symptom resolution instead of targeting underlying pathological pathways. Consequently, there is considerable heterogeneity in response to treatment. Research has elucidated multiple potential of pathophysiological mechanisms contributing to neurodegenerative conditions, among which oxidative stress pathways appear to be suitable drug targets. The oxidative stress pathway has given rise to numerous novel pharmacological therapies that may provide a new avenue for neurodegenerative diseases. For example, SKQ (plastoquinone), MitoVitE, vitamin E, SOD mimic, MitoTEMPO (SOD mimetic), and bioactive molecules like curcumin and vitamin C have indeed been examined. To better understand how oxidative stress contributes to neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's), we analyzed the medicinal qualities of medicines that target markers in the cellular oxidative pathways. The specific pathway by which mitochondrial dysfunction causes neurodegeneration will require more investigation. An animal study should be carried out on medications that tackle cellular redox mechanisms but are not currently licensed for use in the management of neurodegenerative conditions.

Elective surgeries during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Case burden and physician shortage concerns.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on several aspects of global healthcare systems, particularly surgical services. New guidelines, resource scarcity, and an ever-increasing demand for care have posed challenges to healthcare professionals, resulting in the cancellation of many surgeries, with short and long-term consequences for surgical care and patient outcomes. As the pandemic subsides and the healthcare system attempts to reestablish a sense of normalcy, surgical recommendations and advisories will shift. These changes, combined with a growing case backlog (postponed surgeries + regularly scheduled surgeries) and a physician shortage, can have serious consequences for physician health and, as a result, surgical care. Several initiatives are already being implemented by governments to ensure a smooth transition as surgeries resume. Newer and more efficient steps aimed at providing adequate surgical care while preventing physician burnout, on the other hand, necessitate a collaborative effort from governments, national medical boards, institutions, and healthcare professionals. This perspective aims to highlight alterations in surgical recommendations over the course of the pandemic and how these changes continue to influence surgical care and patient outcomes as the pandemic begins to soften its grip.

OMICs Technologies for Natural Compounds-based Drug Development.

Compounds isolated from natural sources have been used for medicinal purposes for many centuries. Some metabolites of plants and microorganisms possess properties that would make them effective treatments against bacterial infection, inflammation, cancer, and an array of other medical conditions. In addition, natural compounds offer therapeutic approaches with lower toxicity compared to most synthetic analogues. However, it is challenging to identify and isolate potential drug candidates without specific information about structural specificity and limited knowledge of any specific physiological pathways in which they are involved. To solve this problem and find a way to efficiently utilize natural sources for the screening of compounds candidates, technologies, such as next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics techniques, and molecular analysis systems, should be adapted for screening many chemical compounds. Molecular techniques capable of performing analysis of large datasets, such as whole-genome sequencing and cellular protein expression profile, have become essential tools in drug discovery. OMICs, as genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, are often used in targeted drug discovery, isolation, and characterization. This review summarizes technologies that are effective in natural source drug discovery and aid in a more precisely targeted pharmaceutical approach, including RNA interference or CRISPR technology. We strongly suggest that a multidisciplinary effort utilizing novel molecular tools to identify and isolate active compounds applicable for future drug discovery and production must be enhanced with all the available computational tools.

Progress in Alternative Strategies to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance: Focus on Antibiotics.

Antibiotic resistance, and, in a broader perspective, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), continues to evolve and spread beyond all boundaries. As a result, infectious diseases have become more challenging or even impossible to treat, leading to an increase in morbidity and mortality. Despite the failure of conventional, traditional antimicrobial therapy, in the past two decades, no novel class of antibiotics has been introduced. Consequently, several novel alternative strategies to combat these (multi-) drug-resistant infectious microorganisms have been identified. The purpose of this review is to gather and consider the strategies that are being applied or proposed as potential alternatives to traditional antibiotics. These strategies include combination therapy, techniques that target the enzymes or proteins responsible for antimicrobial resistance, resistant bacteria, drug delivery systems, physicochemical methods, and unconventional techniques, including the CRISPR-Cas system. These alternative strategies may have the potential to change the treatment of multi-drug-resistant pathogens in human clinical settings.