Publications by authors named "M A Northcott"
Article Synopsis
- This article studies how often patients act aggressively or violently while they're very sick in a hospital's intensive care unit (ICU).
- Between 2015 and 2020, there were 807 cases of such behavior out of 16,175 admissions, with more cases happening each year.
- Younger male patients, especially those coming from the emergency room with injuries, are more likely to show aggressive behavior in the ICU.
SLE is a systemic multi-organ autoimmune condition associated with reduced life expectancy and quality of life. Glucocorticoids (GC) are heavily relied on for SLE treatment but are associated with detrimental metabolic effects. Type 1 interferons (IFN) are central to SLE pathogenesis and may confer GC insensitivity.
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- * SLE patients showed distinct gene expression patterns, including higher levels of neutrophil modules and lower levels of B and T cell modules, particularly in those with active disease.
- * Medications, especially glucocorticoids, mycophenolate, and azathioprine, significantly influenced gene expression, highlighting the necessity to consider medication effects in SLE research.
Glucocorticoids remain a mainstay of modern medicine due to their ability to broadly suppress immune activation. However, they cause severe adverse effects that warrant urgent development of a safer alternative. The glucocorticoid-induced leucine zipper (GILZ) gene, TSC22D3, is one of the most highly upregulated genes in response to glucocorticoid treatment, and reduced GILZ mRNA and protein levels are associated with increased severity of inflammation in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Ulcerative Colitis, Psoriasis, and other autoimmune/autoinflammatory diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Type 1 interferon (IFN) is key to the pathogenesis of SLE, evidenced by the expression of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs) in most patients, but the clinical utility of serial ISG assessment remains unknown. With the emergence of IFN-blocking drugs, we aimed to examine IFN status in relation to clinical findings longitudinally to provide insights into the value of testing ISG levels over time.
Methods: Clinical data and whole blood were collected prospectively on adult patients with SLE from a single tertiary lupus centre.