Differences in Subjective Memory Impairment, Depressive Symptoms, Sleep, and Physical Activity in African American and Asian American Elderly.

: Subjective memory impairment (SMI) is associated with negative health outcomes including mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. However, ethnic differences in SMI and disparities in risk factors associated with SMI among minority populations are understudied. The study examined the ethnic differences in SMI, whether SMI was associated with depressive symptoms, sleep, and physical activity (PA), and whether the associations vary across racial/ethnic groups.

Topical flurbiprofen toxicosis in a cat.

Objective: To describe the clinical presentation and treatment of a cat with flurbiprofen toxicosis due to topical cream exposure.

Case Summary: A 3-year-old castrated male domestic shorthair cat presented to an emergency and referral center for acute lethargy, hematemesis, and anemia. Severe azotemia was observed on serum biochemistry panel.

Preclinical Efficacy and Safety Profile of Allometrically Scaled Doses of Doxycycline Used to Turn "On" Therapeutic Transgene Expression from High-Capacity Adenoviral Vectors in a Glioma Model.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most commonly occurring primary brain cancer in adults, in whom its highly infiltrative cells prevent total surgical resection, often leading to tumor recurrence and patient death. Our group has discovered a gene therapy approach for GBM that utilizes high-capacity "gutless" adenoviral vectors encoding regulatable therapeutic transgenes. The herpes simplex type 1-thymidine kinase (TK) actively kills dividing tumor cells in the brain when in the presence of the prodrug, ganciclovir (GCV), whereas the FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (Flt3L) is an immune-stimulatory molecule under tight regulation by a tetracycline-inducible "Tet-On" activation system that induces anti-GBM immunity.

Assessing cervical dislocation as a humane euthanasia method in mice.

Research investigators often choose to euthanize mice by cervical dislocation (CD) when other methods would interfere with the aims of a research project. Others choose CD to assure death in mice treated with injected or inhaled euthanasia agents. CD was first approved for mouse euthanasia in 1972 by the AVMA Panel on Euthanasia, although scientific assessment of its humaneness has been sparse.

Association of conjunctival bacterial infection and female sex in cicatricial trachoma.

Purpose: Conjunctival infection with non-chlamydial bacteria may play an important role in the progression of trachoma, especially with regard to the development of corneal opacity and blindness. To further characterize the microbiological profile of bacterial conjunctival infections in cicatricial trachoma, a conjunctival swabbing of adults in rural Ethiopia was performed.

Methods: In a cross-sectional study conducted in nine Ethiopian villages with hyperendemic trachoma, persons 40 years of age or older with signs or symptoms consistent with trichiasis were recruited and conjunctival swabbing for bacterial pathogens was performed.

Clinical activity and polymerase chain reaction evidence of chlamydial infection after repeated mass antibiotic treatments for trachoma.

It is unclear how the prevalence of clinically active trachoma correlates with the prevalence of ocular chlamydial infection at the community level. In 24 villages from a cluster-randomized clinical trial of mass azithromycin distributions in Ethiopia, the correlation between the prevalence of clinical activity (on examination) and chlamydial infection (by polymerase chain reaction) was moderately strong before mass antibiotic treatments (Pearson's correlation coefficient r = 0.75, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.

Importance of coverage and endemicity on the return of infectious trachoma after a single mass antibiotic distribution.

Background: As part of the SAFE strategy, mass antibiotic treatments are useful in controlling the ocular strains of chlamydia that cause trachoma. The World Health Organization recommends treating at least 80% of individuals per community. However, the role of antibiotic coverage for trachoma control has been poorly characterized.

Reduction and return of infectious trachoma in severely affected communities in Ethiopia.

Background: Antibiotics are a major tool in the WHO's trachoma control program. Even a single mass distribution reduces the prevalence of the ocular chlamydia that causes trachoma. Unfortunately, infection returns after a single treatment, at least in severely affected areas.

Comparison of annual and biannual mass antibiotic administration for elimination of infectious trachoma.

Context: Treatment recommendations assume that repeated mass antibiotic distributions can control, but not eradicate or even locally eliminate, the ocular strains of chlamydia that cause trachoma. Elimination may be an important end point because of concern that infection will return to communities that have lost immunity to chlamydia after antibiotics are discontinued.

Objective: To determine whether biannual treatment can eliminate ocular chlamydial infection from preschool children and to compare results with the World Health Organization-recommended annual treatment.

A rationale for continuing mass antibiotic distributions for trachoma.

Background: The World Health Organization recommends periodic mass antibiotic distributions to reduce the ocular strains of chlamydia that cause trachoma, the world's leading cause of infectious blindness. Their stated goal is to control infection, not to completely eliminate it. A single mass distribution can dramatically reduce the prevalence of infection.

Chlamydia on children and flies after mass antibiotic treatment for trachoma.

There are various approaches to control trachoma. These include the elimination of the ocular strains of Chlamydia trachomatis that cause the disease and to decrease the spread of infection by other measures such as fly control. Here, we examined how these two are related (i.

Effect of a single mass antibiotic distribution on the prevalence of infectious trachoma.

Context: The World Health Organization recommends mass antibiotic distributions in its strategy to eliminate blinding trachoma as a public health concern. Some hypothesize that a single distribution is sufficient to control the ocular strains of chlamydia that cause trachoma. Others believe infection will inevitably return and periodic treatments or other measures are essential.

Trachoma decline and widespread use of antimicrobial drugs.

Trachoma is disappearing in many parts of the world, even in the absence of specific control programs. Following mass antimicrobial drug treatments for trachoma in western Nepal, the prevalence of trachoma declined far more rapidly than could be attributed to the control program alone. Pharmacy surveys in the same region found that children received more antichlamydial drugs from sources outside the trachoma program than they did from the program itself.

Mass antibiotic treatment and community protection in trachoma control programs.

Azithromycin is highly effective against trachoma, but the practical difficulties of community-wide distribution often leave many individuals untreated. We demonstrate, after mass azithromycin treatment of a population in Ethiopia, an indirect protective effect that occurred among untreated children who resided in villages in which most individuals had been treated. Similarities with the indirect protection within a treated community (i.

How reliable is the clinical exam in detecting ocular chlamydial infection?

Purpose: To describe the relationship between the clinical exam for trachoma and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for ocular chlamydia.

Methods: One hundred children in a trachoma-endemic area of Ethiopia were examined three times and swabbed twice for PCR analysis. The assays were compared, and an analysis of the variance between exam and PCR was performed.

Feasibility of eliminating ocular Chlamydia trachomatis with repeat mass antibiotic treatments.

Context: Mass antibiotic administrations for ocular chlamydial infection play a key role in the World Health Organization's trachoma control program. Mathematical models suggest that it is possible to eliminate trachoma locally with repeat mass treatment, depending on the coverage level of the population, frequency of mass treatments, and rate that infection returns into a community after each mass treatment. Precise estimates of this latter parameter have never been reported.

Eliminating trachoma in areas with limited disease.

The common wisdom is that a trachoma program cannot eliminate ocular chlamydia from a community, just reduce infection to a level where blindness would be minimal. We describe the success of multiple mass antibiotic treatments, demonstrating that complete elimination of infection may be an attainable goal in an area with modest disease.

Methionine aminopeptidases and angiogenesis.

The initiator methionine residue of proteins is removed during synthesis by a specific and ubiquitous enzyme, methionine aminopeptidase (MetAP). Prokaryotes have a single gene, while eukaryotes have two isoforms. This family of metalloenzymes generally cleaves substrates in which the penultimate residue is one of the seven smaller amino acids (glycine, alanine, serine, threonine, proline, cysteine and valine).

Disappearance of trachoma from Western Nepal.

We assessed how much of the observed decline in the prevalence of trachoma in a district of Western Nepal was due to an antibiotic treatment program and how much to an underlying secular trend outside of the program. Although antibiotic treatments clearly have an effect at 6 months, we were unable to show that this effect persisted at 12 months; in fact, long-term gains may be due to a secular trend in the area.