The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiovascular disease prevention and corresponding geographical inequalities in England: interrupted time series analysis.

Background: There has been disruption to the detection and management of those with hypertension and atrial fibrillation (AF) during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is likely to vary geographically and could have implications for future mortality and morbidity. We aimed to estimate the change in diagnosed prevalence, treatment and prescription indicators for AF and hypertension and assess corresponding geographical inequalities.

Equivalence and Bias in the South African Substance Use Contextual Risk Instrument.

This article forms part of a larger study that sought to develop and validate a scale to measure individual and contextual factors associated with adolescent substance use in low-socio-economic status South African communities. The scale was developed to inform the process of designing preventative interventions in these communities. This study assessed the construct equivalence and item bias across different language versions of the scale.

Widespread somatic L1 retrotransposition occurs early during gastrointestinal cancer evolution.

Somatic L1 retrotransposition events have been shown to occur in epithelial cancers. Here, we attempted to determine how early somatic L1 insertions occurred during the development of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Using L1-targeted resequencing (L1-seq), we studied different stages of four colorectal cancers arising from colonic polyps, seven pancreatic carcinomas, as well as seven gastric cancers.

Characteristics and outcomes of Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteraemia in Hong Kong.

Background: We compared clinical outcomes between patients with healthcare-associated and community-acquired Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteraemia and identified predictors associated with mortality and high treatment cost in Hong Kong.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of patients with K. pneumoniae bacteraemia in a teaching hospital.

Pull-down of calmodulin-binding proteins.

Calcium (Ca(2+)) is an ion vital in regulating cellular function through a variety of mechanisms. Much of Ca(2+) signaling is mediated through the calcium-binding protein known as calmodulin (CaM). CaM is involved at multiple levels in almost all cellular processes, including apoptosis, metabolism, smooth muscle contraction, synaptic plasticity, nerve growth, inflammation and the immune response.

Protective effect of 20-HETE inhibition in a model of oxygen-glucose deprivation in hippocampal slice cultures.

Recent studies have indicated that inhibitors of the synthesis of 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE) may have direct neuroprotective actions since they reduce infarct volume after ischemia reperfusion in the brain without altering blood flow. To explore this possibility, the present study used organotypic hippocampal slice cultures subjected to oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) and reoxygenation to examine whether 20-HETE is released by organotypic hippocampal slices after OGD and whether it contributes to neuronal death through the generation of ROS and activation of caspase-3. The production of 20-HETE increased twofold after OGD and reoxygenation.

Neurogranin enhances synaptic strength through its interaction with calmodulin.

Learning-correlated plasticity at CA1 hippocampal excitatory synapses is dependent on neuronal activity and NMDA receptor (NMDAR) activation. However, the molecular mechanisms that transduce plasticity stimuli to postsynaptic potentiation are poorly understood. Here, we report that neurogranin (Ng), a neuron-specific and postsynaptic protein, enhances postsynaptic sensitivity and increases synaptic strength in an activity- and NMDAR-dependent manner.