Community pharmacists require additional support to develop capacity in delivering alcohol-related health information to older adults.

Objectives: This qualitative study explored the barriers and enablers influencing Western Australian (WA) community pharmacists' knowledge, confidence, willingness and practice in engaging older clients (>60 years) in alcohol-related health discussions.

Methods: Two focus groups were conducted with a total of 14 community pharmacists who had previously completed a formative quantitative survey (n = 63), and indicated willingness to participate in a follow-up focus group. Focus group questions, informed by the survey results, explored participants' perceptions about barriers and enablers to delivering health information and advice about alcohol to older clients (60+ years).

A genome-wide association study for malignant mesothelioma risk.

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a uniformly fatal tumour of mesothelial cells. MM is caused by exposure to asbestos however most individuals with documented asbestos exposure do not develop MM. Although MM appears to aggregate within families, the genetics of MM susceptibility is a relatively unexplored area.

The influence of non-HLA gene polymorphisms and interactions on disease risk in a Western Australian multiple sclerosis cohort.

Non-Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) genes have concomitant, although modest, effects on multiple sclerosis (MS) susceptibility; however findings have varied in different populations. Here we present the results of an association study of 16 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 10 non-HLA genes (IL7R, IL2RA, CLEC-16A, TYK2, CD58, IRF5, STAT3, CTLA-4, APOE, ICAM-1) in a Western Australian cohort of 350 MS patients and 498 population control subjects. Our results indicate that in this population, SNPs in IL7R, TYK2, IRF5 and APOE have modifying effects on MS susceptibility.

Regulated chemokine gene expression in mouse mesothelioma and mesothelial cells: TNF-α upregulates both CC and CXC chemokine genes.

Many cancers express an array of chemokines which have the capacity to modulate the nature and function of intratumoural leukocyte infiltrates. In malignant mesothelioma (MM) neither the chemokine signalling networks nor their regulation have been investigated despite the prominence of leucocytic infiltrates in both clinical and experimental tumours. In this study, we examined constitutive and cytokine-regulated expression of CC and CXC chemokine genes in mesothelioma and mesothelial cell cultures derived from two different mouse strains (BALB/C and CBA/CaH).

Sporadic inclusion body myositis: HLA-DRB1 allele interactions influence disease risk and clinical phenotype.

Susceptibility to sIBM is strongly associated with the HLA-DRB1*03 allele and the 8.1 MHC ancestral haplotype (HLA-A1, B8, DRB1*03) but little is known about the effects of allelic interactions at the DRB1 locus or disease-modifying effects of HLA alleles. HLA-A, B and DRB1 genotyping was performed in 80 Australian sIBM cases and the frequencies of different alleles and allele combinations were compared with those in a group of 190 healthy controls.