Progress of health plans toward meeting the million hearts clinical target for high blood pressure control - United States, 2010-2012.

High blood pressure is a major cardiovascular disease risk factor and contributed to >362,895 deaths in the United States during 2010. Approximately 67 million persons in the United States have high blood pressure, and only half of those have their condition under control. An estimated 46,000 deaths could be avoided annually if 70% of patients with high blood pressure were treated according to published guidelines.

Association of weight at enlistment with enrollment in the Army Weight Control Program and subsequent attrition in the Assessment of Recruit Motivation and Strength Study.

The ongoing obesity epidemic has made recruiting qualified Army applicants increasingly difficult. A cohort of 10,213 Army enlisted subjects was enrolled in the Assessment of Recruit Motivation and Strength (ARMS) study from February 2005 through September 2006. Overweight recruits obtained a waiver for enlistment (n = 990) if they passed a screening physical fitness test.

Investigation of the regulation of transcriptional changes in Ancylostoma caninum larvae following serum activation, with a focus on the insulin-like signalling pathway.

The exit from dauer in the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is under the control of a single amphidial neuron (ASJ) of the insulin-like signalling pathway. Mutations of this pathway have the ability to suppress entry into the dauer stage. It has been postulated that insulin-like signalling plays a significant role in the response to serum stimulation in vitro of the third-stage larvae (L3s) of the canine hookworm Ancylostoma caninum.

Transcriptional changes in the hookworm, Ancylostoma caninum, during the transition from a free-living to a parasitic larva.

Background: Third-stage larvae (L3) of the canine hookworm, Ancylostoma caninum, undergo arrested development preceding transmission to a host. Many of the mRNAs up-regulated at this stage are likely to encode proteins that facilitate the transition from a free-living to a parasitic larva. The initial phase of mammalian host invasion by A.

The second messenger cyclic GMP mediates activation in Ancylostoma caninum infective larvae.

The developmentally arrested infective larva (L(3)) of hookworms encounters a host-specific signal during infection that initiates previously suspended developmental pathways. Activated L(3) express a parasitic gene set that encodes proteins involved in moulting, growth and development to the adult stage. Early events in this activation to parasitism can be investigated using an in vitro larval feeding assay.

Molecular cloning of a novel multidomain Kunitz-type proteinase inhibitor from the hookworm Ancylostoma caninum.

Degenerate oligonucleotide primers derived from conserved serine protease inhibitors were used to amplify a 90-base pair (bp) amplicon from an Ancylostoma caninum adult-stage complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) library by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The amplicon was labeled and used as a probe to screen the library, and a 2,300-bp cDNA clone was identified. The 5' end of the molecule was obtained from adult cDNA by 5'-RACE.

Hookworm aspartic protease, Na-APR-2, cleaves human hemoglobin and serum proteins in a host-specific fashion.

Hookworms are voracious blood-feeders. The cloning and functional expression of an aspartic protease, Na-APR-2, from the human hookworm Necator americanus are described here. Na-APR-2 is more similar to a family of nematode-specific, aspartic proteases than it is to cathepsin D or pepsin, and the term "nemepsins" for members of this family of nematode-specific hydrolases is proposed.

Effect of vaccinations with recombinant fusion proteins on Ancylostoma caninum habitat selection in the canine intestine.

Laboratory dogs were vaccinated subcutaneously with 3 different recombinant fusion proteins, each precipitated with alum or calcium phosphate. The vaccinated dogs were then challenged orally with 400 third-stage infective larvae (L3) of the canine hookworm, Ancylostoma caninum. The 3 A.