The Nobel Prize of Physiology or Medicine, 1923: controversies on the discovery of the antidiabetic hormone.

AIMS: To analyze the main contributions to the discovery of the antidiabetic hormone in the period between 1889, the year in which Oskar Minkowski demonstrated that complete pancreatectomy in dogs caused diabetes, and the year 1923, the date in which the clinical use of insulin was consolidated. A main objective has been to review the controversies that followed the Nobel Prize and to outline the role of the priority rule in Science. METHODS: We have considered the priority rule defined by Robert Merton in 1957, which takes into account the date of acceptance of the report of a discovery in an accredited scientific journal and/or the granting of a patent, complemented by the criteria set out by Ronald Vale and Anthony Hyman (2016) regarding the transfer of information to the scientific community and its validation by it. The awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in October 1923 has represented a frame of reference. The claims and disputes regarding the prioritization of the contributions of the main researchers in the organotherapy of diabetes have been analyzed through the study of their scientific production and the debate generated in academic institutions. MAIN RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: (1) According to the criteria of Merton, Vale and Hyman, the priority of the discovery of the antidiabetic hormone corresponds to the investigations developed in Europe by E. Gley (1900), GL Zülzer (1908) and NC Paulescu (1920). (2) The active principle of the pancreatic extracts developed by Zülzer (acomatol), Paulescu (pancreina) and Banting and Best (insulin) was the same. (3) JB Collip succeeded in isolating the active ingredient from the pancreatic extract in January 1922, eliminating impurities to the point of enabling its use in the clinic. (4) In 1972, the Nobel Foundation modified the purpose of the 1923 Physiology or Medicine award to Banting and Macleod by introducing a new wording: "the credit for having produced the pancreatic hormone in a practical available form" (instead of "for the discovery of insulin").

[Touch Medicine - a complementary therapeutic approach exemplified by the treatment of depression]. / Berührungsmedizin ­ ein komplementärer therapeutischer Ansatz unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Depressionsbehandlung.

Skin-to-skin-contact presents the earliest sensory experience of men and animals. Deprivation of age-relevant touch experiences during infancy results in compromised psychosocial and biological development. The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for the discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch. Clinical studies have demonstrated the benefit of professional salutary touch for prevention and treatment of various illnesses. However, in the present practice of medicine the application of salutary touch does not meet adequate interest. Proposing a new medical discipline "Touch Medicine" we link the findings of modern touch research to clinical medicine. The treatment of depression which we conceive primarily as a disease afflicting the body will serve as an example to demonstrate the usefulness of touch therapy. Controlled studies and systematic reviews have convincingly shown antidepressive, anxiolytic and analgesic effects of salutary touch. The effectiveness and efficacy of touch therapy has also been demonstrated in many areas such as neonatology, pediatrics, oncology, and geriatrics. We discuss the underlying mechanisms on various explanatory levels including interoceptive and oxytocinergic mechanisms as well as the role of C tactile afferent nerve fibers.

[The Italian contribution to studies on the biological rhythms implicated in psychiatric disorders]. / Il contributo italiano agli studi sui ritmi biologici implicati nei disturbi psichiatrici.

This editorial summarizes the main studies, carried out in the last 10 years, by various Italian research groups, on the alterations of circadian rhythms in psychiatric disorders. The results of these researches, as well as those obtained in various international contexts, encourage to teach in the medical schools for psychiatry, about the new chronoterapeutic interventions and the implementation of combined therapies for increasingly personalized psychiatric therapies.

Tu Youyou winning the Nobel Prize: Ethical research on the value and safety of traditional Chinese medicine.

In 2015, the Chinese pharmacologist, Tu Youyou, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of artemisinin. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was the source of inspiration for Tu's discovery and provides an opportunity for the world to know more about TCM as a source of medical knowledge and practice. In this article, the value of TCM is evaluated from an ethical perspective. The characteristics of 'jian, bian, yan, lian' are explored in the way they promote accessibility and economic efficiency for TCM. The article also examines how the increased use and prevalence of TCM reflects the scientific, cultural, and ethical values of TCM and their increasing attraction in meeting major challenges to medicine and health systems currently and in the future. The article discusses safety issues within TCM, which is a controversial area, and also comments on some shortcomings and challenges which pose difficulties for more widespread and greater uptake of TCM-derived clinical or therapeutic interventions. The article concludes that TCM is generally safe if it is used according to TCM theory and where such applications are cognizant of the strengths and weaknesses of TCM. TCM has important bioethical values which may inform potential measures for meeting challenges facing global health care systems and the article argues that it can have an increasing role in improving human health.

A Reflection on the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Chinese Medicine.

Research on the molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythm in Western medicine is comparable to the study of a day-night rhythm in Chinese medicine (CM), as also focus on the same life phenomenon. By comparing the two, this paper elaborates on the differences between them in their respective issues of consciousness, ways of thinking, research methods and research results. Relatively speaking, Nobel Prize research has a stronger sense of the problems and concerns about the essence of "what", while CM focuses on "how a thing functions". The former mainly adopts experimental and mathematical methods, while the latter primarily depends on observation and understanding. The natural philosophy and natural science eventually lead to the results and the inevitable, quantitative and qualitative differences. Research on the life rhythm in CM should be proposed, scientific problems should be fully grasped, and research should be carried out with the aid of multidisciplinary new knowledge and new achievements through cross-disciplinary studies. On the basis of clinical epidemiological research and experimental research, a systematic review should be made of the human physiology of CM and the pathological rhythm model to explore the regulatory mechanism of time rhythm and create a new theory of time medicine.

100th Anniversary of Jules Bordet's Nobel Prize: Tribute to a Founding Father of Immunology.

The 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1919 awarded to Jules Bordet offers the opportunity to underline the contributions of this Belgian doctor to the blooming of immunology at the end of the nineteenth century at the Institut Pasteur de Paris. It is also the occasion to emphasize his achievements as director of the Institut Pasteur du Brabant and professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles. Both in France and Belgium, he developed a holistic vision of immunology as a science at the crossroads of chemistry, physiology, and microbiology.

[Treatment of syphilis with malaria or heat]. / Behandeling van syfilis met malaria of warmte.

Until the end of the Second World War, syphilis was a common sexually transmitted infection. This stigmatising infectious disease caused mental decline, paralysis and eventually death. The history of syphilis was given public attention because of 'malaria therapy', which had been applied from the First World War onwards in patients with paralytic dementia. In 1917, the Austrian physician Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857-1940) induced fever in these patients by infecting them with malaria parasites; in 1927, he received the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the healing properties of malarial fever. One source, not cited anywhere, is an interview that the American bacteriologist and science writer/medical journalist Paul de Kruif conducted with Wagner-Jauregg in 1930. The reporting of this meeting, and De Kruif's later involvement in the mechanical heat treatment of patients with syphilis, form the inspiration for this article. When penicillin became available, both treatments became obsolete.

Innovative development path of ethnomedicines: an overview of ethnomedicines in China.

In the long history of disease prevention and treatment, ancestral populations worldwide have gained knowledge and experiences in traditional medicines. For instance, ethnomedicines of Chinese ethnic minorities constitute an important part of traditional medicines. In our study, we firstly clarified the concept of ethnomedicines and the connotations of ethnopharmacology. The particularity of ethnomedicine research were then summed up, and the development profiles of the ethnomedicines of Chinese ethnic minorities were discussed by investigating the current status and existing problems. On this basis, we abstracted the innovative development path of ethnomedicines for the first time, which was found to follows:resource study → standardized development research → industrialization of the achievements and efforts for internationalization. We found that platform establishment and team training are keys to achieving innovative development. Hence, this study provided a basis for ethnomedicine development.

A great honor and a huge challenge for China: You-you TU getting the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Public excitement over the award of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to the Chinese medical scientist You-you TU for the discovery of a herbal anti-malarial, may mislead the Chinese people into believing that traditional Chinese herbal medi-cine can be used to cure all disease without any ad-verse effects. The aim of this paper is to explain the advantages and disadvantages of herbal traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) objectively.

Los tres premios Nobel de Medicina 2015 / The Three Nobel Prizes 2015

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Could we gain insights from the past? Considerations on the 2015 Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

One of the winners of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine drew inspiration for her research from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Beginning with a brief history of such a research, some remarks are offered on the event. It is argued that two (however interacting) streams of TCM seem to coexist today in China: one that has embraced modernization and another one that has striven to preserve its distinctiveness with respect to entitled to contribute to medical pluralism.

[China's contribution to research and development of antiparasitic products - Inspiration from Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015].

Chinese scientist Tu You-you won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015, due to her outstanding contribution to the discovery of antimalarial drug artemisinin. The discovery of artemisinin is a great breakthrough using modern pharmaceutical technology to excavate ancient Chinese traditional medicine resources, based on government's coordination mechanisms. This article analyzes the research and development status of the current global antiparasitic products, as well as China's needs and strengths in related areas. The authors propose that China should take the advantage of government financing and research capacity to strengthen the research and development of antiparasitic products, so as to contribute more to improving global health equity.

[Spatial navigation : brief overview of the medicine and physiology Nobel prize 2014]. / Navigation spatiale : bref aperçu des travaux lauréats du prix Nobel de médecine et physiologie 2014.

Various cells of the thalamus, hippocampus, and the medial entorhinal cortex plays a crucial role in spatial navigation ability. The highlighting of these cells and the understanding of their functioning by John O'Keefe, May-Britt and Edvard Moser have earned them the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in 2014. The vision, olfaction, and the vestibular system contribute to this complex system. These observations may well explain why patients with vestibular disorder complain of spatial disorientation, often a source of deep anxiety.

Diverses cellules du thalamus, de l'hippocampe et du cortex entorhinal médial jouent un rôle crucial dans la capacité de navigation spatiale. La mise en évidence de ces cellules et la compréhension de leur fonctionnement par J. O'Keefe, M.-B. et E. Moser leur ont valu le prix Nobel de médecine et physiologie en 2014. La vision, l'olfaction et le système vestibulaire concourent à ce système complexe. Ces observations peuvent parfaitement expliquer pourquoi des patients souffrant d'un trouble vestibulaire se plaignent de désorientation spatiale, souvent source d'une profonde angoisse.