[User Acceptance of an Online-Intervention for Improving Depressive Symptoms in Adults with Obesity - Results of a Pilot Study].

Objectives: Investigating the user acceptance and associated factors regarding the use of an unguided online-intervention in people with obesity and comorbid depressive symptoms.

Methods: Quantitative longitudinal pilot study with regard to user acceptance (Baseline before access to online-intervention; Follow-up after 3 months) with n = 46 subjects.

Results: Moderate (usefulness, ease of use, satisfaction) to high (ease of learning) user acceptance was reported with regard to the online-intervention.

[Innovative E-Health Approaches for Comorbid Depression in Patients with Obesity: Patient and Expert Perspectives on User Acceptance].

Patients with chronic somatic diseases such as obesity often suffer from comorbid depressive disorders and present a great challenge for the medical health care system. The study aims to investigate the user acceptance of an internet-based self-management program regarding depression (using the example of MoodGYM) from two different perspectives: (A) the perspective of patients as well as (B) the perspective of experts based on Rogers' 5 stages model of the innovation-decision process (2003). This study is following a qualitative design including qualitative patient interviews (N = 7) and a focus group with medical experts (N = 12).

Effects of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) on the activities of rheumatoid arthritis-associated cathepsins K and S.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory and disabling joint disease affecting 0.5-1.5% of the population.

Cathepsin K: a cysteine protease with unique kinin-degrading properties.

Taking into account a previous report of an unidentified enzyme from macrophages acting as a kininase, the ability of cysteine proteases to degrade kinins has been investigated. Wild-type fibroblast lysates from mice, by contrast with cathepsin K-deficient lysates, hydrolysed BK (bradykinin), and released two metabolites, BK-(1-4) and BK-(5-9). Cathepsin K, but not cathepsins B, H, L and S, cleaved kinins at the Gly4-Phe5 bond and the bradykinin-mimicking substrate Abz (o-aminobenzoic acid)-RPPGFSPFR-3-NO2-Tyr (3-nitrotyrosine) more efficiently (pH 6.

Response of rat alveolar type II cells and human lung tumor cells towards oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide and paraquat.

The expression of MDR1b coding mRNA is increased in alveolar type II cells from juvenile rat lung in culture. Hydrogen peroxide and paraquat-induced further upregulation supporting that oxidative stress mediated mechanisms are involved in the regulation of MDR1b in rat lung. The expression rates of mRNA for catalase, Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn-SOD) and Mn-superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD) remains constant during culture and were not modulated by hydrogen peroxide or paraquat.

Probing cathepsin K activity with a selective substrate spanning its active site.

The limited availability of highly selective cathepsin substrates seriously impairs studies designed to monitor individual cathepsin activities in biological samples. Among mammalian cysteine proteases, cathepsin K has a unique preference for a proline residue at P2, the primary determinant of its substrate specificity. Interestingly, congopain from Trypanosoma congolense also accommodates a proline residue in its S2 subsite.