Medical Bulletin 4/April/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Same time headaches linked to circadian system: Study

Strong links between both cluster headache and migraine and circadian system have been suggested according to a meta-analysis published in the March 29, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The meta-analysis included all available studies on cluster headache and migraine that included circadian features. This included information on the timing of headaches during the day and during the year as well as studies on whether genes associated with the circadian clock are more common in people with these headaches.

Reference:

Mark Joseph Burish et al,AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NEUROLOGY,JOURNAL Neurology

Outcome of patients with a rare type of astrocytoma is worse than expected: Study

Gliomas are a tumor that originate in the glial cells that surround neurons in the brain. Under the microscope, gliomas can be divided into several types based on the type of cells they invade. These include astrocytomas, which, as their name suggests, infect astrocytes, an important type of neuron.

A team of researchers from the Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine has reported that patients with a rare form of brain and spinal cord cancer, localized isocitrate dehydrogenase wild-type (IDHwt) histologically diffuse astrocytoma, have a poor prognosis similar to the most malignant types of brain and spinal cord tumors. Their findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, point to the need for strong postoperative care for patients with this type of tumor.

Reference:

Imaging features of localized IDH wild-type histologically diffuse astrocytomas: a single-institution case series,Scientific Reports,doi 10.1038/s41598-022-25928-2

Artificial kidney for early detection of drug toxicity developed

Recently, a research team from POSTECH has engineered an artificial kidney that allows for the early detection of adverse drug reactions. The POSTECH research team led by Professor Dong-Woo Cho and Professor Jinah Jang (Department of Mechanical Engineering) fabricated a glomerular microvessel-on-a-chip, which includes glomerular endothelial cells, podocyte layers, and a glomerular basement membrane (GBM) using a single step fabrication process. The research findings have been published in the esteemed journal, Biofabrication.

The kidney plays a vital role in maintaining homeostasis within the body by eliminating toxic and superfluous substances in the bloodstream, including waste generated during metabolic processes, through urine. Nevertheless, toxicity can also be induced in the kidney from certain medications.

Reference:

Coaxial cell printing of a human glomerular model: an in vitro glomerular filtration barrier and its pathophysiology,POHANG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (POSTECH),Biofabrication,doi 10.1088/1758-5090/acad2c