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By Sonika Singh PhD candidate, University of Nottingham A Devastating Disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and inflammatory disease based on autoimmunity[1], mainly affecting the central nervous system (CNS) in young white adults[2]. MS is a disease which involves damage to the myelin sheath, that is a lipoprotein-based insulation of the axons. This sheath is essential for the electrical activity and saltatory conduction of nerve impulses and is an important part of the nervous system [2]. Areas of inflammation, axonal loss, demyelination and gliosis, occurring throughout the brain and spinal cord are the distinctive features o …

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequently occurring cancers and there are 630,000 new cases diagnosed every year worldwide (De Minicis et al. 2013). HCC develops frequently from chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis of the liver (Thorgeirsson and Grisham 2002). These conditions result in hepatocyte destruction and promotion of immune cell invasion of the liver tissue, which in turn results in changes of the matrix and micro-environment of the liver (Bosch et al. 1999). Hepatitis B virus About 80% of HCC develops from hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and aflatoxin B1 (AFB) (Bosch et al. 1999). The development of HCC can take nea …

Stephen Reynolds, PhD Student, CERVIVA and Trinity College Dublin We hear almost daily now how everyone in their lifetime will be touched by cancer either directly or through a close family member. Cancer is our modern plague but even though it is so prevalent in modern society every cancer type is unique whether it is down to the type of cell that has become cancerous, it’s location in our body, mutations it’s acquired, was inherited or non-inherited and so forth. It is this lack of homogeneity that means there is no Silver Bullet for cancer treatment and the same is true for the testing and diagnosing cancers that arise in the population. The perfect screening pr …

Overview of Diabetes Mellitus Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major epidemic that affects over 347 million people worldwide (Danaei et al. 2011). The World Health Organization predicts that the incidence of DM will rapidly increase with the number doubling by 2030 (Alwan et al. 2011; World Health Organization 2014). There are two major forms of DM, type 1 and type 2, which are clinically characterized by hyperglycaemia due to insulin insufficiency (Mathis et al. 2001). Type 1 diabetes (T1D), an autoimmune response resultant of genetic and environmental factors in which pancreatic β-cells within the islets of Langerhans are destroyed, comprises of appr …