Teaching Evidence-Based Sepsis Care: A Sepsis Escape Room.

BACKGROUND: Using evidence-based sepsis guidelines, nurse educators identified the nursing skills required to recognize and treat sepsis. METHOD: Nurse educators created an innovative, interactive sepsis escape room to provide sepsis education. The escape room included a manikin, puzzles, distractors, riddles, and props. Participants were given 20 minutes to solve four puzzles/riddles to treat the sepsis patient and escape the room. RESULTS: All but two (N = 16) groups solved the clues and riddles to prioritize treatment in the allotted time. Evaluations were excellent. Mean score (1 = poor to 5 = outstanding) for overall escape room experience was 4.92. Adherence data improved on the Surviving Sepsis Campaign sepsis performance measure intervention bundles (SEP 1-3 care bundles) 2 months following the escape room. Bundles are a group of interventions that improve care. CONCLUSION: The escape room engaged nurses in educational gaming, stimulating critical thinking and problem solving contributing to improved clinical outcomes. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2021;52(5):217-225.].

Effect of indole ethyl isothiocyanates on proliferation, apoptosis, and MAPK signaling in neuroblastoma cell lines.

Several indole ethyl isothiocyanate (IEITC) analogs were designed, synthesized, and screened to evaluate their cytotoxicity against neuroblastoma (NB) cells in-vitro. In NB, predominantly a tumor of early childhood, survival remains low despite aggressive treatments. Therefore, novel treatment strategies are greatly needed. The objective of the present study was to study the therapeutic potential of IEITC by analyzing the cytotoxic, anti-proliferative, and apoptotic effects on NB cell lines. 7-Methyl-indole-3-ethyl isothiocyanate (7Me-IEITC) proved to be cytotoxic to various NB cell lines (SMS-KCNR, SK-N-SH, SH-SY5Y, and IMR-32) with an IC(50) at 2.5-5.0 microM, while primary control cells (lung fibroblasts) were not affected. 7Me-IEITC led to the activation of apoptotic markers caspase-3, -8, and -9, caused activation of pro-apoptotic p38 MAPK and SAP/JNK, and down-regulated pro-survival factor AKT in SMS-KCNR cells. Moreover, 7Me-IEITC displayed anti-proliferative effects (IC(50) at 600 nM) and caused an arrest in cell cycle progression. This wide effect of 7Me-IEITC on NB cell signaling and survival suggests that it could be developed as a therapeutic agent against neuroblastoma.