Toxoplasmosis Montoya, JG; Liesenfeld, O
The Lancet (British edition),
06/2004, Letnik:
363, Številka:
9425
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite that infects up to a third of the world's population. Infection is mainly acquired by ingestion of food or water that is contaminated with oocysts shed by ...cats or by eating undercooked or raw meat containing tissue cysts. Primary infection is usually subclinical but in some patients cervical lymphadenopathy or ocular disease can be present. Infection acquired during pregnancy may cause severe damage to the fetus. In immunocompromised patients, reactivation of latent disease can cause life-threatening encephalitis. Diagnosis of toxoplasmosis can be established by direct detection of the parasite or by serological techniques. The most commonly used therapeutic regimen, and probably the most effective, is the combination of pyrimethamine with sulfadiazine and folinic acid. This Seminar provides an overview and update on management of patients with acute infection, pregnant women who acquire infection during gestation, fetuses or infants who are congenitally infected, those with ocular disease, and immunocompromised individuals. Controversy about the effectiveness of primary and secondary prevention in pregnant women is discussed. Important topics of current and future research are presented.
The shape of the productivity-diversity relationship (PDR) for marine phytoplankton has been suggested to be unimodal, that is, diversity peaking at intermediate levels of productivity. However, ...there are few observations and there has been little attempt to understand the mechanisms that would lead to such a shape for planktonic organisms. Here we use a marine ecosystem model together with the community assembly theory to explain the shape of the unimodal PDR we obtain at the global scale. The positive slope from low to intermediate productivity is due to grazer control with selective feeding, which leads to the predator-mediated coexistence of prey. The negative slope at high productivity is due to seasonal blooms of opportunist species that occur before they are regulated by grazers. The negative side is only unveiled when the temporal scale of the observation captures the transient dynamics, which are especially relevant at highly seasonal latitudes. Thus selective predation explains the positive side while transient competitive exclusion explains the negative side of the unimodal PDR curve. The phytoplankton community composition of the positive and negative sides is mostly dominated by slow-growing nutrient specialists and fast-growing nutrient opportunist species, respectively.
This innovative ethnographic study animates the racial politics that underlie genomic research into type 2 diabetes, one of the most widespread chronic diseases and one that affects ethnic groups ...disproportionately. Michael J. Montoya follows blood donations from "Mexican-American" donors to laboratories that are searching out genetic contributions to diabetes. His analysis lays bare the politics and ethics of the research process, addressing the implicit contradiction of undertaking genetic research that reinscribes race's importance even as it is being demonstrated to have little scientific validity. In placing DNA sampling, processing, data set sharing, and carefully crafted science into a broader social context, Making the Mexican Diabetic underscores the implications of geneticizing disease while illuminating the significance of type 2 diabetes research in American life.
Stable nitrogen isotope ratios of whole organisms and tissues are routinely used in studies of trophic relationships and nitrogen flow through ecosystems, yet changes underlying increases in δ15N ...from food source to consumer are not completely understood. In this study, the δ15N of 16 amino acids in marine planktonic consumers and their food sources were examined using gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry of their N-pivaloyl-i-propyl-amino acid ester derivatives. Moderate increases in bulk δ15N with trophic position reflect an averaging of large increases in the δ15N of some amino acids, and little or no change in others. Amino acids showing consistently large increases (e.g., glutamic acid changes by ~7‰ between food and consumer) provide greater scope for defining trophic position than the smaller isotopic changes in bulk material. In contrast, amino acids like phenylalanine show no change in δ15 N with trophic position and therefore preserve information about nitrogen sources at the base of the food web. The ability to acquire information about both trophic level and nitrogen sources at the base of the food web from single samples of consumer tissues offers a powerful new tool for elucidating pathways of N transfer through food webs.
Body size in ecological networks Woodward, Guy; Ebenman, Bo; Emmerson, Mark ...
Trends in ecology & evolution,
07/2005, Letnik:
20, Številka:
7
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Body size determines a host of species traits that can affect the structure and dynamics of food webs, and other ecological networks, across multiple scales of organization. Measuring body size ...provides a relatively simple means of encapsulating and condensing a large amount of the biological information embedded within an ecological network. Recently, important advances have been made by incorporating body size into theoretical models that explore food web stability, the patterning of energy fluxes, and responses to perturbations. Because metabolic constraints underpin body-size scaling relationships, metabolic theory offers a potentially useful new framework within which to develop novel models to describe the structure and functioning of ecological networks and to assess the probable consequences of biodiversity change.
Cyclin D1 promotes cell cycle progression during G1 phase, a key event in G1‐S transition. The protein is encoded by gene CCND1, located in chromosomal band 11q13. Cyclin D1 plays key roles in cell ...biology, including cell proliferation and growth regulation, mitochondrial activity modulation, DNA repair, and cell migration control. CCND1 gene and its protein cyclin D1 are frequently altered by different molecular mechanisms, including amplification, chromosomal translocations, mutations, and activation of the pathways involved in cyclin D1 expression, alterations which appear to be essential in the development of human cancers, including oral carcinoma. This is the first published review of the specific features of cyclin D1 overexpression in oral oncogenesis. Starting with the physiological regulation of cyclin D1, there is an evaluation of its functions, overexpression mechanisms, and the implications of the oncogenic activation of CCND1/cyclin D1 in oral squamous cell carcinoma. The potential diagnostic and prognostic value of cyclin D1 is reviewed. The influence of CCND1/cyclin D1 on tumor size and clinical stage is reported, and an update is provided on the utilization of cyclin D1 as therapeutic target and on the combination of cyclin D1 inhibitors with cytotoxic agents. Future research lines in this field are also proposed.
Highlights • We report real-world data from 464 patients treated with perampanel over 1 year. • Efficacy and tolerability of perampanel were comparable with clinical trial data. • Patients ≥65 years, ...vascular aetiology or fewer prior AEDs had a superior response. • Patients with psychiatric comorbidities (hyperactivity and personality disorder) were more likely to experience psychiatric AEs. • Patients with slower titration schedules were less likely to experience an AE
Chronic pain affects the quality of life of those affected. The need to investigate alternative and complementary methods to the pharmacological one to alleviate chronic pain is evident, so virtual ...reality and binaural tones have become a topic of interest in this field in recent years. This study aims to analyze the contributions of the combination of these two techniques in pediatric patients with chronic pain. For this, data on psychophysiological responses (heart rate and galvanic skin response) and pain perception are collected during and after interaction with this technology using a mixed pre- and posttest experimental methodology. The physiological data and answers in the Pediatric Pain Questionnaire (PPQ) have been collected in a sample of n = 13 healthy participants and n = 9 pediatric patients with chronic pain. The results show a significant difference between baseline and after applying virtual reality and binaural beats, md = 1.205 (t = 3.32; p<0.05). There are great effects on the perception of chronic pain if virtual reality and binaural beats are combined, even greater than with virtual reality alone, making this combination of technologies a very useful tool to be exploited for the management of chronic pain in pediatric patients with rheumatic diseases.
Studies of the malignant potential of oral lichen planus (OLP) have been hampered by inconsistencies in the diagnostic criteria used for OLP, the criteria adopted to identify a true case of malignant ...transformation in OLP, the risk factors for malignant transformation and the optimum management of patients to ensure the early diagnosis of transformation. Consensus remains elusive, and leading workers in this field have recently published conflicting reports on the malignant potential of OLP and on the important question of the advisability of excluding patients with epithelial dysplasia or a tobacco habit from studies on this issue. The present review outlines these debates and proposes a possible a molecular basis for the malignant transformation in this disease.
Therapeutic strategies for xerostomia, regardless of etiology, have so far not had definitive or clearly effective results.
To systematically revise the latest scientific evidence available regarding ...the treatment of dry mouth, regardless of the cause of the problem.
The literature search was conducted in March 2015, using the Medline and Embase databases. The "Clinical Trial", from 2006 to March 2015, was carried out in English and only on human cases. The draft of the systematic review and assessment of the methodological quality of the trials was carried out following the criteria of PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) and the "Oxford Quality Scale".
Finally, a total of 26 trials were identified that met the previously defined selection and quality criteria; 14 related to drug treatments for dry mouth, 10 with non-pharmacological treatment and 2 with alternative treatments.
Pilocarpine continues to be the best performing sialogogue drug for subjects with xerostomia due to radiation on head and neck cancer or diseases such as Sjogren's Syndrome. For patients with dry mouth caused solely by medication, there are some positive indications from the use of malic acid, along with other elements that counteract the harmful effect on dental enamel. In general, lubrication of oral mucous membrane reduces the symptoms, although the effects are short-lived.