Validation of a Genomic Classifier for Predicting Post-Prostatectomy Recurrence in a Community Based Health Care Setting.

Purpose: We determined the value of Decipher®, a genomic classifier, to predict prostate cancer outcomes among patients after prostatectomy in a community health care setting.

Materials And Methods: We examined the experience of 224 men treated with radical prostatectomy from 1997 to 2009 at Kaiser Permanente Northwest, a large prepaid health plan in Portland, Oregon. Study subjects had aggressive prostate cancer with at least 1 of several criteria such as preoperative prostate specific antigen 20 ng/ml or greater, pathological Gleason score 8 or greater, stage pT3 disease or positive surgical margins at prostatectomy.

The Patient Safety Leadership Academy at the University of Pennsylvania: the first cohort's learning experience.

Background: We based the Patient Safety Leadership Academy (PSLA) on the premise that improving management skills could improve patient safety and employee satisfaction.

Study Design: Fellows completed baseline surveys on leadership skills knowledge, patient safety knowledge, and program goals. They completed the same surveys 7 months later at the final PSLA session.

Identification and pharmacological profile of a new class of selective nicotinic acetylcholine receptor potentiators.

Here we report the discovery, by high-throughput screening, of three novel (2-amino-5-keto)thiazole compounds that act as selective potentiators of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Compound selectivity was assessed at seven human nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (alpha1beta1gammadelta, alpha2beta4, alpha3beta2, alpha3beta4, alpha4beta2, alpha4beta4, and alpha7) expressed in mammalian cells or Xenopus oocytes. At alpha2beta4, alpha4beta2, alpha4beta4, and alpha7, but not alpha1beta1gammadelta, alpha3beta2, or alpha3beta4, submaximal responses to nicotinic agonists were potentiated in a concentration-dependent manner by all compounds.

Pharmacy executive leadership issues and associated skills, knowledge, and abilities.

Objectives: To identify challenges that current and future pharmacy executives are facing or will face in the future and to define what skills, knowledge, and abilities (SKAs) are required to successfully negotiate these challenges.

Design: Delphi method for executive decision making.

Setting: Civilian pharmacy profession.

Stable expression and characterisation of a human alpha 7 nicotinic subunit chimera: a tool for functional high-throughput screening.

A chimera comprising the N-terminal region of the human alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, fused to the transmembrane/C-terminal domains of the mouse serotonin 5-HT3 receptor, was constructed. Injection of the chimera cDNA into Xenopus oocytes, or transient transfection in human embryonic kidney (HEK-293) cells, resulted in the expression of functional channels that were sensitive to nicotinic acetylcholine, but not serotonin receptor ligands. In both systems, the responses obtained from chimeric receptors inactivated more slowly than those recorded following activation of wild-type alpha7 receptors.

Expression and functional characterisation of a human chimeric nicotinic receptor with alpha6beta4 properties.

Despite being cloned several years ago, the expression of functional nicotinic acetylcholine receptors containing the human alpha6 subunit in recombinant mammalian cell lines has yet to be demonstrated. The resulting lack of selective ligands has hindered the evaluation of the role of alpha6-containing nicotinic receptors. We report that functional channels were recorded following co-transfection of human embryonic kidney (HEK-293) cells with a chimeric alpha6/alpha4 subunit and the beta4 nicotinic receptor subunit.

PSAB-OFP, a selective alpha 7 nicotinic receptor agonist, is also a potent agonist of the 5-HT3 receptor.

5-Hydroxytryptamine 3 (5-HT(3)) and alpha 7 nicotinic receptors share high sequence homology and pharmacological cross-reactivity. An assessment of the potential role of alpha 7 receptors in many neurophysiological processes, and hence their therapeutic value, requires the development of selective alpha 7 receptor agonists. We used a recently reported selective alpha 7 receptor agonist, (R)-(-)-5'Phenylspiro[1-azabicyclo[2.