Cost-effectiveness of a clinical medication review in vulnerable older patients at hospital discharge,a randomized controlled trial

International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy - Background Drug-related problems (DRP) following hospital discharge may cause morbidity, mortality and hospital re-admissions. It is unclear whether a...     

Influence of Prior Psychiatric Disorders on the Treatment Course of Gynaecological Cancer – A Nationwide Cohort Study

Aims

To examine the influence of pre-existing psychiatric disorder on the choice of treatment in patients with gynaecological cancer.

Use of different combination diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccines does not increase risk of 30-day infant mortality. A population-based linkage cohort study using administrative data from the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register and the National Death Index.

Objective

To determine whether differences in combination DTaP vaccine types at 2, 4 and 6?months of age were associated with mortality (all-cause or non-specific), within 30?days of vaccination.

Neutrophil proteases degrade autoepitopes of NET-associated proteins

Neutrophils can form neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) to capture microbes and facilitate their clearance. NETs consist of decondensed chromatin decorated with anti-microbial proteins. Here, we describe the effect of neutrophil proteases on the protein content of NETs. We show that the neutrophil serine proteases degrade several neutrophil proteins associated with NETs. Interestingly, the anti-bacterial proteins associated with NETs, such as myeloperoxidase, calgranulin B and neutrophil elastase (NE), seem to be less susceptible to proteolytic degradation than other NET proteins, such as actin and MNDA. NETs have been proposed to play a role in autoimmune reactions. Our data demonstrate that a large number of the autoepitopes of NET proteins that are recognized by autoantibodies produced by systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients are also removed by the proteases. In conclusion, neutrophil serine proteases have a major impact on the NET proteome and the proteolytic changes of NET-associated proteins may counteract autoimmune reactions to NET components.     

Epithelial ovarian cancer risk: A review of the current genetic landscape

Ovarian cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death in women in the developed world, and one of the most heritable cancers. One of the most significant risk factors for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer. Combined risk factors can be used in models to stratify risk of EOC, and aid in decisions regarding risk-reduction strategies. Germline pathogenic variants in EOC susceptibility genes including those involved in homologous recombination and mismatch repair pathways are present in approximately 22% to 25% of EOC. These genes are associated with an estimated lifetime risk of EOC of 13% to 60% for BRCA1 variants and 10% to 25% for BRCA2 variants, with lower risks associated with remaining genes. Genome-wide association studies have identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) thought to explain an additional 6.4% of the familial risk of ovarian cancer, with 34 susceptibility loci identified to date. However, an unknown proportion of the genetic component of EOC risk remains unexplained. This review comprises an overview of individual genes and SNPs suspected to contribute to risk of EOC, and discusses use of a polygenic risk score to predict individual cancer risk more accurately.