Demystifying Medicine Demystifying MedicineJANUARY 8 - Telomerase and Telomeropathies
Bone marrow failure is a relatively common disease which is primarily manifested by aplastic anemia (that is, failure to generate red blood cells in the bone marrow resulting in severe anemia which can be treated only by repeated red blood cell transfusions). There are many causes including reaction to drugs, viruses, toxins, radiation, poisons and immunologic-based diseases, including some cancers.Recently (see referenced NEJM article), Dr Young and colleagues identified an inherited form of bone marrow failure due to a mutation in telomerase. This exciting discovery provided the basis for identifying a group of telomeric diseases. Linking telomeres to disease is a frontline in current medical research.Telomeres and telomerase provide protection against threats to the genome. Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences coated by capping proteins at the ends of linear chromosomes. When too short, telomeres signal arrest of cell proliferation, senescence and apoptosis. Conversely, cells transfected with telomerase gene can proliferate indefinitely.Telomere/telomerase pathology has been described in pulmonary fibrosis, liver disease, inflammation malignant transformation and various rare inheritable disorders. These findings have opened new doors for understanding pathogenesis, diagnostic procedures and therapy.The discovery of telomeres and telomerase was deemed of such importance that the Nobel Prize was awarded to Elizabeth Blackburn, Jack Szostak and Carol Grieder for their seminal work in elucidating the structure and maintenance of telomeres.
JANUARY 15 - Genomic Paradign for Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy: Melanoma
JANUARY 22 - Hepatitis C and HIV: The Borgia Effect
Similarities and Differences Between HIV and HCV
The design of drugs for HIV and HCV
E De Clercq - Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 2007 - nature.com
... The HIV epidemic fuelled the development of new antiviral drug classes, which are now combined
to provide highly active antiretroviral therapies. The need for the treatment of hepatitis C virus
(HCV), which was discovered in 1989, has also provided considerable impetus for ...Influence of human immunodeficiency virus infection on the course of hepatitis C virus infection: a meta-analysis
CS Graham, LR Baden, E Yu, JM Mrus… - Clinical Infectious …, 2001 - cid.oxfordjournals.org
... liver disease or histological cirrhosis in patients with HIV-hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection,
compared with patients who have HCV infection alone. The RR for each study (squares) and
95% CI (bars) are displayed on a logarithmic scale, as well as the combined RR with 95 ...Impact of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection on the progression of liver fibrosis in hepatitis C virus infected patients
AH Mohsen, PJ Easterbrook, C Taylor, B Portmann… - Gut, 2003 - gut.bmj.com
... graded all biopsies according to the Ishak scoring system, 17 which has been widely used in
studies of hepatitis C disease progression ... or absence of liver fibrosis stages 3 and 4 in both
HIV-HCV and HCV groups combined, and in the subgroup of HIV-HCV coinfected patients ...
JANUARY 29 - Hepatitis B and T Cell
FEBRUARY 5 - Sexually Transmitted Diseases
In the early decades of penicillin, syphilis and gonorrhea were readily treated and cured. However, time have changed...new viruses have been introduced, bacterial and fungal drug resistance have emerged and long term effects of sexually transmitted diseases (ie, cancer, sterility, sexual dysfunction and other consequences) further expand the scope of the problem. When added to societal changes in behavior, inadequate public health information,and societal reluctance to discuss medical sexuality, the result is an epidemic...and a great challenge for medical research. The lifestyle of the infecting organisms and how result in serious health consequences, are challenges for basic biologic science.
FEBRUARY 12 - Pain: How It Happens and What Can Be Done
FEBRUARY 19 - Preventing Aging
FEBRUARY 26 - Ethics and Translational Medicine
MARCH 5 - Biomedical Imaging: New Frontiers
MARCH 12 - Autoimmunity: Diseases and Mechanisms
MARCH 19 - Ticks: Lyme and Other Diseases
MARCH 26 - NO SESSION
APRIL 2 - Turner's Syndrome: The X Chromosome
APRIL 9 - New Hepatitis Viruses and an Old Persistent One
APRIL 16 - Vision and Blindness in the Genomic Era
APRIL 23 - To Be Announced
APRIL 30 - The Mitochondrion and Its Diseases
May 7 - Finale
This web page was last modified on February 6, 2013. For questions about the course, please contact ariasi@mail.nih.gov.