Publications by authors named "G E APONTE"

Background: As health-care institutions mobilize resources to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, palliative care may potentially be underutilized. It is important to assess the use of palliative care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This is a retrospective single-center study of patients with COVID-19 diagnosed via reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay admitted between March 1, 2020, and April 24, 2020.

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Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) are released from enteroendocrine cells (EECs) in response to nutrient ingestion and lower blood glucose levels by stimulation of insulin secretion and thus are defined as incretins. GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) expression has been identified on enteric neurons that include intrinsic afferent neurons, extrinsic spinal, and vagal sensory afferents but has not been shown to have an incretin effect through these nerves. GLP-1 and GIP enter the mesenteric lymphatic fluid (MLF) after a meal via the interstitial fluid (IF) from local tissue secretion and/or blood capillaries.

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Lymphatic fluid is a plasma filtrate that can be viewed as having biological activity through the passive accumulation of molecules from the interstitial fluid. The possibility that lymphatic fluid is part of an active self-contained signaling process that parallels the endocrine system, through the activation of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR), has remained unexplored. We show that the GPCR lysophosphatidic acid 5 (LPA5) is found in sensory nerve fibers expressing calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) that innervate the lumen of lymphatic lacteals and enteric nerves.

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Homologous long segments along the genomes of close or remote relatives that are identical by descent (IBD) from a common ancestor provide clues for recent events in human genetics. We set out to extensively map such IBD segments in large cohorts and investigate their distribution within and across different populations. We report analysis of several data sets, demonstrating that IBD is more common than expected by naïve models of population genetics.

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P2Y5 is a G protein-coupled receptor that binds and is activated by lysophosphatidic acid (LPA). We determined that P2Y5 transcript is expressed along the intestinal mucosa and investigated the intracellular pathways induced by P2Y5 activation, which could contribute to LPA effects on intestinal cell adhesion. P2Y5 heterologously expressed in CHO and small intestinal hBRIE 380i cells was activated by LPA resulting in an increase in intracellular calcium ([Ca(2+)](i)) when the cells concurrently expressed G(alpha)(Delta6qi5myr).

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