Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation: Treatment With a Nitric Oxide-Donating NSAID Alleviates Functional Muscle Ischemia in the Mouse Model of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Treatment with a Nitric Oxide-Donating NSAID Alleviates Functional Muscle Ischemia in the Mouse Model of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Filed under: Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation
PLoS One. 2012; 7(11): e49350
Thomas GD, Ye J, De Nardi C, Monopoli A, Ongini E, Victor RG
In patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and the standard mdx mouse model of DMD, dystrophin deficiency causes loss of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS?) from the sarcolemma, producing functional ischemia when the muscles are exercised. We asked if functional muscle ischemia would be eliminated and normal blood flow regulation restored by treatment with an exogenous nitric oxide (NO)-donating drug. Beginning at 8 weeks of age, mdx mice were fed a standard diet supplemented with 1% soybean oil alone or in combination with a low (15 mg/kg) or high (45 mg/kg) dose of HCT 1026, a NO-donating nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent which has previously been shown to slow disease progression in the mdx model. After 1 month of treatment, vasoconstrictor responses to intra-arterial norepinephrine (NE) were compared in resting and contracting hindlimbs. In untreated mdx mice, the usual effect of muscle contraction to attenuate NE-mediated vasoconstriction was impaired, resulting in functional ischemia: NE evoked similar decreases in femoral blood flow velocity and femoral vascular conductance (FVC) in the contracting compared to resting hindlimbs (?FVC contraction/?FVC rest?=?0.88±0.03). NE-induced functional ischemia was unaffected by low dose HCT 1026 (?FVC ratio?=?0.92±0.04; P>0.05 vs untreated), but was alleviated by the high dose of the drug (?FVC ratio?=?0.22±0.03; P<0.05 vs untreated or low dose). The beneficial effect of high dose HCT 1026 was maintained with treatment up to 3 months. The effect of the NO-donating drug HCT 1026 to normalize blood flow regulation in contracting mdx mouse hindlimb muscles suggests a putative novel treatment for DMD. Further translational research is warranted. HubMed – drug
Functional Characterization of Calcineurin Homologs PsCNA1/PsCNB1 in Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici Using a Host-Induced RNAi System.
Filed under: Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation
PLoS One. 2012; 7(11): e49262
Zhang H, Guo J, Voegele RT, Zhang J, Duan Y, Luo H, Kang Z
Calcineurin plays a key role in morphogenesis, pathogenesis and drug resistance in most fungi. However, the function of calcineurin genes in Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) is unclear. We identified and characterized the calcineurin genes PsCNA1 and PsCNB1 in Pst. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that PsCNA1 and PsCNB1 form a calcium/calmodulin regulated protein phosphatase belonging to the calcineurin heterodimers composed of subunits A and B. Quantitative RT-PCR analyses revealed that both PsCNA1 and PsCNB1 expression reached their maximum in the stage of haustorium formation, which is one day after inoculation. Using barely stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) as a transient expression vector in wheat, the expression of PsCNA1 and PsCNB1 in Pst was suppressed, leading to slower extension of fungal hyphae and reduced production of urediospores. The immune-suppressive drugs cyclosporin A and FK506 markedly reduced the germination rates of urediospores, and when germination did occur, more than two germtubes were produced. These results suggest that the calcineurin signaling pathway participates in stripe rust morphogenetic differentiation, especially the formation of haustoria during the early stage of infection and during the production of urediospores. Therefore PsCNA1 and PsCNB1 can be considered important pathogenicity genes involved in the wheat-Pst interaction.
HubMed – drug
Completion of Treatment for Latent Tuberculosis Infection with Monthly Drug Dispensation Directly through the Tuberculosis Clinic.
Filed under: Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation
PLoS One. 2012; 7(11): e48900
Dobler CC, Marks GB
An Australian metropolitan TB clinic where treatment for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) comprises six months of isoniazid, self-administered but dispensed monthly by the clinic.To determine the proportion of patients who complete treatment for LTBI and to identify factors associated with non-completion.Clinical files of all patients receiving treatment for LTBI between 01/2000 and 12/2010 were reviewed. The study population comprised all patients who were commenced on isoniazid as treatment for LTBI. Odds ratios (OR) for completing treatment were estimated by logistic regression.Of 216 patients who commenced isoniazid treatment for LTBI, 16 (75%) completed six months treatment. Fifty-three percent of the 53 patients who did not complete treatment dropped out after three months treatment. The mean (SD) age of the patients was 27 (16) years and 123 (57%) were female. The majority of patients (59%) were born overseas and 69% received treatment for LTBI because they were contacts of patients with TB. Patients’ sex, age, country of birth, time since immigration for overseas born people, health care worker status, TST conversion status, chest x-ray findings, language, employment status and the indication for which treatment of LTBI was prescribed were not significantly related to treatment completion.In a setting where isoniazid is dispensed monthly by the TB clinic, a relatively high proportion of patients who commence treatment for LTBI complete the six month scheduled course of treatment. The study did not identify any patient characteristics that predicted treatment completion. Interventions to improve completion rates should extend over the whole duration of treatment.
HubMed – drug
Sequence of Closely Related Plasmids Encoding bla(NDM-1) in Two Unrelated Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolates in Singapore.
Filed under: Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation
PLoS One. 2012; 7(11): e48737
Chen YT, Lin AC, Siu LK, Koh TH
Spread of the bla(NDM-1) gene that encodes the New Delhi metallo-?-lactamase (NDM-1) in Enterobacteriaceae is a major global health problem. Plasmids carrying bla(NDM-1) from two different multi-drug resistant Klebsiella pneumonia isolates collected in Singapore were completely sequenced and compared to known plasmids carrying bla(NDM-1).The two plasmids, pTR3 and pTR4, were transferred to Escherichia coli recipient strain J53 and completely sequenced by a shotgun approach using 3-kb paired-end libraries on 454. Although the K. pneumoniae strains were unrelated by molecular typing using PFGE and MLST, complete sequencing revealed that pTR3 and pTR4 are identical. The plasmid sequence is similar to the E. coli NDM-1-encoding plasmid p271A, which was isolated in Australia from a patient returning from Bangladesh. The immediate regions of the bla(NDM-1) gene in pTR3/4 are identical to that of p271A, but the backbone of our plasmid is much more similar to another IncN2 plasmid reported recently, pJIE137, which contained an additional 5.2-kb CUP (conserved upstream repeat) regulon region in comparison to p271A. A 257-bp element bounded by imperfect 39-bp inverted repeats (IR) and an incomplete version of this element flanking the 3.6-kb NDM-1-encoding region were identified in these plasmids and are likely to be the vestiges of an unknown IS.Although the hosts are not epidemiologically linked, we found that the plasmids bearing the bla(NDM-1) gene are identical. Comparative analyses of the conserved NDM-1-encoding region among different plasmids from K. pneumoniae and E. coli suggested that the transposable elements and the two unknown IR-associated elements flanking the NDM-1-encoding region might have aided the spreading of this worrisome resistance determinant.
HubMed – drug
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