High-density Peptide Arrays Help to Identify Linear Immunogenic B-cell Epitopes in Individuals Naturally Exposed to Malaria Infection.

High-density peptide arrays are an excellent means to profile anti-plasmodial antibody responses. Different protein intrinsic epitopes can be distinguished, and additional insights are gained, when compared with assays involving the full-length protein. Distinct reactivities to specific epitopes within one protein may explain differences in published results, regarding immunity or susceptibility to malaria.

Substantial increase in mutations in the genes pfdhfr and pfdhps puts sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine-based intermittent preventive treatment for malaria at risk in Burkina Faso.

Objective: Sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is widely used as intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) for malaria in pregnant women in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are reports of wide-spread SP resistance in countries where SP had once been used as a first-line treatment. It is unclear whether the development of SP resistance also affects countries where SP is mainly used in the context of IPT, as is the case in Burkina Faso.

Declining malaria parasite prevalence and trends of asymptomatic parasitaemia in a seasonal transmission setting in North-Western Burkina Faso between 2000 and 2009-2012.

Background: Malaria transmission was reported to have declined in some East African countries. However, a comparable trend has not been confirmed for West Africa. This study aims to assess the dynamics of parasite prevalence and malaria species distribution over time in an area of highly seasonal transmission in Burkina Faso.

Medical suppression of hypercortisolemia in Cushing's syndrome with particular consideration of etomidate.

Cushing's syndrome is associated with excessive cortisol secretion by the adrenal gland or ectopic tumours and may result in diabetes, hypertension, and life-threatening infections with high mortality rates especially in the case of surgical resection. Although surgical resection is the treatment of choice, patients may benefit from preceding medical therapy. This may especially be useful as an adjunctive approach in emergency settings, if patients cannot undergo surgery, if surgery or radiotherapy fails, or if the tumour recurs.

Nebivolol prevents vascular NOS III uncoupling in experimental hyperlipidemia and inhibits NADPH oxidase activity in inflammatory cells.

Objective: Nebivolol, in contrast to other selective beta1-adrenergic receptor antagonists like atenolol, improves endothelial function in patients with oxidative stress within vascular tissue. With the present studies we sought to determine whether beta receptor blockade with nebivolol may improve endothelial function in hyperlipidemia and whether this is attributable to reductions in vascular oxidative stress.

Methods And Results: Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic rabbits (WHHL) were treated with nebivolol (10 mg/kg per day for 8 weeks).