Characterization of the interaction of polyomavirus middle T antigen with type 2A protein phosphatase.

Two cellular proteins of 36 and 63 kDa which bind the small T and middle T antigens of polyomavirus recently have been identified as the catalytic and regulatory subunits of the phosphoserine/threonine-specific type 2A protein phosphatase (PP2A). We report here the presence of phosphoseryl phosphatase activity associated with polyomavirus small T and middle T antigens in immunoprecipitates prepared from virus-infected and transformed cells. Phosphatase activity was also found associated with middle T-antigen mutants, some of which had been defined previously to associate with 36- and 63-kDa cellular proteins.

Social class differences in health and care in the year before death.

Study Objective: The aim was to identify any social class differences in health and care in the year before death emerging from a wider study of life before death.

Design And Setting: Data were collected at interviews, mainly of close relatives, with those who knew most about the people's lives in the year before they died. The sample was a random sample of adult (15 and over) deaths in 10 areas of England in 1987.

The relationship between general practitioners, hospital consultants and community nurses when caring for people in the last year of their lives.

The general practitioners, hospital consultants and community nurses who had cared for a random sample of people who died were asked about their relationships with the other professional groups and for their views and experiences of specialist domiciliary terminal care services. Many of the general practitioners and the nurses were critical of hospital communication over discharge. The most frequent criticism made by community nurses of general practitioners was that they did not ask for nursing help early enough for people who were dying.

Adipose cellularity in Gallus domesticus: investigations to control body composition in growing chickens.

The domestic chicken, Gallus domesticus, is recognized as an efficient source of lean meat. Genetic selection has resulted in large body size strains that grow rapidly. Concomitant with development of these desirable characteristics is increased abdominal fat deposition and altered body composition.

The role of hospitals in caring for people in the last year of their lives.

This study explored the role of hospitals in caring for people in the last year of their lives by examining hospital use and the characteristics of people admitted to hospital and changes between 1969 and 1987. Results were based on an 80% random sample of 800 adult deaths in ten areas of England in 1987. People dying when they were 85 or more were the least likely to be admitted to hospital in the last year of their lives.

Balance of care for the dying between hospitals and the community: perceptions of general practitioners, hospital consultants, community nurses and relatives.

A survey was made of the general practitioners, hospital consultants and community nurses who had cared for a random sample of people dying in 1987. Their views and experiences of the balance of care between hospital and the community are reported. All three groups wanted more people to be looked after in their homes rather than in hospital if adequate care could be arranged at home.

Identification and characterization of the hamster polyomavirus middle T antigen.

Hamster polyomavirus (HaPV) is associated with lymphoid and hair follicle tumors in Syrian hamsters. The early region of HaPV has the potential to encode three polypeptides (which are related to the mouse polyomavirus early proteins) and can transform fibroblasts in vitro. We identified the HaPV middle T antigen (HamT) as a 45-kDa protein.

Changes in life and care in the year before death 1969-1987.

Studies based on random samples of adult deaths in 1969 and 1987 show that, although more people in the recent study were living alone in the year before they die (32 per cent compared with 15 per cent in the earlier study), there had also been an increase in the proportions living in institutions and being admitted to hospital in the 12 months before their death. More of those dying in 1987 than in 1969 had had a home help, whereas the proportion receiving care from district nurses was similar for the two studies and the amount of home visiting by general practitioners had fallen. A higher proportion of those dying of cancer in 1987 than in 1969 were thought to have known that they were dying (44 per cent against 16 per cent) and that they had cancer (73 per cent compared with 29 per cent).

Implications of using the composite and short versions of the Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Perception Questionnaire (AAPPQ).

The Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Perception Questionnaire (AAPPQ) has often been used in studies seeking to understand or change the attitudes of workers towards alcohol abusers. Data are normally presented in terms of either individual subscales or as a composite scale, and recently a short version of the composite scale has been proposed. Using data from a quasi-experimental community intervention the information provided by the summary scales is compared with that from the individual subscales.

Structural changes in the C-terminal region of human brain creatine kinase studied with monoclonal antibodies.

Epitopes on human brain creatine kinase (B-CK) recognized by three monoclonal antibodies have been located by chemical cleavage methods, followed by peptide synthesis or analysis of specificity for natural variants (isoforms). One antibody, CK-HTB, recognizes a conformational, or assembled, surface epitope on native CK which is also present on partially unfolded forms. It requires an Asn residue at position 300 in the amino acid sequence and will not recognize variants with Lys or His in this position.

Is religion a help around the time of death?

Based on reports from relatives and other associates about a random sample of adults who had recently died, the data suggest that three-fifths of the people who died were perceived as having some sort of religious faith that had been helpful to them in the time before they died. Acceptance of death was seen as more common among those thought to have had a strong religious faith, but was not related to believing or not believing in some sort of life after death. It was less frequent among those thought to be uncertain about this.

Monoclonal antibody evidence for structural similarities between the central rod regions of actinin and dystrophin.

A monoclonal antibody, MANDYS141, binds to both dystrophin and actinin on Western blots (SDS-denatured), but only to actinin in frozen sections of human muscle (native conformation). It differs from a polyclonal cross-reacting antiserum in that it binds to several muscle isoforms of actinin (smooth, fast and slow) from man, mouse and chicken and recognises a quite different part of the proposed triple-helical region of dystrophin (amino acids 1750-2248). The results suggest that structural homologies between actinin and dystrophin occur more than once in their central helical regions and provide experimental support for an actinin-like central rod model for dystrophin.

Monoclonal antibody studies suggest a catalytic site at the interface between domains in creatine kinase.

We have located the epitopes recognized by four different monoclonal antibodies which bind to partially unfolded creatine kinase (CK) (ATP: creatine N-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.3.

Collecting data about drug use by elderly people.

A random sample of 805 people aged 65 or more were interviewed in their homes in England about the drugs they were taking, and about their experiences with and views about the way drugs were prescribed. Assessments by a pharmacologist and pharmacists identified inappropriate prescribing and labelling and revealed the extent of elderly people's knowledge of their drugs. Information obtained from general practitioners, with the consent of the elderly people, showed that over a third of the elderly people were taking prescribed drugs of which their physician was unaware, but over four-fifths of the drugs reported by both patients and physicians were thought by both groups to be taken appropriately or as prescribed.

Monoclonal antibodies against defined regions of the muscular dystrophy protein, dystrophin.

Nineteen monoclonal antibodies which bind to native dystrophin in the plasma membrane of frozen muscle sections were obtained using a recombinant fusion protein as immunogen. On Western blots of normal mouse muscle extracts, the antibodies bind specifically to a 400,000 Mr protein which is absent from dystrophic mouse (mdx) muscle. At least four distinct epitopes have been identified by cleavage mapping methods.

Medicine taking by people aged 65 or more.

Older people consult their doctors less than younger people in relation to both their reported morbidity and their prescribed medication. Some of the large iceberg of symptoms among the elderly might respond to a modification of their current drug regimens. Assessments of medicine taking patterns among the elderly revealed various inadequacies in supervision and a substantial proportion of questionable prescribing.

Plasma lipoprotein profiles in broiler chicks (Gallus domesticus): effects of early overfeeding.

1. Twenty-eight day old broiler chicks gavage fed for 22 days consumed 40% more feed and gained 100-110 g more than control birds. 2.

Treatment of human muscle creatine kinase with glutaraldehyde preferentially increases the immunogenicity of the native conformation and permits production of high-affinity monoclonal antibodies which recognize two distinct surface epitopes.

Treatment of human muscle creatine kinase (MM-CK) with glutaraldehyde produced highly aggregated forms which retained the native antigenic structure. Immunization of BALB/c mice with CK aggregates instead of untreated CK produced over ten-fold higher titres of antibody against native CK without increasing the titres of antibody against denatured enzyme. Production of high-affinity monoclonal antibodies specific for both the muscle isoenzyme and the native conformation became possible where the use of untreated CK had failed.

Who else responds to postal questionnaires? Are those involved in the subject of the study more likely to do so?

In a postal screen to identify people who had attended hospital outpatient departments, it was predicted that attenders would be more likely to respond than non-attenders. An experiment was set up to explore this. The response rates were 76 per cent among attenders compared with 70 per cent for the others--a difference which did not reach significance at the 5 per cent level.

The effect of E. coli host strain on the consensus sequence of regions of the human L1 transposon.

We have used highly methylation tolerant host strains to clone hyper- and hypo-methylated genomic elements from different regions of the same family of long interspersed repetitive elements from human DNA, specifically the 1.8 kilobase (kb) and 1.2kb KpnI fragments from members of the L1 family of transposable elements in which respectively some 18% and 2.

Identification of people attending outpatients: congruity between hospital records and response to a postal screen.

A comparison of information obtained from a postal screen of people on the electoral register about attendance at outpatient clinics with data extracted from hospital records found agreement between the two sources for 87 per cent of people. This rose to 90 per cent after an interview follow-up of those whose replies were unclear. Given the complexities of defining outpatient attendances clearly, these levels of agreement seemed good.

Adipose tissue deposition and cellularity in cimaterol-treated female broilers.

The effect of feeding a beta agonist, cimaterol, on carcass yield and composition and adipose tissue development was studied in female broilers. Cimaterol was provided at .25 ppm in the feed starting at 4 wk of age.