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To determine the pattern of drug prescription by consultants in a private hospital in Dubai, UnitedArab Emirates, 1190 prescriptions were collected from the hospital’s pharmacy over 30 days. In total,2659 drugs were prescribed. The mean number of drugs per encounter was 2.2. Only 4.4% of alldrugs prescribed were generic. Polypharmacy was observed in only 7.5% of all encounters.Information about the prescribing physician and the patient was invariably deficient. Name of patient,age, and gender were absent in 2.9%, 9.7%, and 12% of prescriptions, respectively. In addition, noneof the prescriptions mentioned address, diagnosis, or allergy of the patient. Name of physician,signature, speciality and license or registration number were omitted in 12.2%, 10.3%, 20.3%, and54.9% of prescriptions. The most commonly prescribed therapeutic classes of drugs (and principaldrug in each class) were as follows: 23.4% non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, Diclofenacsodium being 51.6%), 21.4% antibiotics (amoxicillin-clavulanate 13.5%), and 11.5% gastrointestinaldrugs (GI, Hyoscine-N-butylbromide 28.1%). Other therapeutic classes included endocrine drugs(6.1%), vitamin supplements (5.9%), nasal decongestants (4%), antihistaminics (3.8%) andcardiovascular drugs (2.6%). Antibiotic injections accounted for 7.4% of all antibiotics prescribed,which was equivalent to 1.6% of all prescriptions. Other agents prescribed in small proportions ofencounters collectively amounted to 21.3%. This study reveals the prescription trends, and indicatespossible areas of improvement in prescription practice.

Objective: To identify, quantify and compare clinical and concurrent imaging findings of occipital hypoplasia (OH), syringomyelia (SM) and atlanto-occipital overlapping (AO) in dogs with or without brachycephaly., Methods: A focused systematic search for literature was performed in the Web of Science™, PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Both authors screened and classified the identified articles using EndNote and appraised the articles using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program checklists. The main clinical and concurrent imaging features were extracted and evaluated for coexistence of OH, SM, AO, and other imaging findings., Results: Thirty-one articles were included in this minireview. For articles focusing on descriptions of OH, SM and AO, 249 dogs had at least one of these conditions, and 3 of these 249 dogs (1%) had coexistence of all three conditions. For articles focusing on descriptions of the dogs, OH, SM, and AO were identified in 552/19/11/11, 574/2/0/6, and 100/0/0/0 small brachycephalic, small non-brachycephalic, large brachycephalic, and large non-brachycephalic breeds, respectively. For all small brachycephalic dogs, the percentages of affected animals were 40% for OH ( p  = 0.01), 42% for SM ( p  < 0.01) and 7% for AO ( p  = 0.033). The number of dogs having AO and clinical symptoms is low ( n  = 5)., Conclusion: OH, SM and AO are more likely to affect small dogs. AO might be limited to small brachycephalic breeds owing to the geometry of the craniocervical junction. Hence, AO alone might not lead to SM. In individual dogs, readers should carefully interpret the clinical relevance of OH or AO in the absence of SM., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Wess and Kneissl.)

Cancer therapy is once again experiencing a paradigm shift. This shift is based on extensive clinical experience demonstrating that cancer cannot be successfully fought by addressing only single targets or pathways. Even the combination of several neo-antigens in cancer vaccines is not sufficient for successful, lasting tumor eradication. The focus has therefore shifted to the immune system's role in cancer and the striking abilities of cancer cells to manipulate and/or deactivate the immune system. Researchers and pharma companies have started to target the processes and cells known to support immune surveillance and the elimination of tumor cells. Immune processes, however, require novel concepts beyond the traditional "single-target-single drug" paradigm and need parallel targeting of diverse cells and mechanisms. This review gives a perspective on the role of gene therapy technologies in the evolving immuno-oncology space and identifies gene therapy as a major driver in the development and regulation of effective cancer immunotherapy. Present challenges and breakthroughs ranging from chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, gene-modified oncolytic viruses, combination cancer vaccines, to RNA therapeutics are spotlighted. Gene therapy is recognized as the most prominent technology enabling effective immuno-oncology strategies.