Case-based blended eLearning scenarios-adequate for competence development or more?

BACKGROUND

Learning, competence development and scientific thinking in medicine need several strategies to facilitate new diagnostic and therapeutic ways. The optimal collaboration between creative thinking and biomedical informatics provides innovation for the individual patient and for a medical school or society. Utilizing the flexibilities of an e‑learning platform, a case based blended learning (CBBL) framework consisting of A) case based textbook material, B) online e‑CBL with question driven learning scenarios and C) simulated patient (SP) contact seminars was developed and implemented in multiple medical fields. Real-life clinical cases were anonymized and transferred into an interactive and an interdisciplinary eLearning platform.

METHODS

As an example of the offered clinical teaching-case collection, an example of a psychiatric case for the disease "posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)" is presented: a 30-year-old man with a history of insomnia with difficulties in falling asleep and sleeping through, nightmares, nervousness and psychomotor restlessness. The students are challenged to identify possible differential diagnoses and further get to know the patient's personal history (loss of relatives due to war, torture and flight from home country). Further, the students are guided through the principles of fear conditioning including translational aspects like neurotransmitter signaling of PTSD pathomechanism (translational and research aspects like dopamine transporter gene polymorphism, long term potentiation and synaptic signaling).

RESULTS/CONCLUSION

The case presentation comprises different learning aspects: First, declarative knowledge has to be acquired and collected in basic medical sciences, knowledge that is in fact available and can be accessed on the conscious and preconscious level in long-term memory. Second, associative learning leads to the formation of neuronal connections and is an important way of learning and discovering, founded in neural associations. Third, polythematic-crosslinking thinking is needed as ability to link information in a meaningful way. These steps are a typical intellectual ability of gifted learners and researchers that combine previously seemingly unrelated areas to each other and drive innovation.

P6396LDL cholesterol promotes neutrophil extracellular trap formation

Background

Pro-protein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9) is a regulator of low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor (LDLR) expression and has gained attention in the treatment of hyperlipidemia. Serum levels of LDL are correlated with numbers of activated neutrophils in the circulation of hyperlipidemic patients. Activated neutrophils can form neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) by expelling their chromatin, and NETs have been recognized as important risk factors for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stroke.

Purpose

We analyzed the influence of serum LDL levels on neutrophil activation, their propensity to form NETs, and the correlation of NET surrogate markers with systemic inflammatory responses in AMI.

Methods

We recruited 249 consecutive patients with AMI (mean age 58 years, 20% females) and assessed laboratory parameters, inflammatory markers, and serum lipid profiles 72 h after primary percutaneous coronary intervention. Double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and citrullinated histone H3 were determined from plasma as markers of in vivo NET formation. In a subset of patients (n=25), ex vivo NET formation in response to PCSK9 and ionomycin was analyzed, neutrophils were stained for CD11b, LDLR, and lectin-like oxidized LDLR (LOX-1) using flow cytometry at baseline and after activation with phorbol myristate acetate. PCSK9 levels were measured by ELISA.

Results

Patients with serum LDL levels above the median [median (IQR) LDL 111 mg/dl (87–141), mean ± SD LDL 115±41 mg/dl] had significantly higher concentrations of circulating dsDNA.

Levels of dsDNA [median 121 ng/ml, IQR 101–156] were linked with levels of the specific NET marker citH3 [median (IQR) 252 ng/ml (655–1600), rs=0.157]. Plasma concentrations of dsDNA and citH3 correlated significantly with CRP (dsDNA rs=0.328; citH3 rs=0.209), proBNP (dsDNA rs=0.286; citH3 rs=0.192), troponin T (dsDNA rs=0.282; citH3 rs=0.197), and IL-6 (dsDNA rs=0.242; citH3 rs=0.216).

In the subset of patients in whom neutrophils were characterized, pre-treatment of neutrophils with PCSK9 could significantly decrease ionomycin induced NET release in a dose-dependent manner. Levels of serum LDL were associated with spontaneous NET formation (r=0.504) ex vivo and activated CD11b on neutrophils (r=0.495).

LOX-1 expression correlated significantly with LDLR expression (rs=0.670) and PCSK9 levels (r=0.520). Patient neutrophil stimulation in whole blood led to a significant decrease of the LDLR positive neutrophil population. This effect was greater when PCSK9 levels were higher.

Conclusion

Our data indicate a role for LDL in boosting neutrophil activation depending on PCSK9.

Chikungunya vaccines in development

Chikungunya virus has become a global health threat, spreading to the industrial world of Europe and the Americas; no treatment or prophylactic vaccine is available. Since the late 1960s much effort has been put into the development of a vaccine, and several heterogeneous strategies have already been explored. Only two candidates have recently qualified to enter clinical phase II trials, a chikungunya virus-like particle-based vaccine and a recombinant live attenuated measles virus-vectored vaccine.

This review focuses on the current status of vaccine development against chikungunya virus in humans and discusses the diversity of immunization strategies, results of recent human trials and promising vaccine candidates.