Sub-optimal pain control in patients with rheumatic disease.

The visual analog scale (VAS) of pain is a ubiquitous clinical and research tool with widespread application in the rheumatic diseases. The objectives of this study were to assess if patients report pain differently to doctors or nurses, to determine reproducibility of this test for diagnosis, age, gender, and treatment, and to ascertain the level of pain in patients attending general rheumatology clinics. Using a standardized line of exactly 100 mm and instructions with identical wording, consecutive patients attending general rheumatology clinics were asked to score their perceived level of pain in the preceding week.

A single amino acid mutation attenuates rundown of voltage-gated calcium channels.

The activity of voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs) decreases with time in whole-cell and inside-out patch-clamp recordings. In this study we found that substituting a single amino acid (I1520) at the intracellular end of IIIS6 in the alpha(1) subunit of P/Q-type Ca(2+) channels with histidine or aspartate greatly attenuated channel rundown in inside-out patch-clamp recordings. The homologous mutations also slowed rundown of N- and L-type Ca(2+) channels, albeit to a lesser degree.

Global regulation of Hox gene expression in C. elegans by a SAM domain protein.

Polycomb group (PcG)-mediated repression of C. elegans Hox genes has not been demonstrated, and genes homologous to components of one of the PcG complexes (PRC1) have not been identified in the C. elegans genome.

A novel Eyes Absent 2 protein is expressed in the human eye.

The Drosophila eyes absent (eya) gene has a role in regulating cell death and/or differentiation and is expressed throughout development. We evaluated the transcripts and proteins encoded by one of the human homologues of Drosophila eya coined Eyes Absent 2 (EYA2). Interestingly, EYA2 was expressed in several neuroblastoma cell lines as four distinct transcripts having alternative 5'-ends, whereas only one EYA2 transcript was expressed in the normal human eye.