Palliative medicine in the intensive care unit: needs, delivery, quality.

Background: 15%-20% of critical care patients die during their hospital admission. This service evaluation assesses quality of palliative care in intensive care units (ICUs) compared with national standards.

Methods: Retrospective review of records for all patients who died in four ICUs (irrespective of treatment limitation) between 1 June and 31 July 2019.

Sensitive and robust luminescent profiling of anti-La and other autoantibodies in Sjogren's syndrome.

Sjogren's syndrome (SjS) patients often have a variety of extraglandular manifestations including neurological and gastrointestinal involvement. In this study we evaluated the diagnostic performance of luciferase immunoprecipitation system (LIPS) that employs mammalian cell-produced recombinant antigens for analyzing SjS autoantibody responses. LIPS testing of mammalian cell-produced La, Ro60 and Ro52 recombinant antigens with defined commercial antibodies demonstrated highly specific immunoprecitation of each antigen without cross-reactivity.

A four-antigen mixture for rapid assessment of Onchocerca volvulus infection.

Background: Onchocerciasis, an infection caused by the filarial nematode Onchocerca volvulus, is a major public health concern. Given the debilitating symptoms associated with onchocerciasis and concerns about recrudescence in areas of previous onchocerciasis control, more efficient tools are needed for diagnosis and monitoring of control measures. We investigated whether luciferase immunoprecipitation systems (LIPS) may be used as a more rapid, specific, and standardized diagnostic assay for Onchocerca volvulus infection.

Four-antigen mixture containing v-cyclin for serological screening of human herpesvirus 8 infection.

Improved diagnostic reagents and testing are currently needed for the serological detection of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) infections. We evaluated the luciferase immunoprecipitation systems (LIPS) for profiling antibody responses to a panel of HHV-8 proteins for diagnosis of Kaposi sarcoma (KS)-infected individuals. Using a pilot serum set, LIPS detected robust antibody responses to several known antigens, and a screen of 14 additional HHV-8 proteins identified v-cyclin as a potentially new diagnostic antigen.

Serological diagnosis of human herpes simplex virus type 1 and 2 infections by luciferase immunoprecipitation system assay.

Highly quantitative and high-throughput serological tests for evaluation of humoral responses to herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2 are not available. The efficacy of luciferase immunoprecipitation system (LIPS) assays for antibody profiling and serologic diagnosis of HSV-1 and HSV-2 infection was investigated using a panel of five recombinant HSV antigens. Plasma samples from subjects seropositive for HSV-1 and/or HSV-2 or seronegative for HSV-1 and HSV-2 that had previously been analyzed by Western blotting and the Focus Plexus immunoassay were evaluated.

Anti-HTLV antibody profiling reveals an antibody signature for HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP).

Background: HTLV-I is the causal agent of adult T cell leukemia (ATLL) and HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). Biomarkers are needed to diagnose and/or predict patients who are at risk for HAM/TSP or ATLL. Therefore, we investigated using luciferase immunoprecipitation technology (LIPS) antibody responses to seven HTLV-I proteins in non-infected controls, asymptomatic HTLV-I-carriers, ATLL and HAM/TSP sera samples.

A new luminescence assay for autoantibodies to mammalian cell-prepared insulinoma-associated protein 2.

Objective: Insulinoma-associated protein 2 (IA-2) is a major autoantigen in type 1 diabetes, and IA-2 autoantibodies are routinely detected by a liquid-phase radioimmunoprecipitation assay. The present experiments were initiated to develop a new assay that does not require the use of radioisotopes or autoantigens prepared in bacteria or by in vitro transcription/translation.

Research Design And Methods: IA-2 luciferase fusion protein was expressed in mammalian cells and assayed for autoantibodies by liquid-phase luciferase immunoprecipitation.

Modulation of Kv4.2 K+ currents by neuronal interleukin-16, a PDZ domain-containing protein expressed in the hippocampus and cerebellum.

Neuronal interleukin-16 (NIL-16) is a multi-PDZ domain protein expressed in post-mitotic neurons of the hippocampus and cerebellum. NIL-16 contains four PDZ domains, two of which are located within the neuron-specific N-terminal region. In yeast two-hybrid systems, the N-terminus of NIL-16 interacts with several ion channel proteins, including the Kv4.

The vacuolar-ATPase inhibitor bafilomycin and mutant VPS35 inhibit canonical Wnt signaling.

Endosomal acidification and transport are essential functions in signal transduction. Recent data suggest that Wnt signaling requires intact endosomal transport machinery but the effects of endosomal acidification on Wnt signal transduction have not been evaluated. Here we report that bafilomycin, a specific inhibitor of the vacuolar proton ATPase that blocks endosomal acidification, inhibits canonical Wnt signal transduction initiated by Wnt ligand and partially inhibits signaling initiated by disheveled.