Two ways to survive infection: what resistance and tolerance can teach us about treating infectious diseases.

A host can evolve two types of defence mechanism to increase its fitness when challenged with a pathogen: resistance and tolerance. Immunology is a well-defined field in which the mechanisms behind resistance to infection are dissected. By contrast, the mechanisms behind the ability to tolerate infections are studied in a less methodical manner.

Survival and quality of life for patients with COPD or asthma admitted to intensive care in a UK multicentre cohort: the COPD and Asthma Outcome Study (CAOS).

Background: Non-invasive ventilation is first-line treatment for patients with acutely decompensated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but endotracheal intubation, involving admission to an intensive care unit, may sometimes be required. Decisions to admit to an intensive care unit are commonly based on predicted survival and quality of life, but the information base for these decisions is limited and there is some evidence that clinicians tend to be pessimistic. This study examined the outcomes in patients with COPD admitted to the intensive care unit for decompensated type II respiratory failure.

Sodium metabisulphite induced airways disease in the fishing and fish-processing industry.

Background: Sodium metabisulphite (SMBS) is recognized as a potential cause of airway irritation and possibly occupational asthma, but awareness of its use in the fishing and fish-processing industry is low.

Aims And Methods: To describe three cases of occupational airways disease due to SMBS exposure and to review the literature.

Results: Three patients, one trawlerman and two prawn processors, developed work-related airways disease due to exposure to SMBS, one with irritant-induced asthma with a positive-specific bronchial challenge associated with very high sulphur dioxide exposures, one with occupational asthma and one with vocal cord dysfunction and underlying asthma.

Sustained delivery of intact drug to the colon: mesalamine formulation and temporal gastrointestinal transit analysis.

The goal was to use temporal gastrointestinal transit simulations and formulation to predict and provide sustained input of target-site directed oral drug delivery exclusively into the colon. Using mesalamine as the model drug for formulation coupled with stomach emptying rates (fed and unfed) plus intestinal transit times demonstrates concepts and provides a specific example for treatment in ulcerative colitis. Formulation involved extrusion and spheronization into beads which were then coated with aqueous Eudragit S.

Environmental tobacco smoke exposure and eye disease.

Aim: To undertake a systematic review of the literature on the effect of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and eye disease.

Methods: Medline (1950-January Week 2 2007), EMBASE (1980 to 2007 Week 07), SCOPUS and Science Direct were searched on ETS exposure and eye disease using various combinations of the following terms: passive smoking, environmental tobacco smoke, sidestream smoke, involuntary smoking, secondhand smoke; with eye, conjunctiva, sclera, episclera, cornea, lens, iris, retina, choroid, uvea, optic nerve, uveitis, iritis, blindness, visual loss, cataract, thyroid eye disease, conjunctivitis, age-related macular degeneration, dry eye, tears. The above terms were also used to search abstracts published on The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting abstracts, from 1995 to 2006, and the grey literature, including PhD and MSc theses/dissertations.

Pathogenesis of listeria-infected Drosophila wntD mutants is associated with elevated levels of the novel immunity gene edin.

Drosophila melanogaster mount an effective innate immune response against invading microorganisms, but can eventually succumb to persistent pathogenic infections. Understanding of this pathogenesis is limited, but it appears that host factors, induced by microbes, can have a direct cost to the host organism. Mutations in wntD cause susceptibility to Listeria monocytogenes infection, apparently through the derepression of Toll-Dorsal target genes, some of which are deleterious to survival.

Particulate matter exposure during domestic work in Nepal.

Aims: To measure particulate matter (PM) exposure of people involved in domestic work (i.e. housework by a resident, not paid work) in urban and rural Nepal, with exposure to biomass smoke in the rural areas, and to examine the performance of photometric devices in collecting these data.

Effect of social factors on winter hospital admission for respiratory disease: a case-control study of older people in the UK.

Background: Every winter, hospitals in the UK and other developed countries experience a surge in respiratory admissions. Ecological studies suggest that social circumstances may be an important determinant.

Aim: To establish the most important factors associated with winter hospital admissions among older people presenting with acute respiratory disease, especially the relative effect of social factors.

Leaky enteric coating on ranitidine hydrochloride beads: dissolution and prediction of plasma data.

The present research is based on the hypothesis that leaky enteric-coated pellets formulations are able to provide sustained input for drugs that have an absorption window, such as ranitidine hydrochloride, without jeopardizing their bioavailability. Leaky enteric-coated pellets formulations are defined as enteric-coated pellets that allow some of the drug to be released from the formulation in gastric fluid. Different approaches to making leaky enteric-coated pellets were investigated using extrusion-spheronization followed by spray coating.

[Black and non-Black women and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in São Paulo, Brazil].

Objective: To analyze the characteristics related to individual vulnerability among HIV seropositive women, according to skin color.

Methods: A multicenter study carried out between 1999 and 2000 in health services specialized in STI/Aids in the state of São Paulo, involving 1,068 women living with HIV who are aged 18 or above. Sociodemographic data and characteristics relating to infection and healthcare were obtained by means of individual interviews based on standardized questionnaire.

Formulation of sustained-release verapamil HCl and diltiazem HCl semisolid matrix capsules.

Semisolid matrix capsule formulations of verapamil HCl and diltiazem HCl prepared by hot-melt capsule filling are an especially appealing and simple way to make sustained-release formulations. Semisolid matrices of Gelucire 50/13 and stearic acid combination eroded and disintegrated at various rates, depending on the combination of waxes, and drug release rates were dependent on storage time (2.5 years) and temperature.

Home warmth and health status of COPD patients.

Background: Home Energy Efficiency guidelines recommend domestic indoor temperatures of 21 degrees C for at least 9 h per day in living areas. Is health status of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) associated with maintaining this level of warmth in their homes?

Methods: In a cross-sectional observational study of patients, living in their own homes, living room (LR) and bedroom (BR) temperatures were measured at 30 min intervals over 1 week using electronic dataloggers. Health status was measured with the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and EuroQol: EQ VAS.

Which agents cause reactive airways dysfunction syndrome (RADS)? A systematic review.

Aim: To identify those agents reported as being associated with reactive airways dysfunction syndrome (RADS).

Methods: A systematic review was undertaken. Abstracts were screened and those selected reviewed against pre-determined diagnostic criteria for RADS.

Identification of Drosophila mutants altering defense of and endurance to Listeria monocytogenes infection.

We extended the use of Drosophila beyond being a model for signaling pathways required for pattern recognition immune signaling and show that the fly can be used to identify genes required for pathogenesis and host-pathogen interactions. We performed a forward genetic screen to identify Drosophila mutations altering sensitivity to the intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. We recovered 18 mutants with increased susceptibility to infection, none of which were previously shown to function in a Drosophila immune response.

Evaluating the toxicity of airborne particulate matter and nanoparticles by measuring oxidative stress potential--a workshop report and consensus statement.

Background: There is a strong need for laboratory in vitro test systems for the toxicity of airborne particulate matter and nanoparticles. The measurement of oxidative stress potential offers a promising way forward.

Objectives: A workshop was convened involving leading workers from the field in order to review the available test methods and to generate a Consensus Statement.

Dependence of home outdoor particulate mass and number concentrations on residential and traffic features in urban areas.

The associations between residential outdoor and ambient particle mass, fine particle absorbance, particle number (PN) concentrations, and residential and traffic determinants were investigated in four European urban areas (Helsinki, Athens, Amsterdam, and Birmingham). A total of 152 nonsmoking participants with respiratory diseases, not exposed to occupational pollution, were included in the study, which comprised a 7-day intensive exposure monitoring period of both indoor and home outdoor particle mass and number concentrations. The same pollutants were also continuously measured at ambient fixed sites centrally located to the studied areas (fixed ambient sites).

Diagnosis of airway obstruction in primary care in the UK: the CADRE (COPD and Asthma Diagnostic/management REassessment) programme 1997-2001.

Objective: Asthma and COPD require different management strategies, but differentiation in primary care is difficult. This primary care support initiative observed the impact of spirometry and clinical assessment on the diagnosis of airway disease.

Materials And Methods: Of 61,191 patients aged > or =40 years being treated for respiratory conditions within 1003 UK primary care practices, 43,203 underwent a diagnostic review including standardized spirometric assessment.

The non-occupational environment and the lung: opportunities for intervention.

Many environmental factors, both indoors and outdoors, can cause or worsen respiratory disease. Although in many cases individuals have little influence over environmental exposures (e.g.

Long-term exposures to air pollution.

Methodological problems of retrospective studies

Implications of prognostic pessimism in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma admitted to intensive care in the UK within the COPD and asthma outcome study (CAOS): multicentre observational cohort study.

Objective: To determine whether clinicians' prognoses in patients with severe acute exacerbations of obstructive lung disease admitted to intensive care match observed outcomes in terms of survival.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: 92 intensive care units and three respiratory high dependency units in the United Kingdom.

Socioeconomic and demographic profile of leprosy carriers attended in nursing consultations.

Leprosy is a contagious infectious disease that manifests due to unfavorable socioeconomic factors, endemic levels and individual conditions. This study aimed to recognize the socioeconomic and demographic profile and degree of incapacity installed in leprosy carriers attended at the School Health Center in Botucatu. Data were obtained through nursing consultation performed in 37 patients.

Household chemicals, persistent wheezing and lung function: effect modification by atopy?

The aims of the present study were to assess the effects of maternal use of domestic chemicals during pregnancy on wheezing and lung function in children aged View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Real-time conductivity analysis through single-molecule electrical junctions.

Conductance through single-molecule junctions, consisting of nanoparticle/molecule/nanoparticle units between nanoscale planar electrodes, was monitored in real time during several process sequences, including dielectrophoretic directed self-assembly and post-assembly modification. Assembly faults are directly detected in real time when non-ideal assembly conditions result in molecular junction failure and nanoparticle fusion in the junction. The real-time conductivity measured through the junction was sensitive to ambient conditions, and changes persisted over several days of exposure.