Forewords

A message from the desk of the Chief Editor

Perhaps more than ever before in recorded history there is a huge gap between the health as it could be and the health as it really is. Distinct challenges related to nutrition and health in developing countries such as food shortage and inequitable distribution of resources often result from political, economic, and social factors. Between 4 billion and 5 billion people – as much as 80 percent of the world’s population – may be iron deficient, according to the World Health Organization. Much of the world’s disease burden results from faulty nutrition, which is a preventable risk factor. Even within developed nations enjoying prosperity, cutting edge medical technology, and accessible health care, it is increasingly evident that rates of chronic illness are mounting, thus threatening the sustainability of health care systems in many jurisdictions. This is in spite of the fact that the prospects for healthier lives have never seemed more promising than in past few decades. Best-performance life-expectancy has increased substantially, and with the virtual elimination of menaces such as polio and smallpox, the routine imaging of fractures and tumors, the ability to visualize and transplant human organs, and in vitro fertilization, it seems that given enough time and support, many medical problems can be solved.

The International Journal of Trends in Medicine has been launched as a humble effort to bring together multidisciplinary research that covers all aspects of human health and medicine including the nutrition, human physiology and biology, something that is often neglected in clinical research. Rigorous multidisciplinary science is required to understand the impact of environment on human health and this new journal will also address this issue.

The International Journal of Trends in Medicine will publish original papers and reviews that describe interrelationships between nutrition, all aspects of the environment and human health. The journal aims at providing readers worldwide with high quality peer-reviewed scholarly articles on a wide range of issues related to medicine, biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, chronic inflammatory disorders, age related degeneration including Alzheimer disease, nutrition and other health related conditions. While articles with clinical interest and implications will be given preference, manuscripts in the area of epidemiology, psychology, and social science related to global health will, as well, find place in the journal. Poor nutrition plays a role in at least half of the 10.9 million child deaths each year – about five million deaths! The situation is aggravated by diseases such as those that cause diarrhea, which, according to 2011 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics, reduces the ability of the body to convert food into usable nutrients. These issues are important and into the ambit of the journal.

The International Journal of Trends in Medicine aims at bringing together the increasing number of researchers who are working at the interfaces between the physical sciences and life sciences. While the principle area of focus of the journal is human health, the journal will welcome papers that explore these areas in animal and in vitro models and which compare these processes in an evolutionary sense. The Board therefore invites submissions of this type, intended to capture the attention of both specialists and nonspecialists eager to learn new things, and implement in their research.

– Faik Atroshi

A message from the desk of the Editor

On behalf of the Editorial Board and the Publisher, I am pleased to formally introduce the first issue of the International Journal of Trends in Medicine. In this issue, original experimental reseach, clinical research, complementary medicine, dietary therapy, short communiations, method validation, review and trends in medicine have been included. Trace elements are a group of dietary minerals called micronutrients, which are needed throughout life in small quantities generally less than 100 micrograms/day such as selenium (Se) and zinc (Zn). In one of the papers on Se in this journal, Graebert separated the nuclear membrane proteins from hepatoma cells by means of two dimensional 16-BAC/SDS-PAGE, and by metabolic labeling with 75Se and electrophoresis, analysed the selenoproteome of the nuclear membrane in JTC 15 cells. Se and Zn are further discussed as tumour markers in patients with advanced head and neck cancer (Büntzel). The paper concludes that the trace element status offers a lot of information about the course of the disease and the individual.

Belyaeva reports the data of a comparative study on the in vitro effects of zinc (II) and selenite on rat liver mitochondrial function. Mitochondria are target organelles for many environmental pollutants, including heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury, and copper, and a lot of evidence points to the protective effect of zinc and selenium against the heavy metal-induced cytotoxicity in vitro and in vivo. Mitochondria are also critically involved in cadmium(II)-induced neurotoxicity. Using neuron-like rat PC12 cells as a model system to study mechanism(s) of neurotoxicity of heavy metal such as cadmium, Belyaeva reported that Cd2+ produced dose- and time-dependent changes in cell viability, intracellular reactive oxygen species formation and cell respiration. This type of cell injury significantly depressed by different antioxidants and mitochondrial effectors that point to the critical involvement of mitochondria and oxidative stress in Cd2+-induced neurotoxicity.

Trace elements can be used as therapeutic agents. This aspect of trace element research has been reviewed by Gallicchio in relation to lithium (Li). Li has an extraordinarily complex, multifactorial and strongly intercorellated role, and in his review on lithium, Gallicchio advocates his views on the use of Li for the treatment of acute brain injuries including ischemia and chronic neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Tauopathies, and Huntington’s disease. Li influences stem cell, both neuronal and marrow derived, which can be an additional therapeutic implication for this element in clinical medicine to treat disorders associated with the faulty production of blood and nerve cells or as a tool to enhance blood stem cell mobilization for transplantation. Another aspect of lithium research is addressed by Zaichick and colleagues. The results obtained may serve as indicative normal values for lithium content in human scalp hair.Toxic effect of trace elements such as cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) has been evaluated in the article communicated by Sulinskiene and colleagues. The study suggests the effect of Cd and Pb ions on the total protein synthesis in mouse organs as well as on the rate and the level of translation in cell free system from the mouse liver. Sulinskiene and colleagues have further evaluated in vivo effects of Cd2+ and Pb2+ on the activity of mice liver isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase, and reported that treatment with Pb(CH3COO)2 solution activated isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase might explain a cellular compensatory mechanism maintaining the synthesis of protein in normal level under extreme conditions.

Adverse metabolic effects such as lipid abnormalities and weight gain have increasingly been recognized with the use of the anti-psychotic drugs. One of the papers in this issue reports that serum total free fatty acid significantly decrease in valproic acid treated patients when compared to control, which supports the hypothesis that patients treated with valproate experience significant lipid abnormalities and weight gain. Given the serious health risks of disturbances of glucose and lipid metabolism, patients treated with anti-psychotic should be subjected to appropriate baseline screening, as well as ongoing monitoring. Brain atrophy, together with the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome is the main responsible of cognitive dysfunction in excessive drinkers. In his short review on brain atrophy and cognitive impairment in alcoholics, González-Reimers and co-authors have exposed some of the pathogenetic mechanisms leading to alcohol-related brain atrophy. The magnitude of the problem may be even greater in the binge drinkers, where additional factors such as tobacco and/or illicit drugs consumption may aggravate brain damage.

Dietary substitution is emerging as an approach for managing the chronic diseases including the cancer. Tallberg and Dabek present the results of their dietary substitution therapy in patients with prostate cancer.

Method development and validation at micromolar and nanomolar level is an important issue. In his paper, Jallot has tried to provide a solution to the micro and nano ion beam analysis of trace elements at biomaterials/ living tissues interface. Another paper validates the microprocedure for the estimation of serum retinol in clinical samples by HPLC, and establishes the Limit of Quantification of this analyte in human sample by chromatographic technique. The cell responds to a myriad of stimuli in an ordered manner, commensurate with certain functionality. These reactions are inherently digital with different thresholds. Kundu and Subodh in their paper discuss the role of neutrophil chemotaxis in a microenvironment of graded inflammatory signals, and the mechanisms of perceiving these at the cellular level. Clusters of integrins in association with lipid rafts are critical to the development of these distributed sensors which coat the phagocytic competent cell and perturbations of these have been shown to result in inefficient phagocytosis, increased susceptibility to infection, chronic inflammation, progress to malignancy, autoimmune diseases, inappropriate allergies and hypersensitive reactions.

We understand that this issue would not have been possible without the contributions of our authors, and take this opportunity to thank them all for their research contributions and well wishes. We hope to get their continued support. Last, but not the least, on behalf of the Editorial Board, I would like to thank the Global Society for Nutrition, Environment and Health, the official sponsor of the Journal and contributions from the well wishers and philanthropists.

– Shakir Ali