This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Individuals with metabolic syndrome have a 2-fold increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but few strategies provide adequate cardiovascular risk reduction for this group. One option to lower this risk is to reduce atherogenic lipids, particularly low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Statins are a recommended first-line therapy for this purpose, but this approach doesn’t always provide sufficient LDL-C lowering to optimally reduce cardiovascular risk. Now, researchers have shown that alirocumab, a proprotein converstase subtilisin/kexin type 9 inhibitor, or PCSK9 inhibitor, approved for LDL-C reduction, may address this need. Pooled clinical trial data from ten phase 3 clinical trials from the ODYSSEY clinical development program showed alirocumab significantly lowered LDL-C in individuals both with and without metabolic syndrome..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

 American Government is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the single-semester American government course. This title includes innovative features designed to enhance student learning, including Insider Perspective features and a Get Connected Module that shows students how they can get engaged in the political process. The book provides an important opportunity for students to learn the core concepts of American government and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them. American Government includes updated information on the 2016 presidential election.Senior Contributing AuthorsGlen Krutz (Content Lead), University of OklahomaSylvie Waskiewicz, PhD (Lead Editor)

Beyond the Horizon: Broadening Our Understanding of OER Efficacy is a concise yet comprehensive resource designed to provide insight into the current state of research and reporting on Open Educational Resources (OER) efficacy. This guide explores existing frameworks, delves into key themes and gaps, and highlights emerging opportunities in the realm of OER efficacy.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Biopharmaceuticals, protein-based drugs manufactured by living cells, are some of the most powerful and effective drugs leading the fight against numerous diseases. But producing them is a notoriously difficult business. Growth conditions, purification procedures, and formulation requirements can unintentionally change the protein structure of these drugs, altering their efficacy and toxicity. Testing for these modifications is therefore crucial. But current methods are cumbersome and don’t provide the throughput and real-time analytics that today’s rapidly growing biopharma industry desperately needs to control their development and manufacturing efforts. Now, there’s a solution. Introducing Intabio’s Blaze system. The Blaze platform performs a comprehensive analysis of biopharmaceutical product quality with 100 times higher throughput than traditional approaches..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students learn about various crystals, such as kidney stones, within the human body. They also learn about how crystals grow and ways to inhibit their growth. They also learn how researchers such as chemical engineers design drugs with the intent to inhibit crystal growth for medical treatment purposes and the factors they face when attempting to implement their designs. A day before presenting this lesson to students, conduct the associated activity, Rock Candy Your Body.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, or NMOSD, is a rare auto-immune demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Now considered a separate disorder from multiple sclerosis, NMOSD can be severely disabling and life-threatening, with a reported mortality of between 7 and 32%. The hallmark of the disease is recurrent attacks of optic neuritis and/or transverse myelitis that result in accumulating, irreversible disability, including blindness and paraplegia. Approximately 75 to 90% of patients with NMOSD have a disease-specific, pathogenic IgG autoantibody against the aquaporin-4 water channel, or AQP4. This antibody is thought to bind to AQP4 on astrocyte foot processes at the blood-brain barrier. This causes damage to astrocytes and the blood-brain barrier itself through several mechanisms, including the formation of the membrane attack complex through activation of the complement component C5b9..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Wet age-related macular degeneration, or wet AMD, occurs when newly formed blood vessels leak or bleed into the center of the retina, resulting in poor vision. Proactive treatment with intravitreal aflibercept has produced good outcomes in clinical studies. The treat-and-extend dosing strategy in particular has been shown to produce similar visual outcomes to fixed dosing every 4 or 8 weeks. And real-world evidence suggests that patients treated proactively in real life show outcomes similar to those observed in clinical trials. In the ALTAIR study, investigators explored how to fine-tune the proactive treat-and-extend approach in Japanese patients. The study aimed to identify the optimal extension interval for individual patients and individualize treatment with optimal extension to reduce the treatment burden for as many patients as possible. Ideally, treatments would be as infrequent as once every 16 weeks—with fast extensions made in 4-week increments—while maintaining initial vision gains..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"According to a new study, the cholesterol-reducing drug evolocumab plus a moderate-intensity statin dose was effective in Chinese patients with both type 2 diabetes and hyperlipidemia or mixed dyslipidemia. China has the highest diabetes burden of any country in the world. And as is the case for Western populations, diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease in Asian adults. The primary target for treating such patients is reducing low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol. While statin therapy is recommended globally, research suggests that statin-related adverse reactions occur at higher rates among Chinese patients. The inability to achieve the recommended LDL levels in Chinese patients might therefore be related to statin intolerance or underuse of statins due to the risk of adverse events..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Diabetes is a major risk factor for myocardial infarction, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases. The prime target for reducing cardiovascular risk is low-density lipoprotein, or LDL. LDL cholesterol has been linked to cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes. While statins have long been the primary treatment for reducing LDL, many patients are unable to reach recommended levels with a statin alone or are unable to take an effective dose. That places them at an especially high risk for cardiovascular disease. Now, a new study reports the efficacy and safety of evolocumab on top of statins in patients with both type 2 diabetes and hyperlipidemia or mixed dyslipidemia. The double-blind, phase 3 trial was conducted in patients from 10 different countries over a treatment period of 12 weeks. More than 980 patients were randomized to one of four subcutaneous treatments: 140 mg of evolocumab every 2 weeks, 420 mg of evolocumab monthly, or placebo at either of those frequencies..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students are challenged to think as biomedical engineers and brainstorm ways to administer medication to a patient who is unable to swallow. They learn about the advantages and disadvantages of current drug delivery methods—oral, injection, topical, inhalation and suppository—and pharmaceutical design considerations, including toxicity, efficacy, size, solubility/bioavailability and drug release duration. They apply their prior knowledge about human anatomy, the circulatory system, polymers, crystals and stoichiometry to real-world biomedical applications. A Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation and worksheets are provided. This lesson prepares students for the associated activity in which they create and test large-size drug encapsulation prototypes to provide the desired delayed release and duration timing.

Students learn how crystallization and inhibition occur by examining calcium oxalate crystals with and without inhibitors that are capable of altering crystallization. Kidney stones are composed of calcium oxalate crystals, and engineers and doctors experiment with these crystals to determine how growth is affected when a potential drug is introduced. Students play the role of engineers by trying to determine which inhibitor would be the best for blocking crystallization.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Chronic migraine is defined as 15 or more headache-days per month for more than 3 months within the previous 12 months, with at least 8 migraine-days per month. Chronic migraine usually evolves from episodic migraine, with peripheral and central sensitization in the trigeminovascular system contributing to the pathophysiology. The first-line treatment of chronic migraine is pharmacological. Acute medications treat migraine symptoms, and preventative therapies help reduce the frequency, severity, and duration of migraine attacks. Unfortunately, several of these medications show inadequate efficacy, tolerability, and adherence to treatment. This has led to the development of novel therapies such as onabotulinumtoxinA, a preventative option formulated from botulinum toxin type A. In the peripheral neuron, onabotulinumtoxinA targets SNAP-25, an essential protein of the SNARE complex. This complex mediates the release of neurotransmitters associated with the genesis of pain from vesicles in neurons..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"A recently completed clinical trial of the oral drug eliglustat has delivered promising long-term results for adults with Gaucher disease type 1 – a rare and sometimes life-threatening genetic disorder that interferes with the breakdown of certain types of lipids. GD1 is caused by deficient activity of the lysosomal enzyme acid β-glucosidase. Reduced catalytic activity of the enzyme results in pathogenic accumulation of the enzyme’s substrates, primarily glucosylceramide, in various organs. The result is progressive and debilitating enlargement of the spleen and liver, anemia, low platelet counts, and skeletal manifestations. The historical standard of care is biweekly intravenous infusions of recombinant enzyme, which boosts degradation of glucosylceramide. By contrast, eliglustat, an oral substrate reduction therapy, reduces glucosylceramide storage by slowing its production..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"One of the key oncogenic drivers in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer is rearrangements to the anaplastic lymphoma kinase, or ALK, gene. Inhibitors of this gene have led to promising responses in patients, but the gene rearrangements complicate treatment efforts by facilitating the emergence of drug resistance. To help overcome this, researchers are turning to the drug ceritinib. Results from the recent phase 2 ASCEND-9 study showed that ceritinib can lead to effective treatment responses when similar drugs like alectinib stop working. Ceritinib is a selective oral ALK inhibitor that’s been approved for treating patients with metastatic ALK-positive non-small-cell lung cancer. The drug has demonstrated significant and meaningful improvements in progression-free survival in global phase 3 trials compared to chemotherapy. However, the efficacy and safety of ceritinib in patients who’ve grown resistant to the ALK inhibitor alectinib hasn’t been clear..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Molluscum contagiosum is a common skin infection caused by a poxvirus that primarily affects children. Currently there is no FDA-approved treatment for molluscum. Phase 3 clinical trials suggest that VP-102, a combination drug-device product, could be safe and effective for use in molluscum participants aged 2 or older. VP-102 is a shelf-stable, proprietary drug-device combination product containing a topical solution of the active ingredient cantharidin (a vesicant), along with acetone, gentian violet (a surgical dye), and denatonium benzoate (a bittering agent). Once the solution is applied to molluscum lesions, it dries to form a thin flexible film. VP-102 should be removed by washing with soap and water approximately 24 hours after treatment. Two randomized, double-blind, vehicle-controlled phase 3 trials named CAMP -1 and CAMP-2 were conducted to evaluate VP-102 in treating molluscum in participants 2 years or older..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students see and learn how crystallization and inhibition occur by making sugar crystals with and without additives in a supersaturation solution, testing to see how the additives may alter crystallization, such as by improving crystal growth by more or larger crystals. After three days, students analyze the differences between the control crystals and those grown with additives, researching and attempting to deduce why certain additives blocked crystallization, showed no change or improved growth. Students relate what they learn from the rock candy experimentation to engineering drug researchers who design medicines for targeted purposes in the human body. Conduct the first half of this activity one day before presenting the associated lesson, Body Full of Crystals. Then conduct the second half of the activity.