Publications by authors named "H Aitkenhead"

Article Synopsis
  • In a study on children with Phenylketonuria (PKU), casein glycomacropeptide (GMP) was compared to phenylalanine-free amino acids (AA) as a protein substitute, focusing on digestion and overall health effects.
  • Results showed that GMP significantly improved gastrointestinal symptoms like stomach pain and bloating, although it did not have a major impact on other health markers like renal function or oxidative stress.
  • However, GMP's higher phenylalanine content poses challenges for use as a sole protein source in PKU kids due to their low tolerance for phenylalanine.
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In the UK, Classical Galactosaemia (CG) is identified incidentally from the Newborn Screening (NBS) for phenylketonuria (PKU) using an "Other disorder suspected" (ODS) pathway when phenylalanine (Phe) and tyrosine (Tyr) concentrations are increased. We aimed to determine the efficacy of CG detection via NBS and estimate the incidence of CG in live births in the UK. A survey was sent to all UK NBS laboratories to collate CG cases diagnosed in the UK from 2010 to 2020.

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Pestiviruses, within the family Flaviviridae, are economically important viruses of livestock. In recent years, new pestiviruses have been reported in domestic animals and non-cloven-hoofed animals. Among them, atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) and Norway rat pestivirus (NRPV) have relatively little sequence conservation in their surface glycoprotein E2.

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Article Synopsis
  • CD46 is a transmembrane protein involved in complement activation and various processes, including T-cell activation and reproduction, and acts as a receptor for many pathogens.
  • The study focuses on bovine CD46 (bovCD46) and its structure, which resembles human CD46 and has a unique hockey stick-like appearance due to its four-short-consensus-repeat (SCR) arrangement.
  • Understanding the structure and interaction site of bovCD46 with bovine viral diarrhoea virus can help develop future control strategies for this economically important disease in cattle.
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Numerous studies have reported extensive associations between plasma oxytocin (OXT) concentrations and various human physiological and neurobehavioral processes. Measurement of OXT is fraught with difficulty due to its low molecular weight and plasma concentrations, with no consensus as to the optimal conditions for pre-analytical sample extraction, standards for immunoassay validation or the ideal protease inhibitors to prevent OXT degradation. Previous attempts at determining the efficacy of various purification techniques such as solid phase extraction (SPE) or ultrafiltration have only utilized human plasma samples, making it difficult to dissect out whether the effect of interference comes from the extraction process itself or cross-reactivity with other proteins.

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