A prospective study was conducted to investigate the impact of treatment burden and health literacy on medication adherence among older adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) and to explore the potential moderating effects of demographic and clinical factors. Face-to-face structured interviews were conducted among older adults aged 60 and above using the Burden of Treatment Questionnaire (TBQ-15), Short Form Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLS-SF12), and Malaysia Medication Adherence Assessment Tool (MyMAAT). This study included 346 older adults aged 60 years and above with two or more chronic conditions (n = 346). Hypertension (30.2%), hyperlipidemia (24.0%), and diabetes (18.0%) were the most reported chronic conditions among participants. The mean score of treatment burden was 53.4 (SD = 28.2), indicating an acceptable burden of treatment. The mean score of health literacy was 16.4 (SD = 12.6), indicating a limited health literacy level among participants; meanwhile, the mean score of medication adherence was 32.6 (SD = 12.3), indicating medication non-adherence among participants. Medication adherence was significantly correlated with treatment burden (r = −0.22, p < 0.0001), health literacy (r = 0.36, p < 0.0001), number of chronic conditions (r = −0.23, p < 0.0001), and age (r = −0.11, p < 0.05). The study findings emphasize that multimorbid older adults with high treatment burdens and low health literacy are more likely to have poor medication adherence. This underscores the importance for clinicians to address these factors in order to improve medication adherence among older adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCC).

This review summarizes the epidemiological trend, risk factors, prevention strategies such as vaccination, staging, current novel therapeutics, including the drugs under clinical trials, and future therapeutic trends for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). As HCC is the third most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide, its overall incidence remains alarmingly high in the developing world and is steadily rising across most of the developed and developing world. Over the past 15 years, the incidence of HCC has more than doubled and it increases with advancing age. Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus is the leading cause of HCC, closely followed by infection with hepatitis C virus. Other factors contributing to the development of HCC include alcohol abuse, tobacco smoking, and metabolic syndrome (including obesity, diabetes, and fatty liver disease). Treatment options have improved in the past few years, particularly with the approval of several molecular-targeted therapies. The researchers are actively pursuing novel therapeutic targets as well as predictive biomarker for treatment of HCC. Advances are being made in understanding the mechanisms underlying HCC, which in turn could lead to novel therapeutics. Nevertheless, there are many emerging agents still under clinical trials and yet to show promising results. Hence, future therapeutic options may include different combination of novel therapeutic interventions.

Background: Students choose their careers based on many factors, which vary for every country. Recent advancements in healthcare systems have made pharmacy one of the most pursued professions. Aim: To study the factors that influence students in Malaysia to choose pharmacy as their career. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among first-year medicine, dentistry and pharmacy students in a private university in Malaysia. One-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s post-hoc test was used to determine the factors that influenced students’ career choices. Results: There were significant differences among medicine, dentistry and pharmacy students in the mean scores for the dimensions ‘economic status’, ‘personal background’, and ‘work-life balance’ which influenced their career choice. Conclusions: Economic status, personal background and work-life balance were the factors that significantly influenced students to choose pharmacy compared with students’ choice of dentistry and medicine.

The normal cellular prion protein (PrPC) can misfold into an infectious and pathogenic form (PrPSc) to produce prion diseases, also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which are rare and deadly neurodegenerative conditions. The conversion of PrPC to PrPSc, which builds up as toxic aggregates in the central nervous system, is caused by sporadic, inherited, or acquired pathways. PrPSc-induced proteostasis failure, oxidative stress, neuronal toxicity, and progressive neurodegeneration are characteristics of pathogenesis. Due to their overlap with other neurodegenerative illnesses, prion diseases are still difficult to diagnose, even with breakthroughs in our knowledge of the molecular causes. Cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, neuroimaging, EEG, and genetic testing are utilized in the diagnostic process. Methods like real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) provide high sensitivity. As there are currently no cures, the main goals of management are palliative care and symptom alleviation. Research is currently being conducted on experimental strategies that target PrP misfolding. These strategies include autophagy enhancers, monoclonal antibodies, antisense oligonucleotides, and small compounds. Artificial intelligence (AI) shows revolutionary promise by enhancing early diagnosis through biomarker analysis, neuroimaging interpretation, and EEG pattern identification. AI also improves clinical trial design, identifies tailored treatment approaches, and accelerates drug discovery. Furthermore, advancements in AI-based bioinformatics technologies have led to a better understanding of prion biology and strain diversity. The future holds promise for utilising cutting-edge treatment techniques, such as CRISPR and gene therapy, for targeted interventions, as well as combining AI with multimodal data to enhance diagnostic capabilities. There is optimism that the burden of prion disorders can be reduced, and the treatment of neurodegenerative illnesses can be improved through the integration of molecular research, novel treatments, and AI technology.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a complication of diabetes mellitus which causes retinal damage which when left untreated will cause visual problems. As the prevalence of DR increases over the years, there is a need to optimise the currently available treatments as well as developing novel drugs to improve the therapy provided for the patients in the clinical practice. Several pharmacological therapies like, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor and anti-inflammatory therapies which include intravitreal, and implant of corticosteroids are significant in the management to decrease the risk of DR-related vision impairment. Clinical trials for novel drug therapies are still ongoing till this day to enhance the efficacy of DR treatment. Even though there are also modern treatments such as laser therapy for the patients, prevention should be done to lower the number of individuals affected by DR. Due to the complexity of DR, there are numerous obstacles to develop new medications for DR which include the increasing healthcare cost of DR treatment. New insights such as utilisation of artificial intelligence will be implemented into the management of DR as it has proved its potential in aiding the screening process. In parallel with the increase in DR prevalence and the number of treatments developed, extensive understanding of the mechanism of action of DR should be further improved to prevent more complications in the future. This review summarises the epidemiological trend, prevention strategies, challenges in treatment, current novel therapeutics (including drugs under clinical trials), future therapeutic trends and possibilities for implementing AI in the early diagnosis and management of DR.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurological condition associated with a decrease in levels of acetylcholine and diminished cholinergic functions. This may be caused by the degeneration of cholinergic neurons in the brain, leading to cognitive deficits. Due to the difficulty and invasiveness of collecting cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) required for assessing conventional biomarkers, researchers are currently exploring less intrusive, less expensive, and more straightforward methods for diagnosing AD. Additionally, conventional interventions such as cholinesterase inhibitors like rivastigmine, donepezil, and galantamine are US FDA-approved drugs that are still effective for managing AD. The goal of this therapy is to increase acetylcholine levels in the brain by inhibiting the enzymes that degrade acetylcholine. Therefore, this therapeutic approach is useful for treating mild-to-moderate AD. However, only symptomatic treatment is currently available, and it can lead to serious adverse effects from conventional therapy. Thus, novel therapies for AD are needed in a growing global population. This manuscript provides information on various biomarkers with possible pathogenesis mechanisms, novel treatment strategies such as microalgae, HupA, cannabinoids, and the beneficial effects of coenzyme Q10, bacterial probiotics, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, and D3 in memory impairment for managing AD. Non-pharmacological treatments such as music therapy, Electroacupuncture (EA), or manual acupuncture (MA) also play an important role in enhancing the effectiveness of conventional pharmacological treatments for AD.