The impact of a pharmacist-driven, collaborative practice on diabetes management in an Urban underserved population: a mixed method assessment.

The objective of this manuscript is to describe the results of a pharmacist-driven, Type 2 diabetes targeted, collaborative practice within an urban, underserved federally qualified health center. Pharmacists within a primary care team managed patients with chronic illnesses utilizing a collaborative practice agreement. Pharmacists, pharmacy residents, and supervised students provided care for patients with Type 2 diabetes.

North American white mitochondrial haplogroups in prostate and renal cancer.

Purpose: While the mitochondrion is known to be a key mediator of apoptosis, there has been little inquiry into the inheritance pattern of mitochondria in patients with cancer. We compared the mtDNA haplotype in patients with prostate and renal cancer to that in controls to determine if there is an association between mitochondrial genotype and cancer.

Materials And Methods: Haplotyping was performed using polymerase chain reaction/digest identification of key polymorphic sites in the mitochondrial genome.

mtDNA mutations increase tumorigenicity in prostate cancer.

Mutations in the mtDNA have been found to fulfill all of the criteria expected for pathogenic mutations causing prostate cancer. Focusing on the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene, we found that 11-12% of all prostate cancer patients harbored COI mutations that altered conserved amino acids (mean conservation index=83%), whereas <2% of no-cancer controls and 7.8% of the general population had COI mutations, the latter altering less conserved amino acids (conservation index=71%).

Automated sequencing of complete mitochondrial genomes from laser-capture microdissected samples.

Mitochondrial DNA mutations have been related to both aging and a variety of diseases such as cancer. Due to the relatively small size of the genome (16 kb) and with the use of automated DNA sequencing, the entire genome can be sequenced from clinical specimens in days. We present a reliable approach to complete mitochondrial genome sequencing from laser-capture microdissected human clinical cancer specimens that overcome the inherent limitations of relatively small tissue samples and partial DNA degradation, which are unavoidable when laser-capture microdissection is used to attain pure populations of cells from heterogeneous tissues obtained from surgical procedures.