Bücher der Reihe Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology

This book systematically and comprehensively discusses the biological, epidemiological, and clinical characteristics of the hepatitis E virus (HEV). It presents current knowledge of HEV and explores experimental methods, treatment, and prevention of HEV. First identified in the 1980s and cloned in 1990, HEV is the causative agent of hepatitis E, which mainly occurs in developing regions, such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and significantly affects the health of the people in these areas. It is estimated that a third of the world¿s population has been infected with HEV, which is transmitted via the fecal-oral route and can infect both humans and animals. In the second edition, new chapters are added to demonstrate the lifecycle, morphogenesis, and stem cell culture of hepatitis E virus. Although research on hepatitis E virus has made progress recently, there are still some problems that have not been solved. Those problems are discussed in this edition, which would be helpful for researchers to understand the problems on hepatitis E virus that they have faced. Meanwhile, the epidemiology, transmission, genetic evolution, animal models, treatment, and others in the related chapters of the first version were also updated according to the most recent research progress. The book provides an overview of HEV from benchside to bedside. It is a valuable resource for researchers in the field and those in the pharmaceutical industry developing HEV vaccines, as well as physicians involved in identifying and treating those infected with the virus.

This volume of the Springer book series Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology covers potency assays, one of the most complex yet fundamental evaluations that critically influence stem cell regenerative medicine. Developing potency assays for cell-based medicinal products comes with numerous challenges due to the highly specialised nature of the application and purpose. This book provides the reader with the knowledge necessary to understand issues governing the successful development of potency assays, highlighting an international outlook of how the various challenges raised are being managed. Stakeholders concerned with potency assay development range from patient and clinician to contract research organisations, small and medium enterprise, regulatory authorities and even politicians. The value of potency assays is poised to increase given the inevitable watershed as early-stage clinical trials addressing safety progress to trials testing efficacy. Contributors fromclinical, academic, industrial and regulatory sectors establish a broad point of view for guidance and timely debate. Potency assays require extensive collaboration across disciplines and sectors, as well as compromise and the authors aim to constructively address the many key aspects involved.Potency assays provide a quantitative measure of the biological activity of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) and thus are required for their market authorization. As the pace of ATMP development accelerates, the need to develop specific, accurate, and robust potency assays for each product is also accelerating. The volume Potency Assays for Stem Cell Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products presents a broad outlook on the development, quality attributes, and implementation of potency assays for ATMPs. The first few chapters introduce a nuanced historical perspective on the science of potency assay development, describe specific quality attributes of an idealized potencyassay, indicate pitfalls associated with developing such assays for ATMPs, and review guidance recommended by regulatory authorities on assay suitability for product approval. Subsequent chapters highlight efforts to develop potency assays for specific ATMPs, including skeletal stem cells, mesenchymal stromal cells, extracellular vesicles, CAR T-cells, and discuss emerging technologies/platforms for potency assay design. The volume concludes with a chapter reviewing potency assays used for the release of commercial ATMP products, which amalgamates information contained in previous chapters. Overall, the knowledge contributed from leading authorities in both academia and industry is an ideal resource for technicians, scientists, clinicians, process engineers, and regulators working with ATMPs.¿Donald G. Phinney, PhD Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine, Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology

The book will contain reviews and brief research articles from the participants attending the International Society for Arterial Chemoreception (ISAC) meeting, to be held in Lisbon in Portugal in June/July 2020. Since ISAC was first established, almost 70 years ago, many advances in the classical field of arterial O2, CO2 and pH sensing have been achieved but the most impressive ones are probably related to the non-canonical roles of the carotid body, as its involvement in sympatho-mediated diseases. Over the recent years, the carotid body field has gained attention with the findings that carotid body dysfunction is associated with the development/maintenance of highly prevalent diseases from cardio-metabolic diseases to asthma. Knowing that most of the patients with these pathologies lack long-term disease control, it is imperative to define new pathophysiological mechanisms aiming to find new therapeutic targets for treatment and prevention. This book will cover a broad range of topics related, not only with the fundamental knowledge of the mechanisms related with the chemical sensing in the carotid body, but also with the adaptive and mal-adaptive responses of arterial chemoreceptors to O2-dependent and O2-independent mechanisms, namely with their impact on respiratory, cardiovascular, and metabolic homeostasis in healthy and disease conditions. This volume will be required text for all the researchers in the field of arterial chemoreceptors and will provide a valuable reference source for years to come.

This book reviews the research trends of cognitive aging and brain health from full-scale. It not only contains cognitive aging¿s neurophysiological mechanism, clinical research and intervention measures, but also covers cognitive aging¿s social psychological mechanism, such as the relation between old people¿s motion, socioeconomic status and the cognitive aging. Through decades of research and practice, the views towards the cognitive aging process havebeen transferred from coping with cognitive decline to promoting cognitive ability. This book provides with the latest research findings and in-depth opinions of the cognitive aging and brain health, assisting researchers to grasp the theories, practice and trends of this field, and guide health-care workers to carry out the treatment and nursing for the aged.

"Meningiomas are tumors that originate from the arachnoidal cap cells of the leptomeninges. With an incidence rate of 8.36 per 100, 000 population, they are the most common primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors, accounting for a third of all cases. The World Health Organization (WHO) classification has traditionally categorized meningiomas into 15 different histopathological subtypes and three clinical grades. Tumors are classified as WHO grades 1, 2 or 3 based largely on histopathological features such as mitotic activity, presence of brain invasion, and other atypical features. However, there is increasing recognition of the limitations of histopathology including but not limited to: confounding factors such as sampling bias in a heterogeneous tumor, and technical factors related to the experience of the grading pathologist. Even with careful histologic grading, there remains significant variability in recurrence rates within each tumor grade. As more studies have uncovered the molecular features of meningiomas, novel biological alterations have helped refine classification schemes that more accurately reflect patient outcomes. This book reviews the current state of knowledge on the genomic and epigenomic landscape of meningiomas in order to identify the roles of genomic aberrations on diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of meningiomas in addition to mainstays of surgical management, radiation therapy, and potential novel chemotherapies. Written by a team of world-renowned experts in neurosurgery, neuropathology, radiology, and radiation-oncology, this book is the definitive resource on meningioma management and investigation for both clinicians and scientists alike."

This book contains the proceedings of the XVIII International Symposium on Retinal Degeneration (RD2018). A majority of those who spoke and presented posters at the meeting contributed to this volume. The blinding diseases of inherited retinal degenerations have no treatments, and age-related macular degeneration has no cures, despite the fact that it is an epidemic among the elderly, with 1 in 3-4 affected by the age of 70. The RD Symposium focused on the exciting new developments aimed at understanding these diseases and providing therapies for them. Since most major scientists in the field of retinal degenerations attend the biennial RD Symposia, they are known by most as the ¿best¿ and ¿most important¿ meetings in the field.The volume presents representative state-of-the-art research in almost all areas of retinal degenerations, ranging from cytopathologic, physiologic, diagnostic and clinical aspects; animal models; mechanisms of cell death; candidate genes, cloning, mapping and other aspects of molecular genetics; and developing potential therapeutic measures such as gene therapy and neuroprotective agents for potential pharmaceutical therapy. While advances in these areas of retinal degenerations were described, there will be many new topics that either are in their infancy or did not exist at the time of the last RD Symposium. These include the role of inflammation and immunity, as well as other basic mechanisms, in age-related macular degeneration, several new aspects of gene therapy, and revolutionary new imaging and functional testing that will have a huge impact on the diagnosis and following the course of retinal degenerations, as well as to provide new quantitative endpoints for clinical trials. The retina is an approachable part of the central nervous system (CNS), and there is a major interest in neuroprotective and gene therapy for CNS diseases and neurodegenerations, in general. It should be noted that withsuccessful and exciting initial clinical trials in neuroprotective and gene therapy, including the restoration of sight in blind children, the retinal degeneration therapies are leading the way towards new therapeutic measures for neurodegenerations of the CNS. Many of the successes recently reported in these areas of retinal degeneration sprang from collaborations established at previous RD Symposia, and many of those were reported at the RD2016 meeting and included in the current volume. We anticipate the excitement of those working in the field and those afflicted with retinal degenerations is reflected in the volume.

This book summarizes the recent advancements for visualized medicine in terms of fundamental principles, rapidly emerging techniques and developing frontiers. Especially with the combination of artificial intelligence (AI), medical imaging agents and medical robots, smart medical technologies have been innovated and applied to the clinical uses to serve the fatal human diseases diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and data analysis. This philosophy comprehensively revolutionizes the treatment strategy of human healthcare, and will enable precision medicine and precision surgery further intuitively detectable, smartly analyzable and accurately operational. This book will discuss and conclude: 1) state-of-the-art definition of visualized medicine; 2) advanced techniques and clinical applications of visualized medicine in the past decade; 3) novel frontiers and brand-new technologies, e.g. artificial intelligence (AI), surgical robots, etc. 4) revolutionary impacts on disease diagnosis, treatments and prognosis; 5) future challenges and perspectives.

Asthma is a common chronic respiratory disease that causes substantial morbidity and has been challenging to treat due to its heterogeneous onset, environmental triggers, severity, and treatment response. To update the field on the rapid advances in this field, Precision Approaches to Heterogeneity in Asthma follows its highly successful predecessor, Heterogeneity in Asthma. In this new volume, noted authorities Allan R Brasier and Nizar N Jarjour and a cadre of leaders in the field incorporate new work advancing our understanding of phenotypes (endotypes) of disease, regional variations in ventilation, systems approach to analyzing the findings from studies of inducible phenotypes, and emerging results of biomarker-informed clinical trials. This work will facilitate our current understanding of the spectrum of disease etiology, prognosis, and the likelihood of responding to the range of available therapeutic interventions.

This edited volumeaims to describe physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms that underlie human maternal-fetal interactions. The book emphasizes the structure and development of the fetoplacental unit, the endocrine and nutritional regulation of fetal development, nitric oxide signalling, solute carriers function and ion channels regulation in healthy pregnancies and diseases, like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and maternal obesity, among others. Also, we highlight novel mechanisms associated with language impairment in children, the use of serotonin inhibitors or cannabis during pregnancy, and maternal conditions' potential impact on cerebrovascular development in newborns and infants. The cellular and molecular understanding of maternal-fetal physiology and pathophysiology will allow the readers to understand the impact of diseases or conditions that are highly prevalent in pregnant women.

This volume focuses on applying the Crispr system in editing the genome of human cells (in vitro and in vivo) and model organisms used in biomedical research. With the advent of Crispr technology, genome editing soon became a procedure of great interest to laboratories worldwide due to its relative ease and accuracy. In biomedical sciences, genome editing by Crispr has already enabled the development of new experimental model systems. In medicine, therapeutic alternatives for the genetic "correction" of diseases have already begun to appear. Therefore, the book's purpose is to bring in a single volume, chapters that show the scientific community in biomedicine, medicine, human genetics, oncology, virology, and parasitology, among others, the advances in genomic editing. In a chapter dedicated to the ethical aspects of human genomic editing, we also address what we can and should do with this (bio)technology. The book chapters were written by productive researchers specializing in Crispr genome editing. The chapters cover the concept of Crispr and genome editing and how to use this new methodology in biomedical research and medicine, among other aspects, including the ethical controversy around its use in humans. The writing of the chapters keeps a specialized language intelligible enough for those who want to introduce themselves to the subject.

Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) continues to mature as a research field and is primed to make a swift transition to routine preclinical and clinical applications. This book will serve two main purposes:Advanced education in QUS by providing a complete and thorough review of all theoretical, physical, and engineering aspects of QUS.Review of recent development of QUS by lead contributors in the research field.This 2nd edition will focus on 6 modern research topics related to quantitative ultrasound of soft tissues:Spectral-based methods for tissue characterization, tissue typing, cancer detection, etc.Attenuation estimation for tissue characterization and improving spectral based methodsEnvelope statistics analysis as a means of quantifying and imaging tissue properties.Ultrasound computed tomography for preclinical and clinical imaging.Scanning acoustic microscopy for formingimages of mechanical properties of soft tissues with micron resolution.Phantoms for quantitative ultrasound.

This book provides the latest research progress on Extracellular vesicles (EVs) in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. EVs are small bilayer lipid membrane vesicles released by cells and function for intercellular communication. Increasing evidence has shown that EVs play crucial roles in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, which seriously threaten human health worldwide. The book contains four sections: 1) Extraction Methods; 2) EVs in Cardiovascular Diseases; 3) EVs in Metabolic Diseases; and 4) Therapeutic Implications. This book is useful for biologists, cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons, endocrinologists, internists, nurses, undergraduate and graduate students in medicine and cell biology, and others interested in cardiovascular and metabolic medicine.

This book provides basic knowledge of the biology, chemistry, and function of oxysterols and its derivatives as well as of phytosterols in numerous human diseases.The book is divided into six sections and begins with an introduction to the biological and chemical properties of oxysterols and its derivatives as well as phytosterols, their synthesis, and the methods currently used for their detection in various biospecimens. The following section discusses in detail the various effects of oxysterols on numerous human diseases, including infectious diseases, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, atherosclerosis, and cancer, as well as neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Importantly, the potential of oxysterols as biomarkers for some of these diseases is also highlighted. The book concludes with an outlook on the pharmacological and nutritional effects of oxysterols and phytosterols and their potential use by the food, and pharmaceutical industries.Aiming to provide an in-depth overview of the biological and the chemical properties of oxysterols and phytosterols and their implications for human health, this book will be of interest to basic and clinical scientists, as well as to anyone working in the food or pharmaceutical industry who is exploring the potential of oxysterols and phytosterols.

This book renders a comprehensive understanding of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from their embryonic development through adult maintenance to aging, in the studies conducted in zebrafish and mammals. Hematopoiesis provides a paradigm for understanding the development, maintenance, regeneration, aging and malignant transformation of mammalian organs. Sitting at the apex of the hematopoiesis hierarchy tree, HSCs orchestrate their proliferation, self-renewal, and differentiation to produce all the blood cell lineages throughout life, which represents the best example for somatic stem cell studies. In this book, key regulatory mechanisms for HSC self-renewal and differentiation are overviewed in an array of fields including epigenetics, metabolism and microenvironment regulation. It also highlights the HSC heterogeneity and clonal dynamics from the recent advanced single-cell technologies. This book elaborates on the research history of HSC studies and reveals how the insights from HSC studies shed light on their clinic application. It presents great value from the bench to the clinic.

This book presents the latest research on multisensory brain function. Namely, the mechanisms by which the brain processes and integrates information from multiple sensory modalities. Its contents cover a broad range of topics, including optimal integration, cross-modal interactions, calibration, and causal inference ¿ with an emphasis on their neuronal underpinnings. By bringing together efforts from different laboratories around the world we aim to collaboratively shed light on these fundamental brain processes, that underlie perception, cognition, and behavior in a complex multisensory world, and to spur innovation of brain-inspired technologies

This book provides a state-of-the-art report on our current understanding of aquaporins and the future direction of the field. Aquaporins (AQPs) are a group of water-channel proteins that are specifically permeable to water and other small molecules, such as glycerol and urea. To date thirteen water-channel proteins (AQP0 ¿ AQP12) have been cloned and the mechanisms and physiological functions of water transport across biological membranes have long been the subject of interest. Recent advances in the molecular biology and physiology of water transport have yielded new insights into how and why water moves across cell membranes, and studies on aquaporin knockout mouse models suggest that aquaporins are involved in the development of some diseases and they may be useful targets of research into selective-inhibitor drugs. By focusing on the advances made over the last 30 years in the biophysics, genetics, protein structure, molecular biology, physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology of aquaporins in mammalian cell membranes, this book provides novel insights into further mechanisms and the physiological significance of water and some small molecule transport in mammals in order to stimulate further research in new directions.In the second version, fourteen chapters will be updated base on the most recent research articles. Ten new chapters will be added.

The latter are a subgroup of white cells travelling all over our body which are capable to distinguish between "self and non self".Readers will know from the inside about the history of the HLA genetic system and will discover how T lymphocytes recognize and destroy cancer cells.