New Furanoeremophilanes, Cacalohastin Derivatives, from Senecio linifolius

Investigation of the aerial parts of SENECIO LINIFOLIUS afforded the furanoeremophilanes maturinone and seven cacalohastin derivatives, five of them being isolated for the first time as natural compounds. Structures were elucidated by spectroscopics methods.     

“I’ve Had an Alarm Set for 3:00 a.m. for Decades”: The Impact of Type 1 Diabetes on Sleep

There is a dearth of research characterizing the impact on a caregiver’s sleep when caring for a minor with type 1 diabetes. This study used focus groups of people with type 1 diabetes and caregivers of minors with type 1 diabetes to explore the experience of how diabetes affects sleep. The occurrence of both unanticipated and planned sleep disruptions led to the majority of participants reporting that their sleep was considerably affected by diabetes. Despite the improvement in blood glucose management that diabetes technology devices can provide, people with type 1 diabetes and their caregivers still report sleep disruption and sleep loss resulting from overnight diabetes management.

The daily self-management behaviors involved in living with type 1 diabetes can be more difficult overnight for people with type 1 diabetes, caregivers, and other household members and can lead to sleep disruptions and emotional experiences such as worrying about severe hypoglycemia occurring during sleep. On average, people with type 1 diabetes experience nocturnal hypoglycemia 25% of the time (1). Emotional experiences can also include fear of hypoglycemia, which refers to extreme worry and anxiety-like symptoms experienced by people living with type 1 diabetes and their caregivers regarding hypoglycemia. Such feelings can result in negative diabetes management behaviors and negatively affect quality of life (2,3). Disturbances caused by diabetes device alarms and fear of hypoglycemia are common barriers to sleep for people with diabetes (4). Research suggests that interventions should be developed to target overnight glycemic management and fear of hypoglycemia to improve sleep quality (5).     

Initial evaluation of the diagnostic performance of the new urinary bladder cancer antigen test as a tumor marker for transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder

PURPOSE: We evaluated the diagnostic performance of the new noninvasive bladder cancer test on voided urine samples from patients with transitional cell carcinoma compared to symptomatic and asymptomatic controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Urinary bladder cancer antigen was measured in urine from 86 patients with active transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder (group 1), 76 patients free of transitional cell carcinoma as confirmed by cystoscopy at followup (group 2), 25 patients with other benign urological diseases (group 3), 25 patients with other malignant pathological conditions (group 4) and 30 healthy subjects free of urological diseases (group 5). RESULTS: Mean urinary bladder cancer antigen concentrations were 104.84, 4.57, 11.79, 48.87 and 1.38 microg/l, for groups 1 to 5, respectively, which was statistically different (p = 0.00005) except for groups 1 and 4 (p = 0.187). Sensitivity was 87.0% (95% confidence interval 79.2 to 92.7) and specificity was 86.8% (77.1 to 93.5%), and both were optimized by receiver operating characteristics plot analysis at a threshold value of 9.74 microg/l using asymptomatic (group 2) compared to known cancer (group 1) cases. CONCLUSIONS: Urinary bladder cancer antigen might have a role as a potential tumor marker for diagnosing transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder.     

Effects of Colectomy on Gallbladder Motility in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis

In order to gain insight into the possiblemechanisms involved in gallstone formation incolectomized ulcerative colitis patients, we studiedgallbladder motility by means of ultrasonography inthree groups of subjects: controls (N = 40) and ulcerativecolitis patients without (N = 30) and with (N = 20)colectomy. Impaired gallbladder emptying after a liquidfatty meal stimulus was observed in ulcerative colitis patients with colectomy compared with thoseobtained in ulcerative colitis patients withoutcolectomy and controls (P = 0.001). The maximumpercentage of gallbladder emptying also, wassignificantly lower (59.8%) than those seen in ulcerative colitispatients without colectomy (74.5%) and controls (77.8%)(P = 0.001). Diminished gallbladder emptying withensuing stasis might be a contributory factor to the increased prevalence of gallstones incolectomized patients.     

Brassinosteroids inhibit pathogen-associated molecular pattern-triggered immune signaling independent of the receptor kinase BAK1

Plants and animals use innate immunity as a first defense against pathogens, a costly yet necessary tradeoff between growth and immunity. In Arabidopsis, the regulatory leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase (LRR-RLK) BAK1 combines with the LRR-RLKs FLS2 and EFR in pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP)-triggered immunity (PTI) and the LRR-RLK BRI1 in brassinosteroid (BR)-mediated growth. Therefore, a potential tradeoff between these pathways mediated by BAK1 is often postulated. Here, we show a unidirectional inhibition of FLS2-mediated immune signaling by BR perception. Unexpectedly, this effect occurred downstream or independently of complex formation with BAK1 and associated downstream phosphorylation. Thus, BAK1 is not rate-limiting in these pathways. BRs also inhibited signaling triggered by the BAK1-independent recognition of the fungal PAMP chitin. Our results suggest a general mechanism operative in plants in which BR-mediated growth directly antagonizes innate immune signaling.