Changes in magnetocardiogram patterns of infarcted-reperfused myocardium after injection of superparamagnetic contrast media.

The changes in spatio-temporal patterns of magnetocardiograms were investigated following injection of superparamagnetic iron-oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles using a dog model of ischemia/reperfusion. Acute myocardial infarction was induced by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary in two anesthetized open-chest dogs. Following 60 min coronary occlusion and 30 min reperfusion, dogs were subjected to injections of SPIO at a dose of 0.

Overexpression of fasciculation and elongation protein zeta-1 (FEZ1) induces a post-entry block to retroviruses in cultured cells.

Two mutant Rat2 fibroblast cell lines, R3-2 and R4-7, have been previously isolated by a selection for retrovirus resistance. We have now further analyzed the basis of the block to retroviral infection in the R3-2 line. Using Affymetrix GeneChip analysis, several genes were identified as differentially expressed in the mutant R3-2 line compared with the wild-type cells.

Vasa vasorum imaging: a new window to the clinical detection of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques.

Complications of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques (rupture, luminal and mural thrombosis, intraplaque hemorrhage, rapid progression to stenosis, spasm, and so forth) lead to heart attacks and strokes. It remains difficult to identify what plaques are vulnerable to these complications. Despite recent developments such as thermography, spectroscopy, and magnetic resonance imaging, none of them is approved for clinical use.

Tissue pH determination for the detection of metabolically active, inflamed vulnerable plaques using near-infrared spectroscopy: an in-vitro feasibility study.

Detection of vulnerable plaques as the underlying cause of myocardial infarction is at the center of attention in cardiology. We have previously shown that infiltration of inflammatory cells in atherosclerotic plaques renders these plaques relatively hot and acidic, with substantial plaque temperature and pH variation. The objective of this investigation was to determine whether near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) could be used to non-destructively measure the tissue pH in atherosclerotic plaques.

T-cell activation leads to poor activation of the HIV-1 clade E long terminal repeat and weak association of nuclear factor-kappaB and NFAT with its enhancer region.

The enhancer region in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) 5'-long terminal repeat (LTR) is very important for viral transcription. This promoter sequence binds both nuclear factor-kappaB and NFAT, two important modulators of HIV-1 gene expression. Previous studies have indicated that the enhancer regions of the different HIV-1 clade LTRs differ in their number of NF-kappaB-binding sites.

From vulnerable plaque to vulnerable patient: a call for new definitions and risk assessment strategies: Part II.

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease results in >19 million deaths annually, and coronary heart disease accounts for the majority of this toll. Despite major advances in treatment of coronary heart disease patients, a large number of victims of the disease who are apparently healthy die suddenly without prior symptoms. Available screening and diagnostic methods are insufficient to identify the victims before the event occurs.

From vulnerable plaque to vulnerable patient: a call for new definitions and risk assessment strategies: Part I.

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease results in >19 million deaths annually, and coronary heart disease accounts for the majority of this toll. Despite major advances in treatment of coronary heart disease patients, a large number of victims of the disease who are apparently healthy die suddenly without prior symptoms. Available screening and diagnostic methods are insufficient to identify the victims before the event occurs.

Intracellular high mobility group B1 protein (HMGB1) represses HIV-1 LTR-directed transcription in a promoter- and cell-specific manner.

We investigated whether the high mobility group B 1 (HMGB1), an abundant nuclear protein in all mammalian cells, affects HIV-1 transcription. Intracellular expression of human HMGB1 repressed HIV-1 gene expression in epithelial cells. This inhibitory effect of HMGB1 was caused by repression of long terminal repeat (LTR)-mediated transcription.

Plaque blush, branch location, and calcification are angiographic predictors of progression of mild to moderate coronary stenoses.

Background: Angiographic predictors of plaque progression are weak and few: length, irregular surface, turbulence, low shear, and (in some studies) eccentricity and calcification. Having noted plaques that briefly retained dye after angiography, we interpreted these as plaques with a fissured surface or neovascularization and hypothesized that progression would be predicted by "plaque blush."

Methods: Plaques (<50% diameter stenosis) in 68 pairs of angiograms, 5.

Thermography basket catheter: in vivo measurement of the temperature of atherosclerotic plaques for detection of vulnerable plaques.

We have developed an intravascular thermography basket catheter to measure the temperature of the vessel wall to locate foci of inflammation. Our 3 Fr thermography basket catheter is a thermocouple-based catheter made of a nitinol expandable and externally controllable basket system loaded with nine small and flexible built-in thermosensors. It is equipped with real-time data acquisition software with a thermal resolution of 0.

Superparamagnetic iron oxide-based method for quantifying recruitment of monocytes to mouse atherosclerotic lesions in vivo: enhancement by tissue necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1beta, and interferon-gamma.

Background: It has been found recently that the MRI contrast agent superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) localizes to aortic atherosclerotic plaques. We therefore asked whether SPIO might be used to monitor monocyte recruitment into aortic atherosclerotic plaques.

Methods And Results: Eleven female apo E knockout (K/O) mice, each 11 months old, were divided into 2 groups.

Influenza infection exerts prominent inflammatory and thrombotic effects on the atherosclerotic plaques of apolipoprotein E-deficient mice.

Background: The role of infection in the development and complications of atherosclerosis has been the focus of much attention. We reported previously that influenza vaccination was associated with reduced risk of recurrent myocardial infarction. Here, we report the effect of influenza A virus on the apolipoprotein E-deficient (apoE(-/-)) mouse, an animal model of atherosclerosis.

Thermal detection of vulnerable plaque.

In 1996, we showed that inflamed atherosclerotic plaques give off more heat and that vulnerable plaques may be detected by measuring their temperature. Plaque temperature is correlated directly with inflammatory cell density and inversely with the distance of the cell clusters from the luminal surface. It is inversely related to the density of the smooth muscle cells.

pH Heterogeneity of human and rabbit atherosclerotic plaques; a new insight into detection of vulnerable plaque.

Background: Atherosclerotic plaques are heterogeneous with respect to inflammation, calcification, vascularity, oxygen, and temperature. We hypothesized that they also vary in pH and measured pH in living human carotid endarterectomized atherosclerotic plaques (CEA), Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic (WHHL) rabbit aortas and human umbilical arteries (HUA).

Methods And Results: We measured pH of CEA of 48 patients, nine WHHL rabbit aortas and 11 HUA specimens (as controls) using a glass type microelectrode mounted on a micromanipulator in a 37 degrees C incubator.

MCEF, the newest member of the AF4 family of transcription factors involved in leukemia, is a positive transcription elongation factor-b-associated protein.

Positive transcription elongation factor-b (P-TEFb) contains CDK9 and cyclin T(1). P-TEFb was affinity purified from a stably transfected cell line that expresses epitope-tagged CDK9, and proteins that appeared to be specifically bound were sequenced. In addition to CDK9, previously identified isoforms of cyclin T (including T(1), T(2A) and T(2B)), HSP90 and CDC37, this analysis identified a novel protein named MCEF.

Community-based nutritional intervention for reducing malnutrition among children under 5 years of age in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

A project was conducted in a rural area in September 1994 with the aim of decreasing the incidence of protein-energy malnutrition among children under 5 years, by nutritional intervention through the primary health care system. An initial situation analysis revealed the region's resources and causes of malnutrition. Practical instruction on feeding methods, deworming, environmental sanitation, the promotion of home-grown vegetables and reinforcement of the growth monitoring programme were chosen as the routes for intervention.

Every death counts: measurement of maternal mortality via a census.

Methods for measuring maternal mortality at national and subnational levels in the developing world lag far behind the demand for estimates. We evaluated use of the national population census as a means of measuring maternal mortality by assessing data from five countries (Benin, Islamic Republic of Iran, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe) which identified maternal deaths in their censuses. Standard demographic methods were used to evaluate the completeness of reporting of adult female deaths and births in the year prior to the census.

New developments in the detection of vulnerable plaque.

Failure of coronary angiography (luminography) in prediction of future acute coronary syndromes has cast a shadow of doubt over the value of this old gold-standard technique. The fact that angiographically invisible or nonsignificant lesions cause the majority of acute coronary syndromes has driven scientists to develop new diagnostic methods. In this article, we review the ongoing worldwide research on both invasive techniques (such as intravascular angioscopy and colorimetry, ultrasound, thermography, optical coherence tomography, near infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence emission spectroscopy, elastography, magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy, nuclear immunoscintigraphy, electrical impedance imaging, vascular tissue doppler, and shear stress imaging) and noninvasive techniques (such as MRI, contrast-enhanced MRI with and without immunolabeled agents, electron beam computed tomography, multi-slice spiral / helical computed tomography, and nuclear imaging, including positron emission tomography).

The tripeptide glycyl-prolyl-glycine amide does not affect the early steps of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 replication.

Objective: To determine whether the peptide glycyl-prolyl-glycine amide (GPG-NH2) corresponding to a conserved motif in the tip of the third hypervariable region of gp120 affected the early events in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replication.

Design/methods: Glycyl-prolyl-glycine amide was tested for its effect on HIV-1 adsorption, co-receptor usage, proviral DNA synthesis, messenger RNA (mRNA) synthesis and splicing, translation, tat/TAR transactivation, and virus protease activity.

Results: Glycyl-prolyl-glycine amide did not appear to affect the early events of the virus replication.

The nontoxic tripeptide glycyl-prolyl-glycine amide inhibits the replication of human immunodeficiency virus type 1.

Objective: To determine whether short peptides corresponding to the RGPGR motif of the V3 loop of gp 120 have anti-human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (anti-HIV-1) activity.

Design/methods: Short peptides were tested against the HIV-1 laboratory strains and clinical isolates.

Results: The tripeptide glycyl-prolyl-glycine amide (GPG-NH2) inhibited the replication of both laboratory strains and 47 clinical isolates, including 19 strains that were resistant to other drugs or that were from patients with failing therapy.