Medical Process (France)

Abstract BackgroundThe Collaboration for Evidence-based Healthcare and Public Health in Africa (CEBHA+) is a research consortium concerned with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of non-communicable diseases. CEBHA+ seeks to engage policymakers and practitioners throughout the research process in order to build lasting relationships, enhance evidence uptake, and create long-term capacity among partner institutions in Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda in collaboration with two German universities. This integrated knowledge translation (IKT) approach includes the formal development, implementation and evaluation of country specific IKT strategies.MethodsWe have conceptualised the CEBHA+ IKT approach as a complex intervention in a complex system. We will employ a comparative case study (CCS) design and mixed methods to facilitate an in-depth evaluation. We will use quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, quarterly updates, and a policy document analysis to capture the process and outcomes of IKT across the African CEBHA+ partner sites. We will conduct an early stage (early 2020) and a late-stage evaluation (early 2022), triangulate the data collected with various methods at each site and subsequently compare our findings across the five sites.Discussion Evaluating a complex intervention such as the CEBHA+ IKT approach is complicated, even more so when undertaken across five diverse countries. Despite conceptual, methodological and practical challenges, our comparative case study addresses important evidence gaps: While involving decision-makers in the research process is gaining traction worldwide, we still know very little regarding (i) whether this approach really makes a difference to evidence uptake, (ii) the mechanisms that make IKT successful, and (iii) relevant differences across socio-cultural contexts. The evaluation described here is intended to provide relevant insights on all of these aspects, notably in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is expected to contribute to the science of IKT overall.

Here, we report novel dual-emissive gold nanoclusters (d-Au NCs) that have two distinctive emissions (420 and 630 nm) under a single wavelength excitation. The two-stage formation mechanism evidences their sensitive response to valine and trivalent chromium ions (Cr3+) in completely different spectral ratiometric modes in living cells with high contrast to successfully avoid signal fluctuations.

Hydrogel-based artificial scaffolds play a vital role in shifting in vitro models from two-dimensional (2D) cell culture to three-dimensional (3D) cell culture. Microfluidic 3D cell culture systems with a hydrogel matrix encourage biomedical researchers to replace in vivo models with 3D in vitro models with a cellular microenvironment that resembles physiological conditions with greater fidelity. Hydrogels can be designed as an artificial extracellular matrix scaffold for providing spatial orientation and promoting cellular interactions with surroundings. Selecting the appropriate hydrogels and their fabrication techniques are the key to mimic the in vivo mechanical environment. Moreover, combining a microfluidic technique with a hydrogel-based 3D cell culture system can create a complex and controlled microenvironment for the cells by placing small biosamples inside the microchannel. This paper provides an overview of the structural similarities of the hydrogels as an extracellular matrix (ECM), their classification and fabrication techniques as an ECM, and their use in microfluidic 3D cell culture systems. Finally, the paper presents the current challenges and future perspectives of using hydrogel scaffolds in microfluidic 3D cell culture systems.

Cisplatin is a clinical chemotherapy drug for cancers; however, its remarkably high kidney toxicity and other toxicities pose a danger to patients. As the small molecule inhibitor of GRPR, PD176252 can inhibit the growth and proliferation of various cancer cells, but the characteristics of high toxicity and poor water solubility has limited its use as a drug. When we studied PD176252 for the reduction of toxicity of cisplatin, we modified its structure to synthesize 16 analogues. Surprisingly, the analogues showed reduced cisplatin-induced renal toxicity, and unlike PD176252, the analogues 5d and 5m were almost non-toxic to the normal HK2 cells. Furthermore, the analogue 5d and PD176252 were subjected to cisplatin-induced inflammatory response in vitro. The results showed that 5d was able to better prevent this condition by effectively inhibiting its inflammatory response. Thus, this study will help in clinically reducing the side effects of cisplatin.

Due to the awareness of fossil fuel depletion and global warming, biorefinery for production of biofuels and valuable platform chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass has attracted growing interest in the past decades. With the rising concept of comprehensive utilization of lignocellulosic biomass,fractionation processes are generally necessary prior to its subsequent conversion with aims to produce purified cellulose with specific recovery of hemicellulose and lignin. In this review, ionic liquids fractionation,steam explosion based fractionation,twin-screw extrusion and organosolv fractionation are described and their features and comparative performances are discussed.

Dynamic binding capacity (DBC) of model proteins in ion-exchange chromatography was analyzed based on a simplified pore diffusion model in order to develop a simple method for designing a capture chromatography process. A dimensionless parameter, F0＝u0dp2/(ZDm) was derived from the pore diffusion model, where u0 is the superficial velocity, dp is the particle diameter, Z is the column bed height, and Dm is the molecular diffusion coefficient. Breakthrough curves of model proteins (lysozyme and immunoglobulin G) were measured for cation exchange chromatography columns of two different particle sizes (dp＝34 and 90 μm) at various temperatures (8, 13, 18, 23 and 28℃). The efficiency E＝DBC/SBC values calculated from the experimental data were well correlated to F0 (SBC＝static binding capacity). The E-F0 curve was found to be useful for designing efficient capture processes of proteins.