Emerging role of non‐coding RNA in health and disease

Metabolic Brain Disease - Human diseases have always been a significant turf of concern since the origin of mankind. It is cardinal to know the cause, treatment, and cure for every disease...     

Some new singular Fourier-Stieltjes series

Singular continuous probability measures on the circle group are constructed whose Fourier-Stieltjes transforms converge to zero very rapidly and also have positive partial sums. Partial results for the line and for arbitary compact infinite Abelian groups are also obtained.     

The acylampicillins: mezlocillin, piperacillin, and azlocillin

The new acylampicillin derivatives azlocillin, mezlocillin, and piperacillin have an increased activity against many gram-negative bacilli, especially Klebsiella pneumoniae, Serratia marcescens, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, when compared with the carboxypenicillins carbenicillin and ticarcillin. The new penicillins show synergistic activity in combination with aminoglycosides but, when combined with other beta-lactams, may be synergistic (piperacillin and moxalactam; mezlocillin and cefoperazone), indifferent, or antagonistic (azlocillin, mezlocillin, or piperacillin and cefoxitin or cefamandole). The in vitro activity of these agents, either alone or in combination, appears to correlate with in vivo efficacy in animal models. The new penicillins are clinically effective for a very broad range of infections, including life-threatening nosocomial infections. Adverse effects with these, as with other semisynthetic penicillins, are minimal. Attention must be paid to the potential for infection by naturally resistant, gram-negative bacilli such as beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli and for the emergence of resistance during therapy. The granulocytopenic patient should receive these agents only in conjunction with another agent, such as an aminoglycoside; this combination will often result in a synergistic effect when tested in vitro. The carboxypenicillins and the newer penicillins have substantial similarities, and prospective, comparative studies have so far failed to demonstrate significant clinical superiority. However, the increased activity of the acylampicillins may be advantageous for the treatment of infections due to K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa.     

Health-related quality of life predicts future health care utilization and mortality in veterans with self-reported physician-diagnosed arthritis: the veterans arthritis quality of life study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measures predict health care utilization and mortality in a cohort of veterans with self-reported physician-diagnosed arthritis. METHODS: A cohort of veterans from the Upper Midwest Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) was mailed a self-administered questionnaire that was composed of the SF-36V (modified from SF-36 for use in veterans) and questions regarding demographics, current smoking status, limitation of activities of daily living (ADLs), and preexisting physician-diagnosed medical conditions, including arthritis. Within subjects reporting physician-diagnosed arthritis, we analyzed the associations between the SF-36V component summary scales (physical and mental component summary, PCS and MCS, respectively) and the occurrence of any hospitalization, number of hospitalizations, number of outpatient visits, and mortality, for the year after survey administration, using multivariable regression analyses. RESULTS: Of 34,440 survey responders who answered a question regarding arthritis, 18,464 (58%) subjects reported physician-diagnosed arthritis. Arthritic patients in the lowest tertile of PCS scores had significantly higher odds of any hospitalization (Odds ratio (OR) 1.49, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.25-1.76]) and mortality (OR 1.69, 95% CI [1.18-2.42]), and a significantly higher number of hospitalizations/year (Rate ratio (RR) 1.09, 95% CI [1.05-1.13]) and outpatient visits/year (RR 1.07, 95% CI [1.03-1.11]). Arthritic patients in the lowest tertile of MCS scores had significantly higher odds of any hospitalization (OR 1.20, 95% CI [1.02-1.41]), mortality (OR 2.14, 95% CI [1.56-2.94]), and a significantly higher number of hospitalizations/year (RR 1.05, 95% CI [1.02-1.09]) and outpatient visits/year (RR 1.07, 95% CI [1.03-1.11]). CONCLUSIONS: HRQOL, as assessed by the SF-36V, predicts future inpatient and outpatient health care utilization and mortality in veterans with self-report of physician-diagnosed arthritis.     

Examination of Genetic Variation in GABRA2 with Conduct Disorder and Alcohol Abuse and Dependence in a Longitudinal Study

Previous studies have shown associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in gamma aminobutyric acid receptor alpha 2 (GABRA2) and adolescent conduct disorder (CD) and alcohol dependence in adulthood, but not adolescent alcohol dependence. The present study was intended as a replication and extension of this work, focusing on adolescent CD, adolescent alcohol abuse and dependence (AAD), and adult AAD. Family based association tests were run using Hispanics and non-Hispanic European American subjects from two independent longitudinal samples. Although the analysis provided nominal support for an association with rs9291283 and AAD in adulthood and CD in adolescence, the current study failed to replicate previous associations between two well replicated GABRA2 SNPs and CD and alcohol dependence. Overall, these results emphasize the utility of including an independent replication sample in the study design, so that the results from an individual sample can be weighted in the context of its reproducibility.     

Simple Sequence Repeats in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health: An Ethnically Diverse Resource for Genetic Analysis of Health and Behavior

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are one of the earliest available forms of genetic variation available for analysis and have been utilized in studies of neurological, behavioral, and health phenotypes. Although findings from these studies have been suggestive, their interpretation has been complicated by a variety of factors including, among others, limited power due to small sample sizes. The current report details the availability, diversity, and allele and genotype frequencies of six commonly examined SSRs in the ethnically diverse, population-based National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. A total of 106,743 genotypes were generated across 15,140 participants that included four microsatellites and two di-nucleotide repeats in three dopamine genes (DAT1, DRD4, DRD5), the serotonin transporter, and monoamine oxidase A. Allele and genotype frequencies showed a complex pattern and differed significantly between populations. For both di-nucleotide repeats we observed a greater allelic diversity than previously reported. The availability of these six SSRs in a large, ethnically diverse sample with extensive environmental measures assessed longitudinally offers a unique resource for researchers interested in health and behavior.