Effects of an educational intervention to strengthen humanistic practice on haemodialysis nurses' caring attitudes and behaviours and quality of working life: a cluster randomised controlled trial.

Background: Nurses are trained to establish a trusting relationship with patients to create an environment promoting patients' quality of life. However, in tech-heavy care settings, such as haemodialysis units, dehumanising practices may emerge and take root for various reasons to the potential detriment of both patients and nurses. For patients, this may lead to a deterioration of quality of life and, ultimately, of health status.

Melanocortin 1 Receptor Agonists Based on a Bivalent, Bicyclic Peptide Framework.

We have designed a new class of highly potent bivalent melanocortin receptor ligands based on the nature-derived bicyclic peptide sunflower trypsin inhibitor 1 (SFTI-1). Incorporation of melanotropin pharmacophores in each of the two turn regions of SFTI-1 resulted in substantial gains in agonist activity particularly at human melanocortin receptors 1 and 3 (hMC1R/hMC3R) compared to monovalent analogues. In binding and functional assays, the most potent molecule, compound , displayed low picomolar agonist activity at hMC1R (pEC > 10.

Structure-activity analysis of truncated albumin-binding domains suggests new lead constructs for potential therapeutic delivery.

Rapid clearance by renal filtration is a major impediment to the translation of small bioactive biologics into drugs. To extend serum , a commonly used approach is to attach drug leads to the G-related albumin-binding domain (ABD) to bind albumin and evade clearance. Despite the success of this approach in extending half-lives of a wide range of biologics, it is unclear whether the existing constructs are optimized for binding and size; any improvements along these lines could lead to improved drugs.

A comparative descriptive analysis of perceived quality of caring attitudes and behaviours between haemodialysis patients and their nurses.

Aim: Despite its importance in nursing, perceived quality of the nurse-patient relationship has seldom been researched. This study sought to examine and compare the quality of caring attitudes and behaviours as perceived by haemodialysis patients and their nurses.

Design: This comparative descriptive study involved 140 haemodialysis patients and 101 nurses caring for them in ten haemodialysis units in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.