The preparation and properties of porcine neurophysin and the influence of calcium on the hormone-neurophysin complex

1. The preparation of a hormone-binding protein fraction (neurophysin) from porcine neurohypophyses is described.2. It was shown by gel-filtration that the protein (which sedimented as a single component on analytical ultracentrifugation) forms complexes with oxytocin and lysine vasopressin. The maximum capacity of porcine neurophysin to bind oxytocin and lysine vasopressin was estimated from the results of dialysis experiments as 232 u. oxytocin and 48 u. lysine vasopressin/mg protein.3. Binding of oxytocin and lysine vasopressin by neurophysin was completely inhibited in the presence of calcium in concentrations greater than 10(-6)M but is unaffected at less than 10(-7)M-Ca. The concentration of calcium required to inhibit binding did not appear to be dependent on hormone or protein concentrations.4. No evidence was obtained that calcium was bound by neurophysin or by the peptide hormones either alone or in combination.5. These results are discussed in the light of the hypothesis that release of the hormone from the neurohypophysis is mediated by calcium.     

Glycolipid antigen expression in human lung cancer

Several mouse monoclonal antibodies which recognize carbohydrate sequences distinguish between different types of human lung cancer immunohistologically. These antibodies bind to glycolipid antigens produced by the cancer cells. When these glycolipids are separated by thin-layer chromatography, immunostaining of the chromatograms yields complex patterns of antigen-positive bands. To determine whether glycolipid patterns are useful in the classification of lung cancer, 16 human lung cancer cell lines comprising the major histological types of primary lung cancer were studied. Neutral glycolipids and gangliosides were isolated and separated by thin-layer chromatography. Six anti-carbohydrate antibodies which recognize structurally related antigens were used for immunostaining. Neuraminidase treatment of the chromatograms was used to detect "cryptic" sialylated antigens. All the cell lines were unique with regard to the type, amount, and chromatography pattern of the glycolipid antigens produced. Small cell lung cancer cell lines synthesized the greatest variety of antigens, whereas cell lines with large cell cytology synthesized the least. Interestingly, there was an inverse relationship between expression of some glycolipid antigens and DNA amplification of the c-myc oncogene. This suggests that enhanced c-myc expression may influence the types of glycolipids expressed at the surface of lung tumor cells.     

HIV misconceptions among married women in Malawi: the role of household decision-making autonomy

Journal of Public Health - Married women face one of the highest HIV rates in Malawi. Although HIV misconceptions have been identified as a major contributor to HIV infection, we know very little...     

Rehabilitación multimodal en cirugía de urgencias: ¿utopía o realidad?

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) constitutes the application of a series of perioperative measures based on the evidence, in order to achieve a better recovery of the patient and a decrease of the complications and the mortality. These ERAS programs initially proved their advantages in the field of colorectal surgery being progressively adopted by other surgical areas within the general surgery and other surgical specialties. The main excluding factor for the application of such programs has been the urgent clinical presentation, which has caused that despite the large volume of existing literature on ERAS in elective surgery, there are few studies that have investigated the effectiveness of these programs in surgical patients in emergencies. The aim of this article is to show ERAS measures currently available according to the existing evidence for emergency surgery.     

Baseline Assessment of Circulating MicroRNAs Near Diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes Predicts Future Stimulated Insulin Secretion

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease resulting in severely impaired insulin secretion. We investigated whether circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are associated with residual insulin secretion at diagnosis and predict the severity of its future decline. We studied 53 newly diagnosed subjects enrolled in placebo groups of TrialNet clinical trials. We measured serum levels of 2,083 miRNAs, using RNA sequencing technology, in fasting samples from the baseline visit (<100 days from diagnosis), during which residual insulin secretion was measured with a mixed meal tolerance test (MMTT). Area under the curve (AUC) C-peptide and peak C-peptide were stratified by quartiles of expression of 31 miRNAs. After adjustment for baseline C-peptide, age, BMI, and sex, baseline levels of miR-3187-3p, miR-4302, and the miRNA combination of miR-3187-3p/miR-103a-3p predicted differences in MMTT C-peptide AUC/peak levels at the 12-month visit; the combination miR-3187-3p/miR-4723-5p predicted proportions of subjects above/below the 200 pmol/L clinical trial eligibility threshold at the 12-month visit. Thus, miRNA assessment at baseline identifies associations with C-peptide and stratifies subjects for future severity of C-peptide loss after 1 year. We suggest that miRNAs may be useful in predicting future C-peptide decline for improved subject stratification in clinical trials.     

Pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines initiate multiple prostate cancer biologic pathways of cellular proliferation,heterogeneity and metastasis in a racially diverse population and underlie the genetic/biologic mechanism of racial disparity: Update

Pro-inflammatory cytokine and chemokines genes drive prostate cancer progression and metastasis: molecular mechanism update and the science that underlies racial disparity. comprehensive review article.Isaac J. Powell, S. Chinni, S.S. Reddy, Alexander Zaslavsky, Navnath Gavande Introduction: In 2013 we reported that with the use of bioinformatics and ingenuity pathway network analysis we were able to identify functional driver genes that were differentially expressed among a large population of African American men (AAM) and European American men (EAM). Pro-inflammatory cytokine genes were found to be more interactive and more expressed among AAM and have been found to be functional drivers of aggressive prostate cancer (CaP) and aggressiveness in other solid tumors. We examined these genes and biological pathways initiated by these cytokines in primary CaP tissue.Method We unravel the gene network and identified biologic pathways that impacted activation of the androgen receptor, mesenchymal epithelial transition (invasion) and chemokines associated with metastasis in the CaP tissue from 639 radical prostatectomy specimens.Results Biologic pathways identified by unraveling pro-inflammatory genes from our network, more expressed among AAM compared to EAM, were tumor necrosis factor (TNF), IL1b, IL6, and IL8. IL6 and IL8 are downstream of TNF activity and are known activators of androgen receptor and through mediators promote CaP cell proliferation. TNF and IL1b mediate tumor cell invasiveness through the activation of MMP (matrix metalloproteinase) which down regulates E-Cadherin to initiate epithelial mesenchymal transition which allows cells to become invasive in the microenvironment. Ultimately our network analysis indicates that TNF and IL1b activate CXCR4 receptor on CaP cells, which facilitates metastatic progression reportedly by binding to CXCL12 on lipid rafts and tumor implantation in the bone marrow.Conclusion Our retrospective biologic mechanistic model reveals a set of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines that drive CaP aggressiveness, tumor heterogeneity, progression and metastasis. A prospective multi-institutional study needs to be conducted for clinical validation as well consideration of targeted therapy.     

Trends of non-communicable diseases and public health concerns of the people of northeastern Nigeria amidst the Boko Haram insurgency

Background

The ongoing Boko Haram insurgency in northeastern Nigeria has depleted the country’s capability to deliver quality healthcare to her citizenry. The ailing health sector is overwhelmed with a rising incidence and prevalence of infectious and non-communicable diseases.

Aim

The aim of this paper was to determine the trend of kidney disease, end-stage renal disease (ESRD), anaemia, malnutrition and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in northeastern Nigeria.

Materials and methods

Data covering different periods between 1999 and 2017 were obtained from the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria. This hospital is the largest tertiary healthcare facility in the region. The data were demographic in nature, i.e. sex, age or simply the registered cases. A quadratic model of time-series analysis was used to create the various trends of the respective diseases with the aid of Minitab software (version 18.0). t-Tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were also performed, with a p-value of less than or equal to 0.05 being considered significant.

Results

About three out of every five patients treated for kidney disease were male, while three out of every five patients treated for HIV were female. Patients between the ages of 31 and 50 years were at the greatest risk of developing kidney disease. The mean distribution of disease incidence was the same for both sexes for kidney disease, anaemia, malnutrition and HIV. The mean distribution disease incidence was different between age groups for kidney disease but the same for anaemia. The incidence of anaemia and malnutrition reported was almost the same for both sexes. Children under the age of 10 years old were at the most risk of anaemia, with the distribution decreasing with increasing age. The trend analysis of the incidence of kidney disease, ESRD, anaemia and malnutrition showed that these ailments were on the increase, while the number of patients that were on antiretroviral therapy (ART) was on the decline in northeastern Nigeria.

Conclusion

These increasing trends are evidences of the effect of Boko Haram on the public health of the people of northeastern Nigeria and will continue to be a public health concern for the region and the country as a whole.