Aging is associated with increased HbA1c levels, independently of glucose levels and insulin resistance, and also with decreased HbA1c diagnostic specificity.

Aim: To determine whether using HbA1c for screening and management could be confounded by age differences, whether age effects can be explained by unrecognized diabetes and prediabetes, insulin resistance or postprandial hyperglycaemia, and whether the effects of aging have an impact on diagnostic accuracy.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis in adults without known diabetes in the Screening for Impaired Glucose Tolerance (SIGT) study 2005-2008 (n=1573) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2006 (n=1184).

Results: Both glucose intolerance and HbA(1c) levels increased with age.

Evolution of Conus peptide toxins: analysis of Conus californicus Reeve, 1844.

Conus species are characterized by their hyperdiverse toxins, encoded by a few gene superfamilies. Our phylogenies of the genus, based on mitochondrial genes, confirm previous results that C. californicus is highly divergent from all other species.

Pruning nature: Biodiversity-derived discovery of novel sodium channel blocking conotoxins from Conus bullatus.

Described herein is a general approach to identify novel compounds using the biodiversity of a megadiverse group of animals; specifically, the phylogenetic lineage of the venomous gastropods that belong to the genus Conus ("cone snails"). Cone snail biodiversity was exploited to identify three new mu-conotoxins, BuIIIA, BuIIIB and BuIIIC, encoded by the fish-hunting species Conus bullatus. BuIIIA, BuIIIB and BuIIIC are strikingly divergent in their amino acid composition compared to previous mu-conotoxins known to target the voltage-gated Na channel skeletal muscle subtype Na(v)1.

The mitochondrial genome of Conus textile, coxI-coxII intergenic sequences and Conoidean evolution.

The cone snails belong to the superfamily Conoidea, comprising approximately 10,000 venomous marine gastropods. We determined the complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of Conus textile. The gene order is identical in Conus textile, Lophiotoma cerithiformis (another Conoidean gastropod), and the neogastropod Ilyanassa obsoleta, (not in the superfamily Conoidea).

Venomous auger snail Hastula (Impages) hectica (Linnaeus, 1758): molecular phylogeny, foregut anatomy and comparative toxinology.

The >10,000 living venomous marine snail species [superfamily Conoidea (Fleming, 1822)] include cone snails (Conus), the overwhelming focus of research. Hastula hectica (Linnaeus, 1758), a venomous snail in the family Terebridae (Mörch, 1852) was comprehensively investigated. The Terebridae comprise a major monophyletic group within Conoidea.