A Summer's Investigation of Biology Based Diagnostic Principles in Netherlands by Qinpu He

1. Part I Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis
(NASH)
Part I Continued
Last summer, I went back to China and assisted a professor
for his research on Repetitive Transcranical Magnetic
Stimulation as the treatment of major depression disorder.
After that summer enrichment experience, I further realized
that the field of Neuroscience is where my passion lies. Hence, I
spent a month and a half in Netherlands to further promote my
understanding of Neuroscience and related scientific fields.
This study trip is divided into three different parts. First, I
studied the underlying principles behind nonalcoholic
steatohepatitis; secondly, I learned the use of Ultra-weak
Photonic Emission (UPS) in the reinvestigation of natural
product; then I studied went to know more about the
development of biomarkers in both blood samples and
phenotypes for the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease and
Alzheimer’s disease.
Conclusions
Dr. May Wang, Leiden University
Dr. Gerda Andringa, Roosevelt Academy of Utretch University
Wen Liang, PhD student in Leiden University
Meng Sun, PhD student in Leiden University
Min He, PhD student in Leiden University
Brown Fellows Program for offering me such a wonderful
opportunity to enrich my summer
Centre College
L
Part III Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s
Disease
Background
Part II Biology-Based Diagnostic
Principles
A Summer’s Investigation of Biology-Based Diagnostic Principles in Netherlands
Qinpu He
Centre College
This world now has different ways of treatment which differ
inherently due to their different diagnostic views. Western
medicine prefers an acute disease situation while the
eastern is more holistic and focuses on chronic conditions
and prevention rather than just simple treatment. Suffering
from many ineffective treatments, medicines change from
“one-drug-fits-all” concept to targeted care and more
personalized health care system. Hence, the “one-size fits-
all” views of diagnosis develops into “stratified care” and
then into “personalized medicine”.
This summer I worked with Dr. Wang and Dr. Andringa
in Leiden University to categorize different medicines
based on biology-based principles in order to realize
personalized medicine. To categorize patients, UPS and
blood sample examination which includes clinical
chemistry and metabolomics were conducted. These
diagnostic principles can be used for both the physiological
diagnosis of humans and the investigation of medicines for
personalized treatment and intervention.
UPS is a newly invented way to reinvestigate natural
products such as herbal components in medicine. The
underlying principle is that all living cells generate
endogenous biological electromagnetic fields. Patients
differ from normal individuals in their intensity and left-
right symmetry of UPS. For instance, human bodies shows
increased photon emission from abnormal areas such as
wounds, sites of skin disease, and other injuries that affect
the skin surface. Hence, the examination of photons
released by human can be used to judge their bodily
situations. The human body shows increased photon
emission from abnormal areas such as wounds, sites of
skin disease, and other injuries that affect the skin surface.
Hence, by investigating the amount of photon emission on
different body parts, researchers can locate the place on
the body that has inflammation.
During the last week, I worked with professor Andringa in
Leiden University and Leiden’s local older people’s home. I
assisted professor Andringa in collecting blood samples from
Alzheimer’s patients and these blood samples will be used to
analyze for possible biomarkers in DNA for Alzheimer’s
Disease.
I spent this summer in Europe for the first time This study trip
combines scientific learnings and social experience. Not only did I
successfully spend six weeks in Netherlands and get to learn three
important research techniques, I was also immersed in a new
environment. I had not traveled to too many countries before so this
experiment is very important to me. I get to know more medical and
physical knowledge that is important to my major.
Acknowledgement
Lipid
accumulation
Inflammation
Non alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD) has become one of
the most common chronic liver disease. The fact that most
NAFLD patients are asymptomatic and require clinical
examinations to diagnosis makes NAFLD more troublesome.
Laboratory examinations reveal that NAFLD patients usually
show abnormally high levels of liver enzyme like alanine
aminotransferase (ALT) and aminotransferase (AST).
However, these two kinds of liver enzyme are also high in
obese patients so it’s hard to accurately judge whether a
person has the disease or not.
During the first week in Leiden University, I worked with a
graduate student in using imaging approaches as a
complimentary way to diagnose NAFLD. We found that non-
invasive imaging techniques such as computed tomography
(CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can only detect
steatosis, which is the abnormal retention of lipid in cells, but
not inflammation.
The process of NASH development is demonstrated in the
figure below: The pictures above illustrated how
HFD+Cholesterol feeding increases steatosis and
inflammation over time.
Part III Summer Pictures