MEGARes and AMR++, v3.0: an updated comprehensive database of antimicrobial resistance determinants and an improved software pipeline for classification using high-throughput sequencing.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is considered a critical threat to public health, and genomic/metagenomic investigations featuring high-throughput analysis of sequence data are increasingly common and important. We previously introduced MEGARes, a comprehensive AMR database with an acyclic hierarchical annotation structure that facilitates high-throughput computational analysis, as well as AMR++, a customized bioinformatic pipeline specifically designed to use MEGARes in high-throughput analysis for characterizing AMR genes (ARGs) in metagenomic sequence data. Here, we present MEGARes v3.

Peer support in health care and prevention: cultural, organizational, and dissemination issues.

As reviewed in the article by Perry and colleagues (2014) in this volume, ample evidence has documented the contributions of peer support (PS) to health, health care, and prevention. Building on that foundation, this article discusses characteristics, contexts, and dissemination of PS, including (a) fundamental aspects of the social support that is often central to it; (b) cultural influences and ways PS can be tailored to specific groups; (c) key features of PS and the importance of ongoing support and backup of peer supporters and other factors related to its success; (d) directions in which PS can be expanded beyond prevention and chronic disease management, such as in mental health or interventions to prevent rehospitalization; (e) other opportunities through the US Affordable Care Act, such as through patient-centered medical homes and chronic health homes; and (f) organizational and policy issues that will govern its dissemination. All these demonstrate the extent to which PS needs to reflect its contexts--intended audience, health problems, organizational and cultural settings--and, thus, the importance of dissemination policies that lead to flexible response to contexts rather than constraint by overly prescriptive guidelines.

Disruption of ETV6 in intron 2 results in upregulatory and insertional events in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

We describe four cases of childhood B-cell progenitor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (BCP-ALL) and one of T-cell (T-ALL) with unexpected numbers of interphase signals for ETV6 with an ETV6-RUNX1 fusion probe. Three fusion negative cases each had a telomeric part of 12p terminating within intron 2 of ETV6, attached to sequences from 5q, 7p and 7q, respectively. Two fusion positive cases, with partial insertions of ETV6 into chromosome 21, also had a breakpoint in intron 2.

Genome complexity in acute lymphoblastic leukemia is revealed by array-based comparative genomic hybridization.

Chromosomal abnormalities are important for the classification and risk stratification of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, approximately 30% of childhood and 50% of adult patients lack abnormalities with clinical relevance. Here, we describe the use of array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) to identify copy number alterations (CNA) in 58 ALL patients.

Five members of the CEBP transcription factor family are targeted by recurrent IGH translocations in B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL).

CCAAT enhancer-binding protein (CEBP) transcription factors play pivotal roles in proliferation and differentiation, including suppression of myeloid leukemogenesis. Mutations of CEBPA are found in a subset of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and in some cases of familial AML. Here, using cytogenetics, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and molecular cloning, we show that 5 CEBP gene family members are targeted by recurrent IGH chromosomal translocations in BCP-ALL.