No abstract

Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) is a self-limiting viral disease that mainly affects infants and children. In contrast with other HFMD causing enteroviruses, Enterovirus71 (EV71) has commonly been associated with severe clinical manifestation leading to death. Currently, due to a lack in understanding of EV71 pathogenesis, there is no antiviral therapeutics for the treatment of HFMD patients. Therefore the need to better understand the mechanism of EV71 pathogenesis is warranted. We have previously reported a human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line (HT29) based model to study the pathogenesis of EV71. Using this system, we showed that knockdown of DGCR8, an essential cofactor for microRNAs biogenesis resulted in a reduction of EV71 replication. We also demonstrated that there are miRNAs changes during EV71 pathogenesis and EV71 utilise host miRNAs to attenuate antiviral pathways during infection. Together, data from this study provide critical information on the role of miRNAs during EV71 infection.

As the role of a phlebotomist in a clinical setting involves patient interactions, correct patient identification, and blood specimen accessioning, it is essential that the phlebotomy education pay attention to these procedural tasks to inculcate a culture of patient safety. Using the Gagne’s nine events of instruction as the basis of teaching model, this paper describes the lesson plan for teaching the topic of patient approach to a group of phlebotomy students without prior clinical experience.

As a biomedical science programme at polytechnic aims to provide a sound foundation in the biological sciences, the onus is on the curriculum developer to see that the relevance and currency of the programme content are justifiably challenging and work-ready. In other words, the programme needs to prepare its students adequately well for the intended industry. Since the inception of Human Genome Project, the molecular paradigm has been evolving. A biomedical science student who is oblivious to the emerging trend in molecular techniques is very likely to be hearkened back to the yesteryears of technology and bewildered as precision medicine is becoming increasingly important. Using the ADDIE model as the instructional design model, this paper describes the roadmap for creating a molecular techniques module within a diploma programme that percolates with the concept of precision medicine.

Human endogenous retrovirus-H (HERV-H) is implicated in leukaemias and lymphomas, but the precise molecular mechanism underlying HERV-mediated carcinogenesis remains unknown. We determined the prevalence of HERV-H in a cross-section of the Singapore population and explored the relationship between HERV-H positivity and incidence rates for Hodgkin's lymphoma in three major ethnic groups of Singapore. We observed that Malays were 1.11 times likely (95% CI=1.05–1.17; P<0.01), and Indians 1.12 times likely (95% CI=1.07–1.18; P<0.01) to be HERV-H positive when compared to Chinese. Interestingly, the incidence rates of Hodgkin's lymphoma for the three races positively correlated to the respective prevalence rate for HERV-H positivity (r=0.9921 for male; r=0.9801 for female), suggesting that viral inheritance in human may predispose certain racial origin unfavourably to malignancy.